Byte Magazine Volume 08 Number 11 - Inside the IBM PC (RESCAN)

the small systems j ournal

INSIDE THE IBM PCL

Hundreds of Peripheral Boards
Big Blue Goes Jap
The Compatibilj

ER 1983 Vol. 8, Ho. 11

;3.50 in USA

in Canada/£2.10 in U.K.

Publication

0360-5280

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COT— Japan's Fift.

dfated/Portabl

»Inside Apple

JL* ~~3tT~ Vol. l. No. 3

Apple's new

Monitor IL

A sight for

sore eyes.

If you've been using aTV as
a monitor, perhaps you can get
a friend to read this for you:

Apple s brand new Monitor
II will improve your vision.

It features all the latest
ergonomic improvements in
monitor technology

For example:

Studies have shown that
the leading cause of eye fatigue
for computer users is lack of
contrast between the displayed
characters and their background.

So we designed the Monitor
II around a high contrast green
phosphor CRT that provides an
extremely dark background.
That means you can read text
at a lower brightness. And
that means you can be more
productive — working longer
and more comfortably.

Toward that same end, we
also gave Monitor II a tilt screen.
So you can angle it perfectly for
your working position, without
scooting your chair around or
sitting on phone books.

And we made that screen
antireflective to reduce glare
from ambient light.

Monitor II also features
a high bandwidth video
amplifier and a high tolerance
linearity circuit. The former
keeps characters from smearing

on the screen and eliminates the
annoying 'ghosts' left by a fast
moving cursor. The latter keeps
characters crisp, legible and
prevents "keystoning" right up
to the edges of the display. Both
add up to superior display of
80-column text and extremely

accurate graphics.

Designed as the perfect
system partner for the Apple" He
Personal Computer, Monitor II
requires no monitor stand. Its a
perfect fit, aesthetically as well
as technically. So its pleasing to
the eye even when its turned
off. See for yourself.

At your local authorized
Apple dealer.

Screen tilts for
best working position

Antireflective screen

Interior of CRT is etched to reduce
glare and improve aispness.

Fits perfectly atop the Apple lie.

Now Apple
plots color.

Since color graphics are
becoming ever more important
in business, we ve been hearing
more and more calls for a color
plotter as reliable as an Apple.

Here it is:

Apple s new Color Plotter
can generate all kinds of presen-
tation graphics, engineering
drawings or anything else you
have to illustrate in up to eight
brilliant colors.

And it can perform its art on
any size paper up to 11" x 17"
Or, with optional transparency
pens, it can draw right on
transparent film for overhead
projection.

Measuring just 4-8"H x 16"W
x 12"D, it's the smallest four-
color, wide bed color plotter you
can buy — about half the size
of conventional flatbed
plotters. So it takes up
less space on your
desk and can easily be

High tolerance
linearity circuit.

moved to someone else's desk.

There are two color plotter
accessory kits to choose from
to assure a perfect marriage with
your Apple II or He, or Apple III.

Each kit comes with eight
color pens — red, blue, green,
black, burnt orange, gold, violet
and brown. Plus a starter
package of plotter paper. Plus
all the manuals, documentation
and cables appropriate to

your particular kind of Apple,
So you can get up and coloring
right away.

Apple also offers a complete
selection of 24 different pen
packages — so you can choose
whatever colors you need in a
variety of widths for a variety of
applications and media types.

As you might expect, all of
the above is available at many
of our authorized Apple dealers.

Carry on with AppleCare
Carry-In Service. ,

No matter how long you Ve
owned your Apple system,
you can now get a long term
service contract at a very
reasonable cost.

AppleCare Carry-In Service
is a service plan that will
cover most Apple-branded
components in your system
for one full year.

It covers an unlimited
number of repairs and is
honored by over 1500 authorized
Apple dealers nationwide.

Apple-trained technicians
assure you of the highest quality
service, fast — in most cases less
than 24 hours.

AppleCare
Carry- In Service is ideal
for anyone who needs to
know ahead of time the cost of
maintenance for their system.
So check out the details —
you'll find its the lowest cost
health plan an Apple can have.

Apple Computer Inc., 20525 Mariani Ave., Cupertino, Calif. 95014. For the authorized dealer nearest you, call (800) 538-9696. © 1983 Apple Computer Inc.

AppleCare is a service mark of Apple Computer Inc.

Circle 30 on inquiry card.

In The Queue

BVTI

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Page 78

Columns

36 Build the H-Com Handicapped Communicator by Steve Garcia / The Intel 8748
is the basis for a scanning communicator that users can control with just one switch.

52 BYTE West Coast: California Hardware by Barbara Robertson / A look at four
new products, from a portable computer to bubble-memory boards.

65 User's Column: The Latest from Chaos Manor by Jerry Pournelle / This month's
potpourri begins with a discussion of disk formats.

Themes

76 Inside the IBM PC by Gregg Williams / IBM's famed Personal Computer spawned
the largest group of third-party vendors the microcomputer industry has ever seen and
single-handedly enabled microcomputers to assume a greater percentage of the world's
computational tasks. This month's theme articles explore the ubiquitous machine from
a^wide variety of angles.

78 IBM PCs Do the Unexpected by Steven S. Ross / The IBM PC can conquer a
fascinating array of scientific, business, and educational tasks.

88 IBM's Estridge by Lawrence J. Curran and Richard S. Shuford / In an interview
with BYTE's editors, the president of IBM's Entry Systems Division talks about standards,
the PC's simplicity, and a desire not to be different.

99 Enhancing Screen Displays for the IBM PC by Tim Field / With a program called
Screen, you can take full advantage of the capabilities of both monochrome and color
displays and adapt them to your own needs.

121 POKEing Around in the IBM PC, Part 1: Accessing System and Hardware
Facilities by Hugh R. Howson / How to use BASIC'S PEEK and POKE commands to
realize the speed and flexibility of machine-language code without sacrificing the conve-
nience of a high-level language.

135 Could 1,000,000 IBM PC Users Be Wrong? by Frank Gens and Chris Chris-
tiansen / Everyone knows the IBM PC has had a profound effect on the personal com-
puter market. But what direction will it take in the future?

144 Big Blue Goes Japanese by Richard Willis / The capabilities of IBM Japan's new
5550 Multistation will make it a formidable competitor in the red-hot Japanese market.

168 Expanding on the IBM PC by Mark J. Welch / A survey of expansion boards
including 17 fact-filled tables.

188 Installable Device Drivers for PC-DOS 2.0 by Tim Field / A look at the impor-
tance of device drivers and how they work with the PC.

199 A Communications Package for the IBM PC by Richard Moore and Michael
Geary / How one company's communications software package evolved as a result of
user feedback.

211 A Graphics Editor for the IBM PC by Charles B. Duff / A graphics editor called
GLYPHE makes drawing with the PC's graphics characters fun as well as efficient.

232 Comparing the IBM PC and the Tl PC by Bobbi Bullard / They may look alike,
but each of these computers has its own special features.

247 Technical Aspects of IBM PC Compatibility by Charlie Montague, Dave Howse,
Bob Mikkelsen, Don Rein, and Dick Mathews / The IBM PC's success paved the way
for IBM PC-compatible computers. But it takes more than an 8088 board to create a plug-
compatible machine. The authors explain why.

254 The Making of the IBM PC by Brian Camenker / The success of the 70-year-old
International Business Machines Corporation can be explained in one word: marketing.

257 Concurrent CP/M by Joe Guzaitis / This operating system efficiently uses com-
puter and operator resources.

Page 52

BYTE is published monthly by McGraw-Hill Inc., with offices at 70 Main St., Peterborough, NH 03458, phone
(603) 924-9281 . Office hours: Mon— Thur8:30 AM — 4:30 PM, Friday 8:30 AM — Noon, Eastern Time. Address
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paid at Peterborough, NH 03458 and additional mailing offices. USPS Publication No. 528890 (ISBN 0360-5280).
Postage paid at Winnipeg, Manitoba. Registration number 932 1. Subscriptions are 52 I for one year. 538 for two
years, and S55 for three years in the USA and its possessions. In Canada and Mexico, 523 for one year, S42

November 1983

272 The IBM PC Meets Ethernet by Larry Birenbaum / By adopting Ethernet
technology IBM PCs can share peripherals and information

285 MS-DOS 2.0: An Enhanced 16-bit Operating System by Chris Larson / The

most recent version of Microsoft's popular single-user operating system offers installable
device drivers, Xenix compatibility, and background tasking.

Reviews

294 The IBM PC XT and DOS 2.0 by Rowland Archer Jr. / With the XT. IBM took
a conservative developmental step; PC-DOS 2.0, on the other hand, took more of a leap.

308 The Corona PC by Rich Ma Hoy / Compatible with the IBM PC, the Corona PC
features an 8088 microprocessor, 128K bytes of memory a high-quality display and the
Multimate word-processing program.

328 A Look at the HP Series 200 Model 16 by Berry Kercheval / Hewlett-Packard's
68000-based microcomputer offers a lot of power in a small package.

352 Three Generations of Business Charts for the IBM PC by Jack Bishop / Reviews
of Graphics Generator from Robert J. Brady Co., Chartmaster from Decision Resources,
and Business Graphics from Business and Professional Software Inc.

370 A Versatile IBM PC Word Tool: Sorclm's Superwrlter by Richard S. Shuford / A

powerful and easy-to-use word-processing program, Superwriter provides many functions
that are useful in a business environment.

Features

394 Japan and the Fifth Generation by Phil Lemmons / A look at Japan's efforts
to develop artificial intelligence.

402 Speech Images on the IBM PC by A J. Cote Jr. / With an experimental speech-
input card, the IBM PC can plot sounds that can prove useful as speech aids for the deaf.

410 Lmodem: A Small Remote-Communication Program by David D. Clark / Writ-
ten in the BDS version of the C programming language, the Lmodem program provides
terminal emulation, text capture, and transfer of files.

430 The Software Tools: Unix Capabilities on Non-Unix Systems by Deborah K.
Scherrer, Philip H. Scherrer, Thomas H. Strong, and Samuel J. Penny / This package
includes utility programs, a command interpreter, and a large programming library

449 Double the Apple II s Color Choices by Robert H. Sturges Jr. / How to get your
Apple II to provide a wide selection of colors without sacrificing resolution.

467 A Character Editor for the IBM PC by Raymond A. Diedrichs / A BASIC pro-
gram called Font lets you substitute custom symbols for a portion of the computer's stan-
dard character set.

560 Statistical Programs for Microcomputers by Peter A. Lachenbruch / Test the
accuracy of statistical microcomputer software with these tools.

Nucleus

4

Editorial: Growth vs. Quality

596

Ask BYTE

7

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Page 370

Page 394

EUI

the small systems j ournal

Editor In Chief: Lawrence J. Curran
Managing Editor: Pamela A. Clark
Senior Technical Editors: Gregg Williams,
Richard Malloy

Technical Editors: Richard S. Shuford, Arthur A.
Little, Stanley Wszola, Bruce Roberts, Gene
Smarte; Anthony J. Lockwood, New Products
Editor; Steve Garcia, Consulting Editor; Mark
Welch, Staff Writer; Alan Easton, Drafting Editor.
West Coast Editors: Philip Lemmons, Bureau
Chief; Barbara Robertson, Technical Editor; Donna
Osgood, Assistant Editor. McGraw-Hill, 425
Battery Street, 4th Floor, San Francisco, CA 941 1 1
(415) 362-4600

Copy Editors: Nancy Hayes, Chief; Warren
Williamson, Elizabeth Kepner, Joan V. Roy,
Dennis E. Barker, Anne L. Fischer, Bud Sadler;
Margaret Cook, Junior Copy Editor
Assistants: Faith Kluntz, Beverly Jackson, Lisa Jo
Steiner, Jeanann Waters, Peggy Dunham

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Copy Sales Manager; Deborah J. Cadwell, Asst.
Manager; Carol Aho, Linda Turner
Marketing Communications: Horace T.
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Business Manager: Daniel Rodrigues

Controller's Office: Kenneth A. King, Asst.

Controller, Mary E. Fluhr, Acct. & DIP Mgr.;

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Editorial and Business Office: 70 Main Street,
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Officers of McGraw-Hill Publications Company:
President: John G. Wrede; Executive Vice Presidents:
Paul F. McPherson, Operations; Walter D. Serwatka,
Finance & Services. Senior Vice President-Editorial:
Ralph R. Schulz. Senior Vice President Publishers:
Harry L. Brown, David J. McGrath, James R. Pierce,
Gene W. Simpson, John E. Slater. Vice President
Publishers: Charlton H. Calhoun III, Richard H. Larsen,
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Business Systems Development; Shel F. Asen,
Manufacturing; Michael K. Hehir, Controller; Eric B.
Herr, Planning and Development; H. John Sweger,
Jr., Marketing.

Editorial

Growth vs. Quality

Lawrence }. Curran, Editor in Chief

The exploding market for personal computers has created tremendous pros-
pects for growth in revenues and profits for suppliers of both systems and
software. But as companies race to satisfy a seemingly insatiable demand
for small systems, there's a growing risk that they may cut corners in their
quality-assurance programs. Never before has the admonition of caveat emptor
been more appropriate than it is today in the personal computer business.

For their part, hardware and software suppliers should constantly evaluate
existing quality-assurance procedures. One major supplier to do so recently
is Hewlett-Packard Co. An article by John A. Young, the company's presi-
dent and chief executive officer, on the Wall Street Journals editorial page out-
lined the program Hewlett-Packard undertook to analyze its methods for
achieving product quality. Some surprising results flowed from that analysis.

For example, Young notes that Hewlett-Packard had previously believed—
erroneously— that the "f ind-it-and-f ix-it" method of ensuring quality was suf-
ficient. Upon close examination, however, the company discovered that as
much as 25 percent of its manufacturing assets were tied up in solving quality
problems— a situation that increased production costs and product prices.

Young relates that after learning of the high cost of quality assurance, man-
agement decided that a bold and highly visible program was required to alter
Hewlett-Packard's approach to quality assurance, even though "with above-
average quality standards already established, it would be difficult to ask
for better results." Nevertheless, Hewlett-Packard set out to improve quality
standards with a program that included establishing a tenfold reduction in
product failure rates in the 1980s, selecting a team of key people in the com-
pany to "champion the quality cause" and spread their gospel throughout
the company, and sending several team members to Japan "to see what kinds
of approaches worked well there."

The study team's most significant finding in Japan, Young notes, was that
Japanese companies achieved impressive quality and low-cost manufactur-
ing by following the simple principle of "doing it right the first time."

There are other elements in the Hewlett-Packard quality-assurance pro-
gram, but that simple axiom is its most fundamental building block. The
program is only a third of the way toward the goal of a tenfold reduction
in product failure rates, but early results are convincing. At one division,
service and repair costs for desktop computers were reduced by 35 percent
through improved design and manufacturing. Further, the drive for quality
has helped cut company-wide inventory over three years by an amount equal
to about $200 million.

Other computer and software suppliers who want to maintain standards
of quality as pressure builds to push products out the door should stop to
determine whether their quality-assurance methods are founded on the prin-
ciple of doing it right the first time.B

November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

How to buy a computer
by the numbers.

Introducing the Cromemco C-10 Per-
sonal Computer. Only $1785, including
software, and you get more profes-
sional features and performance for the
price than with any other personal
computer on the market. We've got the
numbers to prove it.

The C-10 starts with a high-resolu-
tion 12" CRT that displays 25 lines with
a full 80 characters on each line. Inside
is a high-speed Z-80A microprocessor
and 64K bytes of on-board memory.
Then there's a detached, easy-to-use
keyboard and a 514" disk drive with an
exceptionally large 390K capacity.
That's the C-10, and you won't find
anotherready-to-use personal com-
puter that offers you more.

But hardware can't work alone.
That's why every C-10 includes software
—word processing, financial spread
sheet, investment planning and BASIC.
Hard-working, CP/M R - based software
at meets your everyday needs. Soft-
ware that could cost over $1000 some-

W* gg§k ***

where 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
computers 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 nameofyour
nearest Cromemco
dealer, or to request
literature. In California
call 800 672-3470 x929. Or write
Cromemco, Inc., 280 Bernardo
Avenue, P.O. Box 7400, Mountain
View, CA 94039. In Europe, write
Cromemco A/S, Vesterbrogade 1C,
1620 Copenhagen, Denmark.

CP/M is a registered trademark of Digital Research, Inc.
All Cromemcoproducts areserviced by TRW.

Cromemco

Tomorrow's computers today

Circle 120 on inquiry card.

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F ™ SCION

■■^■atawaaal ^««l>fl

Brilliant!

'ere's another brilliant idea from the makers of the

popular MicroAngelo® graphics board — the

sac

Hi
SCION PC 640.
Whether you're a systems developer or an end-
user, this solidly -designed color graphics board is
your best choice for high -resolution color graphics on
the IBM PC, as well as many PC-compatibles.

Here's why:

• 640 x 480 x 16 out of 4096 colors

• Memory -mapped for very high speed operation

1 Over 60 2- D drawing primitives, accessible from Basic,
Fortran, C, Pascal or Assembler
■ High-level software packages available for painting,

business gra-
phics, CAD and
slide production

For more infor-
mation on why
the PC 640 may
be a brilliant idea
for you, please

contact Jim Mather at (703) 476-6100, TWX: 710-833-0684,
or write: SCION Corporation, 12310 Pinecrest Road, Reston,
Virginia 22091.

The PC640 Professional Color™ board delivers
superior resolution at 640 x 480, and the simulta-
neous use of 16 out of 4096 colors.

BYTE November 1983

Circle 408 on inquiry card.

MICROBYTES

Staff-written highlights of late developments in the microcomputer industry

NEW IBM-COMPATIBLE AND MS DOS COMPUTERS WILL FLOOD COMDEX

Several computer manufacturers are developing 1 6-bit MS-DOS computers, most of which will be formal-
ly announced at COMDEX, an industry trade show, scheduled for November 28 to December 2 in Las
Vegas. Leading Edge Products, Canton, MA, which announced its word processor for the IBM Personal
Computer several months ago, plans to unveil a complete line of IBM-compatible hardware and software,
including a computer it says is more IBM-compatible than the Compaq portable computer.

Leading Edge says its computer's 8088 microprocessor will run at 7.16 MHz, 50 percent faster than
the IBM PC, which runs at 4.77 MHz. The Leading Edge Personal Computer also will have seven expan-
sion slots, two more than the IBM PC. With a clock, parallel and serial ports, 1 28K bytes of RAM, a
monitor, and word-processing software, the Leading Edge computer will list for about 40 percent less
than a comparably equipped IBM PC.

Olivetti plans to announce the M18 computer, which is based on Corona Data Systems' Personal Com-
puter, uses an 8088 microprocessor, and runs MS-DOS. With 128K bytes of RAM, serial and parallel
ports, one 5 1 /4-inch disk drive, four expansion slots, and a high-resolution monitor, the M1 8 will sell for
$2595. A hard-disk version will be $4495. Olivetti is working on two portable computers— notebook-size
and transportable— for possible introduction in early 1984.

Three new MS-DOS portable computers are scheduled for announcement at COMDEX. Eagle Computer,
Los Gatos, CA, is working on an 8088-based IBM-compatible portable with a 10-megabyte hard disk.
With a 9-inch display, serial and parallel ports, four expansion slots, 1 28K bytes of RAM, and both the
CP/M-86 and MS-DOS operating systems, it will be priced at between $4000 and $4500.

STM Electronics, Menlo Park, CA, is preparing an 80186-based MS-DOS portable with a liquid-crystal
display, a built-in 40-column printer, a modem, two 5 1 /4-inch disk drives, and bundled software for a
target price of $2500. Panasonic, Secaucus, NJ, is developing an 8088-based portable with a built-in
thermal printer.

Jonos Ltd., Anaheim, CA, will sell an 80188 processor board to enable its Z80-based portable com-
puter to run MS-DOS and CP/M-86 software. The 801 88 combines the 8088 microprocessor and related
peripheral chips in a single chip.

Burroughs Corp., Detroit, Ml, is making an 8086-based computer to be marketed as an ergonomic in-
telligent terminal. With two 5 1 /4-inch disk drives, MS-DOS, and 256K bytes of RAM, the ET-2000 lists for
$3795.

TWO NEW INTEGRATED SOFTWARE PACKAGES JOIN A CROWDED MARKET

Ovation Technologies, Canton, MA, has announced Ovation Software, a new integrated software package
for the IBM Personal Computer that combines spreadsheet, word-processing, graphics, database-
management, and communications capabilities. The package will be able to read from and write to files
from existing software packages such as 1-2-3, Visicalc, Wordstar, and dBase II.

Ovation Software will include templates for common word-processing and spreadsheet applications, and
users may define macros to perform any series of commands. It will require an IBM PC with 256K bytes
of RAM and either two floppy disks or one floppy and one hard disk. The package, which Ovation will
market as an enhancement of Lotus's 1-2-3 and Visicorp's Visi On, will sell for between $695 and $895
in early 1984.

Fox & Geller Inc., Elmwood Park, NJ, has announced Oz, a "financial-management system" for the IBM
PC. Oz features three-dimensional viewing of data, allowing users to view budget information, for exam-
ple, in charts by department and month, line item and month, or line item and department. The package,
which also features graphics capabilities and variance analysis, enables managers to locate and explain
budget changes. Oz will sell for less than $500.

MODULA RESEARCH INSTITUTE OFFERS A $40 MODULA-2 COMPILER FOR THE IBM PC

The Modula Research Institute, Provo, UT, has announced a full Modula-2 compiler for the IBM Personal
Computer for $40. The four-pass compiler generates intermediate M-code, similar to the p-code used by
Pascal compilers. MRI, a nonprofit organization, will sell the source code for the compiler for $160 and
plans to offer a native-code (machine-language) generator later this year. MRI has versions of the compiler
for the 68000 and PDP-1 1 as well.

November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. 7

MICROBYTES,

COMPUTER-AIDED DRAFTING SYSTEM UNVEILED FOR IBM PC XT

United Networking Systems, Houston, TX, has unveiled a series of computer-aided drafting programs for
the IBM Personal Computer XT. A "Pro 100" package for $595 is designed for drafting departments and
professionals, while a $395 "Academic" version is aimed at colleges and technical schools. A starter ver-
sion is available for $95. United Networking Systems also offers a complete hardware and software
system for drafting service centers for $50,000 to $100,000.

SEAGATE PROPOSES A HIGH CAPACITY HARD-DISK INTERFACE STANDARD

Seagate Technology, Scotts Valley, CA, maker of 5 1 /4-inch Winchester hard-disk drives, proposed a new
interface standard for high-performance, high-capacity small Winchester drives. Three other hard-disk
manufacturers— Tandon, Priam, and Atasi— said they would support the proposed ST412HP standard,
and Adaptec Inc. and Western Digital Corp. planned to develop controllers for the standard. Seagate also
announced it would begin making and selling disk controllers based on the SCSI interface standard.

DATAPRO RELEASES RESULTS OF SURVEY OF COMPUTER USERS

Datapro Research Corp., Delran, NJ, has announced the results of a survey filled out by 5615 personal
computer users who read BYTE and Popular Computing magazines. Among systems, the Apple II Plus
was the most popular (1 7 percent), with the IBM Personal Computer in second place (16 percent), edging
out Radio Shack's Model III (15 percent). The Osborne 1 was the fifth most popular computer, after the
Apple lie. Only 1 5 percent of the respondents had computers more than two years old, and 56 percent
had owned their computers less than one year.

Among software packages, Datapro noted that Wordstar, Visicalc, and dBase II still held the leads for
word processing, spreadsheet, and database management, respectively, although each program received a
relatively low rating from users. Datapro suggested that these packages may have become popular
because they were the first, rather than the best, in their application areas. Datapro will sell the survey
results for $25.

NANOBYTES

Coleco Industries Inc., Hartford, CT, has obtained exclusive rights to market home computer and video-
game versions of Dragon's Lair, a popular arcade game that uses a laser disk to store high-resolution
animation. Coleco also announced a joint venture with AT&T to develop an interactive game and enter-
tainment service using existing phone lines, a special modem, and a home computer or video-game
system. . . . DMA Systems Corp., Goleta, CA, has announced a removable 5 1 /4-inch Winchester cartridge
disk drive to sell for $500 in OEM quantities. The half-high DMA-360 will have a storage capacity of 7.5
megabytes and measure only 1% by 5% by 8 inches. . . . Apple dealers will give free "tool kit" software
to owners of Apple's $175 Apple Logo programming language. The tool kit includes utilities, sample pro-
grams, and documentation. . . . Digital Equipment Corp., Maynard, MA, announced a hard-disk version of
the Rainbow 100. Intended to compete with IBM's PC XT, it will sell for $6295. Digital's Professional
350 computer is now available in a coin-operated version, with a printer, for use in colleges and
libraries. . . . Apple has dropped the price of its Lisa computer from $9995 to $8190, which includes six
applications software programs. The Lisa will also be available without software for $6995. . . . IBM of-
ficially withdrew its 4-inch disk system from the market in mid-September, leaving three sizes in the sub-
5 1 /2-inch marketplace: 3-, 3 1 /4-, and 3V2-inch disks. In another product area, IBM announced an ex-
perimental 5 1 2K-byte dynamic RAM chip. . . . Radio Shack has unveiled a transportable version of the
TRS-80 Model 4. The 26-pound Model 4P includes a 9-inch display, two 5 1 /4-inch disk drives, 64K bytes
of RAM, and a parallel printer port for $1799. . . . LQ Corp., Meriden, CT, has introduced a $595 sheet
feeder for printers, including versions for the NEC 3500 and 2050, the Daisywriter, and the C. Itoh F10.
The company will add new versions soon. . . . Televideo Corp., Sunnyvale, CA, announced a graphics
program using Digital Research's CP/M and GSX graphics extension. Teledraw is an interactive drawing
system for the Televideo TS-803 and TS-1603 computers, compatible with Epson printers and Hewlett-
Packard plotters. The package, which requires Televideo's Supermouse, will sell for $295. .. . The
Department of Commerce is accepting nominations through November 31 for the new National Medal of
Technology, which is to be awarded to "innovators in technology" who develop new products or pro-
cesses. Instructions and nomination forms are available from the Assistant Secretary for Productivity,
Technology and Innovation, U.S. Dept. of Commerce, Washington, DC 20230.

8 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

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Until now, Atari computer owners who wanted to hook a printer to their computer had only one

choice... spend about $220 for an interface device. THOSE DAYS ARE OVER, PERCOM DATA has

built a parallel printer-port right into its new AT88 PD model. Now you can add a quality disk drive

system AND have a place to plug in a printer... WITHOUT BUYING an interface.

The AT88 S1 PD™ disk drive operates in both single density (88K bytes formatted) and double

density (176K bytes formatted).

What more could you want? N O INTERFACE ... a high quality PERCOM DATA disk drive... AND a

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With all the clamor about personal computers,

a fundamental fact is often overlooked:

some simply work better than others.

Consider the COMRVQ Portable.

A computer will make you more
productive. A computer will
make you more efficient. You hear it
everywhere. But you don't hear about
which computer actually works best.

A computer isn't magic. It's a tool.
And just like other tools, some com-
puters work better than others.

The COMPAQ™ Portable is a combi-
nation of 20th-century electronics and
19th-century pragmatism. It simply does
personal computing better. Here's why.

Works in more places

You don't do all your thinking in one
place. Why have a computer that stays
in one place?

The COMPAQ Portable has all the
capabilities of a large desktop com-
puter. But now those capabilities can
go where you go.

You can move it from office to office
to share its resources. You can move
it into the conference room to answer
questions when and where they come up.

With the COMPAQ Portable, you
can be as productive in your hotel
room or your lake house as in your own
office. It's a reliable companion on a
business trip. It's a powerful sales aid in
your customer's office.

What's more productive than a com-
puter? A computer that works for you
in more places.

Works with the
greatest number
of programs

The most important
consideration when
you choose a computer
is "what programs will
it run?" And that's one
more reason for choosing
the COMPAQPortable.
The COMPAQ Porta-
ble runs more programs

The COMPAQ Portable was
designed to fit under a stand-
ard airline seat so you can take
it on business trips.

■ 'JP^^" The unique alu-

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design practice commonly used in race cars.

than any other portable. In fact, it runs
more than most non-portables. That's
because it runs all the popular pro-
grams written for the IBM® Personal
Computer. There are hundreds of
them. They are available in computer
stores all over the country, and they
run without any modification, right off
the shelf.

Imagine the power of a portable word
processor. There are dozens of different
word processing programs available for
the COMPAQ Portable.

Planning, problem-solving, and
"what-ifs" are a cinch with a variety of
popular electronic spreadsheet pro-
grams. The COMPAQPortable runs
them all.
There are accounting programs for
anything from computerizing your

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professional management
of payables, receivables,
inventory, and
payroll for your
company.

There are pro-
grams for making
charts and programs for
communicating with
other computers. Or if
you want something
really specialized, there
are even program lan-
guages for writing your
own programs.

So, you get portabil-
ity and you don't give

up problem-solving power. The combi-
nation adds up to the most useful per-
sonal computer on the market today.

Works better because
it's easy to read

The display screen of the COMPAQ
Portable measures nine inches diago-
nally. It shows a full "page width" of 80
characters on a line so tasks like word
processing are easier. And those char-
acters are big enough to read even if
you're leaning back in your chair.
The display shows both high- resolution
graphics and
easy-to-read,
^*-^t upper- and

lowercase
characters.
One screen

There are hundreds

of useful programs for t

COMPAQ Portable because it runs

all the popular programs writtenforthe IBM.

for all the information. With some
personal computers, including the
IBM, you can have either the graphics
or the legible characters, but you can't
have both unless you buy two different
displays.

Incidentally, computer prices are
often quoted without a display. The dis-
play of the COMPAQPortable is built
in, of course.

Add-on options make it work
the way you work

Inside the COMPAQPortable are three
open slots. Electronic devices called ex-
pansion boards fit those slots and give
the COMPAQPortable new powers.

Just like the programs, expansion
boards designed for the IBM work with
the COMPAQ Portable, so there are
dozens available right now. With them,
you can make your personal computer
more personal.

Want to check a stock price? Or look
up something in The New York Times
Information Service? One expansion
board enables the COMPAQ Portable
to handle those communications over
ordinary phone lines.

Want to use your company's central
computer files while you're on a
trip? There are boards that allow the
COMPAQ Portable to communicate
with a variety of large mainframe
computers.

Other boards let you hook up con-
trollers for computer games or increase
memory capacity. Still others let you
connect personal computers in a net-
work so several people in your office
can share the same information.

Inside the

w COMPAQ For-

table are three slots

for optional electronics

that can add new capabili-

ties. Most portables have none.

Works better because
it's tough enough for the road

Portable doesn't just mean smaller. Por-
table means tough, too.

The COMPAQ Portable was built to
withstand the hard knocks of constant
travel. An aluminum frame within the
case completely surrounds the com-
puters working components. Each disk
drive is mounted in rubber shock ab-
sorbers instead of being bolted directly
to the frame.

To test internal components, the
COMPAQ Portable was subjected to
impacts of 40 G's while running a pro-
gram. After impacts on each side, there
was no internal damage and the pro-
gram was still running. Without error.

Computers are for getting rid of wor-
ries, not giving you new ones.

Designed to help you
work better, too

The COMPAQ Portable was designed
to feel good.

Specifications

Software

□ Runs all the popular programs
written for the IBM PC

Memory

□ 128K bytes RAM

□ Expandable to 640K bytes
Storage

□ One 320K-byte minifloppy disk
drive, second drive optional

Display

□ 9-inch (diagonal) monochrome
screen

D 25 lines by 80 characters

□ Upper- and lowercase, high-
resolution text characters

D High-resolution graphics
Expansion board slots

□ Three IBM PC-compatible slots
Interfaces

□ Parallel printer interface

D RGB color monitor interface

□ Composite video monitor interface

□ TV RF modulator interface
D Communications interface

optional
Physical specifications
D Totally self-contained and

portable

□ 20"W x 8Vz"H x 16"D

The keyboard is detached so it can fit
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The keyboard cable remains con-
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you use your computer.

Because the display is built in, the
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small package on your desk, instead of
a big obstacle you have to talk around.
The built-in display also avoids the usual
cable clutter because there's no need
for separate cables for the display.

The COMPAQ Portable even has an
electronically synthesized sound to cre-
ate the familiar keyclick of a typewriter.
With a simple keyboard command you
can adjust the volume to suit the level
of background noise in your office.

The added usefulness
is free

The COMPAQ Portable can do what
desktop computers do and do it in more
places. But it doesn't cost any more
than an ordinary desktop.

In fact, it costs hundreds less than a
comparably equipped IBM or Apple®
III. The COMPAQ Portable comes
standard with one disk drive and 128K
bytes of memory, both of which are
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For the location of the Authorized
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231-9966.

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COMPAQ 1 " 's a trademark of COMPAQ Computer Corporation.

IBM® is a registered trademark of International Business Machines

Corporation.

Apple® is a registered trademark of Apple Computer Inc.

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Letters

Views on BYTE Content

In the June BYTE, you gave us 13
"theme" articles on 16-bit designs. These
included a report on the DEC Professional
300 written by a DEC product manager; a
piece on the TI 99/2 written by two
representatives of Texas Instruments; an
article about the Pronto Series 16 by a
vice-president of that company; and four
other articles, all penned by staff members
of the companies supplying the products.

I, for one, do not buy BYTE to read PR
material disguised as objective reviews.

Mike Lewis

48 Willoughby Rd.

London N.W.3.

England

As a (fairly) longtime reader of BYTE, I
have mixed feelings about the recent shift
in editorial policy that seems to have
taken place. For the past several months,
a large portion of the articles have been
descriptions of products written by the
people who developed (and/or sell) that
product. While these articles have been
well done for the most part, I am con-
cerned that BYTE may lose its position as
a source of trustworthy information
about "small systems." I don't want to see
BYTE become another Mini-Micro Sys-
tems, serving primarily as a mouthpiece
for companies that provide the magazine's
advertising revenue.

A small but telling example of the type
of distortion that can creep into articles
such as these appears in Stephen Hey-
wood's article "The 8086 — An Architec-
ture for the Future" (June, page 450)
where he proclaims that the 8086 can ad-
dress "1,048,576 bytes of memory. . .
more than 16 times the memory capacity
of an 8-bit microprocessor." Granted, this
incorrect use of "more than" is rather
trivial and harmless hype, but I have
always believed that there was no place
for hype in BYTE (excluding the ads, of
course!). More important, one must
wonder whether articles such as this, with
their underlying motivation to "sell," are
concealing more serious errors.

Don't get me wrong: if the developer of
a product can provide uniquely valuable
insights, then by all means take advantage
of this. I think Tim Paterson's "An Inside
Look at MS-DOS" (June, page 230) is an
excellent case in point. But, whenever
possible, please try to seek out alternative

reviewers, or perhaps you could make a
point of providing a "counterpoint" arti-
cle, or box, for each "in-house" article
that you print.

I suppose that the series of articles from
Motorola on the 68000 and Intel on the
8086 serve to counterbalance each other
to some extent, but, in addition, a com-
parative article written by an outsider
would be helpful to weigh the various
merits of these two processors.

Christopher J. Kapilla
Cybernetic Systems
1109 Edward Terrace
St. Louis, MO 63117

We share your concern about product-
related articles written by the companies
making the products, and we hope that
our judicious use of such articles does not
damage our reputation with our readers.
We carefully select such articles from a
much larger group of articles offered to
us, and we try in both the selection and
editing of such manuscripts to make sure
that the information content is high and
the promotional content is low.

In all cases, we prefer to have a review
by an independent reviewer over one
from the manufacturer (in fact, we are do-
ing independent reviews for some of the
products profiled in the June issue) . There
are, however, some good reasons for go-
ing with articles from the manufacturers.
First, as you mention, who is more
qualified than the designers to contribute
significant insights about a product? A
second reason is timeliness: because of the
ratio of qualified reviewers to important
machines (perhaps 1 to 10) and the dif-
ficulty of obtaining prerelease copies of
new machines, a full product review often
comes out six months later than a com-
pany-supplied article discussing the design
of the machines. Always we face a choice
of providing readers with some informa-
tion or no information at all.

Your point on providing counterpart
articles is a good one, and we do that
whenever we can. For example, we had
company-supplied articles about the Na-
tional Semiconductor NS16000, the Intel
8086, and the Motorola 68000 in our April
and Tune issues. Strictly speaking, these
are not counterpoint articles, but they
give coverage to three important chip
families. This was the best we could do
under the circumstances.

12 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

In November,

We're Gonna Blow

Your Socks Off.

In November, Intertec will take the
wraps off the smallest, smartest, fastest,
most powerful business computer anyone
can buy.

Come December, we suspect most
everyone in this industry will be walking
around barefoot

So no matter what your requirements
for business computers are, or if you're
simply in need of a free pair of socks, write
on your letterhead to: Intertec, Depf'B,"
2300 Broad River Road, Columbia, SC
29210. Limited sock quantities available.

intertec.

\

Circle 236 on inquiry card.

See us at Comdex
Booth #6104
Las Vegas, Nevada
Nou28-Dec2

Circle 45 on inquiry card.

SERIAL PORT

BTA's MODEL 524 MULTIPORT
CONTROLLER is a code activated one
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not all since it has separate and indepen-
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configuration, i.e. different baud rates,
stop bits, etc. These features also permit
two or more devices to communicate
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Letters .

In conclusion, we publish company-
written articles only when we feel that the
information contained in them is impor-
tant and useful to you, the reader. We edit
out the "hype" wherever we find it and
continue to commission independent re-
views, but we also must trust you to read
these articles with a discriminating eye
and to judge a product based on the qual-
ity of the manufacturer's arguments in
presenting its viewpoint.

A Lament from
"Down Under"

The article by Gregg Williams on the
Lisa Computer System (February, page
33) was fascinating.

However, reading the article also left
me feeling rather sad. Gregg Williams hit
the nail on the head with his comment:
"The history of microcomputing has been
exciting so far because it has enabled in-
dividuals working in their spare time to
make significant contributions to the state
of the art. . . . The days of the successful
entrepreneur/programmer are probably
gone." I believe that the fascination and
attraction of microcomputers to individ-
uals has been the opportunity to indulge
in creative and mentally stimulating ac-
tivity, which is unfortunately lacking for
most people at work and at home. Lisa
and her successors will probably destroy
that opportunity in areas that many BYTE
readers are currently involved in.

Recall how the staple fare of electronics
magazines some years ago was construc-
tional articles on radios and hi-fi stereo
systems. The mass production of these
and their reasonable selling price has
destroyed them as topics for electronics
magazines, except for reviews of commer-
cial units. Microcomputer magazines such
as BYTE are already following the same
path. Over the past couple of years many
more pages have been devoted to reviews
of commercial systems and software.

Mass production and standardization
of microcomputer hardware and software
are to be applauded in making computers
accessible to the masses. However, it will
mean that microcomputer design and con-
struction, the writing of systems software,
language implementations, and applica-
tions such as word processors, etc., will
no longer be fertile ground for those seek-
ing creative and mentally stimulating ac-
tivity. Perhaps this is good, as it shifts the
emphasis away from the computer itself
to more creative applications where the
ideas of the individual are still needed to

provide the concepts that will advance the
state of the art.

David L. Craig
2 Bridle St.
Mansfield, 4122
Queensland, Australia

Gregg Williams replies:

Thank you for your kind words about
my Lisa article. In turn, I think that your
letter has also hit the nail on the head. We
are no longer in a hobbyist/ homebrew in-
dustry; we are in a consumer industry
where you can (and are likely to) buy the
hardware and software you want. Al-
though it follows that BYTE reflects that
change, we are still speaking to the hob-
byist vart of our readership. Steve Giar-
cia's hardware construction articles
always place high in our BOMB reader-
ship popularity contest. John Smith's
"Public Key Cryptography" article in the
January issue placed second in that
month's BOMB, and a two-part article by
Richard Fobes, "Program Your Own Text
Editor" (September and October 1982),
won fifth place in the BOMB both
months. These articles indicate both our
and our readers' interest in seeing such ar-
ticles published, and I assure you we will
continue to do so.

As for the importance of the lone pro-
grammer, I have two thoughts. First, most
(but not all) applications software will be
designed and executed by more than one
person. In contrast, most (but not all)
game software can be designed by one
person — this, I feel, is cause for rejoicing.
However, my second point is this: today,
all software, game or otherwise, requires a
staff of people doing marketing, verifica-
tion, documentation, and other tasks to
make a product successful. So my original
premise still stands: the days of the suc-
cessful (individual) entrepreneur /pro-
grammer are probably gone.

In Praise of Public-Domain
Software

In February BYTE's Bits (page 127), you
mentioned the "large amount of public-
domain software available" for the Apple.
I purchased the software mentioned in
that article, Dr. Cat's Grafix Disk, and I
found it to be tremendous. My hat is off
to the author, David Shapiro.

My question is: does there exist a source
for more of this "free" software? If so, I'd
like to contact this group. Please provide
more reviews of, and information about,

14 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

INTRODUCING

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iraBiiTii

YOU'LL LOVE THE VIEW!

With UltraTerm, the revolutionary new card
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before: 128 columns by 32 lines, 132 columns
by 24 lines and even 160 columns by 24 lines.
You'll revel in the scenics of a whole year of
records stretching out across your screen.

You'll also delight in the new horizon of 80
columns by 48 lines — double the lines
you normally have. So your word processing
will reveal a "depth of character" never
possible before!

Another breath-taking view of UltraTerm — it
delivers absolutely flicker-free, state of the art
display with 8 x 12 character matrix giving
you preposterously clear, readable charac-
ters. Not only will you see more characters
on your screen (a whopping 4096 possible),
but they'll also be larger and more readable
than the characters you read every day in

Circle 495 on inquiry card.

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Photo of actual-size

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Letters ^^— — ^^^—

public-domain software in future issues. I
congratulate you on advertising these
sources. It must be a little like biting the
hand that feeds you to add this to your
magazine.

John H. DeRosa
150 Birchwood Rd.
Lake Marion, IL 60110

Not at all, John; no advertiser is biting
our hand over such listings. Their prod-
ucts give good value for the money — in-
cluding such things as documentation,
professionally tested software, and
customer support, things you don't get
with public-domain software (sometimes
called "freeware"). We would like to men-
tion more public-domain software and
will print recommendations that you send
us.

As for getting more public-domain soft-
ware, you should find the nearest Apple
users group and join it; most have librar-
ies of public-domain software available to
members at moderate cost. If you don't
have a users group nearby, A.P.P.L.E.
(Apple Pugetsound Program Library Ex-
change) is a nationwide users group that
offers a variety of commercial and public-
domain software. The group also pub-
lishes an excellent Apple magazine, Call-
A.P.P.L.E. Contact A.P.P.L.E. at 21246
68th Ave. S., Kent, WA 98032 (206)
872-2245) for membership information. If
you're a CP/M use?; SIG/M, jointly sponsored
by Amateur Computer Group of New Jersey
and the New York Amateur Computer Club,
distributes public-domain CP/M software;
their address is SIG/M, Box 97, Iselin, NJ
08830.

8086 Controversy

After reading Stephen Heywood's arti-
cle, "The 8086— An Architecture for the
Future" (June, page 450), I am compelled
to respond. I would like to title this letter
"The 8086— An Architecture for the
PAST."

I cannot argue with Mr. Heywood's jus-
tifications for the existence of the 8086; it
is obvious that the 8080, a processor with
only 64K bytes of memory, no hardware
multiply/divide, and only 8-bit opera-
tions was insufficient in the burgeoning
microprocessor marketplace. Unfortu-
nately, Intel chose to continue worship-
ping that false god of marketing, upward
compatibility. Rather than breaking away
from the 4004/4040/8008/8080/8085
ancestry to produce a truly modern

16 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

Circle 353 on inquiry card.

■w&'-»

:m

■ii:

mm*

7m

"We bought an

IBC Middi Cadet
because no other
system could do

the job. 1

Sue Kardas

Director of Career Training

Burlington Area Vocational-Technical Center

"When the Burlington Area Vocational-
Technical Center needed a multi-user system
for student training, we considered many
multi-user systems, but in demo after demo
there was too much of a user delay,

Then IBC contacted us, and offered to
demonstrate the Middi Cadet's multi- user
capabilities-we were skeptical, but we gave
it a try,

First, the Middi Cadet ran 9 users doing word
processing without any delays. As a second
test, we had the Middi operating 3 terminals
each on word processing, accounting and
BASIC programming. Again, no user delay.
This was the multi-user, multi-tasking system
we had been looking for.

With the Middi Cadet, we got a higher speed
Z80B processor, a very fast hard disk drive
and enough memory to do the job (51 2K
Bytes).

On top of that, we felt that we got a very
good price from an excellent vendor. Our
system was delivered and installed two
weeks later. Since then we've been so pleas-
ed with the Middi that we're planning to buy
another. With two systems providing 18 sta-
tions we will be equipped to offer training in
all aspects of information processing."

The Middi Cadet is a 10 user system that in-
cludes a 6MH Z , Z80B CPU; 256 to 512K Bytes
of RAM memory; a 20 MB, 5Va" hard disk
drive and a one megabyte 5Va" floppy disk
drive.

For more information on the Middi Cadet,
see your local IBC dealer.

To locate the dealer nearest you, call or
write:

OUTSIDE THE USA

WITHIN THE USA

[LSffl

21592 Marilla Street

Chatsworth, CA 91311

(213) 882-9007 TELEX NO. 215349

^ yj»1L4J;ll:lllJM^I

1140 36th Street. Suite 212
Ogden. Utah 84403
(801)621-2294

Circle 217 on inquiry card.

Fall '83

See US at Booth #2872

BYTE November 1983

17

V

."V

D IT.

THE WORD JUGGLER SYSTEM
FROM QUARK.

yuu

Wo
too

youfre serious about word processing on
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He, the editing commands are labeled on
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\

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Plus, Word Juggler lets you generate
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All prices suggested U.S. retail

L_

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Circle 380 on inquiry card.

Quark, Word Juggler, Lexicheck and Terminus are trademarks of
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Apple and Quick File are registered trademarks of Apple Compute!
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20 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

Circle 18 on inquiry card

Letters

machine, it chose to merely stretch the
venerable old 8080 into a 16-bit machine
with a few extra registers. This incestuous
dedication to purity of bloodline has just
as damaging an effect in the microproces-
sor world as it does among humans.

Keeping upward compatibility in mind,
Intel carefully embedded the ancient 8080
register set into the "new" machine. Also
in keeping with the 8080 tradition, each of
these new registers has a special purpose,
instead of creating a good set of general-
purpose registers. If the "general" registers
were truly general, there would be no
such thing as a "data group" or a "pointer
and index group."

Instead of a 64K-byte memory, Intel
chose to implement a fixed number of
segments (four), each of a fixed size (64K
bytes, of course). The only ways these
segments can be of other than 64K-byte
size is either through very careful pro-
gramming or physically missing memory.
Segmented memory is an excellent idea,
but a very limited set of fixed-size
segments is not.

Due to the complete lack of hardware-
memory protection and privileged in-
structions, it is impossible to implement
an operating system for this machine that
has even the slightest hope of keeping dif-
ferent tasks from interfering with each
other. A more modern processor would
provide for this.

I would like to point out that Intel has
historically been the first manufacturer in
the industry to bring out new sizes of
microprocessors: perhaps, someday, it
will make one I'd like to use.

Paul Hoefling
Software Engineer
7095 SW Oleson Rd.
Portland, OR 97223

Stephen Heywood replies:

You have raised a lot of points in your
letter that I will attempt to address in-
dividually.

First of all, the 8086 is not upwardly
compatible with the 8080 microprocessor.
Yes, there is software available to convert
the 8080 source code to make it run on the
8086. The registers may even look the
same on these processors. But that is
where the similarity ends. The 8086 took
the modern approach of using segments
instead of linear addressing, having ad-
dressing modes that support the program-
mer's needs, and support for compilers
with its registers and instructions.

When you begin writing software for an

Circle 172 on inquiry card. »

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*CP/M, CP/M Plus, & MP/M am registered trademarks of Digital Research Corp.

Letters

application, one of the first things that
you do is set down the ground rules for
your application. You may be dedicating
the registers to perform a particular func-
tion within your application as well as
having some general-purpose functions to
perform. Part of your software develop-
ment might be done in a high-level
language. If you are writing assembly-lan-
guage routines to be called from that com-
piled language, you have to know the
compiler's rules for register use. Also, you
want this final application to take the
smallest possible space. The instruction
set in the 8086 is designed to place as
much information in 1 byte as possible to
save coding space. To do this, some in-
structions require that certain registers
contain the proper information. The 8086
would then require fewer bits to define an
instruction and allow you to have instruc-
tions that would take only 1 byte of
memory space. The registers and the in-
struction set have been designed for the
compilers so that they can produce com-
pact code. This makes it a lot easier to add
your assembly-language procedure
because you don't have to worry about
things such as which register is pointing at
the stack. If you want general-purpose
operations, then the general-purpose
registers are just that for the more com-
monly used arithmetic and logical instruc-
tions (such as ADD, SUB, AND, OR,
etc.).

Most programming consists of code to
be executed, data variables, a stack for
saving information, and possibly an extra
data area for additional data storage. You
can execute only one piece of code at a
time, but your application may consist of
several pieces of code located throughout
the memory. You can go to one of these
other code segments by simply changing
the code segment register to point to the
new segment and begin execution from
there. To accomplish this, you would use
interrupts and the far jumps and calls.
Multiple data segments can be supported
by changing the data segment register to
point to the new data. Therefore, the
fixed numbers of four segment registers
are all the segment registers you need at
one time.

The maximum length of a segment is
64K bytes, but they are by no means fixed
to that length. Most assemblers' and com-
pilers' outputs will have segments that will
be smaller than that. As these final seg-
ments are placed contiguously in mem-
ory, the segment register, which must be
on a paragraph boundary with the least

4 Circle 42 on inquiry card.

IT IS BETTER TO

OWN A GRIZZLY ™

THAN TO CURSE THE

DARKNESS.

I

It's a warm, fuzzy feeling to know that when the dark thoughts of power failures and voltage
sags invade your peace of mind you have a friend that will let you grin and bear it.

The Grizzly™ is standing behind you with battery back-up, surge protection and noise filter-
ing. It's nice to know that when the lights go down low this uninterruptible power system will
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alarm, giving you twenty minutes to shut down and avoid data loss.

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the dark! Circle 173 on inquiry card.

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Circle 173 on inquiry card.

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Fall '83

Letters -^^^^^-^^^^—

significant 4 bits equal to 0, will point to
the beginning of the segment, and the off-
set will be the first byte or word in that
segment. These segments do not have to
have their own 64K-byte space to reside
in.

The beginnings of memory protection
are in the 8086 with its segmented ar-
chitecture. This is a step toward future
microprocessors. This same architecture,
for example, is taken one step farther to
include hardware-memory protection
with privileged instructions in the 80286
microprocessor. The 80286 keeps the
same concepts of the 8086 but expands the
segmentation by including descriptors to
describe these segments more fully as to
their length, type, access rights, and other
properties.

No More JETSET

My article "JETSET" won an award in
BYTE's 1982 Games Contest and was sub-
sequently published in the November
1982 BYTE. The article mentioned that
readers could obtain a copy of the pro-
gram, a flight simulator for the TRS-80
Model II, by sending $8.00 and a blank
disk.

Please be advised that I discontinued
this service several months ago. Readers
from the U.S. and abroad are still sending
me disks and requests for copies of
JETSET — often for the wrong computer.
Perhaps this message will spare others the
inconvenience of having their material
returned to them unopened.

For interested readers, I've designed an
enhanced and fully programmable version
of the flight simulator for the IBM Per-
sonal Computer. This model is named
CADET. To obtain more information
about the IBM PC version, please contact
me directly at my home address in
Princeton, or write to Avell Inc., POB
6051, Lawrenceville, NJ 08648.

Eugene Szymanski
693 Rosedale Rd.
Princeton, NJ 08540

It's Not That Simple

In his letter "A More Powerful Pencil"
(August, page 26) Mr. Yriart made some
good points but did not hit the nail on the
head about the use of turnkey systems —
that is, not if he's ever operated a Radio
Shack TRS-80 Model I with interface and
disk drives.

24 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

Circle 366 on inquiry card.

Circle 457 on inquiry card. •

Inthe Hard Disk Jungle
Tallgrass Clears
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Spelling

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• Real 45,000 word dictionary.

• Shows errors "in-context."

• Interactive word look-up finds correct spelling
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• Hyphenates words automatically.

• Solves crosswords, puzzles, and anagrams.

• Works with almost any CP/M®, CP/M-86®
or MS/DOS (1.0, 1.1 and 2.0) compatible
word processing program (WordStar, Magic
Wand (PeachText), Spellbinder, Perfect
Writer, Select, Final Word, Volkswriter, . . .
and more!).

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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
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Circle 335 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)

Letters

This computer requires that, besides
knowing how to turn it on and follow the
prompts, you become thoroughly familiar
with all the TRSDOS utilities, commands,
error messages, and some disk BASIC,
too. In my opinion, this type of knowl-
edge is a valid form of computer literacy,
though not to be confused with actual
programming.

With a Model 1, the idea of being able
to just turn it on and load and run a pro-
gram is strictly a pie-in-the-sky idea that
rarely was the case in my 4-year battle
with that machine!

Helmut Vies

Box 416

Rockland, ME 04841

Requests for Help

For an anthology, I welcome contribu-
tions of humor in the sciences, historic
and contemporary, especially computer-
related science. The ordinary man's dis-
quiet about computers has sometimes

been expressed in contrived jokes that
bring the resented superiority of the ex-
pert down to earth. How are jokes chang-
ing with the spread of personal microcom-
puters?

Contributions can be anecdotes, bio-
graphical notes, witty accounts, cartoons,
parodies, verse, self-deception, and
hoaxes. Especially sought are items that,
while humorous, also have value in the
history of a science, providing insight into
changing attitudes or illuminating per-
sonalities. Please fully identify the sources
of contributions.

Dr. Robert L Weber
Pennsylvania State University
Physics Department
104 Davey Laboratory
University Park, PA 16802

I am looking for a public-domain or
moderately priced (under $150) commer-
cial screen-oriented program editor that is
compatible with Apple CP/M and the
Videx Videoterm 80-column display
board (ED just doesn't cut the mustard). It
must have comprehensive editing fea-

New!

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tures. If such a program exists, please
notify me. If not, I will try to write one
myself — a task I do not look forward tol

Chris Campbell

2843 Harmony PI.

La Crescenta, CA 91214

I am a newcomer to computing and
have been reading BYTE regularly, and I
thought perhaps you could put me in
touch with readers with the same interests
or problems as myself who would be will-
ing to assist me.

I have acquired a previously owned
Zenith-89 with three disk drives (5V4-inch
single-sided single-density hard sector)
and CP/M.

My special interests/problems are:
•BASIC-E: this is a public-domain com-
piler and interpreter that I have recently
obtained. The documentation that I have
is sketchy and I need to locate a BASIC-E
users manual or other documentation for
BASIC-E that will allow me to better
understand this language.
•COBOL: I am a neophyte COBOL pro-
grammer and I would like to communi-
cate with someone who has implemented
COBOL on a microcomputer, particularly
the Z-89. I would be interested in an
evaluation of the Nevada COBOL that I
have seen advertised.
•IDS-460 printer: I would like to hear
from someone who is using or has used
this particular printer. I am especially in-
terested in learning how to use the graph-
ics capability of the IDS-460.

Wm. F. Fowler
4014 Hillwood Court
Beltsville, MD 20705

More on Using Computers
in Aircraft

I must take issue with Alexander Raue's
statement that "the operation of portable
electronic devices aboard a commercial
aircraft or an aircraft flying under instru-
ment conditions is prohibited by law."
(Letters, July, page 10). He makes
reference to Federal Aviation Regulations,
section 91.19. It is a pity he did not quote
the next two sentences of that regulation,
which state, in part, that "the air carrier
or commercial operator of the aircraft on
which the particular device is to be used"
may determine that the "portable elec-
tronic device. . . will not cause in-
terference with the navigation or com-

28 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

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Letters ——————

munication system of the aircraft. ..."
Upon such determination by the air car-
rier, operation of the portable electronic
device is permitted.

Most portable computers bear a label
indicating that they are "certified to com-
ply with Class B limits, part 15 of the FCC
rules." The Class B requirement limits the
permissible field strength at 3 meters to
well under a millivolt per meter, depend-
ing on the frequency. This requirement,
which has been in effect for about two
years, has been and will be a help to
airlines in deciding which pieces of equip-
ment may be operated aboard the aircraft.

It bears noting that nearly all airlines
permit use of handheld calculators. Many
calculators now in use were manufactured
before the Class B rules went into effect
and emit radio-frequency energy at far
higher levels than those permitted by the
Class B rules for computing devices.

Carl Oppedahl
Kreindler & Kreindler
99 Park Ave.
New York, NY 10016

Alexander Raue replies:

My principle concern was not with
isolated, individual units in good working
order, but rather with the cumulative
emissions of multiple units and/ or the ex-
cessive emissions radiated by those units
which are, for one reason or another, in
less than perfect condition.

Part 15, Subpart / of the FCC Rules and
Regulations sets electromagnetic in-
terference standards for individual devices
or systems tested pursuant to procedures
outlined in Section 15.840. These pro-
cedures test a sample unit for compliance
with the following emission standards for
Class B computing devices:

Field

Frequency

Distance

Strength

(MHz)

(m)

(liV/m)

30-88

3

100

88-216

3

150

216-1000

3

200

These standards were designed to mini-
mize the possibility of radio interference
in a normal environment. They do not
pretend to be a safety standard to deter-
mine the suitability of certificated equip-
ment for use aboard aircraft. Class B stan-
dards regulate emissions between 30 and
1000 MHz. Unfortunately, airborne
navigation equipment relies on signals
that range between 10.2 kHz and 5250

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Letters

MHz. This is a considerably broader spec-
trum than is addressed in Part 15.

Furthermore, Class B standards specif-
ically do not address the problems of the
cumulative EMI of multiple units or pro-
vide for units in less than perfect working
order due to manufacturing defects, use,
abuse, or subsequent modification. Por-
table units, by their very nature, will be
subjected to considerable abuse by the
user which can result in emissions in ex-
cess of Part 15 standards.

In the never-ending war for passengers,
the airlines may decide to allow personal
computers. Already, in the effort to lure
the all-important "business-class"
traveler, they "allow" considerable viola-
tion of the law with regard to carry-on
luggage. The next time you fly, take a
good look at what is stuffed in the com-
partments above your head. Then take a
look at the legal limits set by the manufac-
turer and the FAA for your safety. If the
compartments pop open from the strain in
the take-off roll, imagine what they will
do in any form of accident.

Officially, the airlines say it is against
their policy to allow these violations; in
practice, they do nothing but encourage
them.

In the end, carry-on luggage won't
cause a major accident. The same cannot
be said for equipment that causes naviga-
tional jamming.

In Defense of
APL

Jerry Pournelle remarked that APL was
great "as a quick calculator" but he could
not imagine APL being used for large pro-
grams ("The User Goes to the Faire," June,
page 306). Many people at companies like
IBM, Xerox, Mobil, Upjohn, and others
have come to a quite different conclusion
after actually using APL for large-scale
systems. APL may look strange at first,
but so does anything else, and APL is not
hard to learn or teach.

If the many APL operators are thought
of as macros or subroutines, APL is struc-
turally similar to other powerful program-
ming languages. For people with some
mathematics background, many of these
APL operators are already familiar sym-
bols; for those without a mathematics
background, I believe APL symbols are
no more foreign or hard to learn than
their alternative idioms. For example,
how many times does a person have to
code a quick or sync sort before he is

32 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

familiar enough with its coding to think of
it as an elementary idiom? In APL a sort
consists of (C) t MAT, where C is an op-
tional alternate collating sequence, 1 is the
ascending sort operator, (t would be a
descending sort), and MAT is an alpha or
numeric vector or matrix to sort. Other
high-level languages have similar capabili-
ties but are generally less succinct.

Because of its power, APL can reduce
the total code required for a system by a
factor of 10 or more; this speeds the
coding and actually makes support easier
(would you rather look through 10 or 100
pages of code for a bug or enhancement
change?). Because the language is inter-
pretive, each APL operation within each
line of code can be (and often is for com-
plex computations) tested while coding;
thus, development time is greatly
shortened. Finally, APL can be very effi-
cient even with the overhead of inter-
pretation (for example, the Sieve bench-
mark, which is possibly the worst case for
APL because of its iterative method).

Over the last 14 years I have pro-
grammed systems in many languages (a
few different assembly languages, BASIC,
several levels of FORTRAN, PL/I,
COBOL, many packages, etc.). None of
these languages has given me the power,
speed, or flexibility of the APL. Having
this experience, I cannot imagine how I,
or others, endured large-scale system de-
velopment with primitive tools such as
BASIC, COBOL, FORTRAN, and other
such languages. APL is not perfect, but it
is one of the languages that I believe is
heading down the right road to improved
productivity. As an unknown author put
it: "Life is too short to spend it coding do-
loops."

Michael C. Rowe, PhD
The Upjohn Company
7000 Portage Rd.
Kalamazoo, MI 49001 ■

BYTE's Bugs

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Ciarcia's Circuit Cellar

Build the H-Com
Handicapped Communicator

During an engineering assignment
a few years ago I went to meet a man
we'll call Dave, the owner of a small
development company and its chief
designer. As I sat in the lobby waiting
to see him, I couldn't help but notice

by Steve Ciarcia

the many plaques, patents, citations,
and honors bestowed on the com-
pany "Surely," I thought, "to possess
such impressive credentials, the
manager of this company must be a
real dynamo." I pictured him barking

orders and moving at a furious pace,
carrying a memocorder in one hand
and a wireless phone in the other, be-
ing pursued by a cadre of support
personnel. How else could anyone
accomplish so much?

Photo 1: The H-Com scanning communicator, a kind of keyboard simulator, can be used to send text directly to a printer, such as the Radio
Shack CGP-U5 shown here, or to a text-to-speech synthesizer, such as the Intex Talker, in this fully configured system. Using the serial-output
commands and phrase mode, the H-Com can transmit words and sentences from a prestored vocabulary.

36 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

The Intel 8748 self-contained microprocessor forms the heart

of a scanning communicator

I don't now remember what we dis-
cussed at that first meeting. I only
remember my shock at discovering
that this super executive was a quad-
riplegic, suffering from a degenera-
tive disease of the nervous system
that left him with no fine motor con-
trol, virtually paralyzed.

During our meeting Dave used a
one-switch scanning communicator,
a sophisticated machine that enabled
him to type on an electric typewriter.
A scanning communicator presents a
display of alphabetic, numeric, and
punctuation characters. Under or
beside each character is a lamp in-
dicator. The device illuminates the
lamp for one character (or group of
characters) in a sequence. By biting
down on a mouth switch at the right
instant, Dave could cause the in-
dicated character to be typed. The
machine also stores a vocabulary of
frequently used words and phrases.
In later conversations with other staff
members I learned that Dave often
wrote entire design proposals using
this technique.

Dave's body was frail, but he had
one of the sharpest minds I've ever
met. I've since given up dealing in
stereotypes.

My purpose in relating this ex-
perience to you is not to solicit your
sympathy but rather to inform you
how technology has helped one man
compensate for physical limitation.
This meeting left me with a profound
appreciation for the value of commu-
nication and the important role that
electronics can play in aiding dis-
abled people.

While it would be hard to duplicate
the sophistication of the scanning
communicator that Dave used, tech-
nology has advanced to a state where
we can reproduce certain of its
primary functions at minimal ex-
pense. In view of this, I decided to
present a project that can serve both
as an example of an application for
the Intel 8748 single-chip microcom-
puter and as a demonstration of the
potential benefits of technology.

Build the H-Com

This month's Circuit Cellar proj-
ect is called H-Com, which stands for
"handicapped communicator." It's in-
tended to do the same job as a nor-
mal computer keyboard, but using
only one "key," a single user-input
point hereinafter referred to as the
switch. Because there is only one
switch in the H-Com, its user need
control only one muscle to actuate it.
Any kind of normally open momen-
tary-closure switching contacts will
work. An eye-blink detector would
work, or the system could even use
the biofeedback detector I wrote
about in a previous Circuit Cellar ar-
ticle (see reference 4).

The H-Com has three outputs: two
RS-232C ports and one audible horn.
The RS-232C output ports can be
turned on or off and the data rate set
by user input. For serial communica-
tion, the full ASCII (American Na-
tional Standard Code for Information
Interchange) character set, including
all control characters, can be gen-
erated. The horn can be used to beep
out seven different patterns, intend-
ed principally for obtaining the atten-
tion of other people nearby.

The H-Com terminal has a pre-
stored vocabulary of words and com-
plete sentences that can be trans-
mitted upon receipt of a single com-
mand. These canned transmissions
can take the form of ASCII-encoded
text sent to a voice synthesizer (such
as the one discussed in reference 3)
or control codes sent to an autodial-
ing telephone (or modem) that direct-
ly links the user to help in an
emergency. And the H-Com is de-
signed with eventual expansion in
mind. All of these design criteria re-
quire that the H-Com contain one of
the devices we've used so often late-
ly in high-performance electronic
equipment— a microprocessor.

The microprocessors you're prob-
ably most familiar with are the gen-
eral-purpose Z80, 6502, and 8088. But
these chips are designed to be used
in relatively large digital systems;

other less well known micropro-
cessors have been built to be easier
and cheaper to use in simple control
applications.

The Intel 8748

One of Intel Corporation's product
lines is a set of VLSI (very large-scale
integration) chips— containing pro-
cessor, memory, and support-logic
circuitry— of which the flagship prod-
uct is the 8048. The 8048 features
mask-programmed ROM (read-only
memory), which is good for applica-
tions that require thousands of the
chips to be installed in identical
pieces of equipment, such as the key-
boards of IBM Personal Computers.
But small-scale experimentation can
more practically use its cousin, the
8748, which sports on-chip EPROM
(erasable programmable ROM).
Figure 1 is a functional block diagram
of the Intel 8748 single-chip 8-bit
microcomputer, which is shown in
photo 2.

The resident program memory in
the 8048 consists of 1024 (IK) words
8 bits wide (in other words, the
memory is IK bytes), which are ad-
dressed in random-access fashion by
the program counter. In the 8748 this
memory consists of EPROM, which
allows the processor's program to be
loaded in the system designer's work-
shop rather than at the factory. To
burn the program into the 8748's
EPROM, external circuitry must ac-
tivate the program mode, apply and
latch an address, apply data, and
pulse the chip's program line. Each
word of memory is verified im-
mediately after it has been burned.
The entire EPROM contents can be
erased by exposing the 8748 to ultra-
violet light (see reference 2).

The 8748 contains 64 eight-bit reg-
isters, called the resident data memory,

Materials pertaining to the 8748 are re-
printed courtesy of Intel Corporation.

Copyright © 1983 Steven A. Garcia. All rights
reserved.

November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. 37

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Figure 1: /4 functional block diagram of the Intel 8748 self-contained microprocessor.

38 November. 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

Photo 2: Shown in this photomicrograph, Intel Corporation's 8748 microprocessor is largely self-sufficient, containing its own EPROM,
scratchpad RAM, and I/O circuitry.

November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. 39

The Intel

8048/8748
Instruction Set

The processor contains the basic data-
manipulation functions and can be divid-
ed into fourmajor functional sections: the
arithmetic/logic unit (ALU), the ac-
cumulator, the carry flag, and the instruc-
tion decoder.

In a typical operation, data stored in the
accumulator is combined in the ALU with
data from another source on the internal
bus (such as a register or I/O port), and
the result is stored in the accumulator or
another register. The ALU accepts 8-bit
data words from one or two sources and
generates an 8-bit result under control of
the instruction decoder. The ALU can per-
form the following functions:

•add with or without carry
•AND, OR, exclusive OR

• increment /decrement
•bit complement

• rotate left, right

•swap nybbles in accumulator
•decimal adjust accumulator (BCD)

One machine instruction makes very ef-
ficient use of the working registers as
program-loop counters: the DJNZ (decre-
ment, jump if not zero) instruction allows
the program to decrement and test the
register in a single instruction.

which can be used as scratchpad
RAM (random-access read/write
memory). The first eight locations in
this array (numbered through 7) are
designated as special-purpose "work-
ing" registers and are directly ad-
dressed by several instructions. All 64
locations are indirectly addressable
through either of the two RAM-
pointer registers, registers and 1.
Because the first eight registers are
more easily addressed, they are
typically used to store frequently ac-
cessed data or intermediate results.
The text box above discusses the
8748 , s instruction set.

The 8748 has 27 I/O (input/output)
signal lines. Twenty-four of these
lines are grouped into three I/O ports
of eight lines each; these can be used
for input, for output, or bidirectional-

ly. The remaining three lines are
single-bit "test" inputs, which can
alter program flow when tested by
conditional-jump instructions.

I/O ports 1 and 2 are each 8 bits
wide and have identical character-
istics. The lines of these ports are
called quasibidirectional because they
employ a special output-circuit struc-
ture that allows each line to serve as
an input, an output, or both, even
though the outputs are statically
latched (that is, data written to these
ports for output remains unchanged
until new data is loaded into them).
However, when used as input ports,
these lines are nonlatching; this re-
quires the external circuitry to keep
the levels for each transferred byte
valid until the 8748 reads the byte by
an input instruction. The I/O ports
are fully compatible with TTL
(transistor-transistor logic); the out-
puts will drive one standard TTL
load.

The third I/O port is called the bus
port. It is also an 8-bit port, but it is
truly bidirectional, having associated
input and output strobe signals. If
bidirectional operation is not needed,
the bus port can serve as either a
statically latched output port or a
nonlatching input port. However, in-
put and output lines on this port can-
not be mixed. In some modes of
operation, the bus port is used to ad-
dress external memory.

In static-port operation, data is
written and latched using the 8748's
OUTL instruction; data is input using
the INS instruction. The INS and
OUTL instructions g enera te p ulses
on the corresponding RD and WR
output strobe lines; however, in the
static-port mode these signals are
generally not used. In bidirectional-
port operation, the MOVX instruc-
tions are used to read and write to
the port. A write to the port gener-
ates a pulse on the WR output line,
and output data becomes valid at the
trailing edge of the pulse. Reading
the p ort generates a pulse on the
RD output line; input data must be
valid at the trailing edge of the RD
pulse. When not being written or
read, the bus-port lines are in a high-
impedance state.

The 8748 also contains a counter/

timer register intended for use in
enumerating external events and gen-
erating accurate time delays without
placing an extra burden on the pro-
cessor. This 8-bit binary up counter
can be preset and read with two
MOV processor instructions, which
transfer the contents of the ac-
cumulator to the counter, and vice
versa. The contents of the counter are
not cleared by a processor reset; they
can be initialized solely by the MOV
instructions. Counting is stopped
either by a processor reset or when
a STOP TCNT instruction is executed.
After counting has stopped, it can be
restarted for use as a timer by a
START T instruction or as an event
counter by a START CNT instruction.
Once started, the counter is con-
tinually incremented, overflowing to
zero when its maximum value (hexa-
decimal FF) is reached but continu-
ing its count until stopped by a STOP
TCNT instruction or processor reset.
The 8748 contains all necessary cir-
cuitry for generating timing signals,
with the exception that a frequency
reference, which can be a crystal, in-
ductor, or external clock pulse, must
be connected. The on-board oscillator
is a high-gain series-resonant circuit
with a frequency range of 1 to 6 MHz.
A crystal or inductor connected be-
tween the 8748's pinouts XI and X2
provides the feedback and phase
shift required for oscillation. A
6.144-MHz crystal allows easy deriva-
tion of all standard serial-communi-
cation frequencies.

Implementation of the H-Com

The H-Com consists of a small case
with a character grid of 64 elements
arranged into 8 horizontal rows and
8 vertical columns (see photo 3). Each
element is the equivalent of a key-
board key.

The characters are arranged in the
array such that the ones most fre-
quently used are clustered in the up-
per left, the position reached most
quickly during the scanning process.
The least used characters (special
punctuation) are placed at the end of
the scan in the lower right. The right-
most (eighth) column is used to con-
trol the H-Com's operation rather
than transmit characters. A practiced

40 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

Photo 3: The H-Com's character display contains 8 rows and 8 columns of characters and control functions, numbered from top to bottom
and from left to right. The intersecting lines of red LEDs are used in scanning the row and column positions, while the yellow LEDs along
the right edge indicate which mode is in use.

user can select and transmit charac-
ters with relative ease and surprising
speed.

Each of the 8 rows and 8 columns
has a corresponding selection in-
dicator, a total of 16 red LEDs
(light-emitting diodes). The scanning
operation proceeds as follows. The
LEDs for the 8 rows are lighted in-
dividually in sequence from top to
bottom: first row, second row, third
row, and so on to the eighth row,
then back to the first row and repeat.
The row scan continues until the H-
Com senses that the switch is closed,
indicating that the user has made a
selection of the row for which the
LED is lit. The H-Com program
stores the selected row number and
proceeds to the column scan. In this
second phase of selection, each of the
column LEDs is lit in succession from
left to right. Once again, the user
closes the switch during the interval
in which the LED is lit that corres-

ponds to the column containing the
desired character.

When both a row and a column
have been selected, the micropro-
cessor looks in a table to find the
character associated with the row and
column position (x and y coordinates,
if you will). The character or function
assigned to the position may vary ac-
cording to the major mode of opera-
tion selected. If the character is in the
printable set, the H-Com transmits it
through either or both RS-232C
ports.

H-Com Modes

The rightmost column, as I men-
tioned, is used for controlling the H-
Com, mostly for shifting its six
modes of operation. Beside each
mode square is a yellow LED, which
is lighted when the corresponding
mode is in use. When the H-Com is
powered up, it starts out in the All-
Caps mode, in which it will transmit

only the main character set consisting
of uppercase A through Z, numerals
through 9, and commonly used
punctuation. Separate modes gen-
erate lowercase characters, braces,
ASCII control characters, and special
functions.

For example, to send a Control-C,
you first select the control-characters
mode (by closing the switch first dur-
ing the row-4 interval and then in the
column-8 interval), and then select
the particular character ("C") with the
next row/column scan. Immediately
after sending the Control-C character,
the H-Com reverts to the All-Caps
mode. One of the modes even lets
you transmit lengthy prestored
messages by selecting a two-character
mnemonic key. Let's look at the six
H-Com modes:

All Caps: This is the default mode.
All characters are converted to upper-
case (capital letters) before being sent.

November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. 41

Photo 4: The prototype of the H-Com circuit, viewed from the rear to show the integrated circuits. The light-emitting diodes are mounted
on the other side.

One Cap: This mode, when
selected, sends the first character
after its invocation as uppercase, and
then all subsequent characters as
lowercase. This is useful for capitaliz-
ing words because normally only the
first letter is uppercase.

Lowercaseiln this mode, characters
are sent out lowercase.

Control Characters: This mode is
used to generate the control codes. It
acts much like One Cap except that
it converts the next character selected
to its control equivalent for transmis-
sion. Because the Escape control code
is treated as a normal character, you
need not use the Control Characters
mode to generate it. The control
codes normally used for cursor con-
trol are accessed by Control-8, -4, -6,
and -2. Also, seldom used punctua-
tion is generated in this mode, not in
one of the caps modes.

Phrase: This mode is used to gen-
erate sequences of many characters to
form complete words, sentences, etc.
The text strings are stored serially in
a type-2716 EPROM, each phrase
tagged with a mnemonic key. For the
H-Com to transmit the sequence, you
select the Phrase mode, the
characters of the mnemonic key, and
then the space character. When the
H-Com has detected the scan selec-
tion of a space while in Phrase mode,
the 8748 takes the key and looks
through the EPROM until it finds the
corresponding text string; it then
sends the string exactly as if the let-
ters were being selected one at a time.
If there is no phrase associated with
the entered key, the H-Com beeps
the horn and returns the mode to All
Caps or Lowercase, whichever was
last selected. The internal storage for-
mat for the EPROM is shown in list-

ing 1, a simplified example. Normal-
ly this listing would be several pages
long and contain hundreds of words.

Local: This mode is used for tasks
that don't involve sending characters.
The first three rows of the character
array do nothing in Local mode.

The fourth row in the array controls
the horn. The dot and dash symbols
in the squares indicate the beep pat-
terns, which superficially resemble
Morse code. To sound a pattern of
three short honks, for example, you
select Local mode, then the H key,
which causes three short beeps to be
emitted. Each letter of the fourth row
beeps a different pattern.

In Local mode, the fifth row selects
the operating parameters for serial
port A. The first position in the row,
labeled Backspace/ A = 110, sets port A
to communicate at 110 bps (bits per
second). The second position,

42 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

7/A = 300, sets port A to 300 bps, the
third position to 600 bps, the fourth
to 1200 bps, and the fifth (labeled
*/A = OFF) turns the port off. To turn
port A on, you select the data rate
desired (if you want it off, select Local
and then */A = OFF). The sixth row
controls port B in the same manner.
The seventh and eighth rows con-
trol the scanning rate of the row- and
column-select LEDs. The seventh-
row, first-column position sets the
slowest rate, and each succeeding
column sets a rate faster by a factor
that increases geometrically.

H-Com Hardware

Shown in the schematic diagram of
figure 2, the circuitry of the H-Com
can be divided into seven sections:
the power supply, the RS-232C
drivers, the microprocessor, the LED
decoder/drivers, the phrase-lookup
EPROM, the horn-tone generator,
and the input switch. The prototype
circuit board is shown in photo 4.

The H-Com draws about 300 mA
(milliamps) at 12 V (volts). Current
could be drawn from a motorized
wheelchair's battery, a separate bat-
tery pack, or a 110-V AC-powered
supply. If a 12-V supply is chosen, the
currently available Radio Shack
CGP-115 printer can be used as a con-
venient portable display device. The
+ 12-V potential is reduced to +5 V
through a type-7805 voltage regulator
to power the logic circuitry.

IC1, a type-556 dual-timer chip,
serves two purposes. It produces an
audio signal at pin 9 to sound the
horn and generates a second AC sig-
nal used as input to a charge-pump-
ing circuit to produce a - 9-V supply
for the RS-232C transmitter section.

The horn signal, the direct output
of IC1, drives a loudspeaker, which
generates a sound low enough in fre-
quency and loud enough to be heard
by someone in an adjacent room.
(Solid-state piezoelectric transducers,
while efficient and compatible with
TTL circuits, are not loud enough or
low enough.) A series resistor (about
100 ohms) keeps the volume at a
comfortable yet noticeable level.
Sounding of the horn is controlled by
an output bit on the 8748.

User inputs to the H-Com are

handled through the 8748's Tl test in-
put. This line is one of three input
pins (TO and INT are the others) that
allow conditional program branches
without using I/O instructions of the
type that load the accumulator from
the input port. Because Tl is to be
connected to a mechanical switch, a
debouncing integrator (resistor/ca-
pacitor combination) and a Schmitt
trigger (IC6) smooth out its transi-
tions.

Control of the H-Com functions is
handled through the three parallel
ports. Four bits of port 1 are reserved
for serial communication. (The four
remaining bits could be programmed
to provide more ports if necessary.)
With the data rates and character
framing generated by software, each

The only
unconventional part of

the circuitry is the
phrase-memory section.

port transmits independently at data
rates from 110 to 1200 bps. When the
H-Com is first turned on, the pro-
gram sets port 1 to 600 bps to be com-
patible with the CGP-115 printer. IC8
and IC9 are the familiar MC1488 and
MC1489 RS-232C driver and receiver
chips. The -9-V supply mentioned
earlier is used in the 1488. These
devices were chosen primarily for
simplicity; they could be replaced
with a couple of transistors if you
wanted to reduce the number of
integrated-circuit packages.

Port 2 drives the LED display. The
high-order 4 bits of port 2 are con-
nected to a 4- to 16-line decoder
driver, IC2, which produces the row/
column scanning action. Depending
upon the 4-bit value appearing at
IC2's input, one of the 16 LEDs will
be lit. As the count is incremented,
the next LED in the row or column
lights up, and scanning takes place.

The low-order 3 bits of port 2 are
connected to a 3- to 8-line decoder/
driver, IC3. Functioning in a manner
similar to IC2, this circuit drives the
yellow LEDs that indicate what mode

the H-Com is in. The remaining bit
of port 2 controls the horn.

The program for the 8748 single-
chip microcomputer, IC9, is stored in
the on-chip IK- by 8-bit EPROM.

The only unconventional part of
the circuitry is the phrase-memory
section. The signals to address this
memory are not generated by the
processor, as is commonly the case.
Instead, they are generated by two
8-bit binary counters (IC5 and IC7).

Initially, the counters are cleared
(reset ) by a low-level signal on the
WR (pin 10) line of the 8748 (IC9),
under the direction of a bus-port
write instruction. When the pro-
cessor needs to look up a phrase
from the memory, it reads the bus
port. After each such read instruc-
tio n, an active-low pulse appears on
the RD line, increasing the value in
the counters by 1. When you request
transmission of a stored phrase, the
8748 clears these address counters
and begins reading at the beginning
of the 2716 EPROM. The 8748 keeps
reading and incrementing the
counters until it finds a match to the
phrase key.

This circuit, although not common-
ly seen, requires few chips and uses
a relatively simple searching
algorithm. Also, because the counters
produce 16 address bits, -up to 64K
bytes of text storage can be easily ac-
commodated. In fact, simply chang-
ing the type-2716 EPROM to a
type-27128 would add 14K characters.
But even with as many as 64K char-
acters of stored phrases, the search
would take less than one second.

Words and phrases are stored in
the EPROM as ASCII character
strings preceded by one or more
mnemonic key characters that iden-
tify the particular word or phrase. As
you can tell from listing 1, the
mnemonic key is stored first in the
EPROM, followed by a space charac-
ter (hexadecimal 20), followed by the
word or phrase (any length), and
concluded by a null character (hexa-
decimal 00). Phrase storage could
also be used to remind you how to
operate certain features, with a help
message triggered simply by setting
Phrase mode and then selecting H,
P, and a space on successive scans.

November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. 43

Number

Type

+ 5 V

GND

-9 V +12 V

IC1

LM556

7

14

IC2

74154

24

12

IC3

74L5138

16

8

IC4

2716

24

12

IC5

74LS393

14

7

i IC6

74LS14

14

7

IC7

74LS393

14

7

IC8

MC1488

7

1 14

IC9

MC1489

14

7

IC10

8748

40, 26

20

j XTAL
6.144MHz

;i m f

EXT USER f| V —
SWITCH LU ~ I

TEST P.B. -|

^

1 \J39

a/xF

IC6
74LS14

SERIAL
PORT #2

'<iH-

Q>

IC8
MC1488

<Z}

N/C-
N/C-

34

33

I^>oi

^ s fh

f s> — i !

IC9
MC1489

IC8
MC1488

KZS

N/C-

N/C-

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PORT #1 I L_2/^

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D>"

IC9
MC1489

32

31

30

29

27

XTAL1

XTAL 2

IC10
8748

P17
P16
P15
P14

P13
P12
Pll

P10

P27
P26
P25
P24

P23
P22

P21
P20

DB7
DBS-
DBS
DB4
DB3
DB2
DB1
DBO-
RD

38

37

36

35

10

20

22

23.

IC2
79154

f5V

1_

Gl

62B

62A

IC3
74LS138

IC4
2716

D7
D6
D5
D4
D3
D2
Dl
DO
CE
OE

IC6

74LS14

lll^^U

Figure 2: The schematic diagram of the H-Com. The external EPROM (IC4, a 2716) is used for storage of mnemonically keyed phrases;
addresses for the EPROM are generated by the two binary counters IC6 and IC7.

H-Com Software

The source code of the control pro-
gram stored in the 8748's memory is
shown in listing 2. The program is

structured to deal with one quirk of
the 8748's instruction set, its eight-
level fixed-size stack. When the stack
pointer is incremented beyond 7, it

"wraps around" to 0, reusing its
memory area and subsequently limit-
ing the programs to no more than
eight levels of subroutine nesting.

44 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

15
14
13
12
11
10

17

LED16

COL8 '

16

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fl/

C0L7

15

tsif

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C0L6

14

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COL5

13

of

W

COL4

11

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C0L3

9

10

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C0L2 .

8
7
6
5
4

9

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6

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5

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4

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3

3

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ROW3 ,

2

1

2

ri2Y*

M^

ROW2

1

W

O/

ROW1

LED1

220.fl

RED
)C0LUMN
LEDS

+ 12V
A

13

aooK

RED

}row

LEDS

12

k 0.01/iF

10

Of

+ 5V

220JI

7

Y7

LOCAL

OUTPUT
Y6

Y5

Y4

Y3

Y2

Yl

YO

9

vn>

Of

N/C

10

of

W

N/C

11

v®

Of

PHRASES

12

rfj/

^

CTL CHR ,,

13

M3^

Of

LOWER

CASE

14

Of

W

CAPS

ONCE

15

W

^

ALL

CAPS

W

YELLOW

)mode

LEDS

A10

A8

A6
A5
A4
A3
A2
Al
AO

22-

23

lajj/^ir

IC6
74LS14

11

10

1QA 1QB 1QC 1QD 2A 2QA 2QB 2QC 2QD

1A
CLEAR1

IC5
74LS393

CLEAR2

12

14

RESET Vcc

DISCHARGE

DISCHARGE

THRESHOLD

TRIGGER

THRESHOLD

TRIGGER

IC1
LM556

RESET

OUTPUT

OUTPUT

CONTROL CONTROL
VOLTAGE VOLTAGE

1' J!

0.01/iF^ ^-pO.Ol/zF

IN

7805 OUT

GND

+ 5V

tmouf A? m , m —

lOOSl

r

SPEAKER

ADDITIONAL
EPROM MEMORY

A12 A13 A14 A15
i. J i J

13 11 10 9

1QA 1QB 1QC 1QD 2A 2QA 2QB 2QC 2QD

IC7
74LS393

CLEAR1 CLEAR2

12

N/C = NO CONNECTION

However, at any point in the pro-
gram, control can branch to a second
point without having to clean up the
contents of the stack. The H-Com

control program uses this feature.

But the jump (branching) pro-
cedure is odd, too. Conditional
jumps are restricted to within the

256-byte page of memory containing
the jump instruction. This character-
istic is not particularly convenient,
but it can be circumvented by condi-

Text continued on page 50

November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. 45

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(S Q Q Q S S S S S S S

November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. 49

Text continued from page 45:
tionally jumping to an uncondi-
tional-jump instruction (which is not
so restricted). Unconditional jumps
include normal direct jumps to any
place in program memory and
several types of indirect jumps within
the page. (For an extreme example of
this technique, look at location hex-
adecimal 0237 in listing 2, where the
mode switching occurs. Here,
subroutine KBIN is called, with the
calling routine expecting control to
return with the character-selection
code held in register 5. But if you ac-
tuate the switch to select a mode,
such as the Phrase mode, the sub-
routine calculates where to continue
execution and simply jumps there.
Structured programming hasn't
made much progress on the 8748.)

The H-Com program is arranged in
three sections, plus a lookup table.
These four modules fit conveniently
in the 8748's four pages of program
memory. The first page (page 0) is
where the code for all the various
modes of operation reside; each code
section considers itself the main
routine and calls the other sections
as subroutines. The first section of
code sets up the major modes (All
Caps, Phrase, etc.)

The second section (page 1) is the
text-transmission section. It sends the
contents of register 5 out to one or
both RS-232C channels, according to
which are active at the time. It sends
the data at the most recently selected
data rate or at the default data rate set
up by code in the first page. If the H-
Com "hangs up" waiting for a device-
ready status that never comes, you
can resume the active scanning mode
by pressing the switch.

The third section (page 2) is the
scanning subroutine. As we've seen,
it scans the rows and then columns
until you make a selection. When in
the column scan, you can return to
the row scan by pressing the switch
twice instead of once. If any position
in the first seven columns is selected,
this subroutine returns to the calling
routine with the element position (not
an ASCII value) in register R5. The
calling routine must either convert
this into a character or take some ap-
propriate action (e.g., beeping the
horn). If a position in the eighth

(mode-select) column of the array is
selected, this subroutine disregards
the normal subroutine return and
jumps to the appropriate mode
routine.

The first half of page 3 of program
memory is the character-lookup
table. Its layout corresponds to the
character-display arrangement,
which serves to minimize access
time. If you would prefer some other
"keyboard" layout, merely change
this table.

The H-Com program does not
make use of the 8748's interrupts, in-
terval timer, or alternate registers R0
through R3. These have been re-
served for customization of the
system to an individual user. The
alternate register set R4 through R7
is used for phrase-key storage, and
keys longer than three characters use
the high end of scratchpad memory.
Other than this, the memory above
the alternate registers is unused.

The software for this project was
written by Ralph McElroy. To encour-
age use and further development of
the H-Com and similar devices, we
are placing the software in the public
domain.

Parting Thoughts

This project has been on my mind
for some time. Its subject matter was
suggested by my meeting with Dave,
but I'm doing it now because of the
recent increase in the number of let-
ters I've received describing how dis-
abled individuals are being helped by
the speech synthesizers I've
presented in these articles.

I can guarantee that I'll continue to
investigate speech-related topics, but
specific projects like this one will re-
quire some reader feedback and sug-
gestions. Fd like to hear your com-
ments and suggestions. If there is
sufficient interest in the H-Com, I
may make arrangements for it to be
manufactured commercially. For in-
formation on its availability, contact
Intex Micro Systems Corporation, 725
South Adams Rd., Suite L8, Birming-
ham, MI 48011, telephone (313)
540-7601.

If you want to see how a research
group at Tufts University approached
the same problem, you can read an

article in the September 1982 issue of
BYTE (reference 5); that issue also
contained a number of articles on
computer applications to help dis-
abled people.

Next Month:

There are dark clouds on the horizon.
Thunder is rumbling through the hills
of central Connecticut. . . . I'm getting
worried. So next month well look at what
happens when electronic devices are hit
by high voltages and discuss how to pre-
vent it.m

Editor's Note: Steve often refers to previous Cir-
cuit Cellar articles as reference material for each
month's current article. Many of these past articles
are available in reprint books from BYTE Books,
McGraw-Hill Book Company, POB 400, Hights-
town, N] 08250.

Ciarcia's Circuit Cellar, Volume I covers articles
that appeared in BYTE from September 1977 through
November 1978. Ciarcia's Circuit Cellar, Volume
II contains articles from December 1978 through
June 1980. Ciarcia's Circuit Cellar, Volume III
contains articles from July 1980 through December
1981.

Special thanks to Ralph McElroy for his
contributions to this project.

References

1. Baker, Bruce. "Minspeak." BYTE, September
1982, page 186.

2. Ciarcia, Steve. "Build an Intelligent EPROM
Programmer." BYTE, October 1981, page 36.

3. Ciarcia, Steve. "Build the Microvox Text-to-
Speech Synthesizer." Part 1, BYTE, Sep-
tember 1982, page 64. Part 2, BYTE, October
1982, page 40.

4. Ciarcia, Steve. "Mind Over Matter: Add Bio-
feedback Input to Your Computer." BYTE,
June 1979, page 49.

5. Demasco, Patrick, and Richard Foulds. 'A
New Horizon for Nonvocal Communication
Devices." BYTE, September 1982, page 166.

6. Schwejda, Paul, and Gregg Vanderheiden.
"Adaptive-Firmware Card for the Apple II."
BYTE, September 1982, page 276.

Steve Ciarcia (POB 582, Glastonbury, CT
06033) is an electronics engineer and computer
consultant with experience in process control,
digital design, nuclear instrumentation, prod-
uct development, and marketing. In addition
to writing for BYTE, he has published several
books.

To receive a complete list of Ciarcia's
Circuit Cellar project kits available from
the Micromint, circle 1 00 on the reader
service inquiry card at the back of the
magazine.

50 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

Teletek's
New Combo
Could Make
You A Hero!

TheSBC-ll could be just the
right ingredient for your latest
concoction. The newest member
of Teletek's family of multi-user,
multi-processing S-100 products,
the SBC-II essentially combines,
or "sandwiches" two Teletek
SBC-I's into one board. The SBC-
II provides the capability to sup-
port two users from one standard
size IEEE-696/S-1 00 sl'ave board.

The SBC-II maintains full
performance for each user with
an independent CPU (Z80A or
Z80B), 64K RAM, Serial I/O, and
FIFO communications port to
the system master. The system
integrator benefits by getting
complete support for two users
for the price of one board.

TurboDOS and MDZ
operating systems will support
combinations of SBC-I's and
SBC-ll's offering system design
efficiency and flexibility never
before possible.

If you're hungry for value
and efficiency, order an SBC-II
from Teletek. You'll love every
byte.

4600 Pell Drive
Sacramento, CA 95838
(916) 920-4600
Telex 4991834 TELETEK
Dealer inquiries invited.

© Teletek 1983

Circle 465 on inquiry card.

BYTE West Coast

California Hardware

New products deliver specialized functions

by Barbara Robertson

77ns month BYTE West Coast looks at three products from the Silicon Valley: Convergent Technologies' new portable computer
called the Workslate, Inters BPK70-4 Bubble Storage Subsystem, and the Cygnet Communications Cosystem; and one from
Southern California: bubble-memory boards for the IBM Personal Computer from Helix Laboratories.

Workslate

Monday morning. You plug a tele-
phone into the Workslate and listen
to the Dow Jones report on the
speaker phone while you're getting
dressed. Nothing earthshaking, so
you check the Workslate calendar.
Oops. There's a 10 o'clock marketing
meeting today. The pricing-analysis
spreadsheet was prepared last week,
and a few things have changed since
then. You use the Workslate's cal-
culator to try out a couple of pos-
sibilities, adjust a number in one of
the spreadsheet cells, and recalculate
the totals.

Driving to work. As random
thoughts cross your mind, you pull
the Workslate out of your briefcase,
turn on the recorder, and begin dic-
tating. No need to worry about turn-
ing it off. The Workslate does that for
you if you haven't used it for 5
minutes.

At the office. You hand the tape
with your notes and the new pricing
data to your secretary, sit down at
your desk, and once again use Work-
slate to call Dow Jones. This time,
though, you read the current stock
quotes into one window on the dis-
play and enter the new prices into a
stock-portfolio worksheet in the other

window. Because this worksheet is
set to automatically recalculate, new
totals appear on the screen while you
update prices.

An alarm beeps. The screen
message tells you to "Sell 50 shares
of Quicktech." You check the Quick-
tech cell and remember that you set
the alarm to beep if the price fell
below $25. Leaving the worksheet on
the screen, you disconnect Dow
Jones, autodial your broker, and give
him the order over the Workslate's
speaker phone.

The alarm beeps again, and this
time the message reminds you of the
10 o'clock meeting. You slip the Work-
slate into your briefcase just as your
secretary shows up with the trans-
cribed notes and printout of the pric-
ing spreadsheet. You're ready.

The Workslate (see photo 1) is
small, lightweight, and packed with
features. A 16-line by 46-character
LCD (liquid-crystal display), 60-key
button-style keyboard, 64K bytes of
ROM (read-only memory), 16K bytes
of RAM (random-access read/write
memory), 300-bits-per-second (bps)
modem with auto-answer and auto-
dial, microphone, speaker, and a
microcassette recorder for voice or
data all fit into a battery-powered

portable computer about the size of
this issue of BYTE. Workslate weighs
in at about 3Vi pounds.

Driven by Hitachi's 6303 micropro-
cessor (a CMOS version of the 8-bit
Motorola 6800) and powered by four
AA alkaline batteries (or a nickel-
cadmium pack), the Workslate has
spreadsheet capabilities that rival
those of software packages designed
for desktop computers. It's quick,
powerful, and sells for $895. You can
order it now from the American Ex-
press Christmas catalog and pay for
it in monthly installments with no in-
terest charges or shop later this year
at Computerland or Businessland
stores. First delivery is scheduled for
November 17.

But before you run out and buy a
Workslate, you should bear one thing
in mind. One reason Convergent
Technologies was able to pack so
much in such a small package is
because this machine is designed
specifically for people whose busi-
ness is numbers rather than words.
In fact, a group of 50 to 100 potential
users in this vertical market, in-
cluding bank managers, body-shop
owners, construction estimators, and
data-processing managers actively
participated in the product's design.

52 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

At a Glance

Name

Workslate

Manufacturer

Convergent Technologies Inc.
Advanced Information Products Division
2441 Mission College Blvd.
Santa Clara. CA 95050
(408) 727-8830

Uses

Portable spreadsheet computations, dictation, time management,
telecommunications

Dimensions

8/2 by II by I inch (under 4 pounds)

Features

A 16-line by 46-character liquid-crystal display 60-key button
keyboard with dedicated function keys and numeric keypad, 6303
microprocessor, 64K bytes of ROM, I6K bytes of RAM, built-in
microcassette recorder, built-in 300-bps modem with auto-answer
and auto-dial, clock-calendar, A/C adapter/recharger, modular
phone jack cable, 9600-bps serial-interface port, and soft case

Software

Proprietary operating system, spreadsheet, communications in-
cluding terminal emulation, ROM templates for calendar, memo
pad, and phone list. Optional Taskware tapes (templates) range in
price from 529.95 to $49.95

Documentation and Customer Support

Software developers guides; "Teach Me Now" and "Teach Me
Later" audiotapes, owners manual, exercise workbooks, reference
guide, and user newsletter; 800 "hot line" number for users;
return for repair service

Price

S895

Options

Microprinter: battery-powered portable plotter with four colored

pens and one roll of 4/2 -inch paper, 7 by 8/2 by l'/z inches,

under 2 pounds, plugs into serial port: $250

I/O box with RS-232C and Centronics port: $199

Nickel-cadmium battery pack: S29.95

Microprinter pens (four black or one each blue, green, red, and

black); $3.95

Microprinter paper (four-pack): $5.95

Although the software in ROM in-
cludes the operating system, a
spreadsheet, time and date manage-
ment, and communications func-
tions, from a user's point of view
there is only one application: a
spreadsheet. Even the ASCII (Ameri-
can National Standard Code for In-
formation Interchange) terminal
emulator is built into the spread-
sheet. This is not necessarily a limita-
tion once you begin thinking of the
many uses of a spreadsheet program.

The Workslate comes with three
spreadsheet application templates
built into ROM: a calendar, a phone
list, and a memo pad (for audio or
text). Ten more templates, called
Taskware, are available on tapes for
$49.95 and under. (See table 1.) Keep-
ing the razor-blade theory of market-
ing well in mind, Convergent has
plans for 20 more tapes to be avail-
able within a year.

Serious hackers will probably la-
ment the lack of an available lan-
guage. All the software was pro-
grammed in assembly language, no
BASIC is provided, and the operating
system is proprietary and confiden-
tial. The only way to add programs
to the Workslate is to use the pro-
gramming capabilities within the
spreadsheet (see table 2) to design
new Taskware templates. As for ex-
pansion possibilities, we weren't able

to look inside the machine, but we
were told there are two empty 32K-
byte ROM slots.

Writers will probably decide
against this machine because the key-
board and the software were ob-
viously not designed with them in
mind. But businesspeople, mana-
gers, note-takers, appointment

keepers, cost estimators, and a wide
range of other people will find the
Workslate very useful.

Physical Dimensions

The Workslate fits on your desk or
in your briefcase as easily as a thick
pad of paper. It's 8V2 by 11 by 1 inches
and weighs less than 4 pounds with

Photo 1: A standard Workslate spreadsheet. White pointer arrows within the dark, inverse-
video Cell and Row label lines and the block of inverse-video on the selected cell help you keep
track of where you are. The status line at the top shows the worksheet name, the formula
for Cell D12, the percentage of remaining memory, and the date and time.

November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. 53

Personal tax

Travel

Sales reporter

Business tax

Portfolio analysis

1040 Form

Major Schedules (A.B.D.G)

Forms 2106, 2119, 3903

Monthly/Quarterly Withholding Analysis

Expense Reporting

a. Travel expenses

b. Client and entertainment expenses
Traveler's check log

Itinerary

Airline miles log
Foreign-currency converter
Metric converter

Account log

Commission report

Daily contact report

Expense report

Inventory availability and pricing

Proposals

Rental/leasing analysis

Sales forecasting 30/60/90/quarter/year

Sole proprietor and partnership taxes

a. Standard forms

b. Standard schedules
Personal tax preparation
FICA

Quarterly tax estimator
Tax-alternative calculator

Dow Jones Reporting Service

a. Price-drop warning

b. Auto-dial at Market opening or close
Annual-report analysis

Bond analysis
Cash-flow analysis
Current-investment analysis
Industry analysis
Stock portfolio
Summary profit report
Unrealized/realized gains and losses

Estate planning

Financial statements

IRA planning and analysis
Insurance-requirement analysis
Life-insurance coverage
Personal net worth, current/projected
College-fund planner
Trust account

Balance sheets

Income statements

Owners-equity statements

Ratio analysis

Changes in working capital

Changes in cash flow

5-year comparative-income statement

Fixed assets

Product cost

Cash modeling
Investment analysis
Selected ratio analysis
Actual expenses
Cash disbursements
Cash receipts
Currency conversion
Planned expenses
Planned versus actual

Marketing management Advertising-expense analysis

Advertising response-ratio analysis

Pricing analysis

Sales analysis

Commissions

Sales forecasting

Budgets

Expenses

Sales-performance ranking

Cash management

Loan analysis

Amortization schedule
Break-even analysis
Interest expense
Loan comparisons
Personal-financial statement

Table 1: Works! ate Optional Taskivare. Taskivare is provided on microcassette tape (see photo 3). Prices for the tapes listed range from
$29.95 to $49.95.

batteries. The color is dark slate gray
with button keys in two lighter
shades of gray (see photos). The dis-
play is on the left near the top of the
machine, and a speaker and cassette
drive are on the right. The built-in
microphone fits in a barely noticeable
slit in the front of the machine. On
the right side are plugs for an exter-
nal microphone and headset and a
volume control. Two phone connec-
tors, the serial port for the optional
portable plotter (see photo 2), and the
A/C adapter/recharger connector are
in the back; the LCD brightness con-
trol is on the left side. Batteries can
be replaced by removing a small
panel on the underside of the
machine.

Keyboard

The calculator-style button keys are
well spaced and have a nice touch.
With the help of the 10-key buffer, I
found I could type very fast. All the
keys on the keyboard repeat.

Notice the large diamond-shaped
pointer control pad between the
typewriter keys and the numeric key-
pad. Pressing a ribbed area at the top,
left, right, or bottom moves the
pointer between cells in the expected
direction. Within a cell, data is
entered by typing and edited by
backspacing and retyping. However,
in the edit mode, the pointer-control
pad can move the cursor across char-
acters for selective editing.

Five function keys at the top of the

keyboard have green labels identify-
ing them as Calc, Finance, Memo,
Phone, and Time. Memo, Phone, and
Time are spreadsheet application
templates. Calc splits a display into
two windows, with the lower win-
dow functioning as a calculator.
Finance produces sets of software
keys that help you calculate deprecia-
tion, loans, and net present value.
All the software templates have five
softkeys (called "action keys" in the
Workslate) at the bottom of the dis-
play that correspond to the keyboard
function keys. When no softkeys are
displayed, a function key calls up its
labeled function. When softkeys are
displayed, the corresponding func-
tion key calls into action a softkey

54 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

function. However, with the use of
the green Special key (at the bottom
of the keyboard), the labeled func-
tions can always be accessed.

The photos show that green labels
are assigned to many keys other than
the function keys and that green
characters are next to some of the
keys. Pressing the Special key along
with a second key produces the
result labeled in green next to the sec-
ond key.

A row of dedicated keys on the left
side of the keyboard includes the
On/Off control and the traditional
Shift key. The Cancel and Options
keys work with the software. Cancel
rescinds a command or returns you
to a previous layer of softkey func-
tions; Options calls up three sets of
softkey commands, including an
On/Off toggle for the keyboard click.
(More on these options in the soft-
ware section.)

The Worksheet key to the right of
Options is used to move between
worksheets. Pressing this key pro-
duces softkeys labeled with work-
sheet names.

The familiar Return (or Enter or
left-legged arrow) key has been
moved to the bottom row (to the right
of the space bar) and relabeled Do It.

The numeric keypad, to the right
of the typewriter keyboard, has num-
bers through 9 and dedicated keys
for addition, subtraction, multi-
plication, division, decimal point,
and calculation (formula or =). A
variety of other characters often used
in formulas, such as parentheses,
brackets, and less-than and greater-
than signs, appear on the keypad in
green and can be accessed with help
from the Special key.

The numeric keyboard can be re-
configured as a telephone keypad
rather than a calculator by using one
of the Options softkeys, and Con-
vergent Technologies provides an ap-
propriate overlay.

People who make their living with
typewriter keyboards rather than
numeric keypads will find this key-
board inconvenient. A typewriter it
isn't. The Return key, period, and
apostrophe, for example, are in the
wrong places, and there is no right
Shift key. However, this keyboard

Photo 2: The Workslate options. The battery-powered plotter can form 40 to 80 characters
in four colors on a line or print them sideways for extrn-unde spreadsheets. The Metric con-
verter template on the screen comes on the Travel Taskware tape.

should be fine for two-finger typists
and occasional note-takers.

Display

The 16-line by 46-character LCD
was designed by Convergent Tech-
nologies and built in Japan by a com-
pany Convergent Technologies won't
identify (it's neither Sharp nor Ep-
son). The software uses the top line
of the display as a status line telling
you the name of the worksheet, the
contents of a cell, the percentage of
memory remaining, and today's date
. and time. (Remember, there's really
only one application— you're always
in a spreadsheet program.) The
status line may also contain a phone
icon, an alarm message, and a tape
counter if appropriate. The bottom
three lines are used for the softkeys
(lines 15 and 16) and system
messages or prompts (line 14).

The display is easy to read, and
contrast can be adjusted. With a dis-
play size of more than half that of a
desktop monitor, several spreadsheet
rows and columns can be viewed on
the screen at once. Scrolling is by line
or page.

Microprocessor

The Workslate uses the Hitachi
6303 microprocessor, a low-power
CMOS (complementary metal-oxide
semiconductor) version of the 8-bit
Motorola 6800. This central processor
was chosen for its ability to move
blocks and its onboard I/O ports.
Clock speed is 1.228 MHz.

Memory and Power Supply

The Workslate comes with 64K
bytes of ROM and 16K bytes of RAM .
One spreadsheet with 16K bytes of
data or up to five spreadsheets with
a total of 16K bytes of data can be resi-
dent in RAM. The amount that can
be stored in RAM depends on actual
data entered into a spreadsheet, not
the number of cells in the spread-
sheet. The 16K bytes of stored data
could, for example, be in 1000 cells,
each with 16 bytes, or in 2000 cells,
each with 8 bytes. RAM memory is
saved whether the machine is on or
off. Power can be supplied with four
AA batteries, an external A/C
adapter/recharger, or an optional
nickel-cadmium power pack. One
backup button battery protects

November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

55

memory for up to two months. Warn-
ing messages indicate when to replace
main and backup batteries. The max-
imum power requirement is 1 watt.
Standard microcassette tapes pro-
vide externa] storage for audio and
digital information. The built-in dual-
track microcassette recorder from
Olympus can store 30 minutes of
audio or 5 worksheets (80K bytes) on
each side of a tape. Normally, audio
is stored on one side of a tape and
digital information on the other.
Worksheets, however, can have 1
minute of voice annotation on the
same side of a tape. Users can listen
to this recording while worksheet
data .is being loaded into RAM. A
typical 16K-byte spreadsheet can be
loaded into RAM in about 60 sec-
onds. The transfer rate to tape is 2400
bps, and data is stored in a density
of 2560 bits per inch (bpi).

Communications

Both voice and data communica-
tions capabilities were given very
high priority in the Workslate design.

The machine comes with a 300-bps
internal LSI (large-scale integration)
modem and can dial in Touch-Tone or
pulse mode. The Workslate comes
with a phone cable and has two
phone plugs in the back. Workslates
can be plugged into a standard
modular telephone jack or connected
in series between the wall and a stan-
dard telephone.

The Workslate comes

with a phone cable

and has two phone

plugs in the back.

In data mode, modem/phone func-
tions include auto-dial, auto-answer,
manual answer, manual originate,
acoustic coupler, and data-to-talk
mode-switching. Voice mode gives
you auto-dial, auto-answer with
taped message, manual voice answer,
speaker phone, call holding, conver-
sation recording/playback to phone,
and talk-to-data mode-switching. The

Workslate can answer the phone and
play a message tape, but it can't
record phone messages. Chances are,
though, you would keep the machine
with you rather than use it as a tele-
phone answering machine.

Communications can be unat-
tended. Terminal configurations in-
clude XON/XOFF, DTR/CTS (with an
optional I/O box), or "no'' hand-
shake; even, odd, zero, one, binary
(for receiving 8-bit code) or no pari-
ty; character echo on or off; and line
termination with crlf, cr, or If.
Acoustic coupler, answer-back
password memory, send/receive
security, and single-keystroke
transmission of user-defined strings
are also available. Worksheets are
represented in 7-bit ASCII; 8-bit
codes (such as line drawings) are sent
masked down to 7 bits and surround-
ed by tildes.

The serial port can be used for
9600-bps direct-connection data
transfers. An optional I/O (input/out-
put) box ($199) plugs into this port
and provides 300-, 1200- , or 9600-bps

Business
Scientific
Data
Plotting

"V

Soft kit # 2

Data Plotting Software for Micros- This 232 pg book/disk package contains

1 8 programs in BASIC for processing and plotting data: Histograms, pie charts,

log plots, regression, statistical analysis, curve fitting, barcharts, stock market

charts, 3D views of surfaces, data management, applications to science,

engineering and business.

Special features include writing text over graphics, automatic scaling and

axis labeling, automatic replotting when data is changed.

Book contains program listing in Applesoft BASIC with theory, equations and

full documentation. Disks contain same programs in Applesoft BASIC or IBMpc

BASICA. Use the programs as-is or modify and combine for your own special

applications.

Please send DBook- $30.50

QApplesoft Disk- $19.95
QIBMpc BASICA Disk- $19.95

Name

Address

City/State/Zip .

D check enclosed

D visa/mastercard
expiration date_

call (617)934-0445 for faster delivery
KERN PUBLICATIONS • P.O. Box1029BN • Duxbury, MA 02332

Applied
Statistics
for Micros

Softkit # 7

Applied Statistics for Micros- This is a package of professional level
statistics programs for use in business, science and engineering. Book contains
program listings in BASIC alongside theory and documentation. Optional disk
contains same programs in BASIC.

Book gives clear, easy-to-read tutorial on errors, statistical distributions,
hypothesis tests, variance, covariance, regression, response surfaces and
time series. 22 programs calculate normal, chi-square, t and F distributions;
variance with randomized blocks, Latin squares, factorials, response sur-
faces. Hi-accuracy multi-linear regression program has data handling and transfor-
mation Also programs for hypothesis testing, sorting and smoothing. Numerous
practical applications.

Assumes no prior knowledge of statistics. Used as a text for years at a leading
university.

Please send: DBook- $38
D IBMpc BASICA Disk- $26 D Applesoft Disk- $26 DCP/M86 Disk- $26

Name

Address

City/State/Zip

□ check enclosed

visa/mastercard
^expiration date_

A.

call (617)934-0445 for faster delivery
KERN PUBLICATIONS • P.O. Box 1029BN • Duxbury, MA 02332

56 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

Circle 255 on inquiry card.

communications. Convergent Tech-
nologies is currently working on soft-
ware that will run on its other ma-
chines as well as on the IBM Personal
Computer to facilitate data transfer
from Workslate to those machines.

Printer

The optional ($250) battery-
powered portable plotter connects to
the serial port and plots worksheets
at a rate of about 8 characters per sec-
ond. The Microprinter is 7 by 8V2 by
IV2 inches and weighs less than 3
pounds with batteries. It's powered
by four AA alkaline batteries or a
nickel-cadmium pack, has an A/C re-
charger, uses roll paper, and comes
with four colored pens. (Negative
numbers print in red.) It can print
40-character lines, 80 characters in
condensed mode, or 90-degree side-
ways characters for extra-wide
spreadsheets. The printer is based on
the pen mechanism developed by
Alps, a Japanese corporation, but
manufactured by Convergent Tech-
nologies.

The optional I/O box has RS-232C
and Centronics ports and can be
used to connect letter-quality or dot-
matrix printers to the Workslate.

Software

The operating system is pro-
prietary, multitasking, and invisible
to the user. Multitasking lets you
work with spreadsheet data while
you're on the phone, printing, or

The operating system

is proprietary,

multitasking, and

invisible to the user.

loading or saving data. You can create
your own spreadsheet forms using a
blank worksheet or start with one of
the three ROM templates: memo
pad, phone list, or time/calendar.

The ROM templates are always
available through the five function
keys. If a displayed softkey label
doesn't correspond to the matching
function-key label, you just press the

Special key and then the particular
function key.

Each ROM template has its own set
of softkey functions. Memopad is
used for audio or text and includes
record, stop, play, forward, and
reverse functions for controlling the
tape. The default column width in
this template is set at 40 characters for
note-taking. Text is entered one line
at a time; there is no word wrap. The
contents of a cell (one line of text) can
be moved to an edit line for word-
processing functions such as insert-
ing characters.

The Phone List template controls
communications. Softkey functions
include dial, answer, speaker, ter-
minal, and hang-up on the top level.
Selecting /y terminar brings up pause,
send, receive, talk, and hang-up soft-
keys. The Workslate draw option was
used in this template to create divi-
sions between columns. Column A,
titled Name, is 15 characters wide;
Column B is a vertical line (draw
character) 1 character wide; Column
C, Phone Number, is 13 characters

Graphics

for the

IBMpc
Apple II

Softkits #5,6

This is a spectacular collection of graphics programs for the IBMpc and the
Apple II or He. It contains more than 60 programs in BASICA. They're listed
beside theory and equations in a 280 page self-teaching guide. An optional
program disk is available.

These programs will show you how to write your own 2D and 3D graphics
software and they will give you many useful, ready-to-run graphics routines
to incorporate in your own software.

Programs are menu driven and modular. They show how to use elementary
graphics commands and do 2D and 3D translation, rotation, scaling, clipp-
ing, windowing, hidden line removal, shading, perspective, hi-speed anima-
tion, with applications" to science, business, engineering and games.
Adopted as a text in many leading universities. We know you will be pleased.

Please send:

□ IBMpc Book- $30.50 DIBMpc BASICA Disk- $21.50
□ Apple Book- $30.50 □ Applesoft Disk- $21.50

Name

Address

City/State/Zip

□ check enclosed

□ visa/mastercard
expiration date_

call (617)934-0445 for faster delivery
KERN PUBLICATIONS • P.O. Box 1029BN • Duxbury, MA 02332

Designer

Softkit it 8

This is a professional 3 dimensional graphics design program. With Designer 30
you can interactively create 3D drawings on the screen, rotate in 3 dimen-
sions, enlarge, view in perspective, store on disk, recall and update.
Run Designer - a cursor appears on the screen with a set of 3 dimensional
coordinate axes. Move the cursor around in 3 dimensions identifying node
points, lines and points defining curves. Curves fit through points using a
cubic spline algorithm. See your 3D picture being created on the screen.
X,y,z coordinates are displayed as the cursor moves. Then enlarge, rotate,
store your 3D picture on disk, recall and modify.

The picture stored on disk is a text file of node x.y.z coordinates and the
lines and curves comprising the 3D object. Interface Designer 30 to other pro-
grams through this disk file. Use Designer ° as a graphics pre-processor for
your own applications software.

Designer 30 is supplied on disk in machine language with a user's manual.
Perfect for CAD/CAM applications.

Please send □ Apple Deslgner 30 -$85

□ IBMpc Designer - $85

Name

Address

City/State/Zip .

□ check enclosed

□ visa/mastercard
expiration date_

call (617)934-0445 for faster delivery
y^KERN PUBLICATIONS • P.O. Box1029BN • Duxbury, MA 02332

Circle 256 on inquiry card.

November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. 57

Photo 3: The Worksite's calendar is resident in ROM and can be assigned to any Worksheet
with the Time function key. The user-modifiable template has formulas for a two-week calen-
dar. Reminder alarms can be set for any appointment. Battery power keeps RAM memory
active, and a backup battery provides an extra two months of memory protection.

wide; D is again a vertical line; and
E, Company, is 10 characters wide.
The Calendar (or Time) template
(see photo 3) is designed to hold a
two-week calendar. Column A is
used for morning times, B for dates
and date formulas, C for afternoon
times, and D for the day of the week.
Date arithmetic is built-in so that
when a current date is typed in to cell
Bl, the Workslate calculates the re-
maining dates. The sof tkey functions
are alarm, date, set time, timer, and
reset. When the "timer" function is
set, the Workslate tracks the length
of a phone call. You can then enter
this time into a client billing spread-
sheet.

ROM templates can easily be modi-
fied by a user and their sof tkey func-
tions can be assigned to any work-
sheet. Worksheets can use 128 col-
umns and 128 rows; however, the
maximum spreadsheet size is 1000
cells. Worksheets without ROM
templates attached can be Standard
(no softkey labels assigned) or
Finance (financial formula softkeys
assigned). Cells can hold words,
numbers, dates, times, formulas, or
"draw" characters.

The depth of the spreadsheet capa-
bility belies the size of the computer.
More than 40 formula functions (see
table 2) are available for any cell, and
more than 30 editing/formatting op-
tions can be accessed by pressing the
Options function key at the bottom
of the keyboard.

There are two methods of entering
formulas. In the interactive mode, the
system builds formulas such as
average, minimum, maximum, total,
and copy cell for you depending on
the softkey selected. You can enter
your own formulas in direct entry
mode. Cell references may be specific
cells, a number of individual cells, a
range, or any combination. Relative
cell references are entered by point-
ing to a cell. If a relative reference
changes, the worksheet is auto-
matically readjusted.

Options are organized into three
sets of five, each selected by using the
function key corresponding to the
softkey label. Each set of options has
additional layers of softkey functions.
Within this structure you can sort col-
umns of data in ascending or de-
scending alpha or numeric order;
copy, move, delete, and format data

in cells; draw lines and boxes using
and expanding ASCII characters
(photo 2); recalculate a worksheet;
specify printer-pen colors and
margins; set communications pro-
tocol and password protection;
change column width; and create or
link vertical and horizontal windows.
The Workslate has no Help func-
tion. The project team decided at the
beginning that the software design
would have to be understandable
without additional on-screen help.

Designing the Workslate

The Worksite's design reflects an
enormous amount of end-user inter-
action during development and the
company's intention from the begin-
ning to design a machine to do a few
specific tasks very well.

Matt Sanders, vice-president and
general manager of Convergent Tech-
nologies' new Advanced Information
Products Division, said the project
began for him about a year and a half
ago. At that time, as the sole
employee of the new division, he was
charged with developing a computer
for the low-end market. His first
responsibility was to develop pro-
posals for the next generation of
machines. He began researching the
project by wandering through corpo-
rations and from one small "Main
Street" business to another asking
people what they were doing with
their computers.

It became obvious to him that
while clerical and administrative peo-
ple were using word-processing
functions, managers and proprietors
were using spreadsheets. In addition,
this latter group of business profes-
sionals spent much of its time on the
telephone and managing its calen-
dars. While the managers were in-
terested in communications to larger
machines and databases, they were
not at all interested in word process-
ing. Sanders became convinced that
an electronic-spreadsheet machine
with integrated time-management
and communication functions could
be designed and targeted specifical-
ly for this audience. (This decision to
build hardware and software in
tandem, starting from the ground up,
probably accounts for some of the

58 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

Worksite's surprisingly quick pro-
cessing speed.)

Sanders's second responsibility
and what he found the hardest part
of the project was hiring the project
team. He said you begin with a vi-
sion of the team and the machine in
your mind, but once you begin hir-
ing people, you find you're complete-
ly wrong. "You hire the first person
and suddenly it's not your product,
it's the two of yours. Then you look
for the third person. The result is that
the product gets better and changes
right in front of your eyes." The Ultra
team (as the project came to be
called) is composed of people hired
away from Savin, Texas Instruments,
Motorola, Atari, and Hewlett-
Packard.

The Ultra team started by taking its
ideas on the road, testing the Work-
slate concept with groups of poten-
tial end users in New York, San Fran-
cisco, and Chicago. These one-day
brainstorming sessions evolved into
an ongoing interaction. Local mem-
bers of the users group have partici-
pated on a weekly basis, stopping by
Convergent Technologies' offices
nights, weekends, and at lunch time
to try out the latest software and
hardware designs. Long-distance
communications have been kept up
through newsletters, questionnaires
("Rate the following 10 functions in
order of priority"), and exercises
("Imagine you're a copywriter
describing this product").

Karen Toland, marketing manager
for Convergent Technologies, acted as
a liaison between the user groups
and the software-development team.
She noted that being able to cite ac-
tual examples from end users gave
her additional support when she was
bargaining for changes with software
engineers constrained by 64K bytes
of ROM and aggressive schedules.
End users were no longer invisible.
They were in the next office. The
result of this iterative process is evi-
dent in the simplicity and depth of
the software, in labels such as Do It
assigned to dedicated keyboard func-
tion keys, the use of softkey labels,
and the integration of communica-
tions and time management within
spreadsheet applications.

®

Abs

ACRS

Alarm

And

Average

Count

Date

Decline

Delay
Dial

FutrValue

GoTo

If

Index

Int

IsErr
Keep

Line
LookUp

Max

Min

Mod
NPV

Not

Or

Payment

PresValu

Round

Send

Straight

SumYears

Total
WaitFor
; or -

/

<
>

< =

> =

Puts dollar sign at beginning of formula result. Does not convert to dollar
decimal position.

Specifies cell reference to be absolute, not relative.

Returns absolute value of argument. Single parameter is numeric value, cell
reference, or formula.

Accelerated depreciation. Calculates depreciation value based on number of
periods, percentage rate, cost, investment-tax-credit percentage, and period
number. Any value may be cell reference.

Sets date and time when alarm should activate. Alarm may be set to beep
when conditions entered in formula are met.

Returns logical value true if all specified argument values are true. Other-
wise, returns false. Argument entries must be logical values.
Calculates numerical mean average of all cells contained in given argument.
If no numeric cells are in the list, the average is zero.
Returns number of cells that contain numbers or formulas that evaluate to
numbers in a specified area.

Value of cell is equal to current system date when recalculation is performed.
There are no parameters for this function.

Declining balance. Indicates specific depreciation value based on number of
periods, percentage rate, book value, and period number.
Number of seconds to delay the system from sending information.
Dials the number supplied. A second parameter determines the nature of the
call, talk, or data. Default is "talk" if no parameter is supplied.
Calculates future value in interest calculations based on percentage rate,
periods, payment, and present value.
Moves pointer to a specified cell reference.
Describes logical value, then value, and optional else value.
Returns value of cell selected by a relative numeric subscript reference
within a specified range of cells (area and single cell reference). The result is
the contents of that cell.

Integer. Returns argument as a whole number. Calculated as nearest whole
number less than the value entered.

Returns the logical value true if argument is any of the error values.
Requires four parameters. First describes where incoming information should
be stored in a worksheet. The next three describe the exact location of infor-
mation as it would display in terminal window in terms of beginning line
number, starting character position, and number of characters per line of the
area to be kept.

Replicates a specific character a specific number of times.
Searches for arguments in first row or column of area reference as table.
Returns contents of the cell from the last row or column of table. Numeric
value and range parameters are required.

Produces largest arithmetic value in area specified. Area may be specified
by a list or range of cell references.

Produces the least arithmetic value in area specified. Area may be specified
by a list or range of cell references.
Returns remainder of dividend divided by divisor.

Produces present value of a series of periodic future receipts, given a dis-
count rate. The two parameters are percentage rate and list.
Returns the opposite of the logical value argument.
Returns the logical value true if any value in the list is true.
Calculates the amount of payments based on periods, percentage rate, pres-
ent value, and future value.

Calculates present value in interest calculations based on percentage rate,
periods, payment, and future value.
Rounds a value to the number of digits specified.
Transmits a string of information. Used in sign-on functions.
Straight-line depreciation calculation based on periods, book value, salvage
value, and period number.

Sum of the year's depreciation calculation based on periods, book value,
salvage value, and period number.
Calculates the total amount of area specified.
Waits for a specified string to be sent to the system.
Pause
Date
Time

Less than
Greater than
Equal to
Not equal to
Percent

Less than or equal to
Greater than or equal to

Table 2: The Workslate includes more than 40 function formulas that can be used in a
direct-entry formula mode.

November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. 59

Trends

It will be interesting to watch the
development of portable computing.
The Workslate machine comes to
market a short time after the intro-
duction of the first battery-powered
portables and points in a direction
different from that of the full-
functioned Dynabook concept that
the Gavilan and Grid portables try to
approach. The concept of designing
a machine specifically to handle the
most important tasks for a particular
segment of the population could easi-
ly be carried into other areas. An ob-
vious choice would be to target a
machine for people who work with
words. It wouldn't be a surprise if the
Workslate team began putting its
energies into designing a "word"
slate or perhaps a slate for students,
doctors, or architects.

In last month's BYTE West Coast,
Trip Hawkins of Electronic Arts said
that one reason he built Electronic
Arts on the model of individual pro-
ducers and artists was because the
framework of large corporations often

inhibits the quick development of in-
novative products. Indeed, as you
look through this month's BYTE, it
becomes apparent that the only way
IBM Personal Computer peripheral
and compatible manufacturers can
keep their edge is if they can move
faster than IBM.

Convergent Technologies, primar-
ily known as a manufacturer of mul-
tifunctional workstations for the
OEM (original equipment manufac-
turer) market, took a radical, if not
entirely new, approach when it sent
Sanders on his mission. The Ultra
team had the best of both worlds. Its
members had the advantage of "start-
up" enthusiasm and corporate finan-
cial backing. The entire Workslate
project took little more than a year.

The fate of the Workslate will be
due at least in part to the contribu-
tions from end users drawn into the
product design early in the project.
Sanders called the Ultra team a
"talented group of software engi-
neers, marketing, human-interface,
and testing people all working as a

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While GINA enter-
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team on behalf of the end users." He
said that a clinical laboratory and
cognitive psychological approach
rather than an interactive approach to
design probably would have resulted
in a different product— perhaps a
more efficient one. But Sanders went
on to say that the company decided
it was going to have fun. "We did it
grass roots. We wanted to do it
interactively."

If the Workslate is a resounding
success, it's possible that other com-
panies will borrow Convergent
Technologies' idea of small design
teams working directly with potential
users to design products specifically
for vertical markets.

Intel's BPK70-4 Bubble Storage
Subsystem

Whatever direction the portable
computing field takes, it will un-
doubtedly be influenced by Intel's re-
cent announcement of a price drop
for its BPK70-4 1-megabit (128K-byte)
Bubble Storage Subsystem.

Bubble-memory storage falls some-
where between RAM and disk stor-
age in application. Like RAM, bub-
bles offer compact, solid-state read/
write memory storage, but they're
much slower. Bubble memory is six
times faster than floppy disks with
one-third the power requirements
and 1000 times better error rates, and,
like disks, the memory is nonvolatile.
But until now, bubble systems have
been too expensive for wide applica-
tion such as mass-storage memory.
As a result, bubble memory has often
been the forgotten stepsister in the
microcomputer industry.

Intel's 1979 price for its bub-
ble-memory system was a whopping
$2500. Today's volume price for the
Bubble Storage Subsystem is $199 (in
production lots of 5000), and a two-
step, two-year price-reduction pro-
gram will drop the tab to a guaran-
teed $99 (for lots of 25,000) by the
fourth quarter of 1984. That will mark
the first time bubble memory will
cost less than $100.

With a BPK70-4 system you get 1
megabit of nonvolatile, solid-state,
read/write memory and a mean-time-
between-f ailure rate of 40 years with
a system operating continuously at a

60 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

Circle 454 on inquiry card.

Circle 21 on inquiry card.

NEW AMPLOT-

rER APPLICATIONS

Analytical data display • Mathematical functions • Geo-
metric patterns • System/component characteristic
display • Statistical charts • Workflow diagrams • Per-
formance graphs • Organization charts • Creative
graphics • Personal achievement charts • Instruc-
tional/reference diagrams.

The new AMPLOT-ll, on computer command, can
automatically produce hard-copy, 6-color business or
engineering graphics in minutes. Designed for the end-
user and OEM applications, its high pen speed, auto-
matic pen retrieval and high resolution assure fast,
accurate 10" x 14" plots. Compatible with most per-
sonal computers, the AMPLOT-ll is economically
priced at only $1299.00 retail. Just circle the reader
service number for complete engineering details.

2201 Lively-Blvd. • Elk Grove Village, IL 60007
(312)364-1180 TLX: 25-4786
REGIONAL OFFICES: Calif. (71 4) 662-3949 • Texas (81 7) 498-2334

Amdek

your guide to innovative computing !

"'-'^■■^ ke^9 m

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MONTH tT '

Photo 4: The 4-megabit Helix bubble-memory board plugs into an IBM Personal Computer slot for quiet, nonvolatile mass storage. The
Helix PCBM is switch-selectable (on-board ROM BIOS bootstraps DOS from the bubble or floppy disk) and is configured as a fixed disk.

temperature of 55 degrees centigrade.
Average access time is 40 millisec-
onds.

The "subsystem" consists of a 7110
1-megabit bubble-storage device ac-
companied by a set of Intel's LSI sup-
port chips that run the storage unit
and interface with the micropro-
cessor. The set includes a 7220-1 con-
troller, a formatter/sense amplifier,
current pulse generator, and driver
circuits. The bubble-memory sub-
system can operate in parallel for
faster memory transfer or multi-
plexed for low power consumption.
A software program acts as a conduit
for information between the bubble
system and the external system.

An additional controller, the
7220-4, which supports up to eight
BPK70-4 Bubble Storage Subsystems,
can be purchased separately and is
also being reduced in price.

The next price step for Intel is a tar-
geted $150 tab by 1986 for its 7114
4-megabit bubble system. The 7114
will be compatible in form and func-
tion with the 1-megabit kit for easy
upgrade design paths. By that time,
a new generation of bubble devices,
built around the 16-megabit bubble,
should make its first appearance.

Because of their high price, reli-
ability, and immunity to environ-

mental stresses, bubbles have been
used primarily for mass storage in
military, manufacturing, and indus-
trial applications. They've found
homes in battlefield command and
communications terminals, factory-
floor robots, aircraft navigational sys-
tems, and numerical control ma-
chines for machine-tool manufac-
turers.

A bubbles

nonvolatility eliminates

the need for backup

batteries and lowers

the power

consumption.

Price reductions to less than $300
per unit in 1982 have helped bubbles
move into point-of-sale and banking
terminals and portable computers,
notably the Grid Compass (with 3
megabits of bubble memory) and the
Teleram.

Bubble memory has many advan-
tages over tape and disk storage for
portable manufacturers and users. A
bubble's nonvolatility eliminates the
need for backup batteries used to
protect RAM memory and lowers the
power consumption. (The Teleram
uses power cycling techniques to

shut off power to the bubble when it
is not accessed.) With no moving
parts in the system, problems caused
by dust, vibration, shock, and wide
temperature ranges disappear, reduc-
ing maintenance problems and in-
creasing reliability. In addition, be-
cause the system is protected with a
sleeve of magnetic shielding material,
it can be used in the vicinity of strong
magnetic fields without damage. The
density and compactness of bubble
systems make 128K bytes of mass
storage easily possible in a briefcase
computer, and the absence of disk
drives reduces a portable's weight.

Grid's solution to the problem of
how to load programs into a com-
puter that (initially) didn't have a disk
drive was to have Compass owners
use the built-in modem to load pro-
grams over telephone lines from a
Grid central computer.

Loading programs is not a prob-
lem, though, when bubbles are used
in networked office systems. In this
type of system, bubbles can provide
a large amount of working storage for
application programs and data load-
ed from large . computers into
workstations that may or may not be
portable. It's possible that we'll see
portable workstations plugged into
an information network during the

62 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

The Professional's Editor for Program Development, Word Processing, Source Code Translations

EXPECT A LOT^VEDH

Widely acclaimed as an editor, VEDIT has evolved to
be much more. Only VEDIT offers the combination of a
versatile full screen editor integrated with a powerful
command language based on TECO. For the first time
you'll be able to perform complex, yet useful, text
manipulations that are virtually impossible with other
editors or word processors.

VEDIT is completely customizable -- it easily
configures to your favorite keyboard layout. Use any
function or cursor key you wish. Plus, our total
commitment to hardware support ensures that VEDIT
will be perfectly matched to your individual needs and to
any microcomputer you are ever likely to own.

VEDIT cuts programming time in
half - with multiple file handling,
macro capability and special features
for Pascal, PL/1, l C, Cobol, Assem-
bler and other languages. And it can
help with source code translations
(example ZILOG to/from INTEL
translator macros are included). A
complete line of translators will be
available soon.

Word processing is a snap with
word wrap, paragraph and print
[unctions. Command macros free
you from tedious search/replace
operations. Hundreds of search/rep-
lace on dozens of files can be per-
formed by VEDIT without waiting or
intervening

Expect a lot from VEDIT. Its per-
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it the best software you will ever buy.

Reviewers' Comments

The performance of this product is nothing

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'VEDIT is a 'virtual' text editor. The amount

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the size of the file you can edit.'

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'VEDIT's Visual' mode, where you will spend

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which make it very easy to enter and modify

text '

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-Fall, '83

'VEDIT's by all odds the most flexible
programming editor I've ever seen.'
'One of its best features is multiple buffers;
that is, you can store chunks of programs in
various places and pull them out into your
main file when needed.'

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True Full Screen Editing
Edit Files One Disk in Length
Automatic Disk Buffering
Compact (Only 16K) and Fast
Display of Line and Column
Set/Goto Text Markers
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Text Move and Copy ■
10 Scratchpad Buffers
Load/Save Buffers on Disk
Powerful Command Macros
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Edit Additional (small)
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Insert Another Disk File
Unlimited File Handling
Recovery from 'Full Disk'

Change Disks While Editing
Word Wrap, Format Paragraph

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Startup Command File
Menu Driven Installation
Program CRT Function Keys
Support Newest CRT terminals
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VEDIT is available for virtually every 8080, Z80
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111

Cl'/M is a registered trademark of Digital Research liic MSDOS is a trademark of Microsoft. IBM is a trademark of
International Business Machines. Quotes from InfoWorld reviewCoyprighl I983byPopularComputi"g, I tic. a subsidiary of
CW Communications, Inc., Framingham, MA - Reprinted from InfoWorld. Quotes from Byte rwiew Copyright 1983 by Byte
Publications, Inc. Quotes from Sextant review Copyright 1983 by Sextant Publishing Co.

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Circle 110 on inquiry card.

CompuView

PRODUCTS, INC.

Ann Arbor, Michigan 48103 (313) 996-1299 Telex - 701821
Orders: P.O. Box 1349, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106

BYTE November 1983

day and riding home in a briefcase at
night.

Helix PCBM

Helix Laboratories of San Diego,
California, has announced the first
bubble-memory board for the IBM
Personal Computer (photo 4). The
4-megabit Helix PCBM uses four In-
tel 7110-4 1-megabit bubble memories
and offers 512K bytes of nonvolatile,
high-speed mass storage for the IBM
PC. Its operation is completely silent
and several times-faster than a flop-
py disk. The 4-megabit Helix PCBM
will retail for $1500, and a 2-megabit
(256K-byte) board will cost $1000.
When Intel's price reductions go in-
to effect in 1984, bubble memory will
become highly competitive with
RAM disks— comparable in cost,
slower, but nonvolatile.

The Cygnet Communications
Cosystem

Cygnet Technologies of Sunnyvale,
California, introduced the Cygnet
Communications Cosystem at the
IBM PC Faire in San Francisco in
August. The Cosystem (see photo 5)
takes up a little more space than a
telephone but provides a much
greater range of communications.
The Cosystem is designed to work
concurrently with a personal com-
puter—at first release, the IBM PC.

The Cosystem contains its own Z80
central processor and 90K bytes of
RAM, including 64K bytes of battery-
backed CMOS RAM for storing
messages. While the user performs
normal operations on the PC, the Co-
system will perform background
communications— automatically re-
ceiving or sending messages. The
Cosystem automatically dials tele-
phone numbers from a directory of
400 names. If a number is busy, the
Cosystem will automatically redial it.
A built-in text editor permits compos-
ing messages, a calendar/clock pro-
vides for scheduling appointments
and receiving automatic reminders,
and communications management
provides unattended sending and re-
ceiving of electronic mail, including
distribution lists and copies to listed
parties. Communications software
emulates 15 common terminals and

Photo 5: The Cygnet Communications Cosyste?n works with an IBM Personal Computer (and
some compatibles), extending the PCs communications capability by providing si?7iultaneous
voice and data cotiviwnications, unattended automatic electronic mail, automated database
access, and intelligent telephone features.

supports file transfers and attach-
ment of data files such as spread-
sheets to electronic mail. The Cosys-
tem permits simultaneous spoken
and textual communications and
three-way teleconferencing. PBX
functions are also included.

With a built-in 1200-bps 212A
modem, the Cosystem costs $1845.
With a 300-bps modem, the price is
$1495. A speaker phone costs an ad-
ditional $150.

That's a fairly high price, but when
you consider all the features that the
Cygnet Cosystem provides, the price
seems more reasonable. Its features
include a telephone, an auto-dial/
auto-answer modem, sophisticated
communications software, concur-
rent operating system capabilities, a
data buffer, and PBX (private branch
exchange) functions. The only other

feature that you might need is a
voice-synthesis module that could
politely tell unwanted callers that you
were "in a meeting."

One of the nicest things about the
Cosystem is that you apparently can
interrupt work in a program on the
PC, answer a telephone call (voice or
data) on the Cosystem, and then
return automatically to your previous
place in the program. The Cosystem
thus offers personal computer
owners an easy way to move into
some very sophisticated telephone
management and electronic commu-
nications. And all of this is accom-
plished without tying up the com-
puter's central processor. ■

Barbara Robertson, a West Coast technical editor
of BYTE, can be reached at McGraw-Hill, 425 Bat-
ten/ St., San Francisco, CA 94111.

64 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

User's Column

The Latest from Chaos Manor

A discussion of disk formats leads this month's foray into microland

As Alice said, things flow here so.
If that's true in microland, it's par-
ticularly so here at Chaos Manor. We
try to stay out at the edge of what's
happening. It's not always easy. One
thing I've always insisted on is the
best possible software, particularly
for operating systems. I hate it when
systems crash with text in them.

Alas, it's not easy for users to
understand what's going on inside
the operating system. Digital Re-
search's new CP/M documentation is
greatly superior to the gibberish it
used to publish, but the intricacies of
the CBIOS (customized basic input/
output system) can be arcane indeed
and are usually well beyond me.

Fortunately, I don't have to know all
these things. We've had Tony Pietsch.
The good news is that Bill Godbout
has put Tony to work doing software
for Compupro; by the time you read
this, the standard CBIOS that comes
with Compupro equipment will be
what I'm using now.

That carries a number of pluses.
For example, you can do amazing
things to reconfigure your keyboard.
Terminals operate reliably at 19,200
bits per second. It's now easy to tell
the system that you have a "Silicon
Disk" (see apology below). I can
operate 5V4-inch as well as 8-inch
disk drives. Moreover, it's simple to
change things around. You can do it
inside the CBIOS, or you can change
an external Submit program that runs
automatically on start-up. Either
works, and it sure makes things con-
venient.

The good news is that Tony's
CBIOS will be standard with Com-

by Jerry Pournelle

pupro equipment bought through its
Systems Centers. It will become the
standard BIOS for all Compupro
equipment, including previous stuff.
Updates will be available for those
who have older Compupro equip-
ment. In addition, the company in-
tends to set up a CBBS (computer-
ized bulletin board system) to help
distribute new BIOS ideas, but only
on the understanding that this sort
of thing isn't supported by Compu-
pro itself.

Things are a bit up in the air on
this; it's also possible that Workman
and Associates will distribute a heavi-
ly supported version of Tony's BIOS
(Workman will supply the support).
Watch this column for more details.
In any event, the CBIOS will come
complete with source code, and
you'll need Digital Research's RMAC
to assemble it. Previous versions had
to be assembled with Sorcim's ACT
assembler.

Let This Be a Lesson to You . . .

Tony brought over the new CBIOS
as soon as he's finished testing it. His
machine is similar to our Golem: an
8085 Dual Processor with lots of extra
memory and various other bells and
whistles. He'd even borrowed my
5V4-inch disk controller and drives.

It was simple enough setting it up
for the Golem, and while he was do-
ing it he told me of some of the more
interesting problems he'd run into,
such as a bug in the disk-controller
chip that interacted with the disk-
format routines to cause real quality-
assurance problems. That, however,
was all fixed.

The new CBIOS worked fine. Then
came the bad news: Tony couldn't
put the new system into Zeke II, the
Compupro Z80 1 write with, because
he hadn't had a Z80 to work with,
and it would take a couple hours to
set up and check out.

There was only one answer to that.
"Be my guest," I said. After a while
he got tired of me hanging over his
shoulder, and I went in to watch The
A-Team. About midnight all was well,
we tested everything, and he went
home.

I now had a new Systems Master
Disk for Zeke II. Naturally I wanted
to transfer a bunch of the programs
from the old Systems Master over to
it. Then I'd copy the whole works on-
to the old Systems Master, archive
the new disk, and use the old one as
the working copy. I expect you can
guess what happened next.

Late at night. Tired. Through an
asinine series of mistakes, I managed
to reformat the new disk. As soon as
it happened I knew, and despite a
frantic stab at the Reset button I was
too late. Frantic call to Tony.

He hadn't made a copy.

We shouted "Rule One!" at each
other a couple of times, then
laughed, although there wasn't any-
thing very funny about it. More than
two hours' work was gone, and Tony
was leaving town. The result was that
I had the new system on the Dual
Processor, and the old one on Zeke
II, and I had a week to contemplate
the error of my ways.

Rule One: Thou Shalt Make A
Backup Copy Immediately.

Rule Two: Thou Shalt Not Insert

November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. 65

The Only Master In Thy Machine Ex-
cept For The Purpose Of Making A
Backup Copy.

On these two rules hang all the law
and the profits.

One Overdue Apology

As regular readers know, I'm
enamored of disk emulators— that
marvelous trick whereby you con-
vince your computer that a lot of
memory is really a disk drive. It does
wonders for spelling checkers,
speeds up long assemblies, and in
general makes life a lot easier. Even-
tually, I suppose, "memory drives"
will be replaced by hard disks; but at
the moment they're sufficiently good
that I've been able to wait while hard-
disk prices fall (and hard-disk soft-
ware gets better).

Comes now the apology. In tracing
the story of disk emulators, I've
sometimes mentioned Mr. Peter
Cheesewright and his Microcosm Re-
search company in London, but alas,
I've often forgotten; worse, I've even
tended to use his product name, Sili-
con Disk, as if it were a generic name
for disk emulators.

That's less than fair. To the best of
my knowledge, Mr. Cheesewright's
Silicon Disk was the first disk
emulator available for microcom-
puters. I've never used Silicon Disk
(a great name, that), but I have used
his Microcache, and I'm quite im-
pressed; and people I respect tell me
his Silicon Disk works quite well also.

I know better, and I'll try not to do
it again. My apologies.

Ye Immortal Gods,
Where Are We?

Dr. Allan Trimpi and I are working
on a book. He doesn't have a word
processor. I, however, wasn't about to
work with Stone Age tools like type-
written pages, so I told him I'd lend
him one of the computers floating
about Chaos Manor.

Comes now the problem of select-
ing a machine. What's needed is an
easy means of getting his files onto
disks readable by Zeke II, since I'm
pretty set in my ways. Of course, that
ought to be easy.

Hah. Easy it wasn't. Nobody's ma-
chines read other people's disk for-

mats. This situation is plain getting
out of hand!

There is some hope in sight, but it's
limited. A program called Uniform
comes with the Kaypro II. It will let
the Kaypro II read, write to, and for-
mat many single-sided 5V4-inch disk
formats. However, that presents a
number of problems even so.

Example: Dr. Trimpi did much of
his preliminary work with the Kay-
pro II. Now we needed to make
8-inch disks for Zeke II to read. I
asked my son Alex and his partner
Barry Workman to help out. If I'd
known what I was getting them in-
to, I might not have.

Step One: the Kaypro II will read
and write, but not format, 5V4-inch
disks readable by the Xerox 820
(which is also Cromemco CDOS-
compatible). They used Ralph,
Barry's Lobo Max 80, to format some
disks in Xerox 820 format. (This step
is no longer needed; Uniform now
allows the Kaypro II to format disks
for the Xerox 820.)

Step Two: put a system track, and
PIP, onto each and every one of Dr.
Trimpi's data disks. Now use PIP to
transfer all the files from his disks (in
the left drive) to the Xerox 820-f ormat
data disk.

Step Three: put the Xerox 820 disks
back in Ralph and use PIP to transfer
to 8-inch IBM single-sided single-
density disks. These are readable by
Zeke II.

So far so good. There's worse . . .

Oh No!

We needed the Kaypro II before Dr.
Trimpi was finished. However, we
weren't using the Z-100, so we lent
him that. Only one problem: getting
his Kaypro II files onto the Z-100. That
wasn't hard.

The Z-100 will transfer files from an
8-inch disk drive; just plug it into the
8-inch drive connector on the back of
the Z-100.

This is easy except for one tricky
point: when you boot up the Z-100,
the 8-inch drives must be connected at
that time. If they aren't— if you boot
up and then connect the 8-inch
drives— the Z-100 will never learn that
the 8-inch drives exist even if you do
Control-C until you starve.

Note well: the Z-100 will write to
Compupro-formatted 8-inch double-
density disks, but the results are not
always good. It will reliably write only
to single-sided single-density IBM-
format (3740/1) 8-inch disks. On the
other hand, it will (almost always)
read double-sided double-density
disks, Compupro format. If you want
to be utterly safe, transfer your files
to single-sided double-density Com-
pupro-format disks before reading
them with the Z-100. That always
works (although, alas, writing to
them doesn't).

Late addition: the Z-100 will reliably
read and write 8-inch single-sided
disks formatted by the Compupro
Disk One Controller and the new
Compupro Format program. You
must select format 3, 8 tracks by 1024
bytes, double-density. Other double-
density formats are not reliably read.

However: then we got a Kaypro 4,
which has double-sided 5V4-inch
disks. We decided to lend that to Dr.
Trimpi. (Poor chap, he gets to check
out the new machines.) Now, the
Kaypro 4 will read Kaypro II disks.
Just boot up as usual, and put the
Kaypro II disk in the "B:" drive. All's
well.

Alas, he'd done a lot of work on the
Z-100. We were recalling the Z-100 for
tests with a new memory board.
Nothing for it but to transfer his work
to the Kaypro 4.

Step One: transfer from Z-100 to
8-inch disks. Easy.

Step Two: make Xerox 820 disks on
the Kaypro II using the Uniform pro-
gram.

Step Three: use the Lobo Max 80
to transfer from 8-inch to the 5V4-inch
Xerox 820-format disks.

Step Four: transfer from Xerox for-
mat to Kaypro II. Alternatively, you
can boot up the Kaypro 4 as if it were
a Kaypro II (i.e., using the Kaypro II
boot disk in your Kaypro 4); this
makes the Kaypro 4 believe it has
only single-sided disks. Alas, the
Kaypro 4 cannot read Xerox
820-format disks, or indeed any other
single-sided 5V4-inch disk except the
Kaypro II— and it cannot run the Uni-
form program unless you boot it up
as a II. (Kaypro says it's fixing this
Real Soon Now.)

66 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

Step Five: remove the Kaypro II-
format disk from the 4; reboot the 4
as a 4; use the Kaypro II disk as a data
disk and use PIP to send the files
from it to a Kaypro 4 disk.

Step Six: take a long pull at the
slivovitz . . .

Whimper

There are a few problems with all
this. As an example, the Xerox 820
format, which is the common format
through which these transfers had to
be made, holds only 80K bytes per
disk. Because an IBM single-sided
single-density disk holds 241K bytes,
it takes quite a few of these transfer
operations before you're done. Alex
learned a lot of patience.

There are also bugs, most of which
are said to be fixed.

The original distribution of Uni-
form from Micro Solutions had a
menu option to make a Z-100 single-
sided disk (on the Kaypro II, which,
recall, is a single-sided-disk ma-
chine). Alas, it didn't do that. It made
disks that the Kaypro could read and
write, but the Z-100 could make no
sense of them at all.

This stopped direct transfer from
the Z-100 to the Kaypro II. The bug
is now fixed; owners of the old ver-
sion can send in their original dis-
tribution disks and receive the up-
dated version with the bug fixed.
Those who received Uniform with
their Kaypro II need not bother: your
version doesn't even offer the option
of formatting Z-100 disks. You'll have
to buy the new Uniform (which has
15 formats) from Micro Solutions.

In case you're wondering why we
didn't use the Z-100 to format Z-100
disks— I mean, it does seem reason-
able, doesn't it?— you may be able to
guess the answer. The Z-100 cannot
format single-sided disks. It can read
them. It can write to them. It just
can't format them.

You may recall that the Z-100 uses
disk-controller circuitry very close to
that of the Compupro Dual Pro-
cessor—which is identical to the IBM
PC disk format. Thus, one ought to
be able to read Z-100 ZDOS disks in
an IBM PC, and vice versa, and in-
deed one can. You just can't format
single-sided disks in a Z-100 (double-

sided disks are no problem). There is
one expensive solution: you can get
an external single-sided 5 % -inch disk
drive for your Z-100. Otherwise,
forget thj whole thing.

Tony tells me there's another solu-
tion: you can install a switch that
makes the Z-100 believe one of its
drives is single-sided. This is way out
of my department, though, and I
mention it only for completeness.

A final note, in case anyone's still
listening: the Morrow Micro Decision
will read and write Osborne 1 single-
density disks. However, if you make
one with the Lobo, although the
Osborne will read and write to that
disk, the Morrow can't. I have no ex-
planation, and by now I'm beyond
emotion; I merely report . . .

Help at Last

There is a remedy to this, at least
for me. After considerable persua-
sion, Tony worked into his new BIOS
the capability for supporting a whole
raft of different 5V4-inch disk formats.
All you need is a 5V4-inch disk-con-

troller board and a 5V4-inch disk drive
(plus, of course, a Compupro Dual
Processor S-100 computer). You can
then read, write, and format about 65
percent of all the 5V4-inch disks in ex-
istence. This includes Otrona,
Kaypro, Compupro, all flavors of
Osborne, and Z-100.

With Tony's new system we can
painlessly read and transfer not only
data files but software.

There is one problem. With
40-track disk drives— such as the IBM
PC drives— things are very slow. This
means you must read off the pro-
grams onto some other disk, such as
a hard disk, 8-inch disk, memory
disk, or, for that matter, even a dif-
ferent format of 5V4-inch disk, and
operate them from that; otherwise,
you pay a severe (factor of two) speed
penalty.

It seems a small price to pay. This
too will be available from Compupro
about the time you read this. (I have
it now, so I know it will work; the un-
certainty is in getting it all into
production.)

31,268 flavors
isrit just a dieters
nightmare. C

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November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

67

Mrs. Pournelle's Dilemma

Roberta Pournelle has had the
summer off from her school and has
decided to write her own book about
how to teach people to read. She has,
after all, been teaching incarcerated
illiterate teenagers for a dozen years
and has yet to find one she couldn't
teach. But she thinks she can't write
and wants me to work on the book
with her. Fine, says I, only you'll have
to work with a word processor.

That was all right by her.

When Roberta decided to do her
book, the Epson QX-10 with Valdocs
was still on my secretary's desk, and
I was out of town. Valdocs was very
easy at first, but sufficient problems
arose to cause her to abandon it.

She wasn't about to invade my of-
fice. Query: which machine should
she use?

Simple, thought I. Use Adeline, my
Otrona portable.

She did. She loved it. Came the
next weekend, when I was scheduled
to go make speeches. I packed up
Adeline. Now what? "Use Zeke," said
I. But she wouldn't, for fear of break-
ing something and ruining our live-
lihood.

I showed her the Osborne Ex-
ecutive. There was only one problem.
Adeline has WRITE, my favorite text
editor, and she'd learned that; she
wasn't about to learn a new text
editor in midstream.

I solved the problem by setting up
the Z-100, which does use WRITE,
and at last count she'd finished some
30,000 words including 50 lessons. At
least it's simple enough to transfer
her files from the Z-100 to Zeke II. I
merely have to carry the Z-100 from
one end of the house to the other.
Once it's physically next to Zeke,
there's nothing to plugging in the
8-inch disk drives. I'm sure the exer-
cise is good for me.

Back to Dr. Trimpi

Every now and again I get evidence
to support my prejudices.

By now, Allan Trimpi, MD, has
used just about every machine and
text editor around. He's had a spell
using Zeke II while I was out of town.
He's used Select on the Kaypro II.
He's used Wordstar on the Kaypro 4

and the Osborne Executive. He's
used WRITE on both Adeline the
Otrona and Zorro the Z-100. He's
even used Spellbinder on the Eagle
1600.

He prefers WRITE, regardless of
the machine it's on; enough so that
we've had to go to some lengths to
make that possible. Of course, he's
creating text, much as I do, not pro-
gramming, or doing fancy format-
ting; but it's one more data point. I
have yet to meet a creative writer
who, having given WRITE a fair
chance, didn't prefer it to the text
editor now in use.

Incidentally, Allan also loves the
Kaypro 4, and the newer hard-disk
Kaypro 10, both of which now run
WRITE.

WRITE Now

Meanwhile, Tony Pietsch, who
wrote WRITE more or less to specs
drawn up by Larry Niven and me,
has made arrangements to bundle
WRITE in with some upcoming
Compupro machines. By the time
you read this, Compupro's "Shirley"
(that was Compupro's internal code
name; as of this afternoon, Bill God-
bout still didn't know the official
name of the machine) will come with
a large array of software that includes
both WRITE and Sorcinvs Super-
writer.

I have also seen a version of WRITE
with an install program that lets it
run with a fairly wide variety of ter-
minals and printers. This will proba-
bly be distributed through Workman
and Associates.

I've seen a lot of text editors. One
day I'll see one I like better than
WRITE; certainly I can think of fea-
tures I want that WRITE doesn't
have. For example, I'd like a "line"
count.

That is: WRITE doesn't have
"lines." It's text oriented and marks
the ends of paragraphs, not lines. (I
can instantly change the on-screen
format from a width of as low as two
characters per line to as wide as the
screen.) However, I sure wish WRITE
gave me a count of the number of
paragraph markers. I'd also like a
command to allow me to jump to a
particular paragraph; as it is, I have

to page my way through the text.
That's easier than it sounds because
WRITE scrolls so fast, and of course
I can always use the FIND feature,
but a "JUMP x PARAGRAPHS" com-
mand would be useful.

There are other features I'd like to
see in a text editor. For example, I'd
like an internal "desk calculator" and
a way to embed "variables" into the
text easily. Tony is keeping track of
my suggestions; he swears that
before I find a text editor I like better
than WRITE, he'll have incorporated
the new stuff.

I love it when a plan comes
together . . .

More Apple Polish

We have an updated Applicard for
the boys' Apple II. This one has 128K
bytes of memory disk.

The Applicard, like the Microsoft
Softcard, plugs into your Apple II
and makes it think it's a Z80 running
CP/M— indeed, while the Applicard
is running, it is a Z80 running CP/M.
Unlike the Softcard, the Applicard
has on-board memory, so that your
Apple becomes a full 64K-byte CP/M
system.

The new card with memory disk is
very easy to install and customize. It
has some very nice features. Item: it
reads CP/M into the Apple's memo-
ry; thus, whenever you do a Con-
trol-C, it gets that from Apple
memory. The result is that you can
insert disks without systems tracks
and run them (after you've booted
with the CP/M system master, of
course).

Applicard also installs uppercase
and lowercase. It supports such
peripherals as a Centronics printer
card, although there are no ports on
the Applicard itself.

We've had only one major problem
with it. If you have a serial port in
your system, Applicard will find it
and initialize it; but, alas, it initializes
it to "Modem 7 format," which is 8
data bits, 1 stop bit, and no parity.
There's no mechanism for changing
that. Whether that's the problem, or
something else is, we've been unable
to get the Apple with Applicard and
serial port to communicate with other
machines.

68 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

Circle 52 on inquiry card.

Introducing the first

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that poy you to own them,

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These new gomes from Blue Chip
also give you practical value— of the
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rencies or other commodities quicken
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ins and outs of this most volatile of
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Squire™ The object here is to retire,
financially set, in short order. Game is so
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Entertain your brain. Sharpen your
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profit. With these practical new games
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BLUE CHIP SOFTWARE • (210) 881-6288

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Apple. Commodore 64. Osborne, Atari. Koyc

?&

However, help is at hand. Alex has
been on the phone to Winthrop
Saville of Personal Computer Prod-
ucts (the Applicard people), and
they're working on a generalized pro-
gram to fix the problem. I'm sup-
posed to get it Real Soon Now, and
I'll let you know when I do.

However, I don't want to leave you
with negative impressions. The new
Applicard, with its memory disk,
speeds up Apple CP/M something
wonderful.

Unlike the Sof tcard, Applicard lets
you operate with a full-up Apple.
This is because it does most of its pro-
cessing on-board, relegating the Ap-
ple to a smart terminal with a bit of
extra memory. The Softcard works
the Apple more heavily, and since
full-up Apples are already at the edge
of reliability, Apples with lots of cards
plus Softcard often make strange er-
rors. We haven't noticed those with
the Applicard.

The Applicard people also make a
board that will trick your Apple into
thinking it's an IBM PC. I don't have
one yet, but I'm looking forward to
testing it.

Word Handler

The Apple II belongs to Phillip, 15,
and Richard, 13. For about a year they
used it only to play games. Lately,
though, I notice they're using Word
Handler, which they're really pleased
with. They're doing their homework
with the Apple now (but they're also
still playing Temple of Aphsai and
other games). Phil is also designing
his own dungeon.

I confess I know little about Word
Handler. However, I can guarantee
that young computer users can learn
it without help, because I've yet to tell
the boys one thing about using it—
and they're certainly doing their
homework with it.

I'm no great fan of the Apple as a
professional computer because I
think you can get a lot more for your
money; but as an all-around machine
for learning that mysterious skill
known as "computer literacy," there's
a lot to be said for it. Besides, you can
play Crush, Crumble, and Chomp,
which is still my favorite computer
game.

Printmates

When my mad friend first got me
into the small-computer business
way back in the dark ages of the
seventies, the only letter-quality
printer was the Diablo Daisy Wheel.
Later came the NEC Spinwriter. Both
were impact printers.

I still have my Diablo 1620. I also
have an elderly NEC 7710. The Diablo
has been to the shop two or three
times and is covered by a service con-
tract. Amazingly, the NEC 7710 has
never been out of service except for
about 15 minutes when the house-
keeper had inadvertently thrown a
switch while dusting.

In those days you simply wouldn't
consider a dot-matrix printer for pro-
fessional work.

That's no longer the case. True: I
still think professional writers would
do well to have real letter-quality
printers, since their output is
marginally easier to read, and any-
thing that saves an editor's eyesight
is a plus for sales; however, really
good dot-matrix printers have
become good enough.

Some are better than good enough.
The machines from Micro Peripherals
Inc. ("The Printer People") certainly
are. We have two, the large Printmate
150, which usually operates with the
Z-100, and the smaller Printmate 99.
Both work exceptionally well. The 150
has a "Screen Dump" program for
the Z-100, so that anything you can
see on the screen, you can get a
paper copy of. That's neat.

One important thing about dot-
matrix printers is that the matrix have
enough dots. Some of the really
cheap printers don't, and therefore
they have no true descenders. De-
scenders are those letters (g, j, p, q,
y) that extend below the normal line
of print. Some printers can't print
below the line, so that the q looks a
lot like the figure 9, while the j and
p are simply ugly. Print without de-
scenders is surprisingly hard to read,
at least for me.

Graphics are an important advan-
tage dot-matrix printers have over
letter-quality machines like the
Diablo. In theory you could, I sup-
pose, make a daisy-wheel printer do
crude graphics by programming

periods and squiggles and other
simplistic characters, but in fact it's
very hard to do, and there's almost
no commercial software to simplify
the task.

Finally, dot-matrix printers allow
you to change typeface and font
without physically changing the type
elements; it's all done under software
control.

The MPI printers all have these de-
sirable features. They also come with
readable documentation, so that it's
not all that hard to use the advanced
features. It's also easy to get the paper
in, change the ribbons, and do all the
other stuff needed to make full use
of the machines.

We've had ours for some time now
and have experienced no difficulties.
True, I haven't worked the MPI
printers as hard as I have the NEC
Spinwriter, because I'm still old-
fashioned enough to prefer the letter-
quality print output of the NEC.
However, that's changing. I'm setting
up the Printmate 99 to work with the
Dual Processor as the primary device
for program listouts and other stuff
for internal use. In the next few
months we'll really bash it about. I
don't expect any trouble from it.

John Matlock of MPI tells me the
company will soon come out with a
small, very rugged, and very portable
printer. I'm hoping it will be small
and rugged enough that I can have
a fitted case built for it and take it
with me on trips as checked luggage.
If it can survive the airport baggage
smashers, it will be just what I want.

Where Do We Go From Here?

A year ago it seemed clear enough:
systems based on the Intel 8086 chip
would dominate the market. The
8086 would be followed by the 1-86,
then the 2-86, and so forth; each
upgrade would be able to run the
previous chip's software.

The only real rival to the 8086 and
its successors was the 68000, and it
had no clear follow-on, no clear path
to future development.

I still believe that the 8086 and its
successors will win out, but the bat-
tle is going to take longer than I
thought. The reason is that the suc-
cessor chips aren't being produced in

70 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

quantity. For reasons I don't quite
understand, Intel took some short-
cuts, resulting in 1-86 chips that ran
slower than the 8086s do. That's been
fixed, but the result is that 1-86 chips
are in very short supply.

Meanwhile, the 68000 has arrived,
and people are writing software for
it. We have the Sage, running both
UCSD Pascal and CP/M-68K.
Modula-2, which is so far my favorite
language, is available for the Sage
(although only as a p-code generator;
as I write this, there's still no native
code compiler). I have a database and
a text editor for the Sage.

The Compupro 68000 S-100-bus
board is also available. This took a bit
longer to deliver than anyone
thought, but it's alive and well now.
I've yet to do any serious com-
parisons between the Compupro
68000 and the Sage (this time it's not
sloth; I had to run a Citizen's Ad-
visory Council on National Space
Policy meeting, and it ate more time
than I thought it would); however, so
far I've seen no really dramatic dif-

ferences between the two machines
when running CP/M-68K.

It's clear that machines based on
the 68000 chip are here to stay. More-
over, a lot of software is being writ-
ten in the C programming language.
CP/M-68K thrives on C programs;
thus, much of what's written in C for
the IBM PC, and even for Z80
machines, can, with varying amounts
of effort, be made to compile and run
on 68000 systems.

Even so, I think the future belongs
to the 8086 family.

First: the 8086 has IBM behind it.
Big Blue isn't likely to go away. It's
clear that IBM has a 1-86 machine
already designed, and it's a good
guess that the company is working
on 2-86 follow-ons.

Second, Digital Research's Concur-
rent CP/M-86 (CCP/M) will one day
catch on. This will be spurred on
when Digital brings out its already-
developed PC-DOS emulator— that
is, a program that will let you run
MS-DOS software under the CCP/M
operating system. Much of that IBM

PC software will be available to any
8086 computer.

Third, Logitech has an 8086 native
code compiler for Modula-2. This
may not seem like much, but watch:
in a year there will be a flood of soft-
ware for 8086 machines written in
Modula-2. The language is just too
good to be passed up, and Modula-2
plus CCP/M is a dynamite package,
comparable in power to some really
expensive minicomputer systems.

Fourth, the portability of C goes
both ways: if programs written in C
for the 8086 can be brought over to
68000 systems, the reverse will be
true also.

Finally, the tiger teams are working
on CP/M-86. The original CP/M-86
was not a lot more than a translation
of CP/M-80; the result was that it sure
was slow. MS-DOS wasn't a heck of
a lot better. Digital's people-
including some outsiders— are now
getting inside CP/M-86 with a view
to optimizations to use the inherent
speed and efficiency of the chip. The
results are likely to be dramatic.

^&"

STRATEGIC

SYSTEMS

CORPORATION

CIRCE

MultiUserVOS

CP/M or CDOS • 16 Users or T

I

Some of CIRCE's Advanced Features are:

CP/M m * or CDOS ™* upward-compatibility allowing continued use of the largest
existing micro software bases.

Each of CIRCE's 16 users or tasks may utilize Virtual R. A.M. Storage beyond the
R. A.M. accessible through direct addressing, which may be dynamically allocated
by the system.

Supports both the extended IEEE 24-line addressing and new 16-bit 8086,™*
8088,™*Z8000 ,M * microprocessors as well as the industry-standard 8-bit proces-
sors such as 8080r*8085, w *6800, w * 6502,™* and Z80 w *-based systems.

• CIRCE permits extended R.A.M. bank-selection up to sixteen 8 megabyte banks
in the CIRCE 2.0 Z8000-1 version (sixteen 64K R.A.M. banks for Z80 or other
8-bit processors). This permits individual programs to be as large as 128 megabytes
on a Z8000-1 system with extended memory-mapping under the 16-bit version of
CIRCE, Version 2.0. DMA is possible without wait-states on the first 8 megabytes
of R. A.M. under the CIRCE 2.0 Z8000-1 version, and the first 64K of R.A.M^ in
CIRCE 1,5 8-bit versions. The 8086/8088 versions of CIRCE 2.0 allows 1 mega-
byte of DMA, and 16 megabytes of extended memory-management with
CIRCE's virtual memory subroutines.

■ The forthcoming CIRCENET™* system from STRATEGIC SYSTEMS
CORPORATION will initially allow 1,024 packets of sub-networks (or groups),
each sub-network comprised of as many as 16 multi-user systems, each system
containing up to 16 users or tasks. The entire Network will be able to share
common Network-Resources, white allowing packets to share packet-common
resources and users to cross-communicate through system priority-queued "links."
There will be provisions for Inter-Network Cross-Communication and Inter-
Network Common Resources, and CIRCENET will allow X.25, BiSync, and
SDLC protocols between users, allowing cross-communication with existing
"Mainframe" networks!!

CIRCE also includes a sophisticated Multi-Level User Password System.
Available on 8" or 5" disk.

'CIRCE and CIRCENET arc trademarks of Strategic Systems Corporation; CP/M is a trademark of Digital
Research ot California; CDOS is a trademark of Cromemco, Inc.; 808 5, 8086, 6c 8088 are trademarks of
Intel Corp.; ZH0 6c ZHOOO are trademarks of Zilog, Inc.; 6502 6c 6800 are trademarks of Motorola, Inc.

Gable Address: Stratsys

Circle 442 on inquiry card.

November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

71

Items Reviewed

Applicard

Personal Computer Products
16776 Bernardo Center Dr.
San Diego, CA 92128
(619) 485-8411

CBIOS

Dual Processor

Compupro

3506 Breakwater Court
Hayward, CA 94545
(415) 786-0909

Concurrent CP/M-86 2.0

Digital Research
160 Central Ave.
Pacific Grove, C A 93950
Available from dealers only

Kaypro II
Kaypro 4
Kaypro 10

Kaypro Corporation
533 Stevens Ave.
Solana Beach, CA 92075
(619) 481-3424

Modula-2

Logitech

165 University Ave.
Palo Alto, CA 94301
(415) 326-3885

Printmate 99
Printmate 150

Micro Peripherals Inc.
4426 South Century Dr.
Salt Lake City, UT 84107
(801) 263-3081

S-100 Memory Board

Macrotech International Corporation
20630 Lassen St.
Chatsworth, CA 91311
(213) 700-1501

Silicon Disk

Microcosm Research
26 Danbury St.
London Nl 8JU,
England

Uniform

Micro Solutions
125 South 4th St.
De Kalb, IL 60115
(815) 756-3421

Word Handler

Silicon Valley Systems
1625 El Camino Real
Belmont, CA 94002
(415) 593-4344

WRITE

Workman and Associates
112 Marion St.
Pasadena, CA 91106
(213) 796-4401

$375

$595 with 128K-byte

RAM extender

standard
$695

$350

$1595
$1995
$2795

$495

$995 and up,
depending on
features

$2449

Not available

$49.95

$59.95

$239

Help!

Every time I write about some-
thing—anything—three things hap-
pen. One, I carefully look up the
names of the companies, and their
addresses, and include them; BYTE's
editors dutifully verify price and
availability data, then list the com-
pany names and addresses in a spe-
cial boxed feature that's inserted into
my column.

Two, someone writes to ask how to
get more information on the pro-
grams. Sometimes a lot of people do
that.

Three, all these people get mad at
me when I don't answer their letters.
I realize that in some cases they've
read a borrowed magazine and can't
go look up what they want, and I feel
a bit guilty; but, alas, I have neither
the time nor the staff to do the job.

That's typical problem one.

Typical problem two: someone
writes to ask that I analyze his par-
ticular situation and make recom-
mendations. He's sure I can help, and
no one else can. Alas, he's asking for
several hours of work.

If I answer those letters, then a lot
of other letters don't get answered.
Either way I'm thought unfriendly.
Besides, I was taught that one ought
always to answer one's mail; alas, my
mother never told me what to do
when it became impossible.

That kind of problem causes some
guilt feelings. There's another that
doesn't: the form letter "requesting
more information about" some prod-
uct or another that I've mentioned.
Unfortunately, word processors make
it possible to write such letters with-
out it being obvious that they are
form letters, so I waste a certain
amount of time reading them before
I see what they are and pitch them
in the circular file.

Then I worry: maybe it wasn't a
form letter after all.

However, though I'm buried in
mail, I do appreciate all the informa-
tion I get, and I want to thank all
those who write. I also apologize for
not answering every letter I get.
There's just no way I can do it. Worse,
the pattern is capricious: some days
I get to more mail than on others, and
mail I don't get to on the day it comes

72 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

in usually settles into piles that the
housekeeper eventually removes on
grounds of public health.

If I didn't answer your letter, it may
have been because it deserved a bet-
ter answer than I could give. That's
an awful thing to have to say, but
alas, it's all true.

Coming Up

Astute readers will by now have
noticed there's little correlation be-
tween what I think I'll do "next
month" and what I actually write
about. However, I'm told that my
new IBM PC will indeed arrive in
about a week; I look forward to play-
ing with it.

Another neat toy is Macrotech's
full-megabyte S-100 Memory Board.
Mr. McMannis, our research assis-
tant, had this to say:

"Finally brings true memory man-
agement to the microcomputer, with
on-board memory-map registers,
each allocating a 4K-byte block just
like the PDP-lls use. There is also a
'bank-switched' mode as well as a
'24-bit' mode so it can be used on
both newer and older systems."

We've had Macrotech's board here far
too long; it's time it got a thorough
workout. It looks well made. I've a
mild worry about airflow and heat
dissipation. We'll see.

Other stuff I hope to look at in-
cludes Nevada Pilot, Cache/Q, Digital
Research's Access Manager, and The
Stiff Upper Lisp. Having learned my
lesson about promises, I won't say
next month; but Real Soon
Now . . ■

Jerry Pournelle welcomes readers' com-
merits and opinions. Send a self-addressed,
stamped envelope to Jerry Pournelle, do
BYTE Publications, POB 372, Hancock,
NH 03449. Please put your address on the
letter as well as on the envelope. Due to
the high volume of letters, Jerry cannot
guarantee a personal reply.

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

(TAURUS LAB) + (YOUR PC) = (LAB COMPUTER SYSTEM)

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writes, high speed block analog reads, pulse
accumulation, frequency, change of state
detection, and more • Results in engineering
units • Convenient screw terminal panels • *
Compatible with 3 amp AC/DC switch- ^
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justify:— Standard confi-

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64 twelve bit
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64 digital I/O points,
optional — seven
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4 output pulsers,
4 analog outputs •
Stand alone mode

with direct terminal support • Communicates
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Satisfying Over

With Innovation

Grappler +

I I Printer Interface

The Original Apple® graphics printer interface.
Since its introduction three years ago, the
Grappler has been imitated by many, but never
matched. Now with Dual Hi-Res Graphics for side
by side reproductions and Mixed
Mode screen dump-
ing, the Grappler +
remains the most
intelligent interface
available. Over two
dozen commands
give Apple users full control over any graphics or
text on the Apple screen, including a new 80
column text dump. Performance, reliability and
support have made the Grappler + the #1 selling
intelligent Apple interface.

mm

For Apples and Printers

The economical way to add printer buffering. The
Bufferboard easily adds memory to your current
Apple interface system, freeing your computer for
additional input. Easily upgradable from 16K, the
Bufferboard can store up to 20 pages of text. It
fits neatly inside your Apple, "docking" onto your
existing printer interface* No clumsy boxes or
cables, no external power supplies... just conve-
nience and
economy With
the Bufferboard,
you might never
wait for your
printer again.

* Versions for standard Grappler + , Epson APL and Apple
Parallel Interfaces.

74 BYTE November 1983

90,000 Apple Owners

And Excellence.

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The most sophisticated buffered Apple printer
interface available. The New Buffered Grappler +
combines the industry leading features of the
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* * Not available for IDS printers.
Apple is a registered trademark of Apple Computers, Inc.

Over 90,000 Apple computers are using Orange
Micro products. Innovation and excellence have
made us the #1 manufacturer of intelligent printer
interfaces. The top selling Grappler + has
become an industry standard, recommended by
more software houses and Apple dealers. To
meet the users' latest needs, Orange Micro will
continue to introduce new products. Recent inno-
vations include the Grappler + for IDS color
printers and the new Orange Interface, with text
screen dumps and formatting at a low price.
There is an Orange Micro product designed for
your application.

For a complete demonstration, see your Apple
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bd inc.

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(714)779-2772 TELEX: 183511 CSMA

©Orange Micro, Inc., 1983

Circle 342 on inquiry card.

BYTE November 1983 75

Inside the IBM PC

In 1 977, I was using a computer, the'lBM 51 00. The machine was so
expensive that my company could hardly afford it, but there it sat on my
desk. It had BASIC, APL, and a magnetic-tape cartridge, and I was the
only one using it— hence, it was a personal computer. Little did I know
that only six years later the world of personal computers would be so dif-
ferent.

The introduction of the IBM Personal Computer transformed the com-
puter industry: it spawned the largest group of third-party vendors the
microcomputer industry has ever seen, it legitimized personal computers
to an entire generation of executives, and it single-handedly enabled
microcomputers to assume a greater percentage of the world's computa-
tional tasks. At the same time, it can be argued that the effect of IBM's
preeminent position has not been all positive. Companies jumping on the
IBM bandwagon to reap some of the profits may be holding back the tech-
nological innovation that would bring us computers that are more power-
ful and easier to use. Nevertheless, the world of IBM PC-compatible com-
puting remains an immense and fascinating one.

One of the most compelling things about computers is that you can
change their function by changing the software that drives them. In this
issue, you can explore the IBM PC through several articles on software
construction. On a higher level, several theoretical articles explain what
makes the PC the machine it is.

Without doubt, the PC continues to influence the microcomputer
market: the fortunes of many companies ebb and flow with IBM's moves.
Beginning with an interview with Philip D. Estridge, president of IBM's En-
try Systems Division, we analyze the PC and its place in the market.

The amount of activity surrounding the IBM PC is evident in the number
of companies providing specialized hardware and software for it. In this
issue, we report on state-of-the-art work being done by Microsoft, Digital
Research, 3Com, and Small World Communications.

Several general-interest articles explore the PC in other ways. We have
special reports on a Japanese IBM PC, expansion boards, and some of the
more interesting uses people have found for their PCs.

The IBM PC will undoubtedly continue to influence the microcomputer
industry. It remains to be seen if the spread of this machine throughout
the world will provide us with the best of personal computing or, less
ideally, an adequate but universally accepted standard. —Gregg Williams

78 IBM PCs Do the Unexpected by

Steven S. Ross

88 IBM's Estridge by Lawrence J.
Curran and Richard S. Shuford

99 Enhancing Screen Displays for the
IBM PC by Tim Field

1 2 1 POKEing Around in the IBM PC, Part
1 : Accessing System and Hardware
Facilities by Hugh R. Howson

1 35 Could 1 ,000,000 IBM PC Users Be
Wrong? by Frank Gens and Chris
Christiansen

144 Big Blue Goes Japanese by Richard
Willis

168 Expanding on the IBM PC by Mark J.

Welch

188 Installable Device Drivers for PC-
DOS 2.0 by Tim Field

1 99 A Communications Package for the

IBM PC by Richard Moore and
Michael Geary

211 A Graphics Editor for the IBM PC by

Charles B. Duff

232 Comparing the IBM PC and the Tl

PC by Bobbi Bullard

247 Technical Aspects of IBM PC Com-
patibility by Charlie Montague, Dave
Howse, Bob Mikkelsen, Don Rein,
and Dick Mathews

254 The Making of the IBM PC by Brian
Camenker

257 Concurrent CP/M by Joe Guzaitis

272 The IBM PC Meets Ethernet by Larry
Birenbaum

285 MS-DOS 2.0: An Enhanced 16-bit
Operating System by Chris Larson

Painting by Robert Tinney

76 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

IBM PCs
Do the Unexpected

Proving that it is indeed a personal computer, the PC performs all
sorts of unusual tasks; it's even an electronic therapist

In one of IBM's comical commer-
cials advertising its Personal Com-
puter, a Charlie Chaplin look-alike
stands between two conveyor belts in
a bakery. As he tries to jam a big cake
into a little box on one line, disaster
strikes: the other conveyor belt drops
cakes all over the floor.

Could it be that bakeries are actual-
ly using PCs to avoid such accidents?
And what other interesting tasks are
being accomplished by the ubi-
quitous machine? I called around to
find out— to PC user groups, to my
friends who own PCs, and even to
IBM-computer-user bulletin boards
(which never seemed to detect that
it was my Kaypro II doing the talk-
ing). I even asked a class I addressed
at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute if
any of the 120 technical writers
assembled there had any good leads.

Well, just about everybody did.

'Tunny you should ask about
bakeries," said Joe Rigo of the New
York City PC Users Group. (He
'hadn't seen IBM's bakery ad.) "Time
magazine called and asked if I knew
of a bakery that might be using a PC

by Steven S. Ross

for inventory control, or whatever, for
use in its cover story on IBM." He
suggested that I talk instead to Al
Goldstein, controversial publisher of
a sex magazine called Screw and of
Gadget, a fascinating newsletter that
features mechanical, nonsexual toys
for adult-age "children."

A congenial Goldstein said that his
company has four PCs. "I've had one

The PC is replacing

larger computers in

many imaginative

applications.

at home for five months. I haven't
used it; I'm intimidated by it," he con-
fessed. "But my 9-year-old son loves
it."

And what would Goldstein do
with the PC, once he overcame his
computer phobia? "I want an elec-
tronic schedule, so I can call my office
and get a copy of my appointments
and trip itineraries printed out at
home. I want to do word processing.

I want to be able to retrieve facts and
articles quickly. I want to file names
and addresses of friends. The office
[already] does use it to keep track of
airline incentive mileage for bonus
trips."

Until he feels comfortable with the
PC, though, he said, "I feel like I'm
standing outside a bordello. I can
guess at the wonders inside, but the
front door is stuck."

Fortunately for the PC market,
however, the door is open for many
other users, wide enough to push a
mainframe through. Dr. Haig Kafa-
f ian of the Washington-based Cyber-
netics Research Institute, for example,
has been developing ways of dis-
abled people to communicate, work,
and run a household using PCs and
other computers with standard hard-
ware and software. Making use of
standard equipment and programs
would hold the cost of such an elec-
tronic aid to a price that many dis-
abled people could afford.

Artists such as Paul Ravina and
John Schnell of New York have pro-
grammed PCs for complex graphics

78 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

tasks. The PC can be used to increase
their productivity as well as their
creativity. Indeed, PCs are perform-
ing many scientific, business, and
educational tasks previously handled
by much larger machines.

Emulating the Cray-1

One researcher, for instance, is
using the PC to study how energy is
transferred from the sea to the atmo-
sphere. "It turns out that bubbles are
the most important mechanism,"
says Ferren Maclntyre, a physical
chemist turned oceanographer and
research professor with the Univer-
sity of Rhode Island. The number
and size of bubbles in the ocean can
be measured two ways— optically, by
measuring the intensity and color of
light reflected back from the bubbles,
and acoustically, by determining
how much sound energy they
absorb.

"Unfortunately, the two methods
give answers that vary by orders of
magnitude," says Maclntyre. So,
with Duncan Blanchard of the State
University of New York at Albany,
he set out to learn why, by examin-
ing the optical properties of bubbles.

"We borrowed some programs to
do the calculations from the National
Center for Atmospheric Research in
Boulder, Colorado, and ran them on
the NCAR Cray-1 supercomputer,"
said Maclntyre. Using those pro-
grams, it took less than a second to
perform the necessary calculations.
To avoid the headaches involved in
writing additional grant proposals
and working with the NCAR
through transcontinental phone calls
from Rhode Island, Maclntyre de-
cided to rewrite the programs to run
on his PC.

He has adapted the programs to let
him examine how different wave-
lengths of light interact with the bub-
bles in different ways, depending on
the size of the bubble and the angle
at which an observer looks at the
reflection (see photo 1). The problem
is solved by computing the amount
of scattering separately for horizon-
tally and vertically polarized light.
Each function, in turn, is a seeming-
ly infinite sum of series approxima-
tions made up of two terms: an

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X: 72 to 149
Illun: 3280X
Foiariz'a 8

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dz 1.588

(lb)

Photo 1: Two plots showing the scattering of unpolarized light by an 18-micrometer bubble
as a function of the wavelength (x-axis) and the viewing angle (y-axis). Photo la is a quick-
and-dirty plot that represents intensity as a given color. Photo lb, which takes longer to plot,
produces a true three-dimensional contour plot.

angular dependence term that equals
the sum or the difference of the
derivatives of Legendre polynomials,
involving trigonometic functions and
complex fractions; and the sum or
difference of two Bessel functions,
each of which is a series with 20 or
30 terms that include factorials.
Because the second term does not

converge properly (that is, it "blows
up" to infinity once the series goes
beyond a certain number), Maclntyre
solves it by backward recur-
sion—checking the size of the
final function against the differences
between successive terms in the
function. Checking the scattering of
20 different wavelengths of light at

November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. 79

20 different angles for a bubble re-
quires calculating 5000 terms— each
of which is a complex fraction.

Maclntyre can perform those cal-
culations with the software he wrote
to run on his PC in MMSFORTH. He
explains: "I keep hearing that
FORTH is a lovely language for
simple-minded work and that it's no
good to do complex arithmetic. But
it allows double precision, complex
numbers, and large arrays. It's also
20 to 50 times faster than BASIC.
FORTRAN is clumsy on micros, and
I just won't use a language like
Pascal that requires me to write ' = :';
I just won't!"

FORTH had another allure for
Maclntyre. He is friendly with a
FORTH vendor. "I went to MIT with
Dick Miller of Miller Microcomputer
Service [which supplied MMS-
FORTH]. It's like having my own
contract software shop. I call him up
and say, 'You know, it would be
great if we could do this, ' and a cou-
ple of weeks later, we can."

Maclntyre has experienced one
problem with FORTH, though. It is
set up for four-digit hexadecimal ad-
dresses, but he needed to access
more memory, so the software was
modified to put his large arrays at the
top of 64K. (His PC has 128K bytes,
two single-sided floppy-disk drives,
and two monitors— one color and the
other monochrome. MMSFORTH is
its own operating system and formats

the floppies for about 195K bytes
each instead of the "standard" 160K
bytes.)

What the Cray had accomplished
in well under a second, it took the PC
9V2 hours to do— until Maclntyre in-
stalled an 8087 coprocessor chip last
April. "Although the 8087 arrived
with no software documentation and
only enough hardware documenta-
tion to tell me how to stick it into the
board, it took only two days to make
the conversion," he said. One reason
that conversion went well is that
FORTH allows slow-running sections
of code to be lifted out and replaced
with machine-language instructions
without disturbing the rest of the
program.

"When I got the chip, I ran some
simple benchmarks and wasn't too
excited," Maclntyre said. "Addition
speed was only doubled, calculations
of logarithms went just 30 times
faster. My real program, however, is
computation-bound. By reducing
memory seeks and other loop over-
heads, I got a 115-fold speedup."
Routine computation time on the PC
is now five minutes, seven seconds—
a quite respectable 1000 times slower
than the speedy Cray-1.

And what does Maclntyre get after
five minutes? Easily interpreted col-
or diagrams displayed on the color
monitor. He has also learned that
existing optical counting methods
miss the small bubbles and thus ac-

count for much of the difference be-
tween optical and acoustical account-
ing.

Just What the Doctor Ordered

Maclntyre isn't the only one sub-
stituting BASIC with another lan-
guage for use on a microcomputer.
Bill Noel of Physicians Practice Man-
agement in Indianapolis says that
firm has developed software com-
piled on COBOL for medical prac-
tices. Designed to run on an IBM PC
with a minimum of 128K bytes and
a 10- or 20-megabyte hard disk, the
package handles billing, accounts re-
ceivable, patient records, and clinical
data. Through a 1200-bps (bits per se-
cond) modem, it will even dial a cen-
tral computer to transmit insurance
claims automatically. Noel uses the
Microsoft version of COBOL, pack-
aged for the IBM PC and running on
MS-DOS.

"We've been a timesharing vendor
since 1978, but we saw our market in
danger of disappearing, so we got
onto the micro bandwagon," Noel
said. "The PC does everything our
Data General C350 does, but only for
one user at a time." The firm assem-
bled the C350 system over several
years, at a cost of roughly $150,000.

Why COBOL? "When we got into
the timesharing business originally,
we bought a standard package writ-
ten in BASIC for the mini " said Noel.
"It was a nightmare. After a while, it

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80 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

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BYTE November 1983 81

Photo 2: Two actors play the roles of interviewer and interviewee for an instructional video-
tape on presenting oneself at an interview. Professor Adkins plans to transfer such videotapes
to a videodisc, which will then be controlled by an IBM PC and related software.

was completely unmaintainable. Pro-
grammers get carried away with the
things they can do in BASIC, while
COBOL leads them down a more
structured path."

COBOL also handles large files
more easily than most BASICs
would. 'We can search easily by
fields, rather than with the hashing
routines developed for floppy-disk-
based systems/' Noel said. "A two- or
three-person practice has 10,000 or
12,000 charts a year. To be useful, the
files all have to be in the same place."

And, of course, COBOL allows
code that is wordy enough to be
almost self-documenting. It's com-
mon to find statements using full-
length data names (e.g., "Patient
Name = PATIENT NAME") instead of
assigning string variables with sym-
bolic designations.

"The only problems came up when
we looked for off-the-shelf packages
because there are so few for COBOL
on a micro/ said Noel. "For example,
we couldn't talk directly to the asynch
port directly out of COBOL. So we
got someone to write an interface in
assembler for a few hundred dollars."

The firm is making the software
package (actually 120 separate, linked
COBOL programs totaling more than
5 megabytes) available to doctors this

fall through General Electric Informa-
tion Services at a cost of $5500. A
properly equipped PC with a
modem, a 200-cps (characters per
second) printer, a hard-disk drive,
and a backup tape drive costs about
$15,000.

"In Indiana, we cut the turn-
around time on Medicare claims from
six weeks to six days," said Noel.
"Internal-medicine practices or car-
diopulmonary teams, which do a lot
of business with Medicare, can accel-
erate their cash flow enough to pay
for the whole thing in two or three
weeks."

An Electronic Therapist?

Sam just can't control himself in an
argument. Even a minor disagree-
ment with his wife, for instance,
quickly escalates into an all-out
shouting match where reasoning is
impossible.

Fortunately, Professor Win Adkins,
founder of the Institute for Life
Coping Skills at Columbia Universi-
ty's Teachers College in New York,
has developed multimedia learning
materials that can help Sam and
other "underdeveloped" adults han-
dle the stresses of everyday situations
(see photo 2).

About 500,000 people in 30 states

have participated in groups that view
Adkins-inspired videocassettes deal-
ing with such matters as quick
tempers and overcoming the fear of
changing jobs. Unlike conventional
on-the-couch therapy, these materials
are not meant to delve into a person's
overall environment— family back-
ground, education, finances, and so
forth. Instead, they emphasize
changing a person's outlook and tim-
ing. The aim is to promote an alter-
native, a more responsible reaction to
a given kind of stress.

The sessions are now offered by
300 nonprofit organizations, in-
cluding community hospitals,
women's counseling centers, and
adult-education centers. These orga-
nizations typically commit $10,000 for
the equipment and training needed
to run the institute's courses. Staff
salaries are extra.

"Our goal now is to use the com-
puter to make the process more in-
teractive, more flexible," says Adkins.
"The people would see dramatic vi-
gnettes depicting some aspect of the
problem they are seeking help with."

Adkins plans to link the PC to a
videodisc player, so that people like
Sam can view a dramatic scene, such
as the beginning of a family fight.
They then choose which course of ac-
tion they would take under the same
situation. The videodisc will im-
mediately show the consequences in
a new scene. Each choice will lead ir-
revocably down a path to the next
choice, then the next and the next, in
almost endless variety.

"I like the computer because it lets
people rate their performance, too,"
says Adkins. "They could rate their
actions against a norm and not
simply an abstraction or a personal
feeling. After all, what is normaP. And
we can arrange for the computer to
provide many possible outcomes for
a given behavior pattern, depending
on the circumstances. That's just like
real life. It's acceptable to people in
the program because there can be
more than one model of effective be-
havior in any situation."

Because his program lets users
observe many models, it should, he
says, "allay fears that technology will
limit the soaring human spirit." In-

82 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

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The Purchasing Agent Philosophy, Part 4:

• First select the specific software programs you need, then select the

computer to run them.

THE

PURCHASING
AGENT, INC.

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Sunnyvale, CA 94089

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stead, the opposite is true, he says—
the computer allows lessons to mimic
the rich variety of everyday human
experience. Furthermore, Adkins
says, "We can greatly improve the ef-
ficiency of learning in this soft field
of 'coping/ and, by automating the
delivery, we can lower costs and im-
prove availability."

At first, Adkins said, adults will use
their computer/therapists in the
home or at the sponsoring institu-
tion, while occasionally getting
together in groups to explore the
norms. Eventually, the machines will
be sufficiently inexpensive so that the
institution will have to supply only
the software— most adults will al-
ready own the hardware.

'There's a big 'if' in all this,
though," Adkins says. "It all has to be
designed right. Human experience is
complex."

Adkins doesn't expect to have a
complete system up and running for
another two years or so. But his suc-
cessful pioneering work with video-
tape suggests that he will succeed
with computer-accessed videodiscs
as well.

Why did Adkins choose the PC?
"Simple. I knew I had to get educated
about computers, the same way I
taught myself how to produce slides
and videotape vignettes. So I went
out and bought the best."

As for me, I never did find a bakery
using a PC. I'm sure there's at least
one, though. Bakeries, with their
perishable products and their high
energy consumption, have long been
leaders in computerization for inven-
tory control and energy conservation.

In fact, the very first commercial
computer in Great Britain was the
Leo I, designed and built by a Lon-
don-area baked-goods distributor,
the Lyons Organization, in the late
1940s for near-real-time daily inven-
tory control. Leo I handled data for
more than 200 bake shops yet had
only a fraction of the power of an IBM
PC.B

Steve Ross, a New York-based writer and consul-
tant living temporarily in Honolulu, holds degrees
in physics and journalism. He first learned to pro-
gram on an IBM 1620 twenty years ago. His mail-
ing address is 120 Irving St., Leonia, N] 07605.

84 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

Circle 376 on inquiry card.

w «n//g" Your Apple's telephone.

'Thanks for the prompt reply. Sure
was a lot faster than waiting for
the mail!"

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Work at home and send reports to your
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Microcomputer Products, Inc. Apple Computer is a registered

trademark of Apple Computer. Inc. Touch-Tone is a registered trademark

of American Telephone and Telegraph. CP/M is a trademark of Digital

Research. Inc. CP/M Plus is a trademark of Advanced Logic Systems.

Circle 209 on inquiry card.

Displays and hard copy output courtesy of ISSCO, SAS/GRAPH ,U -SAS Institute Inc., Swanson Analysis Systems, Inc. and GDS-Applied Research of Cambridge.
CPJM-86 is a registered trademark o( Digital Research, Inc. Copyright ' 1983, Tektronix, Inc. All rights reserved. #UNO-220
VT100 is a registered trademark ol Digital Equipment Corporation

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COMMITTED TO EXCELLENCE

IBM's
Estridge

The president of IBM's

Entry Systems Division

talks about standards, the PCs

simplicity, and a desire not to be different

by Lawrence J. Curran and Richard S. Shuford

The desire to offer a system that would
appeal to experimenters who would be
able to add value easily was one of the
motivations that guided designers at In-
ternational Business Machines (IBM)
Corporation when it undertook develop-
ment of the IBM Personal Computer (PC)
in 1980. Philip D. Estridge, president of
the IBM Entry Systems Division in Boca
Raton, Florida, explained that desire to
develop what is called an "open system"
to BYTE editors in a recent interview.

IBM wanted to provide a simple system
that offered customers the ability to ex-
periment with very little effort, Estridge
says. He adds that the idea for a system
that customers could easily apply as they
saw fit had been implemented by other
personal computer manufacturers.

Simplicity was a key consideration in
the IBM PC design, but counterbalancing
simplicity was the need for a product that
had durability as well as enough capaci-
ty and power to grow. The latter con-

siderations immediately led to the selec-
tion of a 16-bit processor, says Estridge,
who notes that the Intel 8088 was a par-
ticularly fortuitous choice: "It happened
to be there when we needed it to introduce
the power of a 16-bit computer and keep
the affordability of the 8-bit I/O [in-
put/output] architecture." Estridge ex-
plains that the 8-bit I/O architecture
makes it simple for users to add equip-
ment to the IBM PC "without doing a
lot of work or spending a lot of money"
because the 8-bit interfaces are easy for
hobbyists and third-party add-on manu-
facturers to understand.

Estridge would not discuss unit ship-
ments or dollar sales of the IBM PC, and
he would not talk about future IBM prod-
uct plans or competitive products when
he spoke with Richard S. Shuford,
BYTE's special projects editor, and
Lawrence ]. Curran, editor in chief.
BYTE's questions are in boldface and
Estridge's answers are in lightface.

Did you consider what impact the
IBM PC would make in terms of
establishing standards?

When we first conceived the idea for
the personal computer in 1980, we
talked about IBM being in a special
position to establish standards, but
we decided that we didn't want to in-
troduce standards. We tried to do
everything we could to understand
the existing infrastructure and pro-
pensities [in personal computers]
across the board— in marketing, dis-
tribution techniques, pricing, cus-
tomer alternatives, software sup-
pliers, hardware add-on suppliers,
and peripheral manufacturers. We
tried to fit into what has become a
very exciting, well-structured, and
well-working business. We firmly be-
lieved that being different was the
most incorrect thing we could do. We
reached that conclusion because we
thought personal computer usage
would grow far beyond any bounds
anybody could see back in 1980. Our
judgment was that no single software
supplier or single hardware add-on
manufacturer could provide the total-
ity of function that customers would
want. We didn't think we were intro-
ducing standards. We were trying to
discover what was there and then
build a machine, a marketing
strategy, and distribution plan that fit
what had been pioneered and estab-
lished by others in machines, soft-
ware, and marketing channels.
There is a 3.9-inch disk drive in the
IBM family that is not the same size
as some of the more popular drives
that are becoming de facto stan-
dards; is that of concern to IBM?
I can only tell you what we're doing
in the personal computer group.
There are many activities within IBM.
Each has its own goals, and I
wouldn't comment on what they're
doing. But when we were develop-
ing the product in 1980 and 1981,
alternative disk sizes were emerg-
ing— 3V2-inch, 3.9-inch, and 5V4-inch.
But then you look at the tremendous
number of people who manufacture
the 5V4-inch media, the number who
have equipment that produces the
reproduced programs, and the num-
ber of customers who have the
media, and you have to conclude that

88 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

This One Decision

Saved our Business and Grossed

over $ 1,000,000. in Sales

In 1979, our recreational manufacturing business was booming.
And we had developed a new product that looked like a real
winner. The new product was extremely important, in that it
appeared to be the answer to a seasonality problem associated
with our other product lines.

By early summer, our order book was bulging. It reallylooked as
if our off-season sales and production problems were over. Then
just as quickly the roof fell in. Gas shortages devastated the
recreational vehicle market overnight. And our order book for
over two million dollars worth of the new product disintegrated.

Faced with a fall and winter of virtually no sales, many thousands
of dollars of unneeded parts and excess production staff, I had no
choice but to shut down the production lines. And if a solution to
our problem couldn t be found, the business itself was in jeopardy.

A life saving decision

I spent many sleepless nights

trying to come up with a solution to

this nightmarish situation. Then I

remembered a course I had taken

in decision analysis. I spent the rest

of that night reviewing course

material and other books I had

bought on the subject. The next

day, I called an emergency meeting.

Using the decision making

techniques I had learned, we spent

the rest of the week searching for

and analysing potential solutions.

The net result was that not only was

the company pulled back from the

brink of destruction, but we added

over $ 1 ,000,000.00 in gross sales during that off-season.

A way of life

From that point on, almost every critical decision (and there were
many) regarding new products, marketing channels, pricing,
advertising, production equipment, engineering projects, received
this same type of analysis.

Although the process was very time consuming and clumsy,
because it had to be done by hand, our decisions were much
improved. And there were some real benefits that we had not
anticipated.

1. Our understanding of each problem was greatly increased.

2. We uncovered opportunities that we would not have thought
of in any other way.

3. Our decisions were documented, preventing us from slipping
off the selected path or 'rehashing' the same things over and over.

4. Consensus became easier because we were forced to focus
and resolve each part of the problem, one piece at a time.

The birth of Decision— Analyst™

Decision—Analyst was created because the process of evaluating
complex decisions with multiple alternatives and many criteria is
very tedious and time-consuming if you do it on paper. And doing
it in your head is virtually impossible.
Any complex decision usually requires multiple revisions to
criteria, alternatives, weights and values assigned to them. If done

manually, the ordeal of rewriting, recalculating and redocument-
ing tends to discourage revisions, thus producing poor results.

Decision— Analyst overcomes these problems by asking for the
minimum input possible from you, in the correct sequence. It
leads you step by step through the decision making process, then
does all the necessary calculations and produces polished reports
without any further effort. And all of your input is stored on your
disk so that revisions and updates can be made easily at any time.

Comprehensive but easy to use

Decision— Analyst is probably the easiest program you'll ever use.
You can literally learn to operate the program using only the 'help'
screens. But it comes with a thoroughly indexed manual which
includes many pages of examples plus a step by step guide to the

decision making process.

And Decision 1 — Analyst is no fly-
weight. It uses over 100,000 bytes
of fast compiled code and a 40,000
character help file. The program is
extremely 'bullet proof 'and does
all the work . . . you do the thinking.
And there is no danger of missing a
critical step because your analysis
is guided through each of the eight
menu- driven sections.

Endless opportunity
for use

If you're saying to yourself
that you really don't have any earth
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Decision— Analyst . . . then consider this. If you're in business,
chances are that the most important thing you do is make
decisions.

Decision— Analyst can.help you select key personnel, decide on
new machinery or equipment, prioritize major projects and
allocate resources, choose a new product or a better price
strategy, select new offices or plant locations, select the most
profitable marketing channel or the best piece of computer
hardware or software. Use it to analyse any decision which has
more than one viable alternative.

In your personal life, it can help you choose the best job, select
the right business, career or franchise, determine the best field of
investment or even the right home, boat or car. In fact, improving
your decisions is probably the most rewarding thing you can do.

Let us help you make a s 139 00 decision

lfthere's a chance that Decision— Analyst could help you improve
even one decision, would it pay for itself? Chances are it would. In
fact, it's likely that it could save you the price many times over!

So why not take advantage of this special $139.00 introductory
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your money, within 30 days, if you're not completely satisfied.

Available for virtually every make of micro-computer using CP/M,
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*> PC/DOS is a Registered Trademark of I.B.M.

BYTE November 1983

91

developed something called the user
shell interface for MS-DOS 2.0, and
we don't seem to have that in IBM's
2.0. We have a command-prompt line
that is much the same as it was.
PC-DOS and MS-DOS are two dif-
ferent products; you can buy either
one.

Is IBM happy using the com-
mand-line scheme of having people
type things in?

Microsoft has helped us enormous-
ly with PC-DOS, but it's our product.
Microsoft has its own product. Al-
though they are very similar— and
I'm not trying to telegraph any-
thing—I don't know how they're go-
ing to be in the future. All I can tell
you is that our product works, it's
fairly simple, and we're happy with
it.

Are you satisfied with the language
compilers and interpreters that are
available for the IBM PC?
If you're talking about the ones under
the IBM logo, we've had very good
response, and we're pleased with
everything except the FORTRAN
compiler. The performance of the
FORTRAN compiler is not what we
think it ought to be. We've told our
customers that we're trying to work
on the problems. Whether or not we
can do anything about them remains
to be learned, although there are a
tremendous number of satisfied
FORTRAN compiler users.
As greater amounts of memory
become more common, do you fore-
see that another version of a BASIC
interpreter will allow easier use of
all that memory than the current
BASIC interpreter does?
I don't know whether we'll do that or
not. It was obvious from day one that
the machine had more memory than
the Microsoft BASIC interpreter
could use. We decided not to change
the interpreter right from the begin-
ning. I think it's been a good deci-
sion. The BASIC interpreter is essen-
tially bug-free. To go back in and
make it handle bigger address spaces
would essentially mean a rewrite that
would expose us to introducing error
into the code. That flies in the face of
the novice user's learning the BASIC
language for something very simple.
We traded quality for the additional

capacity of the interpreter. I would
make that same choice today. I think
of the BASIC interpreter as an answer
to a lot of things except big, compli-
cated programs. If you need a lot of
address space to solve the applica-
tion, you should use languages that
are designed for those kinds of prob-
lems. It doesn't bother me that BASIC
handles programs that fit into only
64K bytes. We have moved the
code— service routines and operating
systems— out of the 64K-byte
user-program space into the other ad-
dress spaces so that the use of 64K
is more efficient.

Are there any gaps in the lineup of
software that IBM offers for the
machine that make you uncomfort-
able?

No, because we went into this with
the idea that we can't do everything.
We tried to create a machine, some
software offerings, and a set of busi-
ness practices that made it easy for
others to participate.
Are you happy with Easy writer 1.1?
Yes, I like it. People seem to like it.
Have you used it yourself?
Yes. I also tried to use Easywriter 1.0
and had the same experience every-
body else had. There is almost no
product [that runs] on the machine
that we have produced that I haven't
used.

Have you backed up the contents of
a hard-disk drive? Are you satisfied
with that procedure?
Let's go back to the 5V4-inch disk dis-
cussion. You can put only so many
bytes on a 5V4-inch disk, and that in-
troduces some disk handling. I don't
have any other way to do it.
Do you think the industry will even-
tually solve the problem?
I don't know that it's a problem.
When the machine first came out,
people asked, 'Aren't you upset that
there is more memory than there is
disk capacity on the machine so you
can't dump your memory to disk?"
The answer is no. It has never been
a problem. It's a theoretical problem.
If you insist that you must read the
entire contents of your file when you
do a backup, there will be a delay in
handling disks, but people are
smarter than that. They don't dump
the entire contents of their file; they

only dump the stuff they're really
concerned about. Most applications
build transaction files; they have to
dump only transactions. If they take
the time to recreate the file, they'd
have a problem.

It's my understanding that the PC
and the PC XT have recently been in-
troduced in Europe and elsewhere
overseas. Do you think that IBM will
be coming out with some software
packages that will be specifically for
the international market?
I don't want to speculate on that.
Why did it take so long to bring out
the Intel 8087 coprocessor?
We wanted it to work.
Are you saying there were troubles
with it?
Sure.

Is that why you now get a matched
set of an 8088 and an 8087?
The newer 8088s have slightly dif-
ferent characteristics that result in
better performance of the 8087
coprocessor. By shipping both pro-
cessors we know the customer will
get the best possible performance
from the 8087.

Do you foresee the extra power that
you now get with the 8087 being an
extra selling point, or do you think
that the casual user won't care?
I think for the casual user to feel the
effects of the power of that device,
some support and programming
would be required to be available on
the machine that are not there today.
The people who are going to get it
and benefit from it are the people
who will write programs with the
device in mind, and there are a lot of
people like that, but I don't think it's
the general population.
So you see that as being kind of an
extra turbocharger that the drag-rac-
ing set will like?

Yes, the ones who'll need it will love
it.

Sometimes IBM makes product
changes that some people can't see
the reasons for. Why has IBM
stopped doing knock-out panels in
the back of the machine?
Because they produced quality prob-
lems, and we wanted to produce a
machine with no defects. They fell
out during shipping and handling.
So it was a shipping annoyance?

92 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

Estridge: an eye toward experimenters.

you don't need to take on the extra
burden of introducing a disruptive
medium, no matter how good it is.
None of the disk alternatives offered
enough of an advantage to warrant
that kind of disruption. [IBM with-
drew this drive from the market in Sep-
tember.]

What were the software considera-
tions that resulted from your desire
to "fit in" with the PC?

Let's take BASIC as an example. IBM
has an excellent BASIC— it's well
received, runs fast on mainframe
computers, and it's a lot more func-
tional than microcomputer BASICs
were in 1980. But the number of users
was infinitesimal compared to the
number of Microsoft BASIC users.
Microsoft BASIC had hundreds of
thousands of users around the
world. How are you going to argue

with that? Many who wrote about
the IBM PC at the beginning said that
there was nothing technologically
new in this machine. That was the
best news we could have had; we ac-
tually had done what we had set out
to do.

Did you try to discipline yourselves
not to stretch the state of the art with
the PC?

Yes. For example, you can handle a
higher-performance I/O device with
a 16-bit I/O channel than you can
with an 8-bit I/O channel. Having an
8-bit I/O channel inherently limits the
performance of the main processor
because you have to move twice as
many bits per operation. But that was
a trade-off we chose to make to fit in-
to what was already there. It wasn't
too difficult a trade-off to make
because there were no programs—
and there are still few— that demand
a higher performance processor than
most that are out there.
Do you have a profile of your typical
customer or user?
I don't think we have a typical user
because the machine is so communal
that typical doesn't have meaning, ex-
cept for the fact that more and more
people are discovering that they have
needs that can be answered rather
nicely by a personal computer. And
they are in all walks of life— all the
way from very young children to very
elderly people— in every profession.
Is there a typical minimum con-
figuration emerging?
I don't know. We've forced that
answer somewhat because we build
the machines that are most frequent-
ly ordered. We build four or five con-
figured systems to make it easy for
the dealer to put the systems together
so that the work is done partly by us
and partly by the dealer. We know
that there are a lot of people building
complete machines starting with a
very rudimentary form of our prod-
uct.

You say that you don't have a typical
user, but is there a set of typical user
characteristics that you have to deal
with? For instance, do you find peo-
ple who don't want to type on the
machine because of the keyboard?
Yes, we find those reactions, but not
quite the way you said it.

November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

89

Human Factors in the IBM PC

The placement of certain keys in the key-
board of the IBM PC has been widely criti-
cized, but Philip D. Estridge cites prior
IBM experience in building typewriter's as
being helpful in designing the PC key-
board. He points out further that various
human-factors considerations are reflected
in the overall PC design that he says make
the machine comfortable to use.

The keyboard can be tilted, for example,
to assume a flat-surface angle or a tilted-
up angle. Estridge says both are standard
angles that make users feel comfortable.
"We don't know why people feel comfortable
with one of those two angles," Estridge
says, '"but we've learned from building
typewriters that these are the two popular
angles for wrists."

He also cites studies of eye-pupil dilation
that influenced the PCs design. He says
these studies have shown that there's a
direct relationship between pupil dilation
and fatigue; the more a user's pupil dilates,

the more fatigued he may become.

"If you can cut down on contrast changes
as people use the equipment, you reduce
the likelihood of frequent pupil dilation."

How has that principle been applied to
the IBM PC? Estridge explains it this way:
"Imagine that the center of the machine
is a high-contrast area and the outside of
the machine— the background— is a
low-contrast area. The machine has grades
of contrast as you move from the screen
outward. Its highest contrast is on the dis-
play tube. Immediately around the tube is
a lower-contrast border, and then the
cabinet curls round to form an even lower-
contrast frame.

"The eye then progresses from seeing
dark gray to light gray to medium white,
and, beyond that, essentially a noise back-
ground. As the eye moves across those
boundaries, it doesn't experience much con-
trast change, and the viewer doesn't get
tired."

Some people are upset about the
placement of the left-hand Shift key
and the Return key.

I wasn't thrilled with the placement
of those keys, either. But every place
you pick to put them is not a good
place for somebody, and it's a large
enough group of somebodies so that
there's no consensus. The left-hand
Shift key is located where it is
because we wanted to have the char-
acter-typing keys inside the control
keys. That means that the arrange-
ment with the one extra key, instead
of being the Shift key with the char-
acter on the outside, is just the
reverse. I have since gone back and
looked at a lot of keyboards and
found that a lot of them are just like
ours— with one more key on the bot-
tom. They may not have the same
character in that position, but there
is one more key along the bottom. It's
not much of a problem in the long
run. Fortunately, people adjust; in
fact, if we were to change it now we
would be in hot water.
Why are the function keys in two
rows on the left rather than across

the top?

We didn't want to put them across
the top because we wanted to have
a template there in case some appli-
cations needed a template across the
top of the keyboard. That's the reason
for that little ridge— to keep the
template from falling down on the
keys. The ridge is also there to use as
a book prop.

Did you look at the international
keyboard standards?
That's what's on the board; that's
why there are symbols on the keys.
Is there anything different that you
would do to the keyboard now that
it's been out a while?
No. I'm not saying we would never
come out with another keyboard
that's different, but I don't have any
regrets about the keyboard.
Are you familiar with the mice that
are creeping around in the world?
Yes. That's a perfect example of the
kind of experimentation that you
would expect to go on.
Have you ever used a mouse?
Yes.
Do you like it?

It was just another way to do things.
It didn't strike me one way or
another.

Are you comfortable with the key-
board?

Yes. More than two million personal
computers [from all suppliers] were
shipped in the United States last
year. Predictions for the future are
more grandiose. They must not be
very hard to use. When you look at
the age levels of people using the
machine— both the very young and
the very old— and when you look at
the backgrounds of the individuals,
you have to conclude that the com-
puters must be pretty darn easy to
use, or else you would never have
gotten that far.

Can we talk about specific software?
Sure, as long as it's ours.
The biggest software change that's
happening is the upgrade to the 2.0
version of DOS; are there delays in
shipment of the product?
Initially, yes.
Why is there a delay?
We guessed wrong on how many
people would order the PC from day
one. We thought there would be less
demand than there is, so we had to
catch up, and we passed that point.
Some people are complaining that
there are problems with the 2.0 ver-
sion and incompatibilities with the
previous 1.1 version. Do you see that
as a major problem?
There are some differences in the
products, most notably in memory
utilization. The 2.0 product is larger.
If you had a program that barely fit
in 64K bytes with version 1.1, it's
almost certain that it doesn't fit if you
move the program to 2.0. We haven't
heard any significant unhappiness
with customers or with the software
suppliers, and that level of incom-
patibility is one that's understandable
as you enrich your product.
Will IBM sell 1.1 indefinitely?
I won't speculate about our plans, but
it's not a good idea to mistreat cus-
tomers. We will do what our cus-
tomers need us to do. If that means
keeping 1.1, we will do it. If all the
customers move to 2.0, it will be
uneconomical to keep 1.1, but I don't
know which way it will go.
We understand that Microsoft had

90 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

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A defect is a defect— it doesn't mat-
ter if it's a corner crushing on the
cardboard box you ship it in or the
machine not functioning at all. It's ex-
actly the same for all defects. And
when you start out with that mental-
ity, if you have a defect, you ask not
only how to fix it but also what is the
source of this problem, and how do
we eliminate the source? In that par-
ticular situation we eliminated it by
not having it. We couldn't sense that
there were a lot of people who
needed it.

Back to the design of the case. Did
you consider trying to go for a
smaller footprint for the machine,
possibly by trying things like stack-
ing the motherboard on top of the
disk drive?

It was the smallest footprint we could
figure out. We wanted to have the
machine work in a wide range of en-
vironments: heat, temperature,
humidity, and electrical interference.
When you start considering all this,
you can't make it as small as you
would physically make it because of

the electrical characteristics. We have
what we think is a balance. The more
closely you put it together, the more
difficult it is for somebody to add
something to it; you get hard-to-
manage mechanical assemblies. That
makes putting it together and taking
it apart hard and error-prone, or you
create fittings that are not generally
available, so other people can't get
the equipment they need to build an
add-on piece of hardware.
You've talked a lot about designing
the machine to make it easy for peo-
ple to use— to experiment with the
machine, to add to it. Were you
thinking more of dealers than ex-
perimenters or hobbyists?
First, we knew that dealers would
have to provide warranty service. We
tried to design the machine mechan-
ically and electrically so that it was
simple to understand and work with.
We chose electronic components so
that there would be commonly avail-
able parts, with the serviceman at the
bench in the store in mind. Our goal
was to make the machine as easy for

him to use as for a customer, because
he's a customer too. If we burden him
with high-technology complexities-
tools and equipment that are un-
familiar, hard to get, or expensive,
parts that are in limited supply or
available only from IBM— these
things would make the machine dif-
ficult to service.

The new IBM color monitor is cer-
tainly appreciated, but are you satis-
fied with the display quality you get
with the color display adapter?
Yes. I think it's a good balance be-
tween price and function.
Did you consider making a special
color monitor that used higher fre-
quencies?

Yes, but then you have to buy more
memory that fits on the color adapter
card. It raises the price. We think the
granularity, number of colors, and
number of memory bits on the card
strike a good balance between defini-
tion, function, and price.
Do you think we will be seeing more
applications that use graphics— that
graphics will be a dominant segment

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Theft is a threat to software development.

of the market?

Yes. I think the old saying that a pic-
ture is worth a thousand words is
true.

Do you see color as a practical tool
now in business graphics, or simp-
ly a nice feature to have?
I think that color is going to change
over the next short period— maybe a
couple of years— from being some-
thing we think about as an interest-
ing curiosity to something we won't
know how to get along without. It
will be that dramatic a change. Look
at color TV. You're using more senses,
and it's probably well proven that the
more senses you involve, the more
likely you'll get the message through.
If you don't think color is important,
turn it off the next time you watch a
football game and see how you like
it. It's a feature that is going to quick-
ly find use in all applications, not just
in business.

Were you disappointed that so many
users were not getting the color dis-
play adapter for a while?
I wouldn't say that so many were not
getting it.

There was a study that said 90 per-
cent of the people were using just
the monochrome display.
I'm not going to comment on some-
body else's study. I know how many
are buying it.

Most IBM software seems to allow
users to make a limited number of
copies. Do you have any thoughts
about copy protection?

Do I ever. It's wrong to copy-protect
programs. The only reason anybody
does it is because there are thieves
who steal your product. That's
wrong, too. There ought to be some
way to stop that without creating
products that are unusable.
What do you think of having serial
numbers in the hardware match to
the software?

None of those techniques work.
There is no one who has a technique
for protecting against copying code
that works in all environments— hard
disks, communications, local-area
networks, single-user, easy-to-use, or
hard-to-use. I guarantee that what-
ever scheme you come up with will
take less time to break than to think
of it. I think theft is also a threat to
software development. It's going to
dry up the software. It's incredibly
difficult to write software, and peo-
ple are going to stop doing it if they
can't get a legitimate return for their
efforts.

Are you satisfied with the market
success of operating systems other
than PC-DOS— CP/M-86 and the
UCSD Pascal p-System?
We came out with three operating

systems because we couldn't figure
out where the propensity would be;
we wanted customers to decide that.
Why were CP/M-86 and UCSD
Pascal so much more expensive than
PC-DOS?

You'd have to talk to Softech Micro-
systems, which did the research.
Was the price determined by Softech
Microsystems' licensing agreements
with you?
Yes.

What do you think about Digital
Research's recent moves to cut the
price?

You'd have to talk to them.
Have you looked at any of the up-
and-coming languages, such as
Logo?

We've announced Logo for our ma-
chine, to be available in the fourth
quarter.

Do you think that's a good package?
I think it's terrific. What we have on
our machine is really dazzling. It's
been a lot of fun to experiment while
we were developing it. I don't know
how to project its popularity, but I've
had a lot of fun with it.
Why did you decide to put Logo on
the machine?

Because people in the education in-
dustry said they needed it.
Have you used it yourself?
I use everything we're producing.
Do you have a machine in your
office and at home?
Yes, to both. I prepare letters at home.
I have some bookkeeping informa-
tion. We have a few investments that
I like to pretend I can manage. I play
games. I use it as a way to see every
package we're developing and plan-
ning to introduce.
Do you use non-IBM software?
All the time.

Do you care to say which?
No, but I get my hands on as much
of it as I can and see what it looks
like.

Do you think other people are devel-
oping good software?
Absolutely. They sure are.
Are you pleased that a certain sub-
culture is growing up around your
machine?

I love it. I think we're in an era in
which the public has adopted per-
sonal computing in the same way it

96 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

adopted the automobile. People want
to know everything they can about it.
That era will probably pass, but that
curiosity is almost sensational right
now, and I think it's good.
Can we expect to see the same kind
of shakeout that happened in auto-
mobiles?

Logic tells you that it has to happen.
But logic also predicted the industry
wouldn't sell one and a half million
personal computers until 1985, and
the industry surpassed that last year.
So who knows what's going to
happen?

Has IBM been surprised at the suc-
cess of the PC?

I think the world's been surprised by
the success, but not just about the
IBM machine; I'm talking about per-
sonal computing as a phenomenon.
All the industry reports you could
find in 1980 projected one and a half
million in unit sales [of personal com-
puters] in 1985. You could have called
Future Computing or Dataquest or
anyone else and they would have told
you much the same thing. We don't
have a crystal ball that is better
calibrated than anybody else's.
It seems that you have the same
problem — forecasting — that most
people have in this explosive mar-
ket; it's an imprecise art.
It's not that you can't predict what
will happen in those areas that you
understand. The problem lies in the
very thing that makes this product
family popular— its application to
completely unknown uses. That's ex-
citing, but it's also the very thing that
makes the business totally unpredic-
table. [See "The Perils of Fore-
casting."]

Are customers for larger IBM com-
puters moving to buy PCs as well?
They're doing it in great numbers.
Will that fundamentally change any-
thing in your relationship with those
customers?

I think we're providing them with the
solution that they want, and that's
what they expect of IBM, so I don't
think that's a fundamental change.
Is the existence of so many dis-
tributed personal computers going
to change data processing as we
know it?
No, but I think it will involve a lot of

The Perils of Forecasting

IBM's Estridge explains how his divi-
sion's forecasting procedure works in the
following manner.

Each quarter', IBM asks everyone who
is selling the PC, including IBM's direct
sales force and dealers, for a projection of
purchases for two periods: the next quarter
and the three quarters following it. In Oc-
tober 1982, for example, the division asked
customers how many systems they expected
to buy for the period from January through
March, 1983. "We're kind of asking for a
commitment," Estridge says of the process,
"although no contractual penalty is at-
tached to it."

Then IBM asked these customers what
they expect to buy for March through
December, 1983. "We do that every single
quarter by product. It's pretty boring, but
we do it with all the people who sell our
products," Estridge says.

When customers returned in January of
this year', ostensibly to talk about their

system needs for April 1983 and beyond,
they wanted to talk about January through
March all over again. They doubled their
orders for that first quarter. "They told us
that they'd given us the wrong numbers,
and the numbers were low by a factor of
two since October 1982," Estridge says.
"Then the same darn thing happened
again in March, when we were supposed
to be talking about July thrvugh September.
We can only handle so many factors of
two," Estridge says. "We've upped our pro-
duction rate three times this year; produc-
tion is very high. We're extremely pleased
that we can build a quality product at that
rate, but it's not enough. The demand is
increasing at a very fast rate, and we're do-
ing everything we can to stay with that
demand. But if the demand keeps on go-
ing at these rates," Estridge warns, "at
some point there won't be any more parts.
We're not there yet, but we can see where
it is from here."

people who aren't now involved.
Can you characterize sales of the per-
sonal computer through different
distribution channels?

I could, but I don't want to: That in-
formation is important to us in run-
ning our business, but not important
to anyone else.

We have heard that some IBM direct-
sales people inadvertently have
undercut a dealer's price.
I think you could hear the other side
just as easily. For every story you can
tell me about a dealer feeling that he
lost a sale to an IBM direct salesman,
I can tell you about a salesman who
thinks he lost a sale to a dealer, so we
probably have it about right. I think
there's another phenomenon that's
new in this equation, and it may be
particularly unique to IBM personal
computers. Every other IBM product
prior to the personal computer was
available only through IBM sales-
men. IBM customers were never
faced with the question of support
versus product because they both
came via the same organization. Now
the customer can distinguish support
of the product. That's an adjustment
that all of the distribution channels
are going through. The customer

now has to participate in a two-step
decision: determining what product
he wants and from whom to buy it.
We wouldn't be doing our jobs if we
didn't ask about a "Peanut" machine
or any extension to this product line.
Call the Wall Street Journal. They're the
only ones I know of who have writ-
ten about the Peanut.
How about "Popcorn?"
They've written about that, too. I
think it's fascinating that they de-
cided to get into product design.
Did they seem well informed?
I have no idea.
Well, we had to try.

Estridge finally alluded to the inevit-
ability of follow-up products in summing
up his thoughts about the IBM PC. He
characterizes the PC as having enough
horsepower and capacity to have a long
life cycle: "It's an affordable product,
there's a lot of software for it, it's easy to
use, and it can be extended. I'm comfort-
able that it will be around for a long time,
and it will probably be extended. It would
be silly not to follow it up. More impor-
tant, I think customers expect IBM to
follow it up."m

Lawrence J. Curran is BYTE's editor in chief.
Richard S. Shu ford is special projects editor.

November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

97

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Enhancing Screen Displays
for the IBM PC

This program takes full advantage of the PCs color and

monochrome monitors

You can purchase the IBM Personal
Computer (PC) with either a mono-
chrome or a color display, or you can
use both monitors on one system.
This article briefly compares the
features of both displays and demon-
strates how you can use a program
called Screen to take full advantage
of both monitors' capabilities and
simultaneously adapt them to your
own needs. This set of easy-to-use
enhancements is implemented as a
short resident routine that is trans-
parent to applications programs and
the DOS (disk operating system).

The two displays offered with the
IBM PC and the new PC XT can be
used in any of three configurations.
A system can, for example, be out-
fitted with the IBM monochrome
monitor that provides green charac-
ters on a black background with ex-
cellent resolution. Or you can choose
the IBM color monitor adapter that
provides color and graphics capabil-
ities; its characters, however, aren't as
well defined as those on the mono-
chrome display. The most advan-
tageous configuration, though, is to
set up both monitors on one system,
making each available for a wide
range of needs. Regardless of which
arrangement you choose, comfort
should be a major factor in your deci-
sion because prolonged use of a
difficult-to-read display can cause
such problems as eyestrain and
irritability.

Both displays are limited in terms
of user friendliness. Systems set up

by Tim Field

with the color monitor would be
more useful if operators could easily
change the foreground and back-
ground colors for text display. The in-
ability to change colors limits the user
to black-and-white text combinations
or the whim of the programmers
who designed a particular applica-
tions program. The ability to change
colors, on the other hand, provides
welcome variety and can relieve the
eyestrain that often results from ex-
tended use.

Such flexibility would also enable
you to adjust the color scheme to the
display's environment. A soft

Using the monochrome

monitor for reference,

you can create graphics

on the color display.

scheme, such as yellow on black,
would be easy to read at night,
whereas a bright setup, such as white
on blue, would be pleasant for a sun-
lit room. Changing the screen's col-
ors also makes it possible to enjoy a
three-color display for applications
programs that take advantage of the
PC's highlighting capabilities.

A choice of display schemes for the
monochrome display— the standard
video combination of green charac-
ters on a black background and
reverse video, black characters on
green, affords the same advantages
as those offered by the color moni-
tor—reduced eyestrain, the ability to

match the display to the operating
environment, and the opportunity to
work with personal preferences.

A system that incorporates both
color and monochrome monitors
could allow you to alternate between
two display types, thus doubling the
flexibility you have using individual
monitors. For example, you could
edit a program using the mono-
chrome display and then switch to
the color display for graphics output.
Or you could take advantage of a
type of dual-windowing capability,
setting up one screen to display text
or graphics and switching to the
other to perform another task, refer-
ring to the contents of the first screen
for guidance.

The Screen program presented
here makes the PC's displays easier
to use for both textual and graphics
applications by supplying these en-
hanced capabilities. Indeed, PC-DOS
2.0 does provide limited capability to
switch from a monochrome to a col-
or monitor using the MODE com-
mand; however, it requires that the
computer be under direct DOS con-
trol to make the switch. This means
any applications program you might
be running must be terminated to
take advantage of this capability.
Using Screen, however, you can
switch monitors at almost any time,
even while the PC is running an ap-
plications program. Another advan-
tage is that it's easy to use— you don't
need technical expertise to enhance
the displays' operations.

November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. 99

FUNCTIONS

INCREMENT FOREGROUND COLOR*
(ALTERNATE BETWEEN STANDARD
AND REVERSE VIDEO ON
MONOCHROME MONITOR.)

INCREMENT BACKGROUND COLOR*.
(ALTERNATE BETWEEN STANDARD
AND REVERSE VIDEO ON
MONOCHROME MONITOR.)

ALTERNATE BETWEEN 40- AND
80-COLUMN MODE. (VALID FOR
COLOR ADAPTER ONLY.)

keys Listing 1: A screen-enhancement program for the IBM PC.

000A

PAGE 64,132

TITLE SCREEN - IBM Display Enhanceaent. Copyright 1983 Tin Field
.RADIX 10
********************************************************************

Define interrupt vectors for both keyboard interrupt 16H and
screen interrupt 10H. Both in sequent 0.
i
I********************************************************************

KEYVECT SEGMENT AT
ORG 16H*4
KEYINT LABEL DWORD
KEYVECT ENDS

J Define KEYBOARD interrupt vector

SWITCH BETWEEN COLOR AND
MONOCHROME MONITORS.

0040
0040
0040

SCRVECT SEGMENT AT
ORG 10H*4
SCRINT LABEL DWORD
SCRVECT ENDS

Define SCREEN interrupt vector

REPAINT THE SCREEN WITH
CURRENT ATTRIBUTES.

;mmmt#m*»******m*m*#********m« ******* ttt#*ftttf ********

S

I Define constants

********************************************************************

NOTE-. THE COLOR SEQUENCE IS AS FOLLOWS:
BLACK, BLUE. GREEN, CYAN, RED,
MAGENTA. YELLOW, WHITE, BLACK. ETC.

Figure 1: Implement one of Screen's five func-
tions by pressing the Alt key and the key as-
signed to the display change you want to
make.

Design Goals

My initial design goals for Screen
included specific criteria. First, the
program must be easy to use, provid-
ing its functions at virtually any time,
without requiring the user to load
and run a special program to execute
every function. Second, the enhance-
ments must not interfere with the
normal workings of the PC; that is,
Screen should not obstruct the com-
puter's operation.

The program provided in listing 1
attains these goals. When you first
run Screen, it sets itself up to work
as though it were an internal part of
the DOS. It works automatically with
most applications programs that use
standard DOS and BIOS (basic in-
put/output system) screen and key-
board device handlers.

You initiate the program by merely
running it once after you power up
the PC or execute a system reset. (You
can also set up an AUTOEXEC.BAT
file to automatically invoke Screen on
system start-up. Consult the section
on batch files in the DOS manual.)
When first executed, Screen initial-

Text continued on page 110

= 0007
= 0410
= 000F
= 0007
= 0003

0100

0100

0100 E9 0300 R

0103 90

0104 46 43 50 21

0108

6800

010A

6A00

010C

6C00

010E

6E00

0110

nm

0112

011A R

0114

012A R

0116

011A R

0118

70

0119

FF

0000 0000

0002 0000

0006 0000

BH_VAL EQU 07h j Standard BfcH attribute sent to lonitor

EQUIPJLAS EQU 410h ; Area in RAH that contains EQUIPMENT status

CHKJODE EQU 15 ; Screen interrupt function to check lode

H0N0_H0DE EQU 7 ; Screen lode of 7 indicates ■onochroie

C0L0R_ADPT EQU 3 ; Modes froa to 3 are non-graphics color

********************************************************************

Start code area
********************************************************************

CODE SEGMENT PARA
ASSUME CS:C0DE

ORG 100h J Start code at offset 100h froi starting segient.
j (This leaves rood for DOS's work area

KEY PROC FAR

START:

; Initialization code... used only once, on systea startup

JMP INIT CODE j Call initialization routine

EVEN

VALIDCHK DB 'FCP!' ; used by INSTALL to check for valid SCREEN pgi

;fmmf#tmmm»fm*mtttttt#tftt*ttttm**ttttttttttttttftt*t

J

j Define storage areas and data structures

!

;Mmtmftftttfttfmtmmft**ftfttmtt*ftmttftttff*t*f*ftfttt*t*tft*

; Define keystroke scan codes for the five SCREEN functions

FOREJNC DH 6800h
BACKJNC DH 6A00h
C80_4~0 DH 6C00h
COL JON DH 6E00h
REPAINT DM 7000h

; Foreground increment

J Background increment

; 80x25 to 40x25 flip-flop key

; COLOR/MONO flip-flop key

; Repaint screen using current iode

CUR_M0DE DM COL80JREA ; Initialize starting *ode
MONO JET DM MONOJREA ; Pointer to nonochrone area
COLOR JET DH COLB0JREA ; Pointer to 'active' color area

SCRN ATTR DB 70h
SCRN MODE DB 255

; Current screen attribute
j Saves current screen iode

; Define structure used to contain infomation about 40 and I
; coluin color nodes as well as icnochroie iode.

S STRUC

CORNER DH

BF DH

EQUIP DH

MODE DM

S ENDS

; Defines COL/ROW count of characters for aonitor

; Colors of FORE and BACK

; Equipment setting

i AX value for setting iode of lonitor

Listing 1 continued on page 102

100 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

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102 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

Listing 1 continued:

011A 5019

011C 0107

01 IE 0020

0120 ^003

0122 2B19

0124 0107

0126 0010

0128 0091

012A 5019

012C 0007

012E 0030

0130 0017

0132
0132 EA

0137

0137 FB

0138

80 FC M

013B

75 F5

013D

IE

013E

53

013F

51

0140

52

0141

06

0142

57

0143

BC CB

0145

BE DB

0147

0147

9C

0148

BB 0133 R

014B

FF IF

014D

8B IE 0112 R

0151

38 06 010E R

0155

75 25

0157

3B IE 0114 R

015B

74 0D

015D

B3 3E 0114 R 00

0162

74 14

0164

8B IE 0114 R

0169

E8 0B

016A

016A

B3 3E 0116 R 00

016F

74 07

0171

8B IE 0116 R

0175

0175

E8 0201 R

0178

017B

B4 00

017A

EB CB

017C

017C

50

017D

53

017E

B4 0F

0180

CD 10

0182

5B

0183

3C 03

; Now, set up three screen structures with default conditions
COLB0_AREA S <5019h,0107h,20h,3> ; 80x25, White FORE, Blue BACK

COL40_AREA S <2819h,0107h,10h,l> ; 40x25, Brown FORE, Black BACK

M0N0_AREA S <5019h,0007h,30h,7> ; Monochroie, reverse video

5 NOTE: The standard BIOS ROM KEYBOARD interrupt routine is

i executed as a subroutine (using CALL DWORD PTR) if

J the interrupt Mas invoked to return a keystroke. Any

f other execution of KEYBOARDJO can be called as a

i siaple inline FAR JMP instruction. NOTE: The CALL

! instruction (see just after INT_LOOP label below) uses

i the address stored here at KEY CALL to KEYBOARD. 10.

KEY„CALL :

DB 0EAH ; Far JMP address to KEYBOARD interrupt

DM 0,0 ;

ft******************************************************************

Procedure KEYRTNE - Intercepts keyboard interrupt and deter-
mines if the keystroke is one of the five SCREEN ones.

************ ******* ** ** *********************************************

KEY rtne:

ASSUME DS:CODE

STI ;

Turn on interrupts

CMP AH f ;

CALL as subroutine if keyfetch

JNE KEY_CALL ;

Juip to KEYBOARDJO if not

PUSH DS ;

Save DS and BX froi destruction

PUSH BX ;

PUSH CX

PUSH DX

PUSH ES

PUSH DI

MOV BX,CS ;

Move CS segnent into DS

MOV DS.BX ;

INT loop:

pushf ;

IBM keyboard proc expects interrupt call

MOV BX, OFFSET KEY CALL+1 ;

Get address to ROM code for keyboard

CALL DWORD PTR [BX] 1

Call keyboard routine

MOV BX,CUR_MODE 5

Get current »ode address

CMP AX, COL MON ;

See if COLOR(->MONO flip-flop key

JNE TEST_FORE

Exit if not

; Otherwise, flip-flop screen node

CMP BX,MOMO_SET

Are we looking at aonochroie?

JE SET COLOR ;

Swap in color if yes

CMP MONO_SET,0

See if »onochroie lonitor enabled

JE NEXT KEY 5

Ignore couand if not

MOV BX,MONO_SET

Othernise set up aonochroiB

JMP SHORT DO_CHS i

SET COLOR:

CMP COLOR SET,0 ;

See if COLOR aonitor enabled

JE NEXT KEY

Skip if not

MOV BX,COLOR_SET ;

Set up for color

DO chg:

CALL SCREEN_CHG

Iipleient screen change

NEXT KEY:

MOV AH, ;

Set up to fetch keystroke

JMP INTJ.OOP

Fetch next key input

TEST FORE:

PUSH AX

Save registers.

PUSH BX

See if in GRAPHICS lode

MOV AH,CHK_MODE

INT 10H

POP BX

Restore BX register

CMP AL,COLOR_ADPT

If between and 3, not graf

Listing 1 continued on page 104

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Listing 1 continued:

0165 7E 08

JLE

NOTJRAF

0187 3C 07

CMP

AL.HONO hode

Nonochroie lode

0169 7D 04

J6E

NOTJRAF

0166 56

POP

AX

Restore stack

01BC EB 6C 90

J HP

DONE

If Color-6raphics ■ode, do not
change todes.

018F

N0T_6RAF:

018F 58

POP

AX

Restore AX

0190 38 06 0108 R

CHP

AX,FOREJNC

Is this key to increment FORE?

0194 75 16

JNE

TEST JACK 5

Skip if not

0196 3B IE 0116 R

CMP

BX, COLOR JET

See if currently using color

019A 75 2D

JNE

BKJLOP j

If not, go deal with BM

019C BB 47 02

MOV

AX,[BX].BF

Sets BACK in AL, FORE in AH

019F

EQ_FQRE:

019F FE C0

INC

AL

Increaent FOREGROUND color

01A1 24 07

AND

AL, 7

Keep it within bounds

01A3 3A C4

CMP

AL,AH

See if sale as background

01A5 74 FB

JE

EQJORE

Increment again if yes

01A7 89 47 02

MOV

[BX].BF,AX

Save back to structure

01AA EB C9

JHP

DOJHG

Redraw screen

01AC

TEST JACK

01AC 3B 06 MA R

CMP

AX, BACK INC

Is this key to increaent BACK?

01B0 75 21

JNE

TEST REPAINT

Skip if not

0JB2 3B IE 0116 R

CMP

BX, COLOR SET ;

See if currently using color

0166 75 11

JNE

BWJLOP

If not, go deal with B&W

01B8 BB 47 02

MOV

AX,IBX3.BF ;

6ets BACK in AL, FORE in AH

01BB

eb.back:

01BB FE C4

INC

AH

Increment BACKGROUND color

01BD 80 E4 07

AND

AH, 7

Keep it within bounds

01C0 3A E9

CHP

AH.AL

see if saie as foreground

01C2 74 F7

JE

EBJACK

Increment again if yes

01C4 69 47 02

MOV

[BX].BF,AX

Save back to structure

01C7 EB AC

JHP

D0JH6

Redraw screen

01C9

bhjlop:

! Flip-flop BfcW ■onitor

01C9 BB 47 02

MOV

AXJBXJ.BF

BACK in AH, FORE in AL

01CC B6 E0

XCH6AH.AL

Swap

01CE 89 47 02

MOV

rBXLBF.AX

restore

01D1 EB A2

JMP

DO JHG ;

Repaint screen

01D3

test_repaint:

01D3 3B 06 0110 R

CHP

AX, REPAINT ;

Is this key to repaint screen?

01D7 74 9C

JE

D0JH6

If yes, repaint

01D9

TEST_80_40:

01D9 3B 06 010C R

CHP

AX,CB0_40 i

Is the B0-40 flop key pressed?

01DD 75 IB

JNE

DONE

Exit if not

01DF 81 FB 0122 R

CHP

BX, OFFSET COL40 AREA

Is current pointer area 40x25?

01E3 75 05

JNE

TSTB0

Skip if not

01E5 BB 011A R

HOV

BX, OFFSET COL80JREA ;

Otherwise, flip to B0x25

01E8 EB 09

JMP

SHORT SAVEJOL

Save to COLOR JET

01EA

TSTB0:

01EA Bl FB 011A R

CHP

BX, OFFSET COLB0JREA j

Is current B0x25 color?

01EE 75 88

JNE

NEXT_KEY

Ignore key if not

01F0 BB 0122 R

HOV

BX, OFFSET COL40JREA i

01F3

save_col:

01F3 B9 IE 0116 R

HOV

COLOR JET, BX

Save to COLOR JET

01F7 E9 016A R

JHP

SETJOLOR

Iotplenent

01FA

DONE:

01FA 5F

POP

Dl

01FB 07

POP

ES

01FC 5A

POP

DX

01FD 59

POP

CX

01FE 5B

POP

BX

01FF IF

POP

DS

0200 CF

IRET

Return frot interrupt

0201

KEY ENDP

i Done with lain routine f!

0201

*t*it*mtmtttttttttmttfttttt*H*Hmft*m*m*tt*fttt#*tt**t«#ttttmtt

SCREEN JHG - Changes current lonitor screen iode

Inputs: BX points to current tonitor structure

tftttttttttftftttMt**mtttttt*mmt«#***m**ft*mtt«tt*4tftmtftt*ttm*t«

SCREEN JHG PROC NEAR

Listing 1 continued on page 106

104 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

IBM put everything
intheXT...except backup

New From CORVUS. The IBM Mirror
Card permits the connection of your IBM
XT or PC to a low-cost video cassette
recorder for storing of up to 73 MB of
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User Proven Using field-proven
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*•

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IBM, IBM PC, IBM XT are trademarks of IBM Corporation. Corvus,
Corvus Systems, Mirror® (patent 4,380,047) , are trademarks or
registered trademarks of Corvus Systems, Inc.

Circle 116 on inquiry card.

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Listing 1 continued:

0201

B8 0000

0204

8E C0

0206

26: Al 0410

020A

24 CF

020C

0B 47 04

020F

26: A3 0410

0213

89 IE 0112 R

0217

8B 57 02

021A

Bl 04

021C

D2 E6

021E

0A F2

0220

88 36 0118 R

0224

8B 47 06

0227

3A 06 0119 R

022B

74 05

022D

A2 0119 R

0230

CD 10

0232

0232

0235
0236

EB 0236 R
C3

0236

0236
023A
023C
023D
023E
0241
0243
0245
0247
0249
024A
0243
024B
024D
0250
0252

0254
0256
025B
0259
025B
025E

81 FB 0114 R

74 0F

50

53

8B 5F 02

8A DF

B7 00

B4 0B

CD 10

5B

58

8B 07
A3 02BE R
B4 0F
CD If

B4 03

CD 10

52

33 D2

B9 0001

8A IE 0118 R

0262

0262 B4 02

0264 CD 10

0266 B4 08

0268 CD 10

026A

60 E4 88

026D

80 E3 77

0270

0A DC

0272

B4 09

0274

CD 10

0276

FE C2

027B

3A 16 02BF R

027C

7E E4

027E

32 D2

0280

FE C6

0282

3A 36 028E R

0286

7E DA

0288

5A

0289

B4 02

MOV AX,0

; Get segient address to EQUIP_FLAG

MOV ES,AX

5 in RAH leiory

MOV AX,ES:EQUIP_FLA6

; Set set of EQUIP flags

AND AL,0CFh

; Get rid of current lonitor flag

OR AX, [BX]. EQUIP

; Set up neM lonitor flag

MOV ESlEQUIP FLAG,AX

; Save back in RAM

MOV CUR_MODE,BX

; Indicate neM iode

; No*, set up attribute for

foreground and background

NOV DX,[BX].BF

; Set both FORE and BACK in DX

MOV CL, 4

5 Shift count

SHL DH,CL

; Shift BACK into upper nibble

OR DH,DL

; love FORE into IoMer nibble

NOV SCRN_ATTR,DH

; Save results

; See if Me need to reset lonitor (snitching to neM lonitor?)

MOV AX, [BX]. MODE

; Get iode

CMP AL,SCRN_HODE

; Coipare with current iode

JE SET ATTR

; Skip if sane

MOV SCRN MODE,AL

; Otherwise, save current aode

INT 10h

; And reset to new lonitor

set_attr:

; Change attributes of current screen
CALL CH ATTR 5 Changes attributes

RET
SCREEN_CHG ENDP

mffffffffffff*fmmftffft»ttftffff«ftt**iftfftfftftfftft**ftff*fttttfrtttftf*

CHATTR - Repains active screen so that every character on
current screen is displayed with the new attributes

Inputs : BX points to current aonitor structure

mftfmm*imff**ffftttfftHtft*f*ftfmt»ftft*ftf*«tfttttfft*m**fmt«tttt

CH_ATTR PROC
; See

cup

JE

PUSH
PUSH
MOV
MOV
MOV
MOV
INT
POP
POP
NOJORDER:
MOV
MOV
MOV
INT
; BH
MOV
INT
PUSH
XOR
MOV
MOV

REPJUTR:
MOV
INT
MOV
INT
; AH
AND
AND
OR
MOV
INT
INC
CMP
JLE
XOR
INC
CMP
JLE

NEAR
if Me need to draw in border for color iode

BX, OFFSET MONO JET

NO.BDRDER

AX

BX

BX, [BX3.BF

BL, BH

BH,0

AH, 11

10H

BX

AX

AX, [BX]. CORNER ;

CORNR,AX ;

AH,CHKJ10DE ;

10h J
contains active page

AH, 3 5

10h ;

DX ;

DX,DX ;

cx,l ;

BL.SCRN ATTR ;

AH, 2
10h
AH, 8
10h

In Color?

Do not Morry about border if not

Save registers

Get background color in BL

Select border coloring
Interface to Set Color Palette
Execute screen interrupt
Restore registers

Set COL and RON for current
Save in teiporary
Get page nuiber

Save current cursor posn

Save position on stack
Load DX Mith
Set up replication count
Set current attribute

Set cursor position

Read next character

contains current character attribute

AH,88h

BL,77h

BL,AH

AH, 9

lfh

DL

DL.TCOL

REP_ATTR

DL,DL

DH

DH,TROW

REP ATTR

Get intensity bit
Hake sure attribute intensity off
Coibine to get current attribute
Write out char with new attribute

Are Me done Mith this coluirt?

POP DX
MOV AH, 2

; Otherwise zero out DL

; Hove to next row

; Done with screen?

I Loop until done

; Restore original cursor position

i

Listing 1 continued on page 108

106 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

mm^

^S5

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Circle 475 on inquiry card.

Exclusive six-function card
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The TITAN™ is the only expansion
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Let us help you expand your IBM's
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Sales and Marketing by The MARKETING
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BJ Titan

" ^ — TECHNOLOGIES, INC.

^^^n^^^^^^V FORMERLY SATURN SYSTEMS OF MICHIGAN

IBM P C and X T are registered trademarks o f International
Business Machines Corp.

TITAN, PSEUDO-DISK, PSEUDO-PRINT, WHATIME, and
HARDISK are trademarks of Titan Technologies. Inc.

108 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

Listing

1 continued:

028B CD

10

INT tlh i

028D C3

RET

028E

CORNR LABEL WORD

02BE 00

TROH DB ; Temporary store for ROW

02BF 00

TCOL DB 5 teip store for COL

0290

CH_ATTR ENDP

02B1
02B1 EA

02B2 0000 %m

02B6

;**ttttfttttttttftHtt*ftmtfttt*ftftttftttfttttt*«#tttttHtttttfttt*ttftt*tttttt

!

i SCRJTNE - Replaces SCREEN interrupt so that it can intercept

; BlrH character writes and change attributes

i

;tmtmti*ttttmtfHttft#Htfmmfmt#»ttmtmtftm»*HttHtttt*»f**

0290

SCR_RTNE PROC NEAR

ASSUME DSICODE

0291

FB

STI

0291

IE

PUSH DS

0292

0E

PUSH CS

0293

IF

POP DS

0294

80 FC 06

CHP AH, 6

0297

7C 17

JL NORNAL_SCR

0299

80 FC 07

CMP AH, 7

029C

7F 06

J6 N0T_SCR0LL

029E

SCROLL

029E

EB 0286 R

CALL 6ET_CH

02A1

EB 0D 90

JMP NORMAL JCR

02A4

NOTJCROLL:

02A4

80 FC 09

CMP AH, 9

02A7

75 07

JNE NORMAL_SCR

02A9

B6 FB

XCH6 BH,BL

02AB

EB 02B6 R

CALL 6ET_CH

02AE

B6 FB

KCH6 BH,B~L

02B0

norhal_scr:

02B0

IF

POP DS

; Save Data Segient register

; Move CS segient into DS

!

J Spot SCROLL UP and SCROLL DOWN calls

For scrolling, update attribute
Now, execute scroll

; Check for 'WRITE ATTRIBUTE/CHAR' c»d

; Send out any other coeiand as norial

; Get attribute in BL

; Update attribute for coitand

; Move attribute back to BH for cid

; Restore DS segment register

NOTE: We are now ready to invoke the BIOS screen interrupt.

Since the ROM code includes an IRET interrupt return call,
all Me need to do is to jusp to the start of the ROM code
and all Mill be Mell. Since the initialization code set
up the address to the screen interrupt code below, Me can
set up a forced juip to that address,

JHP SCR:

DB 0EAH

DW 0,0

SCR RTNE ENDP

Address to SCREEN interrupt

Force a FAR JMP but do not set up dest-
ination address at assembly tile.
(INIT routine Mill set this address)

;fttftftt*ttftfftH*ttiHtmttfttfttftfttfttftt*tttfftttt**ttttttmt*tt*ttfttttttm

i 6ET_CH - Subroutine replaces B&W character with current replaceient

i attributes and alloMs for Intensity bit setting

I

; INPUTS : BH contains attribute to be ■odified

!
;mttttmttttfttmmtttttttt«#ttttttttt«fttf«ftmttttftt*tttt*t*tttt*fttf*t

02B6

6ET_CH PROC NEAR

02B6

BB 3E 02CE R

MOV

SAVECH,BH !

Save character

02BA

80 E7 77

AND

BH,77h !

Reiove intensity and blink bits

02BD

B0 FF 07

CMP

BH.BW.VAL !

See if currently defined B4W value

02CU

BA 3E 02CE R

MOV

BH, SAVECH !

Otherwise, lodify to current attri

02C4

75 07

JNE

OUT ;

Exit if not

02C6

B0 E7 BB

AND

BH,B8h ;

Get rid of B&W part

02C9

0A 3E 0118 R

OR

*H,SCRN_ATTP

; Move in current attribute part

02CD

out:

02CD

C3

RET

i

done

02CE

30

SAVECH DB 1

Temporary character store

ei'CF

6ET_CH ENDP

02CF

LASTONE: ; All code after this label is freed to DOS use after
i initialization of the prograi.

;m<tttmttfftttt*tttttfttttttttttttitttttttt*tttttf*ttttttt#f ************

INIT_CODE - Code to load and initialize the SCREEN prograi...
sets up DOS to keep all code before 'LASTONE 1
safe froi overlaying during systea operation.

label

Listing 1 continued on page 110

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VC-EXPAND software is written by Micro Solutions, Inc.
Neptune and PSEUDO-DISK are trademarks of Titan
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110 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

Listing 1 continued:

!

;tffffftttfHttfttffftff«fftffttf«f«tttfff**t#tf*f*fHH«fffffftftHftft*ffftf

02CF

53 43 52 45 45 4E

COPYRT: DB 'SCREEN Version 1.20 Copyright 19B3 Til Field', 13, 10, T

20 20 56 65 72 73

69 6F 6E 20 31 2E

32 30 20 20 43 6F

70 79 72 69 67 6B

74 20 31 39 3B 33

20 54 69 6D 20 46

69 65 6C 64 0D 0A
24

03M

INIT_C0DE PROC NEAR

1 Initialize KEYBOARD intercept code

ASSUME es:keyvect

'VECTORS' is interrupt segient

0301

BB — ~ R

MOV AX,KEYVECT

Get address to interrupt vector

8303

BE C0

MOV ES,AX

Save in ES

0305

26: A I 0058 R

MOV AX,ES:KEYINT

Get address to interrupt rtne

0309

BB 0133 R

MOV BX, OFFSET KEY.CALL+I

Address to place tD save vector

030C

B9 07

MOV [BX3,AX

Save interrupt address

030E

26: Al 005A R

MOV AX,ES:KEYINT[23

Get interrupt segient for rtne

0312

B9 47 02

MOV [0X+2],AX

Save it too

0315

26: C7 06 005B R 0137 R

MOV ESIKEYINT, OFFSET KEYJTNE

Now, replace with Dun address

031C

8C C8

MOV AX,CS

Save segient in interrupt vector

031E

26: A3 005A R

MOV ES:KEYINT[2J,AX

; Initialize SCREEN intercept code

ASSUME ES'.SCRVECT

; 'VECTORS' is interrupt segient %

0322

BB R

MOV AX,SCRVECT

Get address to interrupt vector

0325

BE C0

MOV ES,AX

; Save in ES

0327

26: Al 0040 R

MOV AX,ES:SCRINT

Get address to interrupt rtne

032B

BB 02B2 R

MOV BX, OFFSET JHPJCR+1

; Address to place to save vector

032E

B9 07

MOV [BX],AX

Save interrupt address

0330

26: Al 0042 R

MOV AX,ES:SCRINH2]

; Get interrupt segient for rtne

0334

B9 47 02

MOV [BX+2],AX

Save it too

0337

26: C7 06 0040 R 0290 R

MOV ES:SCRINT,OFFSET SCR JUNE

; Nom, replace with own address

033E

BC CB

MOV AX,CS

Save segient in interrupt vector

0340

26: A3 0042 R

MOV ES:SCR1NT[23,AX
5 Initialize screen

0344

8B IE 0112 R

MOV &X,CUR_M0DE

; Set up initial iode

0346

E8 0201 R

CALL SCREEN_CH6

; Initialize

; Now, print out acknowledgement to

user lonitor and exit

034B

8C C8

MOV AX,CS

; Set up segeent to this routine

034D

BE DB

MOV DS,AX

i

034F

BA 02CF R

MOV DX, OFFSET COPYRT

; Now, print out copyright aessage

0352

B4 09

MOV AH,9

» DOS function to print string

0354

CD 21

INT 21h

; Execute function interrupt

0356

BA 02CF R

MOV DX, OFFSET LASTONE

; Save all code up to "LASTONE" label

0359

CD 27

INT 27H

; No return needed.

035B

INIT_CODE ENDP

035B

CODE ENDS
END START

Text continued from page 100

izes the system display(s) according
to the system's preset state.

Screen then uses DOS to become
resident in the system. When you
subsequently execute other programs
and DOS functions, Screen is not
disturbed. It remains in the PC's
RAM (random-access read/write
memory), waiting for you to request
one of its functions.

Screen Functions

You invoke each Screen function
via one combined-keystroke entry.
Figure 1 illustrates the use of the five
functions.

You enter the keystrokes by holding

down the Alt key and simultaneously
pressing the specified function key.
As soon as Screen detects these key-
strokes, it implements the function
requested.

The first two functions that are
listed, <AltFl> and < Alt F3>, in-
crement or change the color of the
foreground and background on a col-
or monitor's screen. Eight colors are
available for either area: black, blue,
green, cyan, red, magenta, yellow,
and white. When you invoke either
of these two functions, the fore-
ground or background changes from
its present color to the next one in
this list. The list wraps around so that

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the color choice after white goes back
to black. The foreground or back-
ground of the display is actually "re-
painted" with whatever color is
requested.

If you could choose the same col-
ors for the foreground and back-
ground, the text display would be in-
visible. Thus, Screen does not fulfill
such a request. Consequently, 56 col-
or combinations are available for the
foreground/background scheme of
the PC color display. If you are using
the monochrome monitor and invoke
either of these functions, the display
merely flips from reverse to normal
video, or vice versa.

The <Alt F7> keystroke permits
you to alternate between the color
and monochome monitors, making
either one active. For example, if all
text and output is going to the color
monitor, pressing <Alt F7> leaves
that monitor unchanged and clears
the monochrome monitor, making it
active. Subsequent output then goes
to the monochrome screen. Pressing
< Alt F7> again reverses the process,
reactivating the color monitor.

The <Alt F9> keystroke causes
the active screen to be repainted with
the currently specified attributes.
This feature is needed after running
certain DOS commands or applica-
tions programs that reset the screen
to black and white. The DOS MODE
command is an example.

Screen's Operation

The Screen program found in
listing 1 is a 600-byte assembly-lan-

Screen consists of three

functional blocks:

program initialization,

screen interception,

and keyboard

interception.

guage program designed to take ad-
vantage of the PC's f lexible-interrupt
structure. It consists of three func-
tional blocks: program initialization,
screen interception, and keyboard in-
terception. The program's initializa-
tion portion is found in the

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112 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

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INIT CODE subroutine. This rou-
tine serves three purposes: initiating
execution of both the screen- and
keyboard-intercept code, setting up
the system display(s) in the default
mode, and telling DOS that Screen
is to remain resident in RAM.

The two interception blocks per-
form the operations the program
supports. The screen-interception
segments actually intercept text char-
acters as they are sent to either the
color or monochrome screen and
make the necessary alterations on
their "attributes." (A character at-
tribute specifies things about that
character, such as color, and whether
it is to be blinking or underlined.)
Likewise, the keyboard-interception
feature intercepts keystrokes received
from the keyboard, watching for and
executing Screen's five function key-
strokes. The keyboard- and screen-
intercept blocks are independent pro-
cesses that share data structures and
variables. The structures define the
current state of the display.

The screen-intercept block consists
of the SCR_RTNE and GET_CH
subroutines in listing 1. This code in-
tercepts any screen interrupts meant
for the IBM BIOS screen handler (see
"The IBM PC Screen Interrupt" on
page 196) and checks to see whether
text is being sent to one of the
screens.

If text is being sent, SCR_RTNE
examines the text-character attribute
to see if it specifies a black-and-white
character. If so, the attribute is re-
placed with the current Screen attri-
bute for that display. For example, if
Screen is currently displaying text
with a white character on a blue
background, any black-and-white
text attribute is replaced with the
white-on-blue attribute. The text
character is then sent on to the BIOS
screen driver for printing on the
display.

The keyboard-intercept code in-
cludes the listing 1 subroutines
KEY_RTNE, SCREEN_CHG, and
CH AI1K. The purpose of the func-
tional block of code made up of these
subroutines is to intercept any ROM
(read-only memory) BIOS keyboard
interrupts (see "The IBM PC Key-
board Interrupt" on page 114).

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The IBM PC Screen Interrupt

The IBM PC uses a memory-mapped ap-
proach to support adapters for the mono-
chrome and color/graphics monitors, re-
serving two separate chunks of its 1-mega-
byte memory for the adapter's. In text mode,
the contents of each byte in those memory
areas specify one character displayed on the
screen. The monochrome adapter contains
4K bytes of RAM and begins at address
BOOOO hexadecimal. (All addresses to
follow are hexadecimal.) The color/graph-
ics card contains 16K bytes of RAM, begin-
ning at B8000.

The obvious method of writing text to
either monitor is by merely writing the ap-
propriate ASCII (American National Stan-
dard Code for Information Interchange)
values in one monitor's memory space. For
example, if you move the value 65 to mem-
ory location B800:0000, the character "A'
appears on the upper-left corner of the
screen. This method of writing text can be
extremely efficient, especially given the
ability of the 8088 processor to do block
moves, allowing you to write character
strings to one of the displays using a single
machine instruction.

If the PCs designers had simply left to
each applications program the job of using
this memory -mapped structure for access-
ing the displays, a number of problems
would have occurred. For example, how
does a program know which of the two
monitors to write to? For that matter, how
can the program determine whether the
system has both monitors? (While this is
easily determined, do we really want every
program to have to embed the code needed
to find out?) And what about the graphics
capabilities of the color adapter; must each
program check whether the display is in
text mode or graphics mode?

This memory-mapped approach to writ-
ing text requires a hardware-specific solu-
tion. All programs written for the PC
using this technique require that the mem-

ory-map space of both adapters remains un-
changed. Furthermore, the specific hard-
ware of the adapters must not change so
that current display modes and other vital
information can be determined from the
display chips themselves.

Fortunately, the PC provides an alter-
native for interfacing to the display screens.
The ROM BIOS code contains an inter-
rupt handler called VIDEO— 10 (INT 10),
which performs a number of screen tasks
for DOS and other application programs.

This interrupt handler provides an in-
terface between programs and both dis-
plays, and the interface knows of only one
active display at any given time. If the color
monitor is currently active, then all out-
put sent to VIDEO 10 is sent on the col-
or screen; likewise, if the monochrome
monitor is active, all output is sent there.
If the system has only one display, that one
is always active.

The VIDEO 10 interrupt handler pro-
vides numerous screen-oriented functions,
including:

• selecting the active monitor

• setting the mode of the color monitor
(i.e., 40 by 25 characters vs. 80 by 25 char-
acters and color vs. black and white)

• setting and reading the cursor position
of the active monitor

• reading the light-pen position of the color
monitor

• selecting the active display page of the
color monitor

•scrolling the active page up or down

• reading/writing a character and attribute
(the attribute of a character describes such
features as color, underlining, etc.)

• performing simple graphics operations
on the color monitor (for example, setting
a color palette, read/write dot, etc.)
•checking the current mode of the active
display

Using the VIDEO_IO Interrupt

Screen intercepts any interrupt meant for
VIDEO 10. In other words, when a pro-
cess executes the INT 10 instruction,
SCR— RTNE gets control of the PC.

SCR RTNE checks to see whether the

operation being requested of VIDEO 10

is a text-character write operation. If it's
not, SCR— RTNE immediately executes
VIDEO-JO. The result is that
SCR— RTNE does not affect the PCs
operation (except for the slight time delay
required to determine what SCR^RTNE
should do).

If, however, the operation requested is
a text-character write operation,
SCR— RTNE must act. It tests the at-
tribute of the character being written, and
if it determines that the attribute indicates
a black-and-white character is being sent
to VIDEO— 10, then SCR— RTNE simp-
ly replaces the black-and-white attribute
with the attribute that is currently active
in BASIC (white on blue, for example).

The character with the new attribute is
then sent on to VIDEO— IO, and the
result is a screen display of a different col-
or. SCR RTNE is careful not to change

any other parts of the character attribute.
For example, if the attribute signifies that
the character is to be highlighted, this
highlighting is not changed; the displayed
character is highlighted in color.

Note what happens if you run Screen
and then execute a program that uses the
memory-mapped text output. Because text
output does not come through

VIDEO 10, Screen never intercepts the

characters. As a result, Screen has no ef-
fect on programs that use this technique
for screen display.

KEY_J*TNE, upon intercepting an
interrupt, uses the BIOS keyboard
handler to fetch the next keystroke,
which is examined to see if it is one
of the five keystrokes that invoke a
Screen function.

If it is indeed a Screen function call,
KEY_RTNE handles the request.
The keystroke is then discarded, and

the BIOS keyboard handler is used
to fetch the next keystroke.

KEY_RTNE changes the data that
the keyboard- and screen-intercept
blocks share to reflect any change in
state. When you invoke one of the
Screen functions (by entering the ap-
propriate keystroke), KEY_RTNE
changes the visible current state of

the display(s) and then reflects the
new state in the shared data.

SCR RTNE changes only the at-
tributes of text characters being sent
to the display. The shared data speci-
fies which attributes are to be used
as well as the monitor to which text
is to be sent.

The data structures and variables

114 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

shared by the subroutines
KEY_RTNE and SCR^RTNE are
defined in listing 1. The basic struc-
ture is "S STRUC and specifies the
current state of each monitor. This
structure is used three times— to
define the states of the monochrome
monitor (MONO_AREA), the
80-column color monitor
(COL80_AREA), and the 40-column
color monitor (COM0_AREA).

Program Flexibility

Note in listing 1 the five variables
FORE_INC, BACK_INC, C80_40,
COL_MON, and REPAINT. These
variables contain the character codes
for the keystrokes <Alt Fl> to
<Alt F9>, which are assigned to
the five Screen functions.

By making these character-code
variables, Screen makes it easy to

Screen's start-up state
is a white-on-blue

scheme in an
80-column mode.

reassign the functions to any key-
strokes you want to use. For example,
if one of your applications programs
requires the use of the <Alt Fl>
keystroke, you can reassign the
INCREMENT FOREGROUND oper-
ation to another key by replacing the
<Alt Fl> character code in
FORE_INC.

Another feature that provides flex-
ibility is the default or start-up state;
as set up in listing 1, Screen initially
uses a white-on-blue scheme with
the color monitor in 80-column
mode. You can change the default
state by altering the appropriate vari-
able at the front of the program list-
ing.

Changes in Screen can be made by
using either the DOS Debug utility
or a program specifically designed for
this purpose. For example, I use a
menu-driven program called Install
that allows safe and simple modifica-
tion of Screen's keystrokes and
default conditions.

Intercepting Interrupts

The initialization of Screen by
INIT CODE must perform two vital

The IBM PC
Keyboard Interrupt

The IBM PC actually uses two keyboard
interrupts and associated ROM BIOS
handlers. The first is KB^LNT (INT 9).
This routine communicates with the key-
board's 8048 processor to convert scan
codes received from the keyboard into char-
acter codes. These character codes are then
placed in a keystroke buffer.

The transformation from scan to char-
acter code is quite complex. The state of
such keys as the shift, Caps Lock, Alt, or
Ctrl keys affects the resulting character

code. In addition, KB INT checks for

special key combinations, such as the Ctrl-
Alt-Del system-reset key combination and
the status of the Print Screen functions and
responds to them appropriately. (See
"Using IBM's Marvelous Keyboard," May
1983 BYTE, page 402, for more informa-
tion.)

The second keyboard interrupt, KEY-
BOARD_iO, is INT 16 hexadecimal. Its
main function is to check the keystroke buf-
fer (being filled by KB^NT) and wait un-
til a key is pressed. The next keystroke is
returned to the process invoking this in-
terrupt. (KEYBOARD_lO can also be
used to check the status of the keystroke
buffer and return notice if some character
is available.)

The general flow of operations is as fol-
lows: the 8048 processor on the keyboard
notices when a key is pressed and sends an
appropriate scan code to the computer.

KB INT receives this scan code and con-
verts it to the appropriate character code,
which it places in the keystroke buffer.

Subsequently, when a process (such as
DOS or BASIC or some applications pro-
gram) wants to fetch a keystroke, it executes
an INT 16, invoking KEYBOARD_IO.
KEYBOARD_JO checks the keystroke
buffer until it finds a character code. The
code is removed from the buffer and sent
to the calling process.

Screen's keyboard intercept routine
KEY_JiTNE uses the KEYBOARD ^10
interrupt handler. KEY^RTNE is set up
to receive control any time a process re-
quests an INT 16, thus intercepting the
keyboard interrupt.

When it receives control, KEY_RTNE

immediately executes KEYBOARD 10 as

a subroutine, regaining control when
KEYBOARD_lO returns with a key-
stroke. KEY RTNE then compares the

keystroke returned with those that are
assigned to the five Screen functions.

If a match is not found, KEY_RTNE
returns from the interrupt, sending the
keystroke it received from KEY-
BOARD 10 back to the originating pro-
cess. However, if KEY RTNE finds a

match, the appropriate Screen function is
executed, the matching keystroke is dis-
carded, and KEY _RTNE again calls KEY-
BOARD _JO to fetch another keystroke
from the keyboard.

tasks. First, it must set up
KEY_RTNE and SCR_RTNE to in-
tercept the appropriate keyboard and
screen interrupts. Second, it must
supply those two subroutines with
the addresses of the ROM interrupt
handlers they replace so that Screen
can use the ROM code.

The PC's interrupt structure makes
it fairly simple to replace an interrupt-
handler routine with one of your
own design. (See "A Peek into the
IBM PC/' March 1983 BYTE, page 331,
for a general discussion of this inter-
rupt structure.)

INIT_CODE gets the addresses to
the ROM interrupt handlers by look-
ing into the appropriate slots in the

interrupt vector table. These ad-
dresses are saved in storage areas in

Screen for later use by KEY RTNE

and SCR_J*TNE. INIT_CODE then

moves the addresses of KEY RTNE

and SCR_RTNE into the interrupt
vector table so they can intercept the
appropriate interrupts.

It is interesting to look at how
KEY_RTNE and SCR_RTNE use
the saved addresses of the BIOS
ROM keyboard- and screen-interrupt
handlers. Two techniques are used
to interface with the ROM code. The
first technique executes the ROM
code as a subroutine, allowing the
caller to regain control after the ROM
code has been completed. The sec-

November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. U5

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ond technique simply " jumps' ' to
the ROM code as if it were in-line
code, permitting the ROM code to
return directly to the interrupts
origin.

For KEY_RTNE to examine the
keystroke returned by the ROM key-
board interrupt handler, it must re-
gain control when the ROM code is
finished. It takes control by executing
the ROM keyboard interrupt handler
as a subroutine, using the standard
CALL instruction.

When invoked as a subroutine, the
interrupt handler executes and,
when finished, returns via an IRET
(interrupt return) instruction.
KEY RTNE must therefore perform

The keyboard- and

screen-intercept blocks

share data structures

and variables.

a PUSHF (push flags) operation im-
mediately prior to the FAR CALL
subroutine call in order to account for
the automatic POPF (pop flags) that
the IRET does.

SCR RTNE completes its function

of mapping a black-and-white text
character into the appropriate char-
acter attribute before it executes the
ROM screen-interrupt handler. Be-
cause SCR RTNE need not regain

control after the ROM code is fin-
ished, it can execute the ROM code
as if it is in-line code, using a FAR
JMP instruction. The IRET operation
in the ROM code then returns direct-
ly to the origin of the interrupts

The Screen program discussed in this ar-
ticle is available assembled and ready to run
on a standard IBM single-sided floppy
disk, using PC-DOS 1.0, 1.10, or 2.0. Also
included is the Install program referred to
in this article and a nontechnical users
guide. For pricing information, contact
Field Computer Products, 909 North San
Antonio Rd„ Los Altos, CA 94022. Or
phone (415) 949-3457.

Tim Field (Field Computer Products, 909 N. San
Antonio Rd., Los Altos, CA 94022) is a software
engineer and technical writer. He is the coauthor
of Your IBM PC & XT from Osborne! McGraw-
Hill, due to be published this month.

116 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

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BYTE November 1983

117

TKiSolver does for equations
what word processing did for
words. The first thing you should
know about the TKiSolver™ program is
that it is not a spreadsheet. Instead, it
does something completely unheard
of (until now] -it turns your personal
computer into a voracious equation
processor.

The next thing you should know is
that if the TKiSolver program can't
make life with your personal computer
easier (and pay for itself], even if you
use it only 15 minutes a week, you are
a very rare person.

And finally, you should know ex-
actly what equation processing is,
and how it works. If you keep reading
this, you will.

Equation processing with
TKiSolver, or problem solving
made easy. The best way to under-
stand what the TKiSolver program is,
is to understand what it does. The
following simple example is designed
to do just that. If you're still a little in
the dark after reading it, stop in at
your local computer store for a very
enlightening hands-on demonstration.

Begin by setting up your problem.
The TKiSolver program lets you do it
quickly, easily, and naturally. For ex-
ample, a car costs $9785. What would
be the monthly payment on a three-
year loan if the down payment is 25%
and the interest rate is 15%?
STEP 1. Formulate the necessary
equations to solve your problem and
enter them on the "Rule Sheet" simply

(lr) Rule: "CAR LOAN

St Input

,; = = = = := VARIABLE SHEET ------

Name Output Unit

price dollars

down 2446.25 dollars

loan 7338.75 dollars
dp percent

payment 254.46618 dollars
i percent

term (/ears

======= RULE SHEET =======

price-down=loan

down/pr ice=dp

payment = loan«( i/( l-( 1+i ) A -termJ )

by typing them in las in the screen
photo). For example: "price-down =
loan."

STEP 2. Enter your known values the
same way on the "Variable Sheet." For
example: "9785" for price. You may
also enter units and comments, if you
want*

STEP 3. Type the action command
("I" on your keyboard) to solve the
problem.

STEP 4. TKiSolver displays the an-
swer: the monthly payment is $254.40.
Backsolving, the heart of
TKiSolver* Now that you've defined

price of car

down payment

bank loan

down payment percentage

monthly payment

interest rate

term of loan

the problem and solved it, TK'Solver's
unique backsolving ability also lets
you think "backwards" to solve for any
variable, regardless of its position in
the equation. For example, if you can
only afford a monthly payment of
$200, you can re-solve the problem in
terms of that constraint. The TKiSolver
program will solve the problem, dis-
playing your choice of a higher down
payment, a longer loan term, or a
lesser interest rate. This unique back-
solving capability forms the basis of
TKISolver's remarkably flexible prob-
lem-solving ability.

118 BYTE November 1983

Also, as you can see from the
example on the screen, TKISolver
deals not only with single variables,
but with entire equations and sets of
simultaneous equations. It also deals
with much more complicated problems
than this one. How complicated?
That's up to you. What kinds of prob-
lems? That's up to you, too, but pop-
ular applications include finance,
engineering, science, design, and
education.

Other extremely useful and
interesting things TKISolver
does. Aside from its basic problem-
solving abilities, theTKISolver program
performs a number of pretty fancy
tricks. Like: Iterative Solving; in which
TKISolver performs successive approx-
imations of an answer when con-
fronted with equations that cannot be
solved directly,! like exp Ix) = 2 - x • y
and sin Ix • y)= 3 - x - y). Like: List
Solving; in which TKISolver attacks
complete lists of input values and
solves them all, allowing you to exam-
ine numerous alternative solutions, and
pick the one you like best. Like: Tables
and Graphs; using the values you pro-
duced with the List Solver, the TKISolver
program will automatically produce ta-
bles and graphs of your data. You can
look at your formatted output on the
screen or send it to your printer with
a single keystroke. And like: Automatic

Unit Conversion; in which TKISolver
lets you formulate problems in one unit
of measurement, and display answers
in another. Very convenient what with
all this talk about going metric.

The TKISolver program also pro-
vides a wide variety of specialized
business and mathematical functions
like trig and log and net present
value.

Then, there's TKISolver's on-screen
Help facility that provides information
on commands and features any time
you want it. Just type "?" and a topic
name.

And of course the TKISolver pro-
gram combines all these features in
one integrated program.
TKISolverPacks make problem-
solving a picnic. TKISolverPack™
application packages are specially
developed by experts in specific fields.
Each package contains a diskette with
about a dozen models that include
the necessary equations, values, and
tables for solving a particular problem.
The models are usable as-is or you
can easily modify them.

TKISolverPack application pack-
ages available from Software Arts
include Financial Management,
Mechanical Engineering, Building
Design and Construction, and Intro-
ductory Science. Additional TKISolver-
Packs are on the way from Software

Arts, McGraw-Hill, and others.
We know you're out there. No

matter who you are, or what you do,
if it involves using equations, the
TKISolver program is an indispensable
tool for you.

So, visit your local computer store
today, and see TKISolver in action.
You'll be amazed at how much faster
and more effectively you'll be able to
work when you discover the power of
equation processing with the TKISolver
program.

4&

Software Arts

The inventors of VisiCalc®

27 Mica Lane, Wellesley, Massachusetts 02181
617/237-4000

*You can easily define appropriate unit conversions on the unit sheet.

TK, TK!, TKISolver, TKISolverPack, The Problem Cruncher, the stylized ! and the slogan "NOW YOU DON'T HAVE TO THINK LIKE A COMPUTER TO USE ONE!"

are trademarks or registered trademarks of Software Arts, Inc. SATN, TKISATN and DIF are trademarks or registered trademarks of Software Arts Products Corp.

Software Arts "is a trademark of Software Arts, Inc. and Software Arts Products Corp. The TKISolver program and the TKISolverPack applications packages are

products of Software Arts, Inc. which is solely responsible for their contents. VisiCalc is a registered trademark of VisiCorp.

Copyright © 1983 Soflware Arts, Inc. All rights reserved p/n 100-092 p 8/83

Circle 427 on inquiry card.

BYTE November 1983

119

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POKEing Around in the

IBM PC

Part 1: Accessing System and Hardware

Facilities

This two-part series demonstrates
how you can use BASIC'S PEEK and
POKE commands to realize the
speed and flexibility of machine-lan-
guage code without sacrificing the
convenience of a high-level language.
Several short, general-purpose ma-
chine-language subroutines that
allow BASIC programs access to the
IBM Personal Computer's (PC's) sys-
tem and hardware facilities illustrate
the techniques involved. To lay the
groundwork for the more detailed
programming examples to be pre-
sented in Part 2 (next month), we will
take a look now, in Part 1, at the PC's
BIOS (basic input/output system)
and registers in the PC's central pro-
cessor.

The PEEK and POKE Commands

BASIC'S PEEK and POKE functions
form the magic window that gives us
access to the PC's main memory. It's
well worth investigating these func-
tions in order to take advantage of the
PC's modular systems software and

by Hugh R. Howson

to access some of the 8088 processor's
powerful commands.

The PEEK and POKE commands
operate as follows: the statement

X = PEEK(n)

assigns to the variable X the value
stored in memory location n; similar-
ly, the statement

POKE n,m

places the m into main mem-
ory at the location specified by n.

This description requires one
minor clarification because of the
method the 8088 uses to determine
the absolute, or effective, memory
address. The absolute address on
which an instruction operates actual-
ly consists of two components: a seg-
ment address and an offset address,
each 2 bytes (or 16 bits) long. The n
is the offset address, used in the
PEEK and POKE instructions; the
DEF SEG statement can be used to

Segment Address Bits
Offset Address Bits
Absolute Memory Address

1000100010001000

1000100010001000
10010001000100001000

Table 1: The relationship between segment and offset address bits. The segment address
bits are shifted left four bits relative to the offset address bits; then the segment and offset
addresses are added to yield the absolute memory address. This technique permits an ab-
solute address space of more than one million locations.

define the segment address. If no
segment address is defined, then that
of the BASIC program is assumed.
Table 1 illustrates how an absolute
memory address is formed from the
segment and offset addresses. The
segment address bits are shifted left
4 bit positions (equivalent to multi-
plying by 16) relative to the offset ad-
dress bits. And then the two address
components are added to yield the
20-bit absolute address, a format that
permits an absolute address space of
more than one million locations.
Note that each segment address de-
fines a 64K-byte address space, but
one segment's address space may
overlap another's, so segment ad-
dresses can assume any value that
can be represented by the 16 bits of
the segment address register.

Manipulating Data on Screen

These PEEK, POKE, and address
concepts can be illustrated by a short
program that scrolls up all data on a
PC video display. Assuming use of
the 80-column monochrome display
adapter, all data displayed on the
screen is stored in memory starting
at segment address hexadecimal
B000, offset address 0000 (all ad-
dresses to follow are hexadecimal).
Each displayed character is represent-
ed by 2 single-byte memory loca-
tions: one location contains the byte
specifying the characters and the sec-
ond location stores the character's at-

November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. 121

Listing 1: A BASIC program that shifts the
PCs screen up one line at a time.

10 DEF SEG = &HB000

20 FOR ROW = TO 23

30 CURRENTROWFIRSTBYTE = ROW

* 160
40 ROWBELOWFIRSTBYTE =

CURRENTROWFIRSTBYTE + 160
50 FOR BYTE = TO 159
60 BYTEBELOW =

PEEK(ROWBELOWFIRSTBYTE +
BYTE)
70 POKE (CURRENTROWFIRSTBYTE

+ BYTE), BYTEBELOW
80 NEXT BYTE
90 NEXT ROW

tribute byte (which indicates such
conditions as a flashing character,
reverse video, etc.). Therefore, a total
of 160 bytes of memory are used for
each 80-column line.

To move all text up one line, a pro-
gram must move the 80-character
per-row, 2-byte-per-character dis-
play a single byte at a time. For ex-
ample, to move the left-hand charac-
ter of the second row up to the first
row, a program can use PEEK at the
second-row, left-hand-character byte
and then use POKE to move its value
into the location corresponding to the
left-hand character of the first row.
The program in listing 1 accom-
plishes this task for the top 23 lines
of the screen display, leaving the last
line unchanged.

Listing 1 illustrates the convenience
with which the segment address,
B000, can be used to define the seg-
ment of memory dedicated to the
screen, and it demonstrates how you
can easily manipulate screen data
using a BASIC program. However, if
you actually run this program, you'll
find that it's quite slow. That's one
reason for investigating the BIOS,
which can accomplish the same task
with much greater speed and less
effort.

Basic Input/Output System

The PC's BIOS is a set of subrou-
tines stored in ROM that provides a
standard interface between the user
and all of the different input/output
devices that may be attached to the
system, including the screen, key-
board, printer, disk drives, and com-
munications adapter. Each BIOS sub-
routine can be activated by a user in-

terrupt. Each subroutine can perform
several operations, which are selected
by placing appropriate values in the
8088's registers before the interrupt
occurs. The PC's documentation in-
cludes a complete listing of the BIOS
subroutines. You do not need to be
an assembly-language programmer
to learn how to use them; each one
is well documented. The comments
at the beginning of each subroutine
describe all actions that the subrou-
tine performs and explain what
values must be transferred between
the user's program and the BIOS
subroutine through the 8088's
registers.

As a typical example, the com-
ments at the beginning of the BIOS's
video-I/O subroutine (included in
Appendix A of the PC's Technical
Reference manual) indicate that this
subroutine can scroll any section of
the screen up or down a certain num-
ber of lines. In addition, the com-
ments indicate that it can perform
such functions as placing the charac-
ter at a specific location on the screen,
determining the location of the cur-
sor, and moving the cursor. The com-
ments further indicate the param-
eters that the user must specify to
select a desired action.

Table 2 summarizes the PC's BIOS
functions and parameters; this table
should prove more useful after you
read the 8088's register descriptions
later in this article.

The advantage of using the BIOS
subroutines is that they include the
logic to identify the physical charac-
teristics of an active device. For exam-
ple, the screen-manipulation (video-
I/O) BIOS subroutine determines
whether the screen is in text or
graphics mode and whether the
screen width is 40 or 80 characters,
thus removing the burden of passing
a lot of redundant information to the
system. All of the subroutines have
a similar structure, so if you learn
how to use one, you can apply the
same approach to others.

How can we use a BASIC program
to access the BIOS video-I/O subrou-
tine for our screen-scrolling task?
Let's say that we would like to scroll
a window on the screen up five lines
and that the window starts at row 0,

column and ends at row 15, column
30. To pass these parameters to the
BIOS, they must be placed in the ap-
propriate registers defined in table 2.
All of these registers are discussed
later in this article, but for this screen-
scrolling task we are concerned only
with the four accumulator, or gener-
al, registers, AX, BX, CX, and DX.

Each of these registers consists of
two bytes. When both bytes are taken
together as one 16-bit word, then the
X suffix in AX, BX, etc., is used. Each
byte may also be treated separately,
in which case the bytes are referred
to as low byte or high byte, or more
simply as AL and AH, BL and BH,
and so on. Figure 1 illustrates this
register configuration and the other
8088 registers discussed later in this
article.

Now, to specify the screen-scrolling
task, the table 2 entries shown in
bold type indicate that we must load
parameter values into these registers
as follows:

AH (scroll direction: 6 = up,

7 = down) =06

AL (number of lines) =05

BH (blank-line attribute,

normal = 7) =07

BL (not used for this task)
CH (starting row) =00

CL (starting column) =00

DH (ending row, 15

decimal = OF) (hexadecimal) = OF
DL (ending column, 30

decimal = IE) (hexadecimal) = IE

These values can be loaded into the
registers by a short subroutine writ-
ten in machine language, which can
be called when required from a
BASIC program. The subroutine then
initiates the necessary interrupt to ac-
tivate the video-I/O BIOS, which
completes the defined task.

A Screen-Scrolling Program

The following four machine-lan-
guage instructions can move values
into the AX, BX, CX, and DX reg-
isters:

B8, low byte, high byte (AX register)
BB, low byte, high byte (BX register)
B9, low byte, high byte (CX register)
BA, low byte, high byte (DX register)

122 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

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DEVICE AND FUNCTION

AH

OTHER INPUT PARAMETERS

RESULTS RETURNED

VIDEO l/O-lnterrupt 10

[text mode]

set mode

AL - mode value ( (0 = 40 by 25 B/W;
[text mode]

1 = 40 by 25 col;

2 = 80 by 25 B/W; ?

3 = 80 by 25 col;
[graphics mode]

4 = 320 by 200 B/W;

5 = 320 by 200 col; 6 = 640 by 200 B/W)

set cursor type

1

CH - bits 0-4, cursor start line
CL bits 0-4, end line

set cursor position

2

DH - row (starting at 0)
DL - column (starting at 0)
BH - page number

read cursor position

3

BH - page number

DH - row; DL - column

(must be for graphics modes)

CH.CL - cursor mode

read light-pen position

4

BH - page number

AH - status (0 = switch not down; 1 = valid

value)

DH.DL - row and column

CH - raster line (0-199)

BX - pixel column (0-319, 639)

select active display page

5

AL - new page value (text modes)

scroll active page up

6

AL - number of lines blank at bottom

(0=blank window)
CH,DL - row, column of upper left scroll
corner

DH,DL - row, column of lower right corner
BH - attribute to be used on blank line

scroll active page down

7

as above

read attribute/character

8

BH - display page (text modes)

AH - attribute of character
AL - character read

write character and attribute

9

AL - character to write

BH - display page (text modes)

BL - attribute or color

CX - character repeat count

write character (only)

10

BH - display page
AL - character to write
CX - count of times to repeat
(max 1 row in graphics)

set color palette

11

BH - color ID being set
BL - color value to be used

write dot (pixel)

12

AL - color value
DX - row number
CX - column number

read dot (pixel)

13

DX - row number
CX - column number

AL - dot value read

teletypewriter emulation

14

AL - character to write

BH - display page in alpha mode

BL - foreground color

get current video state

15

AH - number of character columns

AL - current mode

BH - active display page

DISK SYSTEM-lnterrupt 13

reset disk system

AL - parameters for initialization

CY: = successful, 1 = failed

get status from last

operation

1

—

CY: = successful, 1 = failed
AL - system status

read sectors into memory

2

AL - number of sectors

CY: = successful, 1= failed

DH - head #; DL - drive #

AH - operation status (0 =

CH - track #; CL - sector #

successful)

ES and BX - segment and offset addresses of

AL - number of sectors actually read

data buffer

write sectors onto disk

3

same as for read

same as for read

verify the desired sectors

4

same as for read

same as for read

format the desired track

5

same as for read

The data buffer pointed at by ES, BX must
contain four bytes for each sector, contain-
ing:track #, head #, sector #, bytes/sector
(where 00= 128, 01 =256, 02 = 512,

same as for read

03 = 1024)

Table 2 continued on page 126

Table 2: Basic input /output system

(BIOS) functions. Those entries shown in boldface

type apply to the screen-scrolling example

described in the text. This information was condensed from Appendix A of the Technical Reference manual.

124 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

MicroAge

"BECAUSE WE COULDN'T
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Circle 295 on inquiry card.

Table 2 continued:

DEVICE AND FUNCTION

AH

OTHER INPUT PARAMETERS

RESULTS RETURNED

RS-232C l/O-lnterrupt 14

initialize all parameters

AL - parameters
DX - select card

AX - status

send character

1

AL - character to send (preserved)
DX - select card

AH - status

receive character

2

DX - select card

AH - status

AL - character received

check status of port

3

-

AX - status

CASSETTE l/O-lnterrupt 15

turn cassette motor on

turn cassette motor off

1

read from cassette

2

CX - count of bytes to read

CY: 0= no error, 1 = error

(in 256-byte blocks)

ES.BX - pointer to data buffer

AH - error type for CY= 1
ES,BX - point to last byte + 1
DX - count of bytes actually read

write blocks to cassette

3

same as above

same as above

KEYBOARD l/O-lnterrupt 16

read next ASCII character

AH - scan code
AL - character value

check if character

1

Z(flag): = code available, 1 = no code

available

AX -code, if Z =

return current shift status

2

AL - status

PRINTER-lnterrupt 17

print character

AL - character to be printed
DX - printer to be used (0 to 3)

AH - status: 1 = unsuccessful

initialize printer port

1

DX - printer to be initialized

AH - status

get printer status

2

DX - printer

AH - status

Each of these statements consists of
an instruction plus two data bytes.
Each instruction— B8, BB, B9, and
BA— is a "load immediate data" in-
struction, meaning that the two bytes
immediately following it are treated
as data to be moved into the appro-
priate register. For example, the in-
struction B8 takes the two bytes im-
mediately following it in memory
and moves them directly into the AX
register. Note that the first data byte
is loaded into the low part of the AX
register, AL, and that the second byte
is loaded in the high part of the
register, AH. The other three instruc-
tions operate in exactly the same way
but apply to other registers.

We can thus use these four instruc-
tions to load the specific values re-
quired for our screen-scrolling exam-
ple into the 8088's registers. The fol-
lowing statement, for example, loads
the desired values into the AX reg-
ister:

B8,05,06

This statement places the number of
lines to scroll, 5, in AL, and the direc-
tion code, 6 for up, in AH. The re-
maining registers are loaded with the

following statements:

BB,00,07 (for BX)
B9,00,00 (for CX)
BA,1E,0F (for DX)

Once we have loaded the values in-
to the registers, we need to initiate an
interrupt, advising the system to
transfer control to the appropriate
BIOS subroutine. This step requires
the 2-byte machine instruction

CD,10

The first byte, CD, is the interrupt in-
struction that instructs the 8088 to
look up a table of interrupt addresses
to find the address of its next instruc-
tion. The second byte, 10, points to
the entry in the interrupt table where
the address is to be found. The value
10 refers to the video-I/O subroutine
of the BIOS, as table 2 shows in the
first bold subheading.

After the BIOS has completed the
task specif ied by the values placed in
the registers, it returns control to the
machine-language subroutine that
initiated the interrupt. That subrou-
tine, in turn, requires a final instruc-
tion to return control to the BASIC

program that called it. This instruc-
tion is the single byte CB, which com-
pletes the machine-language subrou-
tine. So we can now turn our atten-
tion to loading and calling the sub-
routine from a BASIC program.

Using the Machine-Language
Subroutine

We will use the approach discussed
in Appendix C, "Machine Language
Subroutines" of the IBM BASIC
manual for loading and calling the
subroutine. First, we must make
space available for our machine-lan-
guage program in memory, to ensure
that it does not become embedded in
the BASIC program. Normally, when
the BASIC interpreter is being used,
it is spread over all of the available
memory space not used for systems
programs, as illustrated in figure 2a,
allowing no secure location in which
to place the machine-language sub-
routine. To overcome this problem we
can use the BASIC statement

CLEAR , &H8000

as the first statement of the BASIC
program. This command instructs
the interpreter to confine the amount

126 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

SANYO
PLUS

\ /

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GENERAL
REGISTERS

AH

AL

BH

BL

CH

CL

DH

DL

(2a)

INDEX
REGISTERS

STACK POINTER

BASE POINTER

SOURCE INDEX

DESTINATION INDEX

SEGMENT
REGISTERS

PROGRAM COUNTER

STATUS FLAGS

CODE SEGMENT

DATA SEGMENT

STACK SEGMENT

EXTRA SEGMENT

BX
CX

DX

SP
BP

SI
Dl

CS
DS

ss

ES

Figure 1: The 8088 processor's registers.

of memory space used for the BASIC
program to 8000 (or 32K decimal)
contiguous bytes of memory. The
result of the &H8000 command is il-
lustrated in figure 2b. The space avail-
able for the BASIC program is
squeezed down to 32K bytes after the
system programs, which require ap-
proximately 28K bytes, using a total
of about 60K bytes of memory. The
remaining 4K bytes at the top of
memory are free for any other use
and thus can hold our machine-lan-
guage subroutine. (While this 4K-
byte section is far more space than we
require, it keeps the mathematics
simple.) This free memory space can
be addressed most easily by using
the segment address 0F00, so that the
addresses seem to start at 0000.

Once the memory space is al-
located, loading the machine-lan-
guage routine from BASIC is straight-
forward. As listing 2a illustrates, a
loop can be used to read in each byte
of the subroutine from a data state-
ment. POKE places it directly into
memory. Loading the machine-lan-
guage subroutine is performed once,
at the start of the program. Also, the
subroutine must be given a variable

64K

BASIC
PROGRAM

28K

DEBUG
(6K)

22K

BASIC

INTERPRETER

(10K)

12K

DOS
(12K)

(2b)

64K

FREE (4K)

60K

BASIC

PROGRAM

(32K)

28K

DEBUG^\
(6K)

22K

BASIC

INTERPRETER

(10K)

12K

DOS
(12K)

(a) NORMAL SPACE ALLOCATION

(b) EFFECT OF CLEAR, a H8000

Figure 2: Memory space allocation, showing the normal allocation (a) and the effect of
the CLEAR, &H8000 (hexadecimal), statement (b).

name, so we have chosen SCREEN-
SUB. It is assigned the value 0. This
value represents the offset address
within the segment of free memory
where the first instruction of the sub-
routine is located. To initiate action of
the subroutine, and through it the
BIOS, the following two statements
are required:

DEFSEG = &H0F00
CALL SCREENSUB

The action taken by the BIOS can
be controlled by inserting different
values for subroutine parameters,
using a POKE, before calling the sub-
routine. To make this task easier, and
to lessen the burden of remembering
the technical details of the subrou-
tine, variables can be defined and
assigned the appropriate offset ad-
dresses or action codes as illustrated
in listing 2b. Revised values can then
be entered prior to calling the subrou-
tine, as the following example illus-
trates:

DEF SEG = &H0F00

POKE SCREENACTIONCODE,

SCROLLDOWN
POKE SCREENLINECODE, 8
CALL SCREENSUB

Debugging the Program

After the BASIC code that inserts
the machine-language subroutine in-
to memory has been written, it is a
wise precaution to examine the sub-
routine to ensure that it does, in fact,
represent the desired machine in-

structions. PC-DOS provides a de-
bugging program, which is an ex-
cellent tool for both examining the
subroutine and observing its opera-
tion, instruction by instruction. This
may be done as follows:

1. Boot the PC-DOS and invoke the
DEBUG facility with the following
response to the system prompt:

A > DEBUG BASICA.COM

This statement invokes the
DEBUG facility and instructs
debug to load the BASIC inter-
preter as the program to be
debugged.

2. Respond to the DEBUG prompt
with:

-G

This character instructs DEBUG to
"go" and run the BASIC inter-
preter.

3. Load your program as usual with
BASIC and edit the program to in-
sert a STOP statement after the
machine language is poked into
memory. Then run your program
so that it places the subroutine in-
to memory and then stops.

4. Terminate BASIC by entering:

SYSTEM

This command returns control
back to DEBUG.

5. Ask DEBUG to give a listing of the

128 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

Standard Pascal for Your IBM PC, MS-DOS, CP/M 86, and CP/M 80 Computers

^

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Compilation
Speed '

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69 s.

includes
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Execution
Speed '

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Disk Space

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4807 Scotts Valley Drive
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Please be sure model number and format are correct.

MAME:

ADDRE55:

CITY/STATE/ZIP:

TELEPHONE:

California residents add 6 ! /2% sales tax. Outside north America add $15.00
for airmail, or $>5.00 for surface mail. Checks must be on a U.5. bank,
and in U.5. dollars 5orry, no CO.D.

Listing 2a: Loading the subroutine into
memory.

900 DEF SEG = &H0F00

902 FOR I = TO 14

904 READ J

906 POKE I, J

908 NEXT I

910 DATA &HBB,&H05,&H06

912 DATA &HBB,&H00,&H07

914 DATA &HB9,&H00,&H00

916 DATA &HBA,&H1E,&H0F

918 DATA &HCD,&H10

920 DATA &HCB

922 SCREENSUB =

Listing 2b: Declaring constant values.

930 DIRECTION - 2

932 NUMBEROFLINES = 1

934 BLANKATTRIBUTE = 5

936 STARTROW = 8

938 STARTCOL = 7

940 ENDROW = 11

942 ENDCOL = 10

944 SCROLLUP = 6

946 SCROLLDOWN = 7

Listing 3: "Unassembled" listing of the
machine-language subroutine loaded by the
listing 2 BASIC statements.

-u 0F00:0000
0F00:0000 B80506
0F00:0003 BB0000
0F00:0006 B90000
0F00:0009 BA1EOF
0F00:000C CD10
0F00:000E CB

MOV AX,0605

MOV BX,0007

MOV CX,0000

MOV DX,0F1E

INT 10

RET L

machine-language program with
the command:

-U 0F00:0000

This statement is the request to
"unassemble" the machine-lan-
guage instructions starting at
memory segment 0F00, offset 0000,
where the machine-language in-
structions have been placed.

The resulting listing gives the ma-
chine instructions and the equivalent
assembly-language statements. Even
if you are not an experienced assem-
bly-language programmer, you
should be able to examine this listing
and to check that the subroutine is
correctly represented. The subrou-
tine developed above is illustrated in
listing 3.

You can also use DEBUG to ob-
serve (or trace) the step-by-step ex-

ecution of a machine-language sub-
routine, examining each transfer of
values into and out of registers. As
before, start with DOS to debug the
program BASICA.COM. This time, to
start BASIC use the command G fol-
lowed by the memory address of the
first machine-language instruction:

-G 0F00:0000

The effect of this command is that
the DEBUG program inserts an inter-
rupt instruction, CC, referred to as a
breakpoint, at memory location
0F00:0000. When this instruction is
then encountered during program
execution, control is transferred back
to debug by the interrupt. DEBUG
then displays the register contents at
the time of the interrupt and permits
you to then trace the execution, in-
struction by instruction, from that
point forward through the subrou-
tine. This breakpoint function (a
special debugging pseudoinstruction
that stops execution), however, does
not quite work when we use the
POKE command in a machine-lan-
guage program, as is the case with
our screen-scrolling program.

The reason the breakpoint function
doesn't work in this case is obvious
(with a little reflection). After DEBUG
places the CC instruction in memory
and starts execution of BASIC and
then your own program, your pro-
gram will use POKE to substitute the
first machine instruction in place of
the breakpoint instruction. So the
breakpoint disappears! This problem
can easily be solved, fortunately, by
including as the first instruction of
your machine-language program the
breakpoint command CC to trigger
the DEBUG interrupt. Then, after
you are satisfied that the subroutine
works correctly, you can remove this
instruction for normal operation.

This completes the introduction of
the PC's BIOS and the development
of a machine-language-interface sub-
routine to access the BIOS— specifi-
cally, the BIOS video-I/O functions—
from a BASIC program. While it's not
essential that you involve yourself in
all of the technical details of debug-
ging and tracing the operation of the
subroutine, these details do provide

a useful way of becoming familiar
with the operation of the PC. In Part
2 we will extend the preceding pro-
gram to provide a general interface
with the BIOS so that you will be able
to control all the I/O devices. First,
however, let's review all of the BIOS
subroutines and all of the 8088's
registers to provide the necessary
technical background.

Summary of BIOS Functions

The BIOS functions and the pa-
rameters for each function are sum-
marized in table 2. These functions
provide interfaces to the following
devices: the communication port, the
keyboard, the disk drives, the printer,
video devices (both text and graph-
ics), and the cassette.

Each of these subroutines is ac-
tivated by an interrupt with an inter-
rupt number (shown in table 2 beside
the function name) to identify the
routine desired. Each subroutine can
perform several different operations,
such as read a disk, write data to the
disk, format a track, etc., selected by
parameter values contained in the
8088's registers. Results from the
operations, such as device status or
data values, are returned through the
same registers. Therefore, an inter-
face subroutine that transfers values
between a BASIC program and all of
the registers can serve as a general-
purpose access to the BIOS.

8088 Registers

Before developing our program,
let's examine all of the 8088's registers,
illustrated in figure 1. There are three
groups of four registers, as illus-
trated. The four general registers,
AX, BX, CX, and DX, which we've
already considered, may be used to
store or manipulate data or ad-
dresses. The four index registers nor-
mally contain offset addresses to
point to memory locations of data to
be acted on. The four segment regis-
ters contain segment addresses that
are used in conjunction with the off-
set addresses to define the absolute
memory address.

There are two additional registers.
The program counter contains the
offset address of the next instruction
to be executed. The status, or flags,

130 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

THE BUFFER DID IT.

Who Stole The 1500 Letters
From The Computer?

Let's just say you've got to
send a letter to 1500 different
people. Would you like to
spend 22.5 hours* or
60 seconds of

<aA

$$

f

v To*°V

1»

*>

&

&

#

*

computer
time?

With
a garden-
variety
buffer, the
computer has
to mix, merge
and send 1500

addresses and 1500 letters to the
buffer. Trouble is, most buffers
only store about 32 letters. So after
32 letters, the computer's down
until the printer's done. Altogether,

you're talking 22.5 hours.

In the case of our new (not to
mention amazing)

** thereto ShuffleBuffer,

^iings f Zf° nutb - is 60

fclfeveii ^ JSGapU -^pm seconds
«*>*,*.. you, ^ovem >w Hat.

* l<r °"~ Just give

ShuffleBuffer one form letter and
your address list, and it takes care
of the mixing, the merging, and the
printing. But that's not all
ShuffleBuffer' s stolen from the
computer. Oh, no.

Who Changed and
Rearranged The Facts?

Again, ShuffleBuffer's
the culprit. You want
to move para-
graph #1
down
where
#3 is?
Want
to add a
chart or
picture? No

problem. No mystery, either. Any
buffer can give you FIFO, basic
first-in, first-out printing. And some

i

9

d*

buffers offer By-Pass; the ability to

interrupt long jobs for short ones.

But only ShuffleBuffer has what we

call Random Access Printing — the

brains to move stored information

around on its way to the printer.

Something only a computer could

do before. Comes in especially

handy if you do lots of printing.

Or lengthy manuscripts.

Or voluminous green

and white spread ^ e ^

sheets. And by the

way, ShuffleBuffer ^

does store up to

128K of information

and gives you a

By-Pass mode, too. . v**»

And Who Spilled The
Beans 239 Times?

Most buffers can't
tell the printer to
duplicate. If they can,
they only offer a
start/stop switch,
which means you're
the one who has to
count to 239. Turn
your back on your
buffer, and your
printer might shoot out
a room full of copies.
ShuffleBuffer, however,
does control quantity.
Tell it the amount, and
it counts the copies.
By itself.

So, What's The Catch?

There isn't any
Sleuth
around.
You won't
find another
buffer that's as slick a
character as this one.
You also won't find one that's
friendly with any parallel or serial
computer/printer combination.
This is the world's only universal
buffer.
With a brain.

Who Wants You To Catch
A ShuffleBuffer In Action?

You guessed it. We do. Just go to
your local computer dealer and ask
him to show you a ShuffleBuffer at
£ work. Or, you can call us
■ v* at (215) 667-1713, and
we'll clue you in on
all the facts directly.

ova** 5

^

* Based
on an average
4000 character letter
& 128K buffer.

I

VtW*K>» MT'

, /-

"«":;,

f\ShuffleBuffer

The Buffer with a Brain

Interactive Structures Inc.
I 146 Montgomery Avenue
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BYTE November 1983

131

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register indicates the system status
(as described under the R (register)
command in the DEBUG section of
the PC-DOS manual).

The determination of absolute ad-
dresses is based on a standard rela-
tionship between the segment regis-
ters and the other registers, although
this relationship can be overridden at
any time by a program. The code-
segment register (CS), in conjunction
with the program counter (PC),
defines the program-instruction area
of memory. The data-segment regis-
ter (DS) is used to define the segment
of memory where data values are
stored and is typically used with any
of the accumulators, if they contain
offset address values, or with the
source index register (SI). The stack-
segment register (SS) is used to
define a segment in which to main-
tain a stack (which may contain
return addresses for subroutines,
iteration loops, etc.), and the top of
the stack is pointed to by the stack
pointer register (SP). The base
pointer register (BP) is typically used
to point to a specific entry in the stack
also using the stack-segment register.

Finally, the extra-segment (ES)
register is used in conjunction with
the destination-index register (DI) to
point to the destination addresses for
moving data from any location in
memory. The powerful MOV (move)
instruction uses this destination ad-
dress in conjunction with a source
address provided by the data-seg-
ment register and the source index.
MOV also enables bytes to be moved
between any two locations in the
main memory space. We will be
using this instruction for a subroutine
presented in Part 2.

While the machine instructions for
these registers are for the most part
straightforward, note that it is not
possible to move data values directly
into the segment registers. Instead,
one approach, which we will use
next month in Part 2, is to first move
data into the AX register and then
move the data from there to the seg-
ment register. ■

Hugh R. Howson, PhD, CA is on the faculty of
Management at McGill University (1001 Sherbrooke
St. n Montreal, PQ Canada H3A 1G5J.

4 Circle 108 on inquiry card.

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Could 1,000,000 IBM PC Users

Be Wrong?

IBM, the PC, and the Future

by Frank Gens and Chris Christiansen

In the early 1900s, IBM, then called
the Computing-Tabulating-Recording
Company (CTR), leaped from obscu-
rity by automating the US census
with a device known as the Tabulat-
ing Machine. In 1983, IBM appears
poised to make another quantum
leap by automating everyone from
Fortune 500 executives to grade-
school children. The vehicle for this
revolution? The great-great-grand-
child of the original CTR Tabulating
Machine— the IBM Personal
Computer.

Should IBM begin shipments of the
Peanut this fall, the company will
have shipped nearly 1 million of its
Personal Computers (PCs) to large
corporations, small businesses, pro-
fessional offices, schools, and home
users by the end of 1983. This is an
impressive feat for a company that
was not present in the personal com-
puter market until a little over two
years ago.

In this article we'll look at why the
PC enjoys such wide market accep-
tance, the PC's profound effect on
both "Big Blue" itself and the per-
sonal computer market as a whole,
and the directions in which IBM will
push its fastest growing product.

The PC's Impact on IBM

IBM's view of the PC has gone
through a number of changes over
the past three years. The PC was

probably originally developed as a
defensive product meant to keep
other microcomputer suppliers from
infiltrating IBM's large accounts.
And, of course, it was intended as an
experimental vehicle into new
markets.

As the PC actually began to make
a substantial contribution to the com-
pany's bottom line, the corporate
office began to take notice. The
potential strategic utility of the PC
was studied, and IBM concluded that
by encouraging proliferation of the
PC in large corporate accounts, it
could stimulate a grass-roots demand
for its large computer systems
through increased demands for com-
munications networking, database
access, and the necessary support.
IBM decided to bring the PC into the
mainstream of its product lines as the
foundation upon which to build its
advanced workstations/terminals.

On August 1, 1983, IBM formed a
new manufacturing and develop-
ment division— the Entry Systems
Division (ESD), headquartered in
Boca Raton, Florida. The division is
responsible for a number of worksta-
tion products, including the PC and
the PC XT.

Perhaps the most significant thing
about IBM's formation of ESD is that
it indicates just how pivotal a product
IBM now considers the PC. ESD,
essentially run by former PC product-

management personnel, has respon-
sibility for products formerly in IBM's
Systems Products and Communica-
tions Products divisions. This makes
it clear that the PC is assuming a
position of importance in the cor-
poration that may soon be second
only to IBM's mainframe line.

Because the success of the PC thus
far has been mainly a result of user
enthusiasm, the formation of ESD
raises an important question: how
much more dominating a product in
the personal computer market will
the PC be with top-to-bottom cor-
porate muscle behind it?

What's So Great About the PC?

For the past two years an ongoing
debate has been taking place among
personal computer users, vendors,
industry analysts, and myriad others
over the technical merits of the PC.
These debates usually revolve around
such issues as performance of the
8088 versus other microprocessors
such as the Motorola 68000 or Intel's
own 8086; the merits of MS-DOS ver-
sus CP/M-86, the UCSD p-System,
Unix, C, and others; and the extent
of special capabilities such as high-
resolution color graphics.

The controversy surrounding these
issues grows larger with the seeming-
ly daily entry of new microcomputer
vendors into the market with ma-
chines and operating systems that

November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. 135

NORTH AMERICAN DESKTOP COMPUTER
SHIPMENTS BY SELECTED VENDORS

2.0

1.9

1.8

1.7

1.6

1.5

1.4

1.3

1.2

1.1

1.0

.9

.8

.7

.6

.5

.4

.3

.2

.1

YEAR 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986

402,000 622.000 1.094,000 2.333.000 3,957.000 5.541.000 7.871,000

TOTAL UNIT SHIPMENTS

Figure 1: This figure depicts the North American shipments of business-oriented desktop
systems costing between $1000 and $10,000. While Tandy (Radio Shack) was an early leader
in the personal computer market, it was eclipsed by Apple, whose market position is now
threatened by IBM.

THIS FIGURE CHARTS ONLY SHIPMENTS OF

BUSINESS-ORIENTED DESKTOP COMPUTERS

COSTING

BETWEEN $

1000 AND $

10.000

-

IBM /

-

^/apple

y

■

***

^ TANDY/

^

RADIO SHACK

-

_^^^^

V^^

*0»

^s??^-~~~

^■"""^

reportedly take greater advantage of
recent technological advances than
the PC.

The Real Battle: Market
Acceptance

The great irony, however, is that as
the debate raged on through 1983,
IBM quietly, but surely, began taking
its position as the second leading
vendor, number one being Apple
Computer, in the over-$1000 market
and is poised to take the leading spot
in the home-oriented under-$1000
market. (See figure 1.)

In spite of the debate about the
PC's technical merits, there can be no
doubt that its market accomplish-
ments are nothing short of spec-
tacular. Since its introduction in
September 1981, the PC has:

• taken IBM from a percent share
to number three in the market with
an 18.8 percent share of 1982
shipments; by this year's end, it is ex-
pected that IBM will have attained
the number two position with a 26
percent share

• established MS-DOS as the lead-
ing operating system for 16-bit per-
sonal computers

• established the Intel 8088/8086
microprocessor family as a personal
computer industry standard

• garnered almost unparalleled sup-
port from third-party software and
hardware vendors

• stimulated tremendous growth in
the personal computer market— the
corporate personal computer market
has grown threefold from 1981
through 1983

• prodded other minicomputer and
mainframe vendors— including Digi-
tal Equipment Corporation, Data
General, Wang, Burroughs, and
other companies— to enter the market

• revolutionized IBM's— and the in-
dustry's—view of personal com-
puters; personal computers have
taken on strategic importance for IBM
and other large information system
vendors

• changed many users' views of per-
sonal computers from novelties/toys
to integral pieces in the corporate in-
formation system.

Technological Elegance: An
Apparent Irrelevance

The PC's track record provides a
dramatic demonstration that techno-
logical elegance and a leading price/
performance position is almost irrele-
vant to market success. Indeed, our
research indicates that the most im-
portant factors in the acceptance of
any personal computer by end users
are vendor recognition, applications
software availability (vendor and
third-party), a reputation for product
reliability and support, moderately
competitive pricing, and an assur-
ance that the vendor won't disappear
in the impending personal computer
market shakeout.

For the novice personal computer
buyer who craves a security blanket,
vendor recognition, reputation, and
stability are the most critical factors.
For the experienced personal com-
puter buyer, software and third-party
hardware support are major pur-
chase incentives. Moveover, these
factors are also major selection
criteria for personal computer
retailers, who account for roughly
two-thirds of all PC sales. With well
over 150 personal computer manufac-
turers currently in the market and
retailers providing shelf space for an
average of only five or six products,
satisfying retailers' selection criteria
becomes at least as important as
satisfying end users.

Our research indicates that with
retailers, as with end users, technical
characteristics play a relatively minor
role in personal computer selection.
Key selection criteria for retailers in-
clude support (documentation, train-
ing, service), margins and quantity
discount schedules, and end-user
preferences.

The PC as a Market Standard

IBM's success in the volatile per-
sonal computer market clearly shows
that "me-too" technology is not a
detriment to market acceptance and
may in fact aid in market acceptance.
The reason? Standards.

The PC has provided third-party
vendors with stable, de facto stan-
dards upon which to design applica-
tions software and hardware en-
hancements, and the activity that the

136 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

Welcome,

IBM, to

personal

computing

Willi Lht announcement of
the IBM 5100 system m a
press release dated Sepl. 9,
1975, personal computing
gains an entry from the
jndustiy's p induct ion and
service giant , IBM. The IBM
5100 is being marketed
primal ily as a problem so/vet
lor industrial, commerci.il
and professional people
with I he result that it is a
very professionaf package at a
premium price. But you will
gel ,\ lot of function when
you buy one ol these
computet s and you'll be
able to call upon IBM's
longstanding reputation lor
good service and customer
handholdiiig, the points
which have led to the
commendable success ol IBM
as a computer company.

What IBM engineeis have
done is to design a 50
lb- package of interactive
personal computing which
includes ihe following major
features as standard ilems:

• System sol I war e is
built-in. wiih access to
BASIC and/or API
depending upon options
purchased, these language*
and the necessary monitor
programs are hardwired into
a read only memory.

• A video screen is built-in,
with up lo 1024 characters
displayed in a 16-line by
64-chaiactcf format.

90

• An i nl ei active keyboard is
standard, including the
usual text entry section its
well as' a separate calculator
St#le keypad. The keyboard
has special function coding
for all the APL and BASIC
syntax elements.

• User memory staits aj
I6K bytes in ihe minimum
configuration and can be
expanded to 64 K bytes
(65,536).

• A magnetic tape cartridge
storage device is standard.
This is built into the unit,
and becomes the primary
method of storing user d.ila
and programs. It is also used
to load IBM supplied
programming packages. The
cartridges for ibis device
hold up to 204,000
characters of information.

You gel all this fund ion
and , prolessionalism from
IBM by p. lying a high price.
This machine is not intended
lo be a toy, although it would
make an wxcellent one. 1 1 is
intended as a production tool
lor people who picscntly use
time sh.n ing terminals,
programmable calculators or
other peisonal computers in
daily work. Prices mentioned
in the press release are;

• I8M 5100, processor . . .
$8975 to $19,975,
depending upon user
memory (I6K, 32K.48K ot
64X pyles) and language
(APL oi BASIC or both)
options.

• iBM 5103 printer . ,.
$3,675 purchases An 80 cps
l32*eolumn dot matrix line
printer.

• IBM 5106 Auxiliary (ape
unit ... $2,300 purchases
tin additional tape cartridge
drive lo augment the
functions of the built-in
drive,

• "Problem Solvei Libraiy"
software is available! toi a
one time rental of $500
including a wide range ol
utility and applications
software with interactive
user sequences.

Miscellaneous features ,ilso
available for the machine
include a "! V monitor output,
the external I/O adaptoi used
with Ihe 5103 and 5106
devices, a communications
adaptoi which makes ihe
5100 emulate an IBM 2741
c o m in u n i c a lions terminal,
and a currying case.

As an IBM engineered
pioduct, you can expect a
solidly built computer. II you
aie a business or pmfessional
person needing a high quality
c a I c u I a t i o n a I a n d
programming tool, then you
should investigate the 5100 as
an item of capital equipment

which you can incidentally
use to program numerous
BASIC games when you're
not using it lor business. Bui
it your sole inlerest in the
machine is as a luxuiy toy,
you have to be moderately
well off lo purchase the IBM
5 100 at its present pi ice. ■

And we were there: BYTE's first mention of an IBM personal computer appeared in the December 1975 issue.

November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. 137

PC has stimulated in the third-party
world has been spectacular. For ex-
ample, we estimate that approximate-
ly 10 new PC products from both IBM
and third-party vendors are an-
nounced daily. IBM estimated that,
as of mid-1983, at least 3000 hardware
and software products from 2500
vendors were available for the PC,
compared with 1250 products in
mid-1982. And this number is ex-
pected to grow to more than 6000 by
the end of 1984.

We've also estimated that approx-
imately 2000 applications packages
run under the IBM operating system,
PC-DOS, which is actually Micro-
soft's MS-DOS in disguise. When
compared to an estimated 3000 Ap-
ple, 3000 Tandy, 5000 CP/M, and 2000
other applications running under
various other operating systems, the
MS-DOS application library is small.
But it is important to note that MS-
DOS has been in common use for
only two years, and software "hits"
such as Lotus Development Corpora-
tions^ 1-2-3 are developed primarily
for MS-DOS environments. (These
figures are for nongame applica-
tions.)

In other words, MS-DOS is cur-
rently the fastest growing of the
leading operating systems. We expect
that by late 1984 or early 1985, MS-
DOS will have the largest library of
applications.

Helping or Hindering?

How does the PC affect the per-
sonal computer industry? IBM's
stimulation of third-party hardware
and software development exerts a
stabilizing influence on the personal
computer market. But is this stabili-
zation good or bad for the industry
at large? Will de facto standardization
around the PC architecture limit the
development of new alternative de-
signs? In five years, will the personal
computer market be saddled with an
aging and nearly obsolete standard
architecture, much as the mainframe
market is tied to IBM's S/370 archi-
tecture?

Clearly, the PC stimulated software
development for the MS-DOS oper-
ating system. Moreover, IBM's de
facto standards provided the stable

(2a)

15
14
13
12
11
5 10

1983 MARKETS FOR IBM PC FAMILY

IBM
"PEANUT"

IBM

DISPLAY-WRITER
FOR HIGH-END
WORD-PROCESSING

IBM "PEANUT"
SYSTEMS AS A LOW-
END WORD-PRO-
CESSING SYSTEM

W

■%*—

£

IBM

DATAMASTER

S/23

IBM
PC

XT

IBM PC
SYSTEMS

BASE CONFIGURA-
TION

#

IBM

PC

XT

IBM PC
SYSTEMS

IBM

PC

XT

IBM PC
SYSTEMS

Figure 2: Markets for the IBM PC and family in (a) 1983 and (b) 1986. Based on the IBM
PC, this broad line of products will not be limited to the 8088/8086 chips from Intel but could
include microprocessors from Motorola, National Semiconductor, and Harris.

environment necessary for the cost-
ly development of products such as
1-2-3, Visicorp's Visi On, and Quarter-
deck's DesQ, along with many other
unannounced products. On the other
hand, many software developers
decided against working with oper-
ating systems such as the UCSD p-
System, Pick, Oasis, TurboDOS,
Unix, and others. In some cases,
these operating systems offer features
superior to MS-DOS, but they are not
blessed with IBM's sanction and/or a
competitive pricing structure.

IBM's effect in other personal com-
puter marketplaces is also am-
bivalent. The evolution of a de facto
standard based on Intel's 8088 micro-
processor and Microsoft's MS-DOS
operating system created an all-new
generation of plug-compatible ma-
chines/manufacturers. Companies
such as Compaq, Columbia, Corona,
Eagle, Gavilan, Texas Instruments,
Tandy, and reportedly even Apple
have products or will focus products
on these standards to take advantage
of IBM's constrained production and
deficiencies in the PC's hardware
(such as a lack of monochrome
graphics and the PC's awkward key-
board).

However, while IBM created a new

IBM-compatible market for many
small personal computer vendors, it
also destroyed the market for some
older machines. Traditional vendors
such as North Star, Cromemco, Vec-
tor Graphic, and others are seeing
their customers lured away by IBM
and the IBM compatibles. While
many of these vendors offer 8088- or
even 68000-based machines, they are
having a rough time competing for
shelf space and users' attention in the
face of advertising blitzes from IBM
and its growing legions of compati-
ble vendors.

Even third-party hardware vendors
such as Tecmar and AST— which ex-
ist primarily to supply peripherals
and enhancements for the PC— find
IBM's presence in the personal com-
puter market a mixed blessing. While
IBM takes its time providing en-
hancements such as expansion slots,
hard disks, and the like, third-party
vendors thrive by filling the gaps in
IBM's products. However, history
shows that once third-party vendors
pioneer and successfully market a
new product or enhancement, IBM
eventually— and inevitably— offers
similar products. Memory boards,
communication devices, color
monitors, and hard disks are all good

138 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

(2b)

1986 MARKETS FOR THE IBM PC FAMILY

10

O
O

X

1 -

IBM
"PEANUT"

IBM PC
IN A

DISPLAYWRITER
CONFIGURATION

IBM "PEANUT"
AS A LOW-END
WORD-PROCESSING
SYSTEM

IBM PC XTH
MULTIUSER
VERSION (S23
REPLACEMENT
WITH MC68000)

IBM PC XT
SINGLE USER
VERSION

IBM PC

FULLY CONFIGURED

SYSTEM

BASE SYSTEM

IBM PC XTH
(MC68000-BASED
PC CAPABLE OF
RUNNING MAIN-
FRAME SOFTWARE)

TRANSPORTABLE
IBM PC
"POPCORN"

NOTEBOOK-SIZED
IBM PC (HARRIS
CMOS 8086)

"INTELLIGENT"
IBM PC XT II
(ARTIFICIAL
INTELLIGENCE
SOFTWARE)

IBM PC-BASED
"SMART"
TERMINAL
PHONE

"MODULAR"
IBM PC XTH
CAPABLE OF
ACCEPTING
MC68020
NS16032
INTEL432
INTEL386

examples of this strategy.

The key to surviving as a third-
party hardware supplier for the PC
is continually keeping one step ahead
of IBM. For example, a vendor pro-
ducing hard disks or color monitors
for the PC must continue to an-
ticipate (or, better, stimulate) demand
for other new hardware enhance-
ments once IBM decides to offer
those products itself. Such areas cur-
rently include mouse cursor controls,
monochrome graphics boards, and
high-resolution color graphics
boards.

Future Directions for the PC

IBM has stated that the PC's
modular architecture is designed to
last five years— the standard de-
preciation period for office-automa-
tion equipment. This means several
things:

First, IBM will stick with the PC's

present 8088/8086-based architecture
until at least 1986. For low-end prod-
ucts, the Intel 8088 will remain the
processor of choice, but high-end
models will offer Intel's 80186 and
80286 along with optional boards
based on Motorola's 68000 and pos-
sibly National Semiconductor's
NS16032. Figure 2 shows how the PC
markets are expected to develop.

IBM will incorporate new tech-
nological developments through the
modular addition of hardware,
primarily through the use of copro-
cessors. For example, IBM will prob-
ably offer Intel's 80370 chip to en-
hance text processing by displaying
66 lines on a standard monitor. IBM
has also mentioned Intel's 80270 chip
to upgrade the PC's graphics capabil-
ity. (You should remember that while
the graphics chips from Texas Instru-
ments and NEC may offer superior
features, IBM owns a reported 13

percent share of Intel.) Because IBM
does not intend to offer a full-page
display or very high-resolution
graphics, these areas represent real
opportunities for third-party
vendors.

The recent announcement of a
math coprocessor, Intel's 8087, is the
first implementation of IBM's strategy
to use the PC as a "chassis" for multi-
ple microprocessors/coprocessors.
Still other chips such as Intel's 8089
(which fits into the same slot as the
8087) will increase the PC's speed by
handling I/O (input/output) process-
ing. The most exciting development,
however, will come when a 68000
board from IBM is announced for the
PC and the PC XT.

While that seems a contradiction of
previous statements concerning
IBM's commitment to Intel and the
8088/8086 architecture, it isn't really.
IBM already sells a 68000-based prod-

November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. 139

uct, the CS 9000. Developed by the
IBM Laboratory Instruments divi-
sion, the 9000 was recently offered to
qualified value-added remarketers
(VARs) and Hamilton-Avnet, an in-
dustrial distributor. In addition to
high-level graphics and many other
advanced features, this machine runs
under a proprietary multiuser oper-
ating system similar to Bell Lab-
oratories' Unix. Through VARs, this
machine will be adapted to run Unix
Version V and will be sold through
retailers and systems houses (with
IBM's blessing) as an alternative to
Fortune Systems' 32:16, Digital
Equipment Corporation's Profes-
sional Series and the Micro PDP-11,

Data General's recently announced
Desktop Generation Series, and
Honeywell's Microsystem 6/10.

IBM took a beating in the minicom-
puter market several years ago, and
revenge may be on its mind in the
"super" microcomputer market.
IBM's tacit endorsement of Unix fur-
ther opens up this market to software
developers, especially with the prob-
able emphasis on Unix Version V and
the agreement among Bell Laborator-
ies and three prominent chip
vendors— Intel, Motorola, and Na-
tional Semiconductor. We believe that
IBM may eventually offer an
MC-68000-based board for the PC
and future high-end PC models.

Much like other personal computers
that feature two or more different
microprocessors (such as the Radio
Shack Model 16 with a Z80 and an
MC-68000), the PC will be able to run
8088/8086 or MC-68000 modes.

Furthermore, we believe that IBM
will eventually offer an S/370 board
that will run IBM mainframe soft-
ware, most likely under the VM oper-
ating system. In fact, IBM already has
implemented portions of the S/370
instruction set on MC-68000s.

New Models

Within the next six months, we ex-
pect IBM to introduce several new
members of the PC family. By the

INTRODUCING

The first software program

Sign-Master is an exciting new
program that for the first time lets
you transform ordinary-looking
presentations, proposals and
special reports into dynamic,
colorful word charts. Before
Sign-Master, it required a

graphic artist or dedicated
graphics processor to create im-
pressive word charts, both time-
consuming and more costly op-
tions. Now, with Sign-Master's
amazing flexibility, you can pro-
duce presentation-quality word

charts on paper or acetate in six
different type styles and in 1 6 dif-
ferent sizes — a real break-
through when you consider that
over 65% of all presentations
consist of word-only formats.
(When graphs are indicated to

time you read this, IBM finally
should have plunged into the home
personal computer market with the
long-awaited "Peanut." The Peanut
will cost $600 to $700 (base price), be
transportable (weigh in the 10-pound
range), and offer some compatibility
with the PC and the PC XT.

This winter, IBM will introduce a
high-end member of the PC family—
the PC-3. The PC-3 will be priced be-
tween $7000 and $9000, be based on
an Intel 8086-class chip (perhaps the
80286), and will functionally displace
the IBM Datamaster. We expect that
by the end of 1983, IBM will intro-
duce a $2000 to $3000 portable per-
sonal computer.

Beyond these near-term product
announcements, you can make a fair-
ly good guess at what other personal
computer products IBM is planning
to introduce over the next 12 to 18
months by looking at the recent
organizational changes within the
company. In addition to the PC, the
other products assigned to the new
Entry Systems Division read like a list
of products ripe for replacement by
the PC or PC family members. These
products include the Displaywriter,
the Datamaster, and the 5280 Data
Entry System. Each of these will be
functionally replaced by PC follow-
ons that are 8086-based and offer
greater flexibility, particularly in

regard to keyboard selection.

Another product included in the
new division is the 5520, essentially
a shared-logic word processor. The
5520 (or its successor) will play a key
role as a cluster controller for IBM's
PC products, especially in office en-
vironments. ■

Frank Gens and Chris Christiansen are senior
analysts for the Boston-based Yankee Group (89
Broad St., 14th Floor, Boston, MA 02110), a market-
research and consulting firm specializing in infor-
mation processing and telecommunications. Mr.
Gens is editor of Impact: IBM, the in-house IBM-
watch publication. Mr. Christiansen specializes in
desktop hardware and software for the Yankee
Communicator.

SIGN-MASTER!"

to bring word charts to life!

highlight your data, ideas and
conclusions, our Chart-Master™
graphics software is available to
do the job.)

Sign-Master can also be used
to create effective instruction
materials, bulletin board an-

nouncements and direct mail
pieces that demand attention.
To generate real impact, Sign-
Master word charts can be as col-
orful as you like, depending on the
plotter you use. And you can be
as creative as you like by capital-

izing or italicizing a single charac-
ter, a single word, or an entire line
at the touch of a button. In addi-
tion, margins can be justified left,
right or centered.

Best of all, Sign-Master's on-
line instructions, power and vari-
ety of options make you a "Sign
Master" without special training.

Sign-Master — the first soft-
ware program that brings word
charts to life.

Sign-Master supports a wide
variety of plotters from IBM, Pana-
sonic, Hewlett-Packard, Houston
Instruments, Yokogawa, Strobe,
Amdek and many others, for use
with IBM PC, PCXT and other
compatible computers.

The retail price of Sign-Master
is $245.00. For a complete infor-
mation kit and name of your near-
est dealer, contact:

Decision Resources, Inc.
25 Sylvan Road S.
Westport,CT 06880
(203)222-1974.

Sign-Master and Chart-Master are trademarks of
Decision Resources, Inc.

Circle 137 on inquiry card.

DecisionResources, Inc.

Software Designed for Decision Makers

tr

Introducing

the new Tl 855. It's

two of the best printers

weVe ever made.

Now Texas Instruments gives
you the performance of two
printers for the price of one: the
TI OMNI 800* Model 855 Micro-
printer for personal computers.

Draft* and letteivquality print.

Other printers give you either
draft-quality or letter-quality
print. But with the 855, you can
print a rough-draft report, press a
button and create a letter-perfect,
presentation-quality proposal.
With sharp characters, clear
underlining and complete descend-
ers. So you won't have to watch
your p's and q's.

Personal computer software
and hardware compatibility.

Anything you can do with word
processing software, you can print
with the 855. Without changing
software or hardware. The TI 855
is compatible with virtually all
software and every major personal
computer. That's time-saving,
money-saving convenience!

Easy-to-use font modules.

Our exclusive font modules are

twice as nice as daisy wheels —
cleaner, more durable, and a
whole lot easier to change. Just
snap them in. You don't even
have to turn your printer off.

Use up to three typefaces
at once.

For example: Begin printing a
letter in a courier typeface; touch
a button and change to italic
type. Switch again and highlight
the points you want to emphasize.
You get 24 type variations in any
font style.

And, you get two types of
paper-feeding. So you can load
your printer as easily as a type-
writer, or get precision printing on
tractor forms. Use duplicate
forms, letterhead, bond . . . you
name it. The 855 isn't picky.

Fastest paper^throughput ever.

Result: Instead of tying up your
computer, the 855 keeps doing its
job while your computer's free to
help you do yours.

TI reliability.

Just ask the major airlines. The

855 is built with the same
reliability as the TI 810 — the
printer that's been turning out
your travel tickets for years.

Twice the value.

The 855 gives you all the per-
formance of a daisy wheel printer
for roughly half the price. Or
twice the performance of a rough-
draft quality printer for a frac-
tion more.

But, if draft-quality is all you
need, try the TI 850 printer.
Same superior 855 features, with-
out the letter-quality print.

So whether you need a draft-
quality printer, a letter-quality
printer or both, see your nearest
authorized TI dealer. Or write
Texas Instruments Inc., P. O. Box
402430, Dept. DPF-072BY,
Dallas, TX 75240. Or call
toll-free: 1-800-527-3500.

■*

Texas
Instruments

Creating useful products
and services for you.

Copyright © 1983 Texas Instruments * Trademark of Texas Instruments

291429

BYTE November 1983 143

BIG
BLUE

GOES
JAPANESE

by Richard Willis

Visitors to this year's National
Computer Conference (NCC) in
Anaheim were met with a kaleido-
scope of new products out to exploit
the microcomputer boom from every
conceivable angle. But one product
bound to have an enormous impact
in its marketplace, a product with the
IBM label, was tucked in a small
niche of the Microsoft booth. A num-
ber of fiberglass pavilions were added
in the Convention Center parking lot
to accommodate all the NCC ex-
hibitors, and an unusual May heat
wave turned the unventilated shells
into high-tech saunas. One sales rep

144 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

cut the legs off his wool suit slacks,
and many of the electronic marvels
fizzled out in the heat. But IBM
Japan's new 5550 Multistation was
plugging along, quietly displaying a
Japanese-language version of Multi-
plan developed by Microsoft for the
machine. Although the system had
been announced in Japan in mid-
March, this was the first opportuni-
ty to get a good look at the hardware.
And a pretty impressive look it was.
The 5550 system is not available in
the US as of this writing. Little about
it has been published in English. But
if IBM Japan's extraordinarily broad

plans for marketing the machine in
Japan are any clue, we may soon see
a similar machine here in America.
The original IBM PC was released in-
to a somewhat vaguely defined mar-
ket, somewhere between hobbyists
and small businessmen. Online com-
munications capability was not a ma-
jor selling point in early product
literature. After 18 months and
delivery of 300,000 units, there is no
longer any doubt about who buys
PCs and why. Small businesses do
their bookkeeping and correspon-
dence with PCs, and Merrill Lynch
has ordered one for every broker

(Illustration © 1983 by Michael Nakayama.)

(12,000) in the company. IBM has
legitimized the personal computer for
business applications and catalyzed
a multibillion-dollar market.

The real question now is where
IBM goes from here. There is con-
siderable speculation about the com-
pany's downscale plans, its move in-
to the true home-computer market
with the machine code-named 'Tea-
nut." But there is also a considerable
gulf above the PC. The company's re-
cently announced small business
computer, the System/36, is priced in
the $25,000-to-over-$100,000 range,
with a per-user cost for a small

system (say, four user terminals) of
over $10,000 (the per-user cost drops
with larger systems). And there is
currently a strong demand from cus-
tomers to put a reasonable amount of
computing power at each worksta-
tion rather than running terminals
(even intelligent terminals) from an
expensive central processor. The
company's Datamaster and Display-
writer systems are not designed for
low-level networking (i.e., network-
ing without a large central main-
frame) or distributed database
systems. And IBM does not support
these capabilities in its PC.

The 5550 is just the product to meet
these demands. Many desktop com-
puter makers have taken to calling
their products "workstations," but the
5550 is a true workstation. It is
designed from the ground up to pro-
vide an easily accessible software en-
vironment for three major business
applications: word processing; com-
putation (spreadsheet, accounting,
and the like); and online terminal
communications. The machine packs
a significant amount of computing
power for the price: an 8086 micro-
processor running at 8 MHz; 256 to
512K bytes of main RAM (random-

November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. 145

access read/write memory); up to
three 640K-byte floppy-disk drives, or
one floppy disk and an 8.1-megabyte
hard disk; 1024 by 768 dot graphics
(with the large-format monochrome
display); and fully supported com-
munications interfaces. And the
price: complete systems with soft-
ware range from $5200 for a mini-
mum configuration (256K-byte RAM,
low-resolution character generation,
two floppy disks, DOS, BASIC,
word-processing software) to $10,000
for a top-of-the-line model (512K-byte
RAM, hard and floppy disks, com-
munications interface, software).
Although these numbers are en-
hanced somewhat by the current
overvaluation of the dollar with

respect to the yen, they are clearly in
the right ballpark for distributed of-
fice automation systems. The System/
36 may be able to compete cost-wise
in large network applications, but the
5550's powerful stand-alone capabil-
ities make it an almost unbeatable
bargain. The 5550 may well be the
harbinger of workstations to come in
the American market. Of course, this
is mostly conjecture; IBM keeps its
plans guarded in deafening silence.
The most distinctive features of the
5550 Multistation will most certainly
not show up in the US; this machine
offers unprecedented power in han-
dling the Japanese language, includ-
ing its thousands of pictographic kanji
characters. Japanese computers have

long been limited to using kana, the
Japanese phonetic alphabet (see the
text box on the kana keyboard on page
150), which is seriously handicapped
in ordinary textual applications. The
5550, however, actually analyzes the
semantics of a sentence and decides
which kanji to insert for each word
typed in kana. The operator merely
supervises the process and clarifies
any misunderstood words. In the
past year or two, some Japanese
stand-alone word processors and
small computers have offered similar
semiautomatic kana-to-kanji conver-
sion. But the capability of this
machine to provide high-perform-
ance word processing, as well as
communications and personal com-

IBM Japan: A Chronicle of Shifting PC Strategy

The following is a translation by Richard
Willis of an article that appeared in Nik-
kei Computer, May 30, 1983, pages
54-55.

IBM Japan's personal computer ac-
tivities can be traced back seven years
to the announcement of the IBM 5100
system in May 1976. The 5100 was a
complete, integrated desktop system
and included a 5-inch black-and-white
display, a 3M-type cartridge-tape
drive, and an APL keyboard. With this
machine, IBM was aiming at the scien-
tific and technical computation
market, as well as small-scale mea-
surement-and-control systems. An
IEEE-488 parallel interface and an
RS-232C serial interface were in-
cluded.

The 5100 was also intended to func-
tion as an APL or BASIC language ter-
minal with IBM's larger mainframes.
Therefore, an APL interpreter and a
BASIC interpreter were chosen as the
system's resident languages. For gen-
erating graphs and diagrams, a library
of APL graphics routines was includ-
ed in the 5100's software library, with
a wire dot-matrix printer performing
the function of a printer/plotter.

In reexamining the 5100 in light of
the current state of the art, several
weaknesses stand out. The screen was
quite small, there was no capability to
use floppy disks, and the price was
quite high, nearly 3 million yen
[Translator's note: about $10,000 at 1976

exchange rates]. Having pointed out
these shortcomings, we nonetheless
can see many similarities between the
5100 and current PCs. Although the
5100 was not necessarily a commercial
success, it should be said that it was
a remarkable technological feat for an
APL interpreter running on such a
small machine to perform with suffi-
cient speed to be of practical use.

In January of 1978, IBM announced
the 5100's successor, the 5110. Its main
differences from the 5100 were that it
supported floppy-disk drives and used
BASIC as its standard language, with
APL as an option. Apart from these
and a few other details, the fundamen-
tal configuration was the same as the
5100. Since that time, IBM has upgrad-
ed the machine's capabilities by sell-
ing a simple program-generator lan-
guage called BRADS.

By this time, IBM had reached a
turning point in its PC strategy. It had
been expected that the APL capabili-
ties of IBM's PC would be a major
selling point, but instead, IBM began
to modify its product line so that it
would appear directly competitive,
function for function, with American
Hewlett-Packard's series of personal
computers, which supported BASIC.
This transformation should probably
be viewed as a response to demands
from the marketplace as well. Prior to
this time, IBM's PC strategy seemed to
be linked to their strategy of vigorously
promoting the dissemination of APL.

However, since the introduction of the
5100, the number of APL users had not
grown to the extent forecast by IBM.
The principal reason for this is
generally felt to be the difficulty posed
by APL's complex syntax. It is probably
accurate to say that, faced with the
strong demand for the BASIC lan-
guage in the PC market at that time,
IBM had no choice but to change its
course.

IBM 5550: A Significant
Departure from Past Practice

After the 5110, the complexion of
IBM's PC changed, with subsequent
machines displaying less of an orien-
tation toward engineering applications
and more toward business. The 5110's
successor, the 5120, announced in
February of 1980, was tailored almost
entirely to business applications.
Among other things, the IEEE-488 in-
terface was dropped, and ISAM (in-
dexed sequential-access method) file
support was implemented. Before
long, hardly anyone considered using
the 5120 or its successor, the
System/23, for engineering applica-
tions. The System/23 was given the
model designation 5322, indicating
that it was not considered to be a part
of the 5100 product line. In looking at
all this, one can see IBM's original PC
strategy fading from the market, along
with the 5110, and disappearing alto-
gether with the introduction of the
5120. The 5120 was given a larger

146 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

puting functions, in an under-$10,000
package will make it a formidable
competitor in the red-hot Japanese
market.

Not surprisingly, the other players
in that market have started taking
their shots at the giant. The 5550
system is not without its flaws. The
word-processing software and the
conventional computational software
run under two different, incompati-
ble operating systems. Even the char-
acter codes used by these two oper-
ating systems are different— one is
based on EBCDIC (extended binary-
coded-decimal interchange code), the
other is the Japanese standard
code— thus file sharing is currently
not possible. The color display offers

9-inch screen, and its overall con-
figuration resembled the System/23
rather than the 5110.

There would seem to be little or no
relation between the recently an-
nounced IBM 5550 and the 5100 or
System/23 product lines. [Translator's
note: the model number of the Amer-
ican PC is 5150.] The 5100's distin-
guishing feature was its APL orienta-
tion, while the System/23 was an office
computer. With the 5550, though, IBM
is aiming at the so-called workstation
concept. The user need not have any
special programming skill in order to
tap the capabilities built into the
machine; the three software functions
provided by IBM (as touted in the
company's "one machine, three roles"
slogan) can be mastered with little
difficulty.

IBM's main operating system for this
machine is Japanese Language DOS,
developed by the American company
Microsoft. Since IBM's expertise in
software has been a major selling point
of its computers, it is quite a departure
for it to have relied on an outside com-
pany in this case. However, even IBM
Japan now admits quite frankly that it
is changing course. "The era of rely-
ing solely on in-house software devel-
opment has ended." It should prob-
ably be noted that this comment was
limited to the world of general-pur-
pose, microprocessor-based personal
computers. In the PC field, even
mighty IBM is subject to this handicap.

very good resolution (360 horizontal
by 512 vertical addressable pixels),
but only four colors are available in
graphics mode (eight in character
mode). These and other shortcom-
ings are not escaping the notice of
other Japanese computer manufac-
turers, who are working with altru-
istic fervor to inform the public.

But no one is betting heavily
against the 5550's success. After less
than six months on the market, it has
already begun to spawn the same
sort of mini-industry that has grown
up around the American PC. A cou-
ple of independent magazines about
the 5550 have premiered, and in-
dependent sales organizations are
lining up to offer systems integration
and programming support for the
new machine. Several Japanese
manufacturers will benefit as well.
With the PC, IBM broke with tradi-
tion by procuring a number of major
components from outside sources-
chips from Intel, the system board
assembled by SCI Systems Inc.,
drives from Tandon and MPI, and
printers from Epson. IBM Japan is
following suit. The 5550's system
unit, including disk drives, is built by
Matsushita Electric (makers of Pana-
sonic equipment), the printer by Oki
Electric (Okidata), and the keyboard
by Alps (a major manufacturer of
electromechanical devices). The cur-
rent production rate of 2000/month is
still fairly low, but that will un-
doubtedly change as the machine
starts getting out into public view.
There is much to be impressed with
in the 5550 Multistation. Let's start
with a fairly detailed look at the
hardware.

Dissecting the Hardware

The physical configuration of the
5550 reflects the current emphasis on
ergonomic design for workstations
(see photo 1). The main system box
is proportioned to fit to one side of
the operator, thus enabling the
display screen to be mounted in a
lower, more comfortable position.
The keyboard profile is the same as
the original PCs, but the detached
unit was made somewhat wider to
accommodate 50 percent more keys.
IBM also offers an adjustable, split-

level desk and a tilt/swivel display
mount to allow the user to set up the
workstation to his or her own liking.
This is all in marked contrast to the
PC, which does not exactly blend in
with a working desktop
environment.

Examining the main system unit
(model number 5551), the first thing
that strikes someone with an elec-
tronics background is the quality and
density of the packaging. The
original PC, even with disk and
display controllers and the inevitable
multifunction expansion board, is
wide open by comparison. Three
densely packed circuit boards, a
switching-mode power supply, up to
three 5V4-inch floppy-disk drives (or
one floppy disk and an 8.1-megabyte
hard disk), and a five-slot expansion
cage are mounted within the system
unit case (slightly over 10 inches wide
by 12 inches high by 16 inches deep).
In overall construction, the inside
looks more like a high-quality test in-
strument than a PC.

The system processing functions
are spread over three 9- by 12-inch
circuit boards: a microprocessor/
memory board, a disk controller/
clock board, and a video RAM board.
There are two buses in the system
unit, a main system bus (120 pins,
1-inch pitch), and a disk control bus
(86 pins, .1-inch pitch). All three
boards plug into the system bus, but
only the disk controller board picks
up the disk bus. The system bus is
extended into the expansion cage by
means of a full-width flex-circuit
jumper cable, which has to perform
some minor gymnastics to mate the
horizontally mounted main mother-
board to the vertically mounted ex-
pansion cage backplane. The disk
control bus and the power harness
are also carried on flex-circuits; with
the exception of the two leads from
the lithium battery that sustains the
real-time clock, there is not a wire to
be seen in the package.

The microprocessor/memory board
is a multilayer board of extremely
high density containing an Intel
i8086-2 16-bit microprocessor running
at 8 MHz. Though both the i8088
used in IBM's American PC and the
8086 used here are 16-bit processors

November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. 147

Photo 1: The IBM 5550 Multistation. (Photo courtesy of IBM.)

(i.e., their internal registers and arith-
metic/logic units operate on 16-bit
words), the 8088 has only an 8-bit
system bus and must perform mem-
ory and I/O (input/output) opera-
tions a half-word at a time. The 8086
has a full 16-bit system bus that
allows a substantial increase in
speed, especially with programs that
involve frequent branching or I/O
operations. This is even more impor-
tant in the case of Japanese-character
I/O because 2 bytes of data are re-
quired to represent each kanji char-
acter in the standard Japanese digital
code (see the text box "The Japanese
Answer to ASCII" on page 156). The
full-width system bus plus the higher
clock rate (8 MHz versus 4.77 MHz
for the PC's 8088) give the 5550 as
much as two or three times the pro-
cessor instruction rate of the PC,
depending on the instruction being
executed. Of course, your mileage
may differ; overall system perfor-
mance also depends on the amount
of system overhead the processor has
to perform and the efficiency of the
software. The Japanese computer
magazine Oh!55 ran benchmark pro-
grams on the 5550, the PC, and
several competing Japanese models.
For a 3000-sample Simpson's rule in-
tegration of y = sin(x), the 5550 run-
ning its BASIC interpreter under

Japanese Language DOS was about
1.75 times faster than the PC running
BASIC under MS-DOS 1.1. A 50-ele-
ment bubble sort ran over twice as
fast on the 5550 (and, not surprising-
ly, 36 times as fast with 5550 com-
piled Pascal). Some other results of
these benchmark tests will be quoted
later on.

The 5550, like the PC, has an emp-
ty position designated for an i8087
numeric data coprocessor. There's no
socket installed, so presumably the
upgrade is intended to be done at the
factory or service center. IBM Japan
makes no mention of the 8087 in its
literature; again like the PC, any IBM
support of the 8087 is "somewhere
downstream, maybe." However, sev-
eral Japanese computer magazines
have reported the existence of the
empty chip position, so there will un-
doubtedly be a number of indepen-
dent houses offering upgrade
packages.

The 8086 is supported by 16K bytes
of bootstrap and self -diagnostic rou-
tines in ROM (read-only memory).
Unlike the PC, which uses 8K bytes
of ROM BIOS (basic I/O system) and
32K bytes of ROM BASIC, the 5550's
BIOS and BASIC must be loaded
from disk. The BIOS handles the in-
terfaces with keyboard, display con-
troller, (including character-font

cache management), disk controller,
and printer.

Other inhabitants of the micropro-
cessor/memory board include an
i8237 DMA (direct-memory access)
controller, an i8253 programmable
timer, an i8259 interrupt controller,
and an i8284 clock generator, the
same complement of support chips
used in the PC. Memory consists of
thirty-six 4164-type 64K-bit dynamic
RAMS, providing a total of 256K
bytes of on-board memory plus pari-
ty. As if all that weren't enough, the
board is encrusted with 102 (yes, 102!)
small- and medium-scale Schottky
TTL (transistor-transistor logic) chips
(TI's), for a total chip count of 146, not
including resistor networks, caps,
crystal, printer and keyboard connec-
tors, test panel, and so forth. This is
one packed board.

By comparison, the PC has slight-
ly fewer than 100 chips installed on
roughly the same amount of real
estate, and that's with a full bank of
16K-bit RAMs. It appears, among
other things, that the I/O functions
handled in the PC by the i8255 pro-
grammable peripheral interface have
here been executed in random logic.
There are no custom arrays in
evidence. It will be interesting to see
what kind of field failure rate IBM ex-
periences on such a complex board.
However, because the microproces-
sor/memory function is contained on
a pluggable unit instead of on a
motherboard, maintenance and
upgrading should be relatively easy.

The second of the big boards in the
5550 is the disk controller card. The
first version of this board is some-
what less congested, with "only"
three LSI (large-scale integration), 51
support Schottky chips, and one
hybrid (vs. one LSI, 25 TTL, and 4
hybrids on the PC's disk-controller
card). The controller chip used is the
NEC ^PD765, and a Hitachi HA-16632
VFO chip handles data separation.
IBM has begun to supply the 5550
with a universal disk-controller card
that includes a Winchester interface,
even if no hard disk is ordered. With
this board installed, the system's disk
complement can be upgraded at any
time.

The unit can accommodate one,

148 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

THE THINGS COMPUTER USERS

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human disasters can shut your
electric power down at any time.

And lost power can cause your
personal computer serious trouble.
Big blocks of data can be garbled
and wiped right off your discs.
Your computer's main memory can
go blank and sensitive electronic
components can even be damaged

Protect your data and your
business profits from the power
line with Elgar's Uninterruptible

Power Systems. Our desktop-size
UPS monitors power from the line
and when it fails, a battery back-up
takes over and runs your com-
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your system down safely.

So don't leave your data
unprotected another day. For
more information or to order,
call Elgar toll-free 800-227-
3800, Ext. 7006. Major credit
cards are welcome.To receive

a 24 x 36 inch poster of our "Power
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for handling and write Elgar,
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two, or three of the narrow-profile
double-sided double-density, 80-
track floppies, although the heavy
dependence of the system on font
libraries severely limits the capabili-
ties of a single disk system. The use
of high-density 5 V4-inch floppy disks
instead of 8-inch disks is somewhat
surprising given the strong business
orientation of the system. The IBM
8-inch format is still the most widely
accepted standard among current
Japanese business computers. By go-
ing with the smaller floppy disks,
IBM may have been aiming to reach
more of the individual personal-
computer enthusiasts, while at the

same time not putting too much
pressure on its own System/34 and
System/36 small-business computers;
the new machine gives these more
expensive systems a run for their
money. In fact, IBM Japan has taken
to using the term "Very Small
Business Computer" (VSBC) to
characterize the new product line.

The system can also be configured
with one hard disk and one floppy
disk, but IBM is not scheduled to
start shipping hard disks until De-
cember. The disks simply plug in
from the front of the cabinet; there
are no harnesses to wrestle with (see
figure 1). Thus, there should be quite

a bit of competition, both in capacity
and in price, with IBM's 10-megabyte
(8.1 megabytes "available to user")
unit, which adds about $2200 to the
system price.

The video RAM board, another
tightly packed module, includes a
6845-type video controller, a pair of
6116-type 2K by 8-bit CMOS (com-
plementary metal-oxide semiconduc-
tor) RAM buffers used by the con-
troller, up to 256K bytes of video
RAM in the form of 4164-type
dynamic RAMS, a hybrid clock gen-
erator, and 110 TTL support chips—
again, a total of 146 chips. The func-
tion of this module will be described

The Japanese Kana Keyboard

The Japanese are fortunate to have
a phonetic alphabet, or syllabary, in
which to write their language; they are
not limited, as the Chinese are, to a
purely pictographic writing system.
This Japanese alphabet is called the
kana syllabary. There are 46 different
kana characters, each expressing a sim-
ple sound such as "oh" or "ku" or
"shi." You can immediately see that a
word like Yokohama would be written
with four kana, yo-ko-ha-ma. With the
addition of diacritical marks (used like
the tilde in Spanish) and subscripted
characters, slightly more than a hun-
dred different kana forms, one for each
possible syllable in the Japanese
language, can be constructed.

You might ask why the Japanese
continue to struggle with thousands of
kanji (pictographic) characters when
they have the phonetic writing system
available. The answer lies in the scar-
city of syllables in Japanese. A
hundred-odd syllables isn't much to
work with in building an entire vocab-
ulary. Of course, if you are willing to
accept very long words, there are plen-
ty of unambiguous combinations that
can be created. But the Japanese
already have the problem of long verb
conjugation endings; they prefer to
keep the roots of nouns and verbs fair-
ly short, usually about two syllables.
The result is that there are thousands
of synonyms in Japanese; almost any

word you name has at least one or two
synonyms, and some have a dozen.
Not surprisingly, this can cause all
sorts of problems in communication.
The native listener can usually tell
from the context which meaning is in-
tended, but it is very common for a
speaker to have to go back and clarify
certain words in a conversation. This
situation would not be acceptable in
written communication; in print you
must be able to convey information
clearly and unambiguously. Thus, the
Japanese must continue to use the kan-
ji, each of which carries a specific root
meaning, to put their language on
paper.
There is no reason, however, why

A,

(n)

(wa)

6
(ra)

(ya)

(ma)

it
(ha)

(na)

(ta)

(sa)

(ka)

35
(a)

"J
(ri)

(mi)

o

(hi)

(ni)

5
(chi)

U
(shi)

*
(ki)

Li
CO

3
(ru)

(yu)

(mu)

/3\
(fu)

(nu)

(tsu)

r

(su)

<

(ku)

(u)

ft
(re)

*
(me)

(he)

(ne)

T
(te)

it
(se)

l-t
(ke)

(e)

(wo)

5
(ro)

(yo)

(mo)

(ho)

CD
(no)

t

(to)

(so)

(M

33
(o)

The traditional arrangement of 'Japanese kana (in this case the hiragana set) into a matrix of vowel and consonant sounds.

150 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

in detail later.

The switching-mode power supply,
also a pluggable module, slides into
the base of the cabinet and mates
with the flex circuit power harness
through a beefy connector. The fact
that the boards, drives, and power
supply are all replaceable modules
shows the strong emphasis IBM put
on reliability and maintainability in
designing the system. Actually, the
best feature of the power supply is
that the switch is mounted to be ac-
cessible at the front of the system
unit. Total power dissipation in the
package is rated at approximately 230
watts, so the logic and drives prob-

ably use about 140 to 180 watts. A fan
in the power-supply module cools
the entire chassis.

An optional five-slot expansion
cage holds the optional memory and
interface boards. The cage's back-
plane board plugs into a connector
bearing the main system bus; the
whole cage can be added or replaced
in the field. There are four optional
boards currently available. Up to two
memory-expansion boards of 128K
bytes each can be added, for a max-
imum system memory capacity of
512K bytes. These memory modules
go for about $375, which is a bargain
compared to IBM's prices for PC ex-

pansion memory. (But then, who
buys their PC expansion memory
from IBM?) Communications adapt-
ers available include an asynchro-
nous serial adapter (RS-232C) and a
BSC/SDLC (Binary Synchronous
Communication/Synchronous Data
Link Control) adapter. Extensive soft-
ware support is being readied for the
latter interface, including a 3270 Kanji
Terminal emulator, a package to sup-
port the BSC3741 protocols, and
another package for the 3770 RJE
(remote job entry) terminal protocol.
IBM is vigorously promoting its net-
working and communications cap-
abilities, hoping to convince a

documents cannot be entered into the
computer in kana and then be con-
verted to kanji, as long as the author
supervises the conversion. So the
Japanese have established two stan-
dard keyboard arrangements for the
kana. The first arrangement, shown at
left, is based on the 1000-year-old ar-
rangement of the kana called the go-ju-
on-zu, or "50-sound chart." You can see
there is a logical pattern to this way of
arranging syllables. In fact, the
Japanese tend to view their syllabary
more as a matrix than as a linear
alphabet, so this is the most natural
way of arranging the keys.

However, it's very difficult to touch-
type on five rows of keys, thus the go-
ju-on-zu style of keyboard is only
available as an option on a few com-
puters. The Japanese instead have
adopted a version of the Western
QWERTY keyboard, with the 46 kana
plus supplementary marks spread

over all four rows of keys (see below).
Although most people don't touch-
type the fourth row of the QWERTY
keyboard too well, it's still easier to use
a four-row keyboard than a five-row.
You can observe that there is at least
a suggestion of the original matrix of
sounds preserved in this standard
layout (even the QWERTY arrange-
ment is not totally randomized). A few
of the lesser used characters have been
relegated to the top row or to the ex-
treme right, but most of the fourth row
characters get plenty of use. This is the
keyboard you will see most • often
in Japan.

You may also have noticed that the
Japanese characters in these two ex-
amples are not the same. The Japanese
actually have two complete sets of
kana, the hiragana shown in the first ex-
ample, and the katakana in the second.
These two character sets have much
different roles in Japanese writing, but

for all intents and purposes they are
precise parallels of each other. The
only difference is that a few subscript-
able characters have been added to
katakana to help approximate some of
the foreign words that can't be sound-
ed intelligibly with Japanese syllables.
Most Japanese computer keyboards
are labeled in katakana; the IBM 5550
offers the QWERTY-style keyboard in
either hiragana or katakana, with
hiragana being the standard for
Japanese-language word processing.
This style of Japanese keyboard has at
least two shift functions— one to
switch to the other kana set, and one
to switch to the roman alphabet. The
Japanese in their writing make exten-
sive use of Western names, acronyms,
numbers, and even slang, so they
must be able to access our alphabet as
well as their own.

I 2
1 (nu)

7
(fu)

* y

3 (a)

$
4

(u)

% x

5 (e)

6 (o)

7 (ya)

( 3.

8 (yu)

) 3

9 (yo)

0(wa)

7J\

(ho)

- 'X

(he)

I —

Q (ta)

T

W(te)

A (chi)

(i)

S (to)

R(su)

D(shi)

T(ka)

A
F(ha)

Y (n)

G (ki)

U (na)

5
H(M

I (ni)

"7
J (ma)

(ra)

J
K (no)

r -tz

P (se)

U
(ri)

@

j b
; (re)

[

: (ke)

J A
](mu)

J

v

Z(tsu)

-9-
X(sa)

V
C (so)

V (hi)

Z)

B Cko)

N(mi)

M(mo)

< *
, (ne)

> )V
. (ru)

? *
/(me)

D
\ (ro)

ft

Japanese katakana arranged on a QWERTY-style keyboard. The phonetic reading of each character is included for reference only.

November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. 151

mpu/memory board

video cntl board

disk cntl board

PLUG -IN 5±"

FLOPPY DISK
DRIVE

EXPANSION
CAGE

POWER
SUPPLY

DISK BUS
BACKPANEL

Figure 1: Exploded view of the IBM 5550 system unit. Five option boards may be installed
in the expansion cage. A hard-disk drive may be substituted for the two right-most floppy-
disk drives. (Figure courtesy of IBM.)

number of its major users to install
5550s in place of the 3270 or other
networks they now operate. In such
applications, IBM Japan seems to
hold a clear advantage over its
Japanese competitors.

The heavy emphasis on system
networking applications is perhaps
the clearest hint that we may see a
similarly targeted machine for the US
market before long. Independent
Japanese computer journals and
IBM's Japanese publications are
reporting an extensive array of
system configurations for which IBM
is touting the new machine or for
which it is preparing support.
Although the Japanese still lag
behind the US in data networking, at
least in terms of installed base, they
are putting a much greater national
priority on data-communications
facilities and will probably lead the
world in this pivotal technology
within a few years. IBM's Japanese
subsidiary clearly intends to play a
major role in this development.

The Keyboard Runneth Over

The most vociferously criticized
feature of IBM's American PC is its
keyboard— with good reason. IBM
says its preliminary market studies
showed that people encountering
computers for the first time tend to
be intimidated by large arrays of
obscure function keys. So a simple,
uncluttered keyboard layout was
adopted; unfortunately, this layout
manages to intimidate any typist who
ever grew up with the Selectric. Even
a novice quickly comes to curse the
miniscule Shift and Return keys, the
unlighted shift locks, and the 2 by 5
vertical array of function keys clever-
ly prompted by a 1 by 10 horizontal
array of screen labels. IBM has shown
little sympathy regarding these com-
plaints. In fact, the company now
says that the PC-style keyboard will
become the standard on new genera-
tions of Display writer and small of-
fice computer products. Pity the poor
secretaries.

By contrast, the 5550's keyboard

(designated 5556) is anything but
austere, as can be seen in figure 2. If
anything, the pendulum has swung
to the other extreme. With 124 keys,
compared to the PC's 83, it weighs in
with one of the most complex key-
boards of any small computer, Japa-
nese or otherwise. Some of the typ-
ing keys represent up to four dif-
ferent characters, and there are addi-
tional legends on the front of many
keys. Given the multifunction char-
acter of the machine, it's hard to see
how the keyboard could be signifi-
cantly simplified. Changeable key
overlays seem like an excellent idea,
but machines using them haven't
been overly successful in the market.
And menu-driven software is great
for a novice but tends to slow down
an experienced operator. Besides, a
complex-looking keyboard may not
be as much of an impediment in the
hard-charging technology culture of
Japan.

Many of the typing complaints
noted above have in fact been alleviat-
ed in this new layout. IBM has
followed the JIS (Japanese Industrial
Standard) kana keyboard layout (see
the text box on page 150), which has
nice large Shift and Return keys and
no annoying symbol key intruding
between the Z and the Shift. The
shift locks aren't lighted, but the soft-
ware displays the shift status—
hiragana, katakana, roman, roman
caps lock— on the top or bottom line
of the display. The normal space bar
has been split into five keys: a space,
two kana-to-kanji conversion control
keys, and two shifts. This is a little
awkward for typing text in roman,
but Japanese text does not use spaces
between words, thus it is not a
significant problem.

To the right of the typing keys is a
block of word-processing function
keys, quite similar to the Wang for-
mat used by many American small
computers (except IBM's): cursor con-
trol cross, three page-flipping keys,
Insert, Delete, Copy, and Move. Far-
ther right is a 10-key pad with Enter
and math function keys.

Unfortunately, the organization of
the remaining 34 keys is based more
on geometrical symmetry than on
logical categories. The key block at

152 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

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IBM 5550

MULTISTATION

KEYBOARD

Figure 2: The layout of the 5550 system keyboard, with translations of the legends of the function keys. The keys marked in blue are dedicated
to word-processing operations.

the left includes system-control func-
tions such as Cntl, Quit, Break, and
Cancel, plus some keys to initiate
half -size or double-size character en-
try, a key to flag characters used in
proper names (a real problem in Jap-
anese), and some additional kana-to-
kanji conversion control keys.

The same mix of functions is evi-
dent in the three blocks of control
keys arrayed along the top of the
keyboard. Format-control keys and
other word-processing function keys
are color-coded and arrayed in the
lower row of 12 keys; communica-
tions and other miscellaneous keys
reside in the upper row. But there is
not the strong logical subgrouping
there should be in a keyboard of such
complexity. Keyboard designers must
learn to make geometry and logic
work together, rather than choosing
one over the other. Perhaps the best
example of a well-balanced keyboard
is the HASCI (human applications
standard computer interface) key-
board on the Epson QX-10 (see the

October, November, and December
1982 BYTE). However, the IBM key-
board has many more functions to
control, and the Epson is highly
menu-oriented; the keyboard design
challenge is yet to be mastered.

The feel of the 5550 keyboard is
quite different from the mechanical
break-over of the PC's keyboard. The
new key touch is better suited to fast
typing. The system speaker, mounted
in the keyboard housing, gives an
audible click at each key make. The
volume of the click is adjustable. This
is an excellent approach to keyboard
feedback.

Like the PC, the 5550's keyboard
connects to the system unit via a
coiled cord. An internal microproces-
sor in the keyboard module scans the
keys and sends key make/break infor-
mation to the main processor in a
serial format. The housing is of the
same configuration as the PC's but is
3 inches wider.

IBM is offering three keyboard op-
tions with the 5550. The standard key

layout is best suited for word-pro-
cessing and personal-computing
functions. One optional layout is
available with four key legends
altered for use with 3270 emulation
software. IBM has shown a third
keyboard, one with 125 keys, that is
quite different from the standard
layout and is designed to look like the
keyboard of the 3270 Kanji Terminal.

Of Kanji Fonts and Printer Dots
and Pixel RAM and Screens

The system used for handling the
display screen and printer is surely
the most interesting aspect of this
machine. The Japanese kanji
characters are much more complex
than any Western alphabet and
therefore need more pixels to portray
them intelligibly. The American PC's
monochrome display adapter gener-
ates roman characters of exceptional
quality with a 7- by 11-pixel matrix (in
a 9 by 14 space). By comparison, kanji
characters displayed in a 16- by
16-pixel matrix are passable at best

154 November 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 independent
page controls to reprint portions of •
documentation.

40 Pin Expansion Bus available for
future expansion

COPY pruddts convergent one key ope>a-
tlon 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-
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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-
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A USER WRITES:
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system connected to an Epson MX- 100,
both set at 9600 baud. Without the
"ANGEL" it takes 30 minutes to print 2 1
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 I 0, Including: hex-
dump, memory lest, remote loading, etc.

Independent PAUSE and HOLD coa
trols to suspend transmission and recep-
tion.

8 easy-to-operate membrane key switches.

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, MorthStar, 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 YOU
WATTING!

ANGEL, The Intelligent Buffer, features:

- 64K Byte Memory Size

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- Serial to Serial

- Parallel to Parallel

- Serial to Parallel

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Serial Baudrate from 1 10 to 19.2K Baud
Single, Multiple and Continuous Copy
Clear/Reset
Pause/Hold
Page Skip
Page Re-print
Page-Pause
Hex-Dump
Self-Diagnostics

Space Compression to extend the effec-
tive buffer size to more than 1 28K
Price - $295.00

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LigO Research, Inc. • 396 E. 159th St. • Harvey, IL 60426 • 1-312-331-8797 • In Canada 1 -416-859-0370
Circle 265 on inquiry card.

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MY ACCT. # IS

EXPIRATION DATE

BYTE November 1983

155

The Japanese Answer to ASCII

Most Westerners can only be awed
at the complexity of written language
in the Orient. The pictographic/ideo-
graphic writing system that originated
in China more than 2500 years ago in-
volves thousands of intricately stroked
characters. Although some simplifica-
tion has been achieved in this century,
the system still presents a formidable
obstacle to communication, especial-
ly in the current electronic age. Most
of the difficulties that have arisen in
processing these languages by com-
puter involve the entry of text into the
machine and the display and printout
of results. How do you design a
keyboard to handle 2000 to 3000 dif-
ferent characters? What about a
Chinese "selectric" typeball?

Fortunately, once the purely
mechanical obstacles of input and out-
put have been overcome, data can be
dealt with in a routine way. A com-
puter doesn't care what character set
its Is and 0s represent as long as all
the humans involved agree on a stan-
dard code. In Japan, as in America,
there are two such standards: IBM's
and everyone else's. In the US, IBM's
EBCDIC (extended binary-coded-dec-
imal interchange code), which evolved
from punch-card formats (remember
keypunch?), is used in all IBM com-
puters down to and including the
System/34 and Displaywriter. Most
computers from other companies, as
well as IBM's PC, use ASCII to repre-
sent character data. ASCII is also the
standard for intercomputer com-
munication. Because there are only
128 (or 256) possible codes involved,
it is little trouble for IBM's computers
to convert to ASCII when communi-
cating with the outside world; thus the
dual standard does not cause any
serious problems.

In Japan, though, there are a lot
more characters to worry about. The
Japan Standards Association, Japan's
counterpart to ANSI (American Na-
tional Standards Institute), has iden-
tified 3418 Japanese kanji characters as
"primary kanji/' and another 3384 as

"secondary kanji." To put this in
perspective, a Japanese student is ex-
pected to know 881 kanji by the end of
the sixth grade and 2000 by the time
he graduates from high school. A fair-
ly literate college graduate is able to
read about 3400 characters. By using
these characters individually, or by
combining two (or occasionally three)
different characters, the tens of
thousands of Japanese words can be
represented. Secondary kanji include
obsolete or historical kanji, characters
used only in proper names, and so
forth.

In addition to the kanji, there are two
sets of kana characters (which act as a
sort of phonetic "alphabet" for Japa-
nese), plus Arabic numbers, Roman,
Greek, and Cyrillic alphabets, and
graphics symbols represented in the
JIS standard, a total of 453 non-kanji
characters. Because the Japanese had
to go to 2 bytes per character anyway,
they figured they might as well
establish a code for every character
that might ever be needed. Actually,
only 7 bits of each byte are used for
coding; the eighth bit is reserved for
parity. There are 2 14 or 16,384 possible
codes that can be handled by the JIS
format; of these, slightly more than
half are used for actual characters, and
the rest are reserved for control codes.
A small segment of the JIS primary
kanji code is shown at right.

IBM's kanji code, an "extension" of
EBCDIC (like Texas is an extension of
El Paso), actually predates the JIS
code. IBM made an extensive commit-
ment to the Japanese market in the six-
ties, back when Japanese electronic
producers were still concentrating on
stereos and TVs. An enormous
amount of effort was expended over
the years to develop Japanese-lan-
guage interfacing capability for IBM's
mainframes. Consequently, the IBM
3270 Kanji Terminal is still the standard
online terminal in Japan. For more
than a decade, IBM's Tokyo Scientific
Center has been conducting research
into Japanese-language programming

systems for small computers. The
5550's word-processing software,
which features semantic-sensitive
kana-to-kanji conversion and utilizes
EBCDIC-coded kanji characters, is a
product of this research.

On the other hand, software
developed for the 5550 by outside
sources typically uses a variant of the
JIS kanji code. This variant code differs
from the JIS code only in that charac-
ters and control codes have been sep-
arated into different sectors. Micro-
soft's Japanese-language version of
Multiplan and other 5550 software use
this variant, and it has been adopted
by virtually every Japanese microcom-
puter maker as a standard for personal
computers. Thus there are two dis-
similar data codes used in 5550 system
software, a rather disturbing schizo-
phrenia with symptoms that include
the incapability to share data files be-
tween personal-computing and
word-processing functions. IBM Japan
is not currently offering a utility to con-
vert between these two data en-
vironments. This incompatibility has
been blown into a major issue by IBM's
competitors and other critics. Many
commentators have expressed serious
doubts about the viability of the
system on the basis of its disjointed
data and file formats. In Japanese
business etiquette, saying "I have
serious doubts about your approach"
is tantamount to saying "You must be
out of your mind." IBM Japan will
probably have to address this file-
conversion problem eventually.

The fact that the characters of the
Japanese language need a multibyte
code for representation in a computer
points up the importance of the 16-bit
microprocessor "threshold" to the
Japanese. Now that powerful, inex-
pensive 16-bit systems are entering the
market, the Japanese will be aole, for
the first time, to interact with personal
computers in their native language.
The current small-computer "software
gap" between the U S and Japan may
get a lot narrower in the near future.

but certainly not as intelligible as
even 5- by 7-pixel roman characters.
IBM's 5550 offers 16- by 16-pixel kanji
with its 12-inch monochrome and
14-inch color displays, and 24- by

24-pixel kanji with its 15-inch
monochrome display. The 24 by 24
representation is pretty good;
Japanese characters are traditionally
produced by strokes of a small brush

pen, so the slight f uzziness in a 24 by
24 digitization gives the characters a
somewhat quaint, arguably pleasing
appearance.
However, even a 16- by 16-pixel

156 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

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Examples of Japanese digital kanji codes. At left is a chart of the JIS primary kanji code chart. At right is an excerpt from a 475-page
code book that IBM provides with the system. Beside each kanji are (from left) a character sequence number, the JIS kanji code, the EBCDIC-
based IBM code, and the Japanese microcomputer code convention. Notice that the third kanji listed in the table has a JIS code of 2708.
If you look at row 27, column 8 of the chart, you will find that same character. The characters in the chart are arranged phonetically.
(Chart courtesy of IBM.)

matrix for the 3418 JIS primary kanji
(see "The Japanese Answer to ASCII"
on page 156) would take up more
than 109K bytes of ROM— that's four-
teen 2764s. The 24 by 24 font would

eat up forty-two 2764s. Some Japa-
nese small computers do use ROM
font storage, and the Japanese have
put a high priority on developing
very dense ROMs (a half-megabit

ROM is close to production). How-
ever, the 5550 keeps the character
fonts on floppy disk and brings
whichever fonts are needed into a
cache buffer that occupies all or part

November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

157

of the video RAM. The same disk-
based fonts are used for both the
display and the printer. Thus, if you
buy the small monochrome or the
color display, you must settle for a 16-
by 16-dot printout; with the 15-inch
monochrome display, you can have
24- by 24-pixel kanji on both the
screen and the printer.

The display adapter card provides
256K bytes of video RAM. How this
RAM is utilized depends on the
operational mode. In character mode,
the entire video RAM is used for the
kanji font cache. A separate 2K-byte
RAM is used as a character buffer,

and another for an attribute buffer. In
character mode, the screen can
display 25 lines of 40 kanji or full-
width kana, or 25 lines of 80 roman
characters or condensed kana. (Ac-
tually, it's 25 by 41 and 25 by 82 with
a dead position at the lower right of
the screen, but most operational pro-
grams use only 40/80 columns.) Be-
cause the kanji are physically twice as
wide on the screen as the alpha-
numeric characters and require a
16-bit instead of an 8-bit code to
designate them, there is a rather
tricky one-to-one correspondence
maintained between the contents of

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the character buffer and the contents
of the screen.

When an operating program wants
to write a kanji on the screen, the
BIOS first checks to see if the
necessary font is already contained in
the font cache buffer; if not, it is load-
ed from disk. Then the appropriate
location of the character buffer, either
1 or 2 bytes, is loaded with a code
that points, via a table of vectors, to
the location in the font cache at
which the desired font is stored. Any
video attributes (such as underline,
blink, reverse video, and one of eight
colors in the case of a color monitor)
are loaded into the corresponding
location of the attribute buffer. This
novel combination of a character buf-
fer containing references to code font
locations (rather than the actual
character codes like ASCII) and a
large font cache play the same role as
a normal character buffer and font
ROM would in a conventional video
display. The CRT (cathode-ray tube)
controller chip accesses the character
buffer one position at a time, the font
address is referenced, and the pixel
pattern is fetched and pipelined for
display. The display refresh rate is ap-
proximately 72 to 76 interlaced half-
frames per second (it varies with
display model and mode). This re-
fresh rate corresponds to a pixel rate
of about 40 MHz for the 15-inch
display.

The juggling of character fonts in
the video RAM is also a little tricky
but will not normally require a great
deal of disk access. Perhaps half of
the characters on a typical page of
Japanese text will be one of the 100
or so kana, and over three-fourths of
the remainder will be from a group
of 1000 or so heavily used kanji.
Slightly more than 2000 different
fonts can be stored in the font cache;
if the most common characters are
brought in at the beginning, only a
handful will need to be added along
the way. Of course, because all typ-
ing is done initially in kana, the
screen responds to the typist's input
immediately. Only the kana-to-kanji
conversion process may be delayed
by disk access.

In graphics mode, the operation is
somewhat different. The first third of

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the video RAM is used as a screen
bitmap, and the remainder for the
font cache. (In character mode, the
kanji fonts and surrounding blank
spaces (24 by 24 pixels in a 26 by 29
box) are loosely packed into 128 bytes
per character. In graphics mode, the
fonts are tightly packed into 72 bytes.
Thus, even though the bitmap uses
the first third of the video RAM in
graphics mode, the remainder can
still hold more than 2000 character
fonts.) The graphics programs per-
form the normal dot-addressable
graphics operations within the bit-
map and can fetch character fonts
from the cache, alter their size or
orientation, and deposit them in the
map as desired. For color graphics,
the system used is very similar to the
original PC's. The horizontal resolu-
tion is halved, from 720 by 512 to 360
by 512, and two contiguous bits in the
bitmap are used to control each ad-
dressable dot, which allows four col-
ors to be displayed. One of these col-
ors is the background, so you actually
get only three active colors. However,

you do have a choice of what those
colors are.

Although the 5550 strikes an ex-
cellent balance among its many capa-
bilities, it is not really a strong
graphics machine in comparison to
more specialized systems. Though its
resolution is very high for mono-
chrome, and above average for color,
the use of the 6845 controller chip
and processor-controlled bitmap
graphics severely limits its speed for
certain types of operations. In the
previously mentioned benchmark
tests, the NEC-9801, another
8086-based personal computer, com-
pleted an 1100-line star, programmed
in BASIC, in just 6 seconds, com-
pared to almost 2 minutes for the
5550. In most other respects, the 9801
was comparable to the 5550 within a
factor of about 1.5 either way. The
NEC machine uses that company's
/iPD7220 graphics controller chip, one
of the hottest on the market; the chip
has hardware line generation and
other state-of-the-art features. By go-
ing with the tried-and-true 6845, the

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same controller used in the American
PC, IBM passed up a lot of graphics
power it could have tapped for ap-
plications such as CAD (computer-
aided design), opting instead for bet-
ter character-handling performance.
For the majority of office-oriented
graphics applications, however, the
system is more than adequate.

The printer used with the 5550
system is a very dense wire dot-
matrix type made by Oki Electric.
The unit is configured much dif-
ferently from Okidata's American-
market printers. Their top-of-the-line
Pacemark 2410 produces some of the
best correspondence-quality print of
any dot-matrix machine; it uses a
nine-magnet print head and gener-
ates a 17- by 9-dot matrix by taking
two passes at each line, displacing
the paper a half dot between passes.
By contrast, both the 16- by 16-dot
and 24- by 24-dot character matrixes
generated by the 5550's printers
(designated 5553-A01 and 5553-B01,
respectively) are created in a single
pass. These printers have full-
resolution printheads, using 18 or 24
magnets. The print wires are skewed
so that the tiny dots (11 mil and 8 mil,
respectively) overlap slightly.

The print pattern is determined by
dot information sent to the printer by
the system unit. The printed charac-
ter font is the same as the displayed
font; there is no internal character
generation in the printer. As a result,
the printer can produce an extensive
range of styles limited only by the
software. The word-processing soft-
ware, for example, supports half-
width, normal, and double-width
printing of roman characters and kana
and normal and double-width print-
ing of kanji. And because the pixel
matrix is square, it is simple to rotate
the characters to print Japanese text
in the traditional fashion, vertical col-
umns proceeding from right to left.
The printer also supports the same
dot-addressable graphics utilities
used for display-screen graphics.
Some examples of the 24- by 24-dot
characters display and printout are
shown in figure 3. The print speed is
60 kanji characters per second for the
16- by 16-dot printer and 40 kanji per
second for the 24- by 24-dot version.

160 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

Circle 213 on inquiry card.

Si£5t HM S&ttff ttBMMff

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ABC ft* HP -250 ¥500.000 ¥300.000

ABC MM KP-500 ¥2,500.000 ¥1,300.000

ABC MM HP -500 ¥2,500,000 ¥1,300.000

11 Siifc M£« *£*f5 <±W¥©
12

13 XYZ I* HP-250 ¥500,000 ¥300,000

14 XYZ I* MP-300 ¥1,500,000 ¥825,000

3 ¥4,500.000

10 ¥5,000,000

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20 ¥27.000,000

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¥15,000,000

15 ¥17,500,000

¥1.000.000
¥6,750,000

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Figure 3: Examples of the 5550 system 's displays and printouts. At upper left is an example of textual material displayed on a screen by
the Japanese-language word-processing function. At upper right is a screen display from Microsoft's Japanese version of Multiplan. Below
are examples of horizontal and vertical printout modes. All examples were produced in the 24- by 24-bit font. (Material courtesy of IBM.)

November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. 161

Circle 503 on inquiry card.

Less
for lour
Money

If you do word processing on
your personal computer, you
probably know that there are
many programs for sale to help
you with your spelling. But the
biggest spelling error you'll ever
make is paying too much for your
spelling correction software. The
Random House Proof Reader
gives you less for your money -
less trouble, that is, and fewer
spelling errors. The Random
House Proof Reader is based on
the world famous Random House
Dictionary. It contains up to
80,000 words, depending on
your disk capacity. You can add
new words with the touch of a
key. It shows you the error and
the sentence it's in. It instantly
suggests corrections. It even re-
checks your corrections. And it
costs half as much as other
programs with far less power. The
Random House ProofReader is
compatible with all CP/M 2.2®,
MS-DOS® and IBM Personal
Computer® systems.

m

the
hando m

r

The

Random
House
ProofReader

*50

For orders or information, see your
local dealer or call 505-281-3371.
Master card and VISA accepted. Or write
Random House ProofReader, Box 339- B,
Tijeras, NM 87059. Please enclose $50
and specify your computer model,
disk size and memory.

Random House and the House design are registered
trademarks of Random House, Inc. CP/M is a regis-
tered trademark of Digital Research, Inc. IBM and IBM
Personal Computer are registered trademarks of
International Business Machines, Inc. MS-DOS is a
registered trademark of Microsoft, Inc.

162 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

Product

Price

Availability

5551 System Unit, 256K-byte RAM, one 640K-byte 5V4-inch

floppy disk:

with 16- by 16-dot characters, for monochrome display

$2560

now

with 24- by 24-dot characters, for monochrome display

$3230

now

with 16- by 16-dot characters, for color display

$2605

now

5551 System Unit, 256K-byte RAM, one 8.1-megabyte hard disk,

one 640K-byte 5 1 /4-inch floppy disk:

with 16- by 16-dot characters, for monochrome display

$4745

12/83

with 24- by 24-dot characters, for monochrome display

$5415

12/83

with 16- by 16-dot characters, for color display

$4790

12/83

System unit options:

board cage

$125

now

128K-byte memory expansion board

$375

now

additional 640K-byte 5 1 A-inch floppy-disk drive

$417

now

SDLC/BSC communications adapter

$417

now

asynchronous communications adapter

$250

now

magnetic stripe reader adapter

$313

now

5553 Printer:

for 16- by 16-dot characters and dot-addressable graphics

$1120

now

for 24- by 24-dot characters and dot-addressable graphics

$1313

now

5557 Printer:

heavy-duty printer for multipart forms

$5625

12/83

5555 Display:

12-inch monochrome for 16- by 16-dot characters

$250

now

15-inch monochrome for 24- by 24-dot characters

$605

now

14-inch color for 16- by 16-dot characters

$915

12/83

5556 Keyboard (three versions available):

Japanese-language word processing and personal computing

$200

now

Japanese-language word processing and 3270 emulation

$200

now

3270 katakana keyboard format

$200

now

Japanese-Language Business/Personal Computing Software:

Japanese-Language DOS/Basic lnterpreter/Font-16 (16- by

16-dot) (JIS primary kanji)

$125

now

Same as above, with Font-24 (24- by 24-dot)

$125

now

Font-16 for IBM supplementary characters and JIS secondary

kanji

$83

now

Font-24 for IBM supplementary characters and JIS secondary

kanji

$83

now

Macro-Assembler

$125

now

BASIC compiler

$250

now

COBOL compiler

$625

now

FORTRAN compiler

$333

now

Pascal compiler

$250

now

Multiplan

$166

now

Multitool Chart

$166

12/83

Multitool File

$208

12/83

Sort/Merge program

$208

now

BSC 3741 communications utility

$158

now

SNA/SDLC 3770 RJE utility

$125

now

Japanese-Language Word-Processing Software:

Document program

$417

now

Dictionary/Font-16 (extended character set)

$105

now

Dictionary/Font-24 (basic character set)

$105

now

Font-24 (extended character set)

$83

now

Japanese-Language Online Terminal Software:

3270 kanji emulation/Font-16 (extended character set)

$250

now !

3270 kanji emulation/Font-24 (extended character set)

$250

now

Table 1: A price list. The 5550 is not yet available in the US, thus no US prices are quoted

by IBM. The numbers listed in this table and quoted in the text i

ire direct

conversions

from the Japanese price list, using an exchange rate of 240 yen to the dollar. Because it

is widely agreed that the yen is currently undervalued with respect

to the dollar by about

20 percent, the numbers above should probably be increased somewhat to get

an accurate

picture of the system's real cost to the potential Japanese customer

Circle 375 on inquiry card.

Time for your computer to make the telephone con-
nection - with an intelligent, full 21 2 A 300/1200
baud modem - with a real time clock/calendar -
and with the capability to expand into a com-
plete telecommunications system. It's time for
PRO-MODEM 1 200. Much more than just a phone
modem.

When you're on-line, time is money. PRO-MODEM
telecommunication systems help you save. By
monitoring the duration and cost of your phone
calls. And by sending and receiving messages,
unattended, at preset times when the rates are
lower. . .with or without your computer.

Compare the $495 PRO-MODEM 1 200 with any other
modem on the market. For example, you'd have to
buy both the Hayes Smartmodem 1200 plus their
Chronograph for about $950 to get a modem with
time base.

PRO-MODEM 1200 is easy to use. A convenient
"Help" command displays the Menu of operating
command choices for quick reference whenever
there's a question about what to do next. Extensive
internal and remote self-diagnostics assure that the
system is operating properly. Some of the other
standard features include Auto Answer, Touch
Tone and Pulse Dialing, and Programmable Intelli-
gent Dialing.

mMSr

PRO-MODEM does more. It lets you build a full tele-
communications system with features like Auto
Dialer, Incoming and Outgoing Message Buffering,
Business/Personal Phone Directory, Program-
mable Operating Instructions, a 12-Characfer
Alpha-Numeric Time and Message Display, and
versatile PRO-COM Software. PRO-MODEM com-
mands are Hayes compatible so you can use most
existing telecommunications software without
modification.

There's much more to the PRO-MODEM story. See
your local dealer for complete details. He'll show
you how to save time. And money.

Prometheus Products, Inc., 45277 Fremont Blvd.,
Fremont CA 94538, (415) 490-2370

■

The Software

The 5550 comes to market with an
extensive repertoire of IBM-spon-
sored software. First and foremost are
the packages that support the work-
station task environments (word-
processing and communications-ter-
minal functions). The powerful
word-processing software, developed
by IBM, costs $525 to $600 for the
Bunsho (Document) program and
font libraries and gives the machine
capabilities comparable to IBM's
American Display writer system. The
communications adapter and the
three programs to support it (3270
Kanji Terminal emulator, BSC3741
communications utility, and 3770 RJE
utility) will be available soon. The
word-processing program and the
kanji terminal emulator run under a
special dedicated operating system
developed by IBM and resident on
the program disks.

The personal-computing functions,
the BSC3741 utility, and the 3770 RJE
utility run under Japanese Language

DOS, Microsoft's Japanese version of
MS-DOS. Several general applica-
tions packages and programming
languages developed by Microsoft are
available, including Multiplan
spreadsheet; Multitool Chart and
Multitool File are slated for Decem-
ber. (Interestingly, IBM has priced the
Japanese version of Multiplan $100
less than the English version.) Inter-
preter BASIC, 8086 Macro-Assembler,
FORTRAN, and Pascal are available
now, and BASIC and COBOL com-
pilers were scheduled for October
release. The existing literature does
not mention any specific applications
software, such as accounting pack-
ages, that might be offered by IBM
later on. But Ashton-Tate has devel-
oped a version of dBASE II for the
5550, and there is a file communicator
called D-COM that enables the 5550
to exchange data with other popular
Japanese microcomputers. And if the
American PC is any precedent, the
market should soon be flooded with
5550 software. ■

Bibliography

1. "IBM 5550 Multistation Design Fundamen-
tals," Access, May/June 1983, pages 1-10. (An
IBM Japan publication.)

2. "Opening Up the Business-oriented PC
Market?" Nikkei Personal Computing, April
5, 1983, pages 108-113.

3. "Sophisticated, Multifunction PCs Appear on
the Scene" Nikkei Computer, May 30, 1983,
pages 49-65.

4. IBM Business Personal Computer. Tokyo:
Computer Age Co., 1983.

5. The IBM 5550, A New Analysis. Tokyo:
Dempa Publishing Co., 1983.

6. Oh!55. Tokyo: Japan Soft Bank Co., 1983.
(All of the above publications are in Japanese.)

Richard Willis (POB F, Goleta, CA 93116) heads
a small consulting firm specializing in electronic
systems for production test and control applications.
He received his MSEE from Caltech in 1973 and
has been studying Japanese at the University of
California, Santa Barbara. He is a member of the
Computer and Automated Systems Association of
the Society of Manufacturing Engineers.

Acknowledgment

The author would like to thank personnel at
Microsoft for their technical assistance in prepara-
tion of this article.

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BYTE November 1983 165

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166 BYTE November 1983

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TO ORDER

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Circle 354 for Apple Products. Circle 355 for IBM Products.

BYTE November 1983

167

Expanding on the PC

A survey of expansion boards for the IBM Personal Computer

Both the IBM Personal Computer
and PC compatibles offer many fea-
tures computer users want, but no
one system can please everybody.
Rather than try to predict which fea-
tures most users will want and in-
clude those under the basic machine
price, the PC and many PC com-
patibles include expansion slots. The
result is a lower price for the basic
machine plus greater flexibility for
users who want to customize con-
figurations to meet their needs.

Expansion slots, made famous by
the Apple II, let you install
printed-circuit boards to perform
functions not provided by the com-
puter's standard hardware.

Some of the add-on boards— disk-
drive controllers, memory-expansion
boards, and printer and communica-
tions interfaces— appeal to large
numbers of computer buyers. Other
boards— for prototyping, program-
ming EPROMs (erasable program-
mable read-only memory chips), or
converting analog signals for storage
by the computer— target a much
smaller percentage of PC and
PC-compatible owners. Still, with
these machines fast approaching the

by Mark J. Welch

mark of 1 million units sold, a small
percentage represents a very large
number of users. Obviously, a sub-
stantial market for expansion boards,
including dozens with distinct func-
tions, exists.

Tables on the following pages pro-
vide detailed information about ex-
pansion boards produced by 107 dif-
ferent manufacturers. The tables
organize the boards by their func-
tions and list entries in alphabetical
order by manufacturer within each
category. (The exception is table 17,
which lists miscellaneous boards
alphabetically by function.) A sepa-
rate listing of manufacturers' ad-
dresses begins on page 178.

Some expansion boards defy a
simple description or are so unlike
other boards that we couldn't in-
clude them in our survey listing. For
example, Quadram Corp. offers a
unique expansion board that enables
the IBM Personal Computer to
emulate an Apple computer. The
$680 Quadlink board includes a 6502
processor and 64K bytes of RAM and
can run most Apple II or II Plus soft-
ware. According to Quadram, users
can run programs concurrently in

Apple and IBM modes, switching be-
tween the two at any time.

Quadlink won't run software writ-
ten exclusively for the Apple He or
software that uses a "half-track"
copy-protect scheme, but it will run
most other Apple software, includ-
ing high-resolution graphics. Quad-
link includes a game port that can be
used in either IBM or Apple mode
and can access other ports and
expansion boards in the IBM PC.

The Futurex Encryptor, from Jones
Futurex Inc., is a data-encryption
board. The board encrypts, or trans-
lates, data into special codes that can
be translated only by the Encryptor
board. Data can thus be hidden from
unauthorized users or can be trans-
mitted to another IBM PC equipped
with the board without risk of eaves-
dropping. Five versions of the En-
cryptor, ranging from $300 to $600,
are available for the IBM PC.

Modular Expansion Boards

Two expansion-board suppliers let
you choose any combination of fea-
tures and upgrade already pur-
chased boards by selling modular ex-

168 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

pansion boards. The boards plug in-
to a standard expansion slot, and
modules that perform particular
functions then plug into the boards.
Maynard Electronics' Sandstar
Multifunction card, with room for up
to six modules, costs $110. The Sand-
star Memory card, with room for up
to 576K bytes of RAM (random-
access read/write memory) and three
modules, sells for $230. The Sandstar
Disk Controller Card, for $265, in-
cludes either two 5V4-inch and two

8-inch disk-drive controllers or four
5V4-inch controllers, plus room for
three modules. A clock/calendar
module costs $85 more. Other avail-
able modules are a parallel port ($75),
a serial port ($105), and a game
adapter ($60).

Arby's Combination Board costs
$110 and can be expanded with a $90
clock/calendar module, a $105 serial-
port module, and a $75 parallel-port
module, allowing up to six modules
in all.

Take time to consider what you
want from your IBM PC, and then
carefully research the available prod-
ucts to determine which ones best
meet your requirements. The infor-
mation given here should get you
started. With luck, you may find that
the PC of your dreams is just an ex-
pansion board away.H

Mark ]. Welch is a BYTE staff writer. He can
be reached at 70 Main St., Peterborough, NH
03458.

A Key to the Tables

Because the tables accompanying this ar-
ticle cover a number of boards and their
characteristics, some items are necessarily
abbreviated. The following explanations of
column headings and comments are there-
fore provided to help you get the most in-
formation from the tables.

AID Lines: How many analog-to-
digital conversion lines are on the board,
if any?

Board Name: Some expansion boards
may have more than one name, while
others may use the same name for several
variations of the same board.

Clock: A clock/ calendar with battery
backup is on the board.

D/A Lines: How many digital-to-
analog conversion lines are on the board,
if any?

Digital I/O Lines: // the board can be
used for special input/output functions,
how many single-bit lines can be con-
nected? These I/O lines can be used to

transfer single-bit (on or off) information
or to transmit or receive bytes of informa-
tion in parallel.

E/EPROM Capability: The board can
be used to program EPROMs or
EEPROMs.

Game Port: A standard game controller
port is included.

IEEE-488 Interface Included: A stan-
dard IEEE-488 port— also known as a
GPIB (general-purpose interface bus)
port— is included.

Manufacturer's Name: Addresses are
in a separate list beginning on page 178.

Modem Included: A modem is in-
cluded on the board.

N.A.: Information was not available.

Parallel Ports: How many standard
Centronics-type parallel printer ports are
there on the board, if any?

Price: Manufacturer's suggested retail
price for the board with the options and
memory indicated. Although prices are
listed for boards with 64K, 128K, 192K,

256K, 512K, and 1024K bytes of memory,
some boards are available in other con-
figurations (usually multiples of 64K).

Print Spooler: Software is included
permitting part of the memory to be used
as a print buffer.

Prototyping: The board can be used to
design and revise prototype versions of an
expansion board. This is use ful for creating
boards with features not available from any
company or for trying sample layouts of
a board you plan to mass-produce and sell

Prototype Size: The size of the expan-
sion board, usually about 13 by 4 inches.
Some boards are smaller to save money or
to fit into the PC XT's smaller slots.

RAM Disk: Software is included (at no
extra charge) permitting the extra memory
to be used as if it were a disk drive.

Serial Ports: How many RS-232C
serial interface ports (for printers, modems,
and other communications uses) are in-
cluded on the board?

Manufacturer

Board Name

Serial
Port

Parallel
Port

Price

Comments

Automated Business Machines

CP/M-80 Adapter

$545

Byad

DS2

1

$760

CP/M included

Byad

DS1

$660

CP/M included

California Computer Systems

Z/Plus

1

$875

CP/M 2.2 included; with 192K bytes, $995

Gateway Communications

PC-LNIM

$595

allows CP/M or networking

Microdisk

1-DOS

$850

allows CP/M to run under PC-DOS; has print-
spooler capability

Microlog

Baby Blue

$600

has RAM-disk capability

Personal Data Systems

Pack-Z80

1

$450

Quality Computer Services

Big Blue

1

1

$595

has a clock

Table 1: Z80 coprocessors (all include 64K bytes of RAM). The Z80 replaces the PCs standard 8088 processor as the central processor,
letting you use both CP/M-80 software, which runs on the Z80, and standard IBM PC software, which runs on the 8088. Be sure
to find out whether buying a particular board gets you the CP/M operating system or merely lets you use CPIM-based software.

November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. 169

Manufacturer

AST Research

Alpha Byte Computer Products

Apparat

Applied Business Computer

Apstek

Arby

Automated Business Machines

Bitstream

Chintronics

Computer Technology

Innovations
Datamac Computer Systems
Davong Systems
Daystar Systems
Hammond Computer Products
Hammond Computer Products
IDE Associates
IBM

Intermedia Systems
Macrolink

Maynard Electronics
Memory Technologies
Micro Express
Micro Match
Micro Network
Micro Synergy
Microlog
Microsoft
Microtek
PC 2

Professional Data Systems
Pure Data
Quadram
RGB Systems
RGB Systems
Raytronics
STB Systems
Semidisk System
Semidisk System
Sigma Designs
Sigma Designs
Tecmar
Tecmar
Tecmar
VR Data Corp.
Vista Computer
Wesper Microsystems
Zobek

Personal Data Systems
Tall Tree Systems
Super Computer

Board Name

MP Series Memory Expansion
Memory Expansion
Memory Card
Mega Board AI-1512
AIM-256

Expansion Memory
Memory Expansion Modules
Memory Boards
M-192 Memory
IRM Memory Boards

DM Memory Expansion Boards

DSI Memory Boards

UltraRAM

PC/RAM Stack

PC/RAM Pack

IDEA Memory Card

32K Memory Expansion

Memory Expansion Modules

Memory Board

MEM Memory Expansion Modules

Versa-RAM

Memory Boards

MM64 Memory Expansion Boards

High Density Memory

Pro Series RAM

L'il Red RAM Plus

RAMCard

HAL Series

MEM Memory Boards

Memory Boards

Memory Expansion RAM Card

Memory Expansion Board

Mile RAM

Error-Correcting RAM

Fleximem

I 64/192

Semidisk I

Semidisk II

Memory Boards

SDI64

RAM/ROM Board

Forget-Me-Not CMOS

Dynamic Memory

IBM PC RAM

Maxicard

Wizard PC Memory Card

Memory Board

Pack-RAM

JRAM

Supermemory

RAM
Disk

Print OK-byte 32K-byte 64K-byte 128K-byte
Spooler Price Price Price Price

$295

$395

$199
$230

$129

$210
$259

$195

$325

$189

$295

$385

$269

$339

$295

$329

$169

$229

$199

$299

$395

$590

$265

$408

$495

$245

$320

$375

$475

$305

$410

$339

$419

$299

$450

$145

$200

$275

$350

$249

$299

$495

$695

$299

$229

$189

$275
$650

$294

$289

$720

$295

$445

$150

$195

$995

$289

$369

$699

$799

$899

$349

$449

$250

$322

$545

$225

$295

$335

Table 2: Memory boards. Although most IBM PCs contain 64K bytes of RAM, many popular applications programs require more
memory. The solution comes from memory-expansion boards available with 64K to 1024K bytes (1 megabyte) of RAM, usually in
multiples of 64K.

170 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

192K-byte 256K-byte 384K-byte 512K-byte 1024K-byte
Price Price Price Price Price Comments

$495

$595
$345

$475 $565

$409 $479

$745

$745

$579

$925

$289
$259
$399

$785
$552

$385

$575
$510
$499

$255

$425
$349
$895

$425
$790
$999

$470

$349

$449

$980
$696
$695

$995
$445

$299
$675
$615
$579
$750
$305

$525
$399
$1095
$799

$499
$529

$860

$895
$1195

$739 $899

$400

$825

$799

error-correcting capability
EPROM capability
error-correcting capability

$1495

$2350

$1795

$2650

$595

$695

' \.i ;v W3-

i

EPROM capability
battery backup

$439

$489

$999

error-correcting capability

$549

$649

$849

$1049

$695

$845
$335

$445

•

$800

EPROM capability

Forever
amber!

NEC's new amber monitor is so easy
on your eyes, you'll feel you could
look at it forever.

The JB-1205MA is a professional-quality
computer monitor that gives you 80 char-
acters by 25 lines of sharp, clear text. Its
ideal for word processing and other
work-intensive business applications.
And its amber, the color shown to be
easiest on human eyesight.

Designed for use with NEC computers,
the JB- 120 5 MA is also easily adaptable
for use with Apple,® Osborne® and most
other popular computers. See it at your
authorized NEC Home Electronics Dealer.

Compare these specs with your
present monitor:

12-inch diagonal screen

80-character, 25-line display

8x8 dots, 8mhz video bandwidth

1 .0-watt audio output

Productivity at your fingertips

NEC

Circle 326 on Inquiry card.

NEC Home Electronics (U.S.A.), Inc.
Personal Computer Division

1401 Estes Avenue

Elk Grove Village, IL 60007

(312) 228-5900

NEC Corporation, Tokyo, Japan

8-inch-disk

5 1 /4-inch-disk

Manufacturer

Board Name

Price

Interface

Interface

Comments

Arby

Disk Adapter

$275

•

Arby

Disk Adapter

$395

•

includes parallel port

Computer Technology Innovations

IC5/8C

$175

•

Maynard Electronics

Floppy Drive Controller

$275

includes parallel port

Maynard Electronics

Floppy Drive Controller

$285

includes serial port

Paso Com

Professional IV Series

$495

•

also includes hard-disk interface

Sigma Designs

Disk Drive Adapter

$265

includes clock

Tecmar

Floppy 5/8 Adapter

$495

•

Vista Computer

Disk Master

$299

•

also includes 3 1 /2-inch-disk interface

Table 3: Disk-drive controllers.

// you use a disk drive,

you need

a disk-drive controller.

Serial

Parallel

Manufacturer

Board Name

Ports

Ports Price

Comments

Control Systems

Serial/Parallel Interface

2

2 $300

4 PROM sockets

Jack Strick & Associates

Parallel/Serial Controller

1

1 $225

Paso Com

Professional III Series

1

1 $495

Paso Com

Professional II Series

1

$159

has game port and clock

Tecmar

Scribe Tender

2

1 $195

Tecmar

2nd Mate

2

2 $295

Tecmar

Scribe Master

3

$495

24 digital I/O lines

Table 4: Multiple interface

boards such as these offer

both

parallel

and serial ports (see tables 6 and 13).

Manufacturer

Board Name

Memory
(bytes)

Parallel
Ports

Color

Price

Comments

California Computer Systems

Supervision

N.A.

$800

132 by 44 text format on
monochrome display

Conographic

Cono Color

128K

•

$895

16 colors in 640- by
400-pixel format

Control Systems

Artist 1

512K

•

$3195

1024- by 1024-pixel format

Control Systems

Artist II

512K
64K

•

$1595
$499

640 by 400 pixels

replaces IBM board; 720
by 348 pixels

Hercules Computer Technology

Graphics Card

IBM

Color/Graphics Adapter

N.A.

•

$244

Orchid Technology

MGA Graphics Controller

64K

$395

requires IBM monochrome
card; 720 by 350 pixels

Plantronics

Colorplus

N.A.

i

•

$475

320 by 200 pixels in 16
colors; 640 by 200 pixels
in 4 colors

Quadram

Quadcolor

32K
N.A.

•
•

$295
$1595

16 colors, 640 by 200
pixels

16 colors, 640 by 480
pixels

Scion

PC640 Professional Color Graphics

Syntec

Professional Graphics Generator

N.A.

•

$7000

overlays; 512 by 512
pixels, 16 colors

Tecmar

Graphics Master

128K

•

$695

up to 720 by 700 pixels

USI Computer Products

Multi Display Card

32K

•

$449

Table 5: Advanced graphics boards allow higher resolution or color

graphics for the IBM PC; some boards include special software or

allow use of a light pen or other special input devices. Currently, few software programs
color provided by these boards. Until that situation changes, you may have to buy software from

make use of the high-resolution graphics or
the graphics-board vendor or write it yourself.

172 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

Parallel

Manufacturer

Board Name Ports Price

Control Systems

Parallel Interface Adapter 1 $105

GM Enterprises

Parallel I/O Adapter 1 $149

IBM

Printer Adapter 1 $150

Quadram

IPIC 1 $110

Super Computer

Parallel Printer 1 $75

Table 6: Parallel boards. Parallel (or "Centronics-compatible") ports enable the IBM PC

to interface with

one or

perhaps several parallel printers.

Manufacturer

Apparat

Quadram

Tecmar

Board Name

Clock/Calendar
Chronograph
Time Master

Price

$99

$110
$135

Table 7: Clocks with battery backup. These enable the PC to keep continuous track of
the date and time and are helpful for sending electronic mail and for automatically insert-
ing the date in a form letter.

Manufacturer

Board Name

(bytes

Apparat

Print Spooler

64K

Periphex

l-Queue

64K

Super Computer

Superbuffer

64K

Wesper Microsystems

Wizard-Spooler S/P

16K

Wesper Microsystems

Wizard-Spooler P

16K

Memory Serial Parallel

(bytes) Clock Ports Ports Price

1

$319

$495

$395

1

$349

1

$289

Table 8: Print-spooler boards combine printer ports and memory to provide a buffer (or
spooler) that stores in a section of memory data that is to be printed. This lets the PC
continue with other work while the printer is still printing. The boards listed here can
only be used as buffers. Boards that include software for print spooling are listed in tables
2, 24, and 15.

Manufacturer

Board Name

Price

Prototype Size

(inches)

AST Research

WW-68 Wire-wrap Card

$75

N.A.

Advanced Computer Products

Prototype Card

$69

13.2 by 4

Apparat

Prototype Card

$29.95

8.1 by 3.9

Automated Business Machines
GM Enterprises

Development Card
Prototype Board

$49
$25

N.A.
8.1 by 3.9

IBM

Prototype Card

$45

N.A.

Micro Match

MM 77-1 Prototyping

Board

$45

N.A.

Sigma Designs

SDI Miniproto

$25

N.A.

Sigma Designs

SDI Proto

$45

N.A.

Super Computer

Prototyping Board

$45

N.A.

Tecmar

Protozoa

$45

42 square

Vector Electronic

Universal Wiring

$24.26
to $39

13.2 by 4.2

Table 9: Prototype boards help

you create your own

specialized IBM PC board.

Read the
fine print.

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 120
CPS, 80-column printer that can operate
in a compressed-print mode to yield 132
columns. Special 2K buffer holds a page
of data, so the unit can print while you're
typing In something else. Compatible
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

NEC

Circle 327 on Inquiry card.

NEC Home Electronics (U.S.A. ), Inc.
Personal Computer Division

T401 Estes Avenue

Elk Grove Village, IL 60007

(312) 228-5900

NEC Corporation, Tokyo, Japan

ERG/68000

MINI-SYSTEMS

D Full IEEE 696/S100 compatibility

HARDWARE OPTIONS

□ 8MHz, 10MHz or 12MHz 68000
CPU

D Memory Management

D Multiple Port Intelligent I/O

D 64K or 128K STATIC RAM

(70 nsec)
D 256K/512K or 1MB Dynamic

RAM, with full parity (150 nsec)
□' 5 1 /4 M - 8" D/D, D/S floppy disk

drives
D 5MB-40MB hard disk drives

□ Full DMA Disk Interface
D SMD Disk Interface

D 1 /t" tape streamer

D 10 to 20 slot backplane

□ 20 or 30A amp power supply
D Desk top or Rack mount

cabinets

SOFTWARE OPTIONS

D 68KFORTH 1 systems language
with MACRO assembler and
META compiler, Multi-user,
Multi-Tasking

□ Fast Floating Point package
D Motorola's MACSBUG

D IDRIS 5 Operating System with
C, PASCAL, FORTRAN 77,
68K-BASIC 1 , CIS COBOL 4 ,
RDBMS

D UNIX 2 Sys III C, etc.

D CP/M-68K 3 O/S with C,
Assembler, 68K-BASIC 1 ,
68KFORTH 1 , Z80 EMULATOR 1 ,
APL

D VED68K 1 Screen Editor

Trademark 1 ERG, Inc.
2 BELL LABS 'Digital Research
4 Mlcro Focus 'Whitesmiths

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

Manufacturer

Memory Parallel
Board Name (bytes) Ports

Price

Digital
I/O lines

GM Enterprises

ParlePC Speech Synthesizer N.A. 1

$199

24

Street Electronics

Echo PC Speech Synthesizer 16K

$225

Tecmar

Speech Master N.A.

$395

Table 10: Speech synthesizers. If you want your PC to talk back to you, then a speech-
synthesizer board is the answer. Some boards include speakers, but some don't.

Manufacturer

Board Name

Price

Apparat

Super Computer

Tecmar

PROM Blaster

Superblaster

E + EEPROM Programmer/Reader

$129
$225
$495

Table 11: EPROM and EEPROM programming boards make it easier to program
and electrically erasable programmable ROMs.

erasable

Manufacturer

Board Name

Price

Prototyping

AST Research

Extender

$55

Advanced Computer Products

Extender Card

$40

Micro Match

MM39-1 Extender

$35

Personal Computer Products

Card Extender

$50

Tecmar

Extender Card

$80

•

Vector Electronic

3690-22 Extender

$22.35

Table 12: Extenders. When

'esting

a homemade expansion board, an

extender board is

a handy option. It effectively

'lifts'

' a card slot above the PC

's case by plugging into an

expansion slot and providing

an identical connector on

top.

Serial

Manufacturer

Board Name

Ports

Price

AST Research

CC-232 Advanced Communication

2

$295

Computer Technology Innovations

ISCDA-0

2

$125

Control Systems

4 Serial I/O Ports

4

$395

Control Systems

Hostess Multiuser Host A

8

$795

Datamac Computer Systems

DMS-1

1

$139

Datamac Computer Systems

DMS-2

2

$199

IBM

Asynchronous Communication Adapter

1

$120

PC2

COMM-1

1

$85

PC^

COMM-1

2

$115

Personal Systems Technology

Asynchronous Communication Ports

2

$165

Personal Systems Technology

Asynchronous Communication Ports

1

$125

Quadram

RS-232C Asynchronous Adapter

1 '

$110

Zen/Tek

Dual COM Card

2

$120

Zen/Tek

Z-COM Card

1

$100

Zobek

2SP

2

$165

Table 13: Serial boards. A serial

interface permits communication to a modem, a printer,

or another computer. Serial ports

are also known as RS-232C or asynchronous ports. (For

boards offering both serial and parallel ports, see table 4.)

174 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

BASF Q(JALIMETRIC™FLEXYDISKS @

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... a process which begins with
materials selection and inspection,
and continues through coating, pol-
ishing, lubricating, testing, and
100% error-free certification. Built
into our Flexy Disk 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.

Circle 44 on inquiry card.

i

ENTER TOMORROW ON BASF TODAY

* Contact BASF for warranty details. © 1982, BASF Systems Corporation, Bedford, MA

Manufacturer

Board Name

Print Serial
Spooler Clock Ports

Parallel Game OK-byte
Ports Port Price

AST Research

Combo Plus

• • 1

1

AST Research

Megaplus II

• • 1

AST Research

Six Pack Plus

• • 1

1

Anatron

Multifunction RAM

• • 2

1

Amdek

Multiple Adapter Interface

• • 2

1

Applied Business Computer

Mega A +

1

Apstek

AIC-256

• 1

1 $299

Chrislin Industries

CI-PCM +

Computer Technology Innovations

IMF-APGC

• 1

1 •

Computer Technology Innovations

ISC5A

Datamac Computer Systems

Combo Board

Davong Systems

ASYNC + RAM

2

Daystar Systems

Ultra55

• 2

1 •

Easitech

Easiboard II

• • 2

1 $350

Easitech

Easiboard

• • 1

1 $325

IDE Associates

IDEA Plus

• • 1

1

Indigo Data Systems

PC Multipak

• • 1

$297

Intermedia Systems

Memory Expansion Module

2

MK Research

RAM Card with RS-232C

1

$179

Maynard Electronics

Memory Board with Serial Ports

2

$370

Memory Technologies

Versa-RAM Plus II

Memory Technologies

Versa-RAM Plus II

• • 1

Memory Technologies

Versa-RAM Plus II

Memory Technologies

Versa-RAM Plus

• 2

1 $299

Memory Technologies

Versa-RAM Plus II

• • 1

Micro Network

Combination Memory Board

• 1

Micro Synergy

Pro Series 5

• 1

1 • $395

Micro Synergy

Pro Series 3

1

1 $275

Microcomputer Business Industries

Monte Carlo GT

• 1

1 •

Microcomputer Business Industries

Monte Carlo Quatro

• 1

-|

Microcomputer Business International

MegaRAM

2

Microtek

HAL (parallel and serial ports)

• 1

Microtek

Tele-buffer PC

• •

Paso Com

Professional 1 Series

1

Personal Data Systems
Personal Systems Technology

Pack-RAM + Combo Card

• 1

Time-Spectrum

• 1

Quadram

QuadRAM 512 +

1

Quadram

Quadboard

• 1

Quadram

Quadboard II

• 2

Raytronics

RAMPLUS Multifunction

• 1

1 $319

STB Systems

RIO Plus

• • 1

1 •

STB Systems

RIO

• 1

1 •

STB Systems

Super RIO

• • 2

1 •

Seattle Computer

RAM +

1

$220

Seattle Computer

RAM + 3 with Memory

• 1

1 $320

Sigma Designs

System Support + Memory

• 1

1 • $295

Sigma Designs

System Support Card Stack

1

Starware

Tenley Board

Tava

Trump Card

1

•

Tecmar

1st Mate

• 1

1 $319

Universal Micro

Clock/Memory

vista Computer

Multicard

• 1

1

Zen/Tek

Memory

• 1

1

Table 14: Multifunction boards with memory. By combining many capabilities, these boards help you get the most use from the PCs
five expansion slots. (For multifunction boards without memory, see table 15.)

176 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

64K-byte
Price

128K-byte
Price

192K-byte
Price

256K-byte
Price

384K-byte
Price

512K-byte
Price

Comments

$395

$495

$595

$695

$395

$495

$595

$695

$970

$1090

game, parallel, and extra serial ports $50 each

$395

$495

$595

$695

$895

game port $50 extra

$395

$799

$595

includes monochrome adapter

$325

$415

$505

$595

$369

$439

$509

$579

$445

$495

$545

$595

$795

includes memory battery backup

$495

$585

$675

$750

$265

$355

$445

$520

.. . ! ... -ife'.r

$550

$385

$580

$736

$892
$595

$795

EPROM capability

$420

$620

$395

$595

$395

$470

$530

$595

■

$365

$432

$499

$565
$749

$1095

$99

$579

$465

$570
$509

$680
$589

$785
$669

•

$429

$479

$559

$639

$719

$455

$535

$615

$695

$369

$439

$509

$579

$455

$535

$615

$695

$475

$550

$625

$695

$645

modem included

$360

$445

$520

$595

$425

$505

$575

$645

$375
$300
$499
$699

$440

$510

$575
$500
$999
$1199

auto-dial/auto-answer programmable modem

$295

$375

$455

$535

$495

$615

$735

$855

$395

$485

$575

$665

$930

$1100

extra serial port and/or parallel port optional

$325

$550

$895

$395
$395

$595
$595

■

$389
$475

$459

$529

$599
$739

$899

• , "1 i: l;;bi=:!.,..

includes hard-disk interface

$395

$572

$659

includes hard-disk interface

$475

$649

$739

$1336

includes hard-disk interface

$295

$370

$445

$520

$395

$470

$545

$620

$575
$195
$445

$875
$595

$499

$699

•

$389

$469

$539

$589

$398

$488

$578

$668

$399

$499

$599

$699

$395

$485

$575

$665

$1025

available with extra serial port instead of parallel port

^

November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. 177

Manufacturers

' Addresses

Advanced Computer Products

Apparat Inc.

Automated Business Machines Inc.

1310B East Edinger Ave.

4401 South Tamarac Pkivy.

29352 Avocet Ln.

Santa Ana, CA 92705

Denver, CO 80237

South Laguna, CA 92677

(714) 558-8813

(303) 741-1778

(714) 859-6531

ALL Computers Inc.

Applied Business Computer Co.

Bitstream Inc.

110 Bloor St. W, Suite 501

330 East Orangethorpe Ave., Suite C

POB 809

Toronto, Ontario,

Placentia, CA 92670

Loxahatchee, FL 33470

Canada M5S 2W7

(714) 993-1101

(305) 798-0025

(416) 960-0111

Apstek Inc.

Byad Inc.

Alpha Byte Computer Products

2636 Walnut Hill Ln., Suite 335

101 Liong Dr.

31245 La Baya Dr.

Dallas, TX 75229

Barrington, IL 60010

Westlake Village, CA 91362

(214) 357-5288

(312) 539-4922

(213) 706-0333

Arby Corp.

Cactus Technology Inc.

Amdek Corp.

1617 A Massachusetts Ave.

3024 North 33rd Dr.

2201 Lively Blvd.

Cambridge, MA 02138

Phoenix, AZ 85017

Elk Grove Village, IL 60007

(617) 864-5058

(602) 269-2440

(312) 364-1180

AST Research Inc.

California Computer Systems

Anatron

2372 Morse Ave.

250 Caribbean Dr.

202 West Bennett St.

Irvine, CA 92714

Sunnyvale, CA 94086

Saline, MI 48176

(714) 540-1333

(408) 734-5811

(800) 521-0521, (313) 429-2678

RAM Print

Serial Parallel . Game

Manufacturer

Board Name Disk Spooler Clock

Ports Ports Port

Price

AST Research

I/O Plus II • • •

1

$165

Apparat

Combo Card •

1 1

$189

Applied Business Computer

I/O A+ • • •

2 1

$225

Apstek

SIC-1 •

1

$149

Apstek

PIC-1 •

1

$149

Automated Business Machines

Omni-board •

2 1 •

$485

Easitech

Easistart • • •

1

$350

M & R Enterprises

Sup'r Access I

7

$695

Maynard Electronics

Floppy Controller

$195

Micro Network

Combination Peripheral

1

$400

Personal Data Systems

Pack-Combo •

1 1

$245

Personal Data Systems

Pack-Combo •

1

$175

Personal Systems Technology

Timeport •

1 1

$225

Personal Systems Technology

Uniport •

$155

RGB Systems

Three in One Board

2 •

$289

STB Systems

Super I/O • • •

1 1 •

$249

STB Systems

STB I/O •

2 1 •

$279

Seattle Computer

RAM +3 •

1 1

$210

Tecmar

Lab Master •

3

$995

Vista Computer

PC Clock I/O •

1 1

$210

Vista Computer

PC Master •

2 1 •

$449

Vista Computer

PC Expander •

2 1 •

$349

Vista Computer

PC Extender •

2 1

$249

Vista Computer

PC Extender Plus •

1 1 •

$299

Vista Computer

PC Extender + Voice •

2 1 •

$399

Ziatech

ZT1488 GPIB Controller •

$485

Table 15: Multifunction boards without memory. (For multifunction boards with memory, see table 14.)

178 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

Cermetek Microelectronics Inc.
1308 Borregas Ave.
Sunnyvale, CA 94089
(408) 734-8150

Chintronics Co.
19 Longmeadow Rd.
Chelmsford, MA 01824
(617) 256-7862

Chrislin Industries Inc.
31352 Via Colinas
Westlake Village, CA 91362
(213) 991-2254

Computer Technology Innovations
965 West Maude Ave.
Sunnyvale, CA 94086
(408) 245-4256

Conographic Corp.
2268 Golden Circle
Newport Beach, CA 92660
(714) 642-6778

Control Systems
2855 Anthony In.
Minneapolis, MN 55418
(612) 789-2421

Datamac Computer Systems
680 Almanor Ave.
Sunnyvale, CA 94086
(408) 735-0323

Data Translation
100 Locke Dr.
Marlborough, MA 01752
(617) 481-3700

Davong Systems Inc.
217 Humboldt Court
Sunnyvale, CA 94086
(408) 734-4900

Daystar Systems Inc.
10511 Church Rd., Suite A
Dallas, TX 75238-9990
(214) 341-8136

Hayes Microcomputer Products Inc.
5963 Peachtree Industrial Blvd.
Norcross, GA 30092
(404) 449-8791

Hercules Computer Technology
2550 Ninth St., Suite 210
Berkeley, CA 94547
(415) 654-2476

IBM Corp. System Products Division

POB 1328

Boca Raton, FL 33432

(800) 447-4700

IDE Associates
7 Oak Park Dr.
Bedford, MA 01803
(617) 275-4430

Indigo Data Systems Inc.

100 East Nasa Road One, Suite 107

Webster, TX 77598

(713) 488-8186

Easitech Corp.

2215 Perimeter Park, Suite 22

Information Technologies Inc.
7850 East Evans Rd.

Atlanta, GA 30341

Scottsdale, AZ 85260

Comments

(404) 452-7576

(602) 998-1033

game, parallel, or extra serial ports, $50 each

Flagstaff Engineering

Intelligent Technologies International

2820 West Darken

Corp.

fits small slots of PC XT version

Flagstaff, AZ 86001
(602) 774-5188

151 University Ave.
Palo Alto, CA 94301

fits small slots of PC XT version

Force Technology Corp.

(415) 328-2411

monochrome adapter

POB 20955, Almaden Valley Sta.

Intermedia Systems

includes 1200-bps modem

San Jose, CA 95160

10601 South DeAnza Blvd.

includes 5 1 /4-inch-disk interface

(408) 268-3359

Cupertino, CA 95014

includes S'A-inch and hard-disk interfaces

Gateway Communications Inc.

(408) 996-0900

16782 Red Hill Ave.

Jones Futurex Inc.

extra serial port, $50; EPROM capability

Irvine, CA 92714
(714) 261-0762

Giltronix Inc.

9700 Fair Oaks Blvd., Suite G
Fair Oaks, CA 95628
(916) 966-6836

includes hard-disk interface

3780 Fabian Way

Lifeboat Associates

includes hard-disk interface

Palo Alto, CA 94303

1651 Third Ave.

(415) 493-1300

New York, NY 10028

16 A/D lines, 2 D/A lines, 24 digital I/O lines

GM Enterprises Inc.

(212) 860-0300

includes speech synthesizer, hard-disk interface

485 East Granville Ave.

Macrolink Inc.

Roselle, IL 60172

1150 East Stanford Court

(312) 893-1171

Anaheim, CA 92805

(800) 854-3332, (714) 634-8080

includes speech synthesizer

Hammond Computer Products Inc.
3800 Crossbend PI.

includes IEEE-488 interface

Piano, TX 75023

(214) 596-0130

Manufacturers' Addresses continued on page 180

November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

179

Serial

Parallel

Manufacturer

Board Name

Ports

Ports

Price

Comments

Automated Business Machines

Telephone Receptionist Adapter

$995

auto-dial/auto-answer, 300/1200
bps, speech synthesizer

Cactus Technology

PC-COM-300

$349

Cermetek Microelectronics

Info-Mate 21 2A PC

$495

auto-dial/auto-answer, 300/1200 bps

Hayes Microcomputer

Smartmodem 1200B

$599

Products

Micro Network

Advanced Communications Board

$895

Microlog

Baby Talk

1

1

$895

includes Z80 coprocessor, 64K
bytes, clock

Microperipheral

PConnection

1

$279

auto-dial/auto-answer, speaker,
clock

Pacific Coast Peripherals

Communication Utility

1

1

$349

SSM Microcomputer Products

PC Modemcard

$349

300 bps, $549 for 300/1200 bps

Tecmar

3rd Mate

1

2

$445

Tecmar

Modem 1200

$695

300/1200 bps

Tecmar

Modem 300

$295

300 bps

Intelligent Technologies

PC Express

1

$895

Table 16: Integral-modem boards, like separate-unit modems, permit

use of standard telephone

lines for computer communications. Although

the integral unit takes up one

PC expansion slot, it requires no

additional RS-232C port, cables,

or desk space.

Manufacturers' Addresses continued:

Maynard Electronics

400 East Semoran Blvd., Suite 207 .

Casselberry, FL 32707

(305) 331-6402

■ Memory Technologies Inc.
4343 Grand Prix Dr.
POB 508

Logansport, IN 46947
(800) 348-3377, (219) 722-1454

Microcomputer Business Industries

Corp.
1019 8th St.
Golden, CO 80401
(303) 279-8438

Microcomputer Business International

POB 16115

Irvine, CA 92713

(714) 553-0133, (714) 727-0202

Microdisk

1422 Industrial Way
POB 1377

Gardnerville, NV 89410
(702) 782-8105

Micro Express
23392 Devonshire Dr.
Eltore, CA 92630
(714) 859-7575

Micro Interface Inc.

3111 South Valley View Blvd. §1-101

las Vegas, NV 89102

(702) 871-3263

Microlog Inc.
222 Route 59
Suffern, NY 10901
(914) 368-0353

Micro Match
10049 Commerce Ave.
Tujunga, CA 91042
(213) 353-5929

Micro Network Corp.
511 Uth Ave., Suite 429
Minneapolis, MN 55415
(612) 333-4303

Microperipheral Corp.
2643 151st Place NE
Redmond, WA 98052
(206) 881-7544

Microsoft Corp.
10700 Northup Way
Bellevue, WA 98004
(206) 828-8080

Micro Synergy
187 Ulmerton Rd.
largo, PI 33544
(813) 535-6655

Microtek Inc.

4750 Viewridge Ave.

San Diego, CA 92123

(800) 854-1081, (619) 569-0900

Microware
POB 79

Kingston, MA 02364
(617) 746-7341

MK Research

17842 Irvine Blvd., Suite 122

Justin, CA 92680

(714) 731-5201

Mountain Computer
300 El Pueblo Rd.
Scotts Valley, CA 95066
(408) 438-6650

M & R Enterprises
910 George St.
Santa Clara, CA 95050
(408) 980-0160

National Instruments

12109 Technology Blvd.

Austin, TX 78727

(800) 531-5066, (512) 250-9119

Orchid Technology
47790 Westinghouse Dr.
Fremont, CA 94539
(415) 490-8586

Manufacturers' Addresses continued on page 182

180 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

Sleeves of Ty vekf

protect your data investment

better than paper.

Here's why:

ft*Vk

>

a 5

1. TYVEK* spunbonded
olefin has more than twice
the strength of good quality
paper.

2. TYVEK does not lint.

3. TYVEK is smooth and
nonabrasive.

4. TYVEK is chemically
clean . . . has a neutral pH.

5. TYVEK reduces static
problems.

6. TYVEK is unaffected by
water.

With TYVEK, you don't
have to compromise on any
important sleeve criteria.
You get it all. That's why
TYVEK is still the best way to
protect your diskettes.

For more information,
write: Du Pont Company
Room X401 33, Wilmington,
DE 19898.

*DuPont registered trademark.
DuPont makes TYVEK, not sleeves.

*BG USWTftTMOfF

Circle 160 on inquiry card.

Manufacturers' Addresses continued:

Symtec

15933 West 8 Mile

Detroit, MI 48235

Pacific Coast Peripherals

Raytronics

(313) 272-2950

3480 Granada Ave., Suite 224

4901 Morena Blvd., Bldg. 900

Santa Clara, CA 95051

San Diego, CA 92117

Tall Tree Systems

(408) 247-1720

(800) 854-1085, (619) 270-4000

1036 Los Altos Ave.
Los Altos, CA 94022

Paso Com

RGB Systems

(415) 941-5500

POB 2603

3375 Woodward Ave.

Mission Viejo, CA 92690

Santa Clara, CA 94050

Tava Corp.

(714) 552-0130

(408) 748-0400

1711 Corinthian Way, Suite 1011
Newport Beach, CA 92660

PC 2

Scion Corp.

(714) 261-0200

595 Testoria Ave.

12310 Pinecrest Rd.

Sunnyvale, CA 94086

Reston, VA 22091

Tecmar Inc.

(408) 735-0323

(703) 476-6100

6225 Cochran Rd.
Cleveland, OH 44139

Periphex Inc.
149 Palmer Rd.

Seattle Computer

(216) 349-0600

Southbury, CT 06488

1114 Industry Dr.
Seattle, WA 98188

Universal Micro Inc.

(800) 221-0732, (203) 264-7937

(800) 426-8936, (206) 575-1830

6302 Odana Rd.
Madison, WI 53719

Personal Computer Products

Semidisk System
POB GG
Beaverton, OR 97075

(608) 274-6100

1400 Coleman Ave., Suite C-18

Santa Clara, CA 95050

USI Computer Products

(408) 988-0164

(503) 642-3100

71 Park Ln.
Brisbane, CA 94005

Personal Data Systems Inc.
1110 Wrigley Way

Sigma Designs Inc.
3866 Eastwood Circle

(415) 468-4900

Milpitas, CA 95035

POB 3765

Vector Electronic Co. Inc.

(408) 262-7880

Santa Clara, CA 95055

12460 Gladstone Ave.

Personal Systems Technology Inc.

(408) 496-0536

Sylmar, CA 91342
(213) 365-9661

15801 Rockfield, Suite A
Irvine, CA 92714

SSM Microcomputer Products Inc.

2190 Paragon Dr.

Vista Computer Co. Inc.

Plantronics Division

San Jose, CA 95131
(408) 946-7400

1317 East Edinger
Santa Clara, CA 92705

Frederick Electronics

(714) 953-0523

7630 Hayward Rd.

Starware

POB 502

1701 K Street NW, Suite 800

VR Data Corp.

Frederick, MD 21701-0502

Washington, DC 20006

777 Henderson Blvd., N-6

(301) 662-5901

(202) 466-7351

Folcraft, PA 19032

(800) 345-8102, (215) 461-5300

Professional Data Systems Inc.
2630 Walnut Ave., Suite H
Tustin, CA 92680
(800) 854-8428, (714) 730-7207

STB Systems Inc.

1701 North Greenville, Suite 703

Richardson, TX 75075

(214) 234-8750

Wesper Microsystems

14321 My ford Rd.

Tustin, CA 92680

(800) 854-8737, (714) 730-6250

Pure Data Ltd.

950 Denison St., Unit 17

Street Electronics Corp.

Zen/Tek Corp.

Markham, Ontario,

1140 Mark Ave.

455 Whitepine Dr.

Canada L3R 3K5

Carpinteria, CA 93013

Salt Lake City, UT 84107

(416) 498-1616

(805) 684-4593

(801) 263-3925

Quadram Corp.

Jack Strick & Associates

Ziatech Corp.

4355 International Blvd.

949 South Southlake Dr.

3433 Roberts Ln.

Norcross, GA 30093

Hollywood, FL 33019

San Luis Obispo, CA 93401

(404) 923-6666

(305) 925-7004

(805) 541-0488

Quality Computer Services

Super Computer Inc.

Zobek

178 Main St.

1710 East Newport Circle, Suite P

7343 J. Ronson Rd.

Metuchen, NJ 08840

Santa Ana, CA 92705

San Diego, C A 92111

(800) 631-5944, (201) 548-2135

(714) 540-1880

(714) 571-6971

182 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

Look, Ma, no hands!

^PRINT \
FINANCIAL

If you don't type, you've prob-
ably longed for the day when
you could simply talk to your
computer. It's here.
Your voice can set you free.
With the Voice Input Module
from VMC, you can "train" your
Apple II, He,® or Franklin® to per-
form as many as 80 different
spoken commands, in unlim-
ited subsets, with near-perfect
recognition.

So where you used to type
7P return — "A CO return N39
return" you can just say "print."
Command performance.
The Voice Input Module works
parallel to the keyboard with all
existing applications software.
So you can type if you need to,
or do anything from electronic
spread sheets to word pro-
cessing to games with voice
control alone. Either way, you'll

increase your productivity and
have fun doing it.

Demand a demonstration.

You won't believe it until you
see it. So see the Voice Input
Module at your nearby com-
puter store today.

And find out how little you'll
miss typing.

Apple II and He are registered trademarks of Apple Computer,
Inc. ■ Franklin is a registered trademark of Franklin
Computer, Inc.

WIIWI

YOUR VOICE CAN SET YOU FREE.

VOICE MACHINE COMMUNICATIONS

1000 South Grand Avenue ■ Santa Ana, California 92705 ■ Telephone (714) 541-0454 for the dealer nearest you.
Circle 499 on inquiry card. BYTE November 1983

183

Board Type

Manufacturer

Board Name

Price

Comments

analog/digital interface

Data Translation

DT2801

$1195

16 A/D.2 D/A, 16 digital I/O
lines; clock

analog/digital interface

Data Translation

DT2805

$1295

16 A/D.2 D/A, 16 digital I/O
lines; clock

BSR X1 interface

Automated Business Machines

BSR-X10 Adapter

$215

BSR X10 interface

Tecmar

Device Master

$245

includes clock

bus analyzer

Personal Computer Products

Bus Analyzer

$295

communications

Information Technologies

Linkup

$795

auto-dial/auto-answer
(no modem); includes two
serial ports

communications

Personal Data Systems

Pack-Comm

$495

communications coprocessor

Personal Systems Technology

DCPI-88 Communications Processor

$695

includes 8088, 64K bytes,
two serial ports

controller/sensor

Tecmar

Distance Tender

$495

allows sensors to measure
distance

digital/analog interface

Tecmar

DADIO

$395

4 D/A, 24 digital I/O lines

digital/analog interface

Tecmar

Lab Tender

$495

32 A/D.16 D/A.24 digital I/O
lines

digital I/O

Tecmar

Base Board

$345
$395

96 digital I/O lines

provides 3278-terminal
emulation

emulator

Personal Systems Technology

3278-Coax

game controller

IBM

Game Control Adapter

$55

GPIB/IEEE-488 interface

National Instruments

GPIB-PC

$385

includes IEEE-488 interface

hard-disk interface
modular multifunction

Tecmar

Winchester Share System Adapter

$395
$110

allows four PCs to share
one hard disk

Arby

Combination Board

motor controller

Tecmar

Stepper Motor Controller

$495

CY512 interface; includes
four serial ports

network interface

Davong Systems

Multilink Network Card

$595

compatible with ARCNET
and Xerox network
protocols

network interface

Orchid Technology

PC-net Adapter Card
Ethernet Link

$695
$950

requires 128K bytes

network interface

Tecmar

PAL programmer

Force Technology

PAL Programmer

$995

programs 20- to 24-pin PAL
chips

speech digitizer

Mountain Computer

Supertalker II

$350

includes 32K bytes

speech recording/playback

Flagstaff Engineering

Voice Connection

$179

digitize message, playback,
auto-dial/auto-answer

VCR controller

Tecmar

VCR Controller

$495

controls videocassette
recorder

video digitizer

Tecmar

Video Van Gogh

$345

digitizes video-camera
output

voice digitizer

Tecmar

Ethernet Companion

$695

voice recognition

Tecmar

Voice Recognition

$995

software included, 200-word
vocabulary; 8K-byte RAM

Table 17: Miscellaneous boards.

184 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

PENMD

around a
keyboard

iTiP

mouse.

Here are just a few ways PENPAD®
can be used:

SuJ Qa3 ! : . li'.i i j'i «i" .

US CQ3 nTT-iVfF-gr—
EB CES 1 1 1 IIBIMTtgl

TZEBi Cl'lT-ff,

C " J 11. out of ^ioe£L* EJl ' IX] LLmjJ

-•— ;_7'\

- ; I ■.*_;■

— - • -,

— 1 3 v i :

ORDER ENTRY

STABILITY OF THE 0EN2EWE RIMS

OH.

i n i-

2Hi

HC LB

1. 5 - cyc&HEXAPiErte

CATtiyST

1 I

V

*

tycWHE'XANf

*H c -W.4

ErPECTCp:
2 x (-Z6.6) *

-57.2.

CONTROLS AT THE
TOUCH OF A PEN

(CAPITAL GAiNS CHART

SCIENTIFIC
EQUATIONS

\97a \9?9 1980 Y?0\ 1982.

INDUSTRIAL AND
BUSINESS GRAPHICS

Only PENPAD® allows you to perform the functions of a keyboard,
mouse and graphics tablet with a single, friendly means of input—
a pen.

Only PENPAD® has Dynamic Character Recognition which converts
your own handwriting into characters and displays them on the screen as
if they were typed on a keyboard.

Only PENPAD® lets you compose text and graphics on the screen
simultaneously. It combines the freehand capability of a multi-color high
resolution graphics tablet with Dynamic Character Recognition and
enables you to switch between text and freehand modes instantly.

Only PENPAD® puts the cursor in your hand at the point of your pen.
Write anywhere or touch user-programmable function areas on the tablet.
You can design function areas in any size or location on the pao and
point to objects and icons at the touch of a pen.

Not only can PENPAD® draw circles around a keyboard and a mouse,
it also lets you enter text by handprinting, select your own commands,
use objects and icons, and sketch out rough ideas... all with one hand tied
behind your back.

• PENPAD® works with most popular PC's like IBM, Apple, Wang, DEC, Seiko, and others.

• Software product developers call for special opportunities.

Pencept, Inc. 39 Green Street, Waltham, Massachusetts 02154 □ Telephone: (617) 893-6390

Circle 357 on inquiry card.

w

SAVE
THIS AD
IT IS YOUR
CATALOG

AM) CHANGES MONTHLY

gcippkz supply center

HARDWARE for Apple II/II+ /He

SOFTWARE

OVERSTOCK SPECIALS

WHILE THEY LAST

LIST

OUR

FOR APPLE 11/11+ /lie pru

PRICE

• ALS Synergizer - Scale - Condor (11 - 1

S 749

S199

• Axlon. 320KRAM DiskSystem ( - ore)

S1000

S650

•CCS. Serial Interface 771 OA (Set Baud)

S 150

S99

•ComX. 16K RAM Card. Wr. Wty.. for II-

S 179

$39

Microsofl 16K RAMCard for 1 1 -

S 100

S 69

Saturn Systems.32K RAM Card for 1 1 -

S 249

$169

64KRAMCardtorll-

S 425

S299

128KRAMCardtorll-

S 599

S399

Silicon Valley. Word Handler

S 250

$ 39

• List Handler

S 90

$35

Videx. Videoterm. 80 column cardfor ll^

S 345

$229

DISK DRIVES for

APPLE ll+/lle

• CENTRAL PL. Filer. Ulility & Apple DOS

S 20

S 15

• IHJJI A2,143KDiskDrive
IZM^aX A2ControllerCard

S 479

$ 219

S 100

$ 79

mic«O-sc*A40.160K. Drive

S 449

S 299

•A70.286K.Drive

S599

S299

A40 A70Controller

S 100

$ 79

Rana Elite i,i63K,40tk

S 379

S249

Ehte2.326K.80TK

S 649

$ 399

M^ Etite3,652K,160TK
B^ EliteConkoller

S 849

$499

S 145

$ 84

^^^B * 143K Drive. 1 2 H oh

S 379

$ 259

raSflTH Controller Card.

S 89

S 69

•ALS,Smartennll(+ore)

$ 179

$139

ComX, 80coi./64KAdder (tie)

$ 295

$145

Videx, Videoterm80col.(+ ore)

$345

$229

• U!traTenn(+ore)

$379

$279

Soft Video Switch (II + )

S 35

$25

Enhancer II (II +)

$ 149

$99

FunctionStriip(ll+)

$ 79

$59

We Have Full Videx Line. Call. Up to 35% oft.

Vista, Vision 80

$ 289

$199

MISCELLANEOUS

ALS,TheCP/MCardV3.0( + ore)

S399

$299

Z-Card (+ ore)

$ 169

$129

Color ll(+ ore)

$ 179

$139

ASTAR,RFModulator,louseTV

$ 35

$25

• CCS, Serial Interface 7710 A

S 150

$99

• Central Point.AlasteCaid (copier. + ore

S 130

$99

Eastskte, Wild Card (copier, + ore)

$ 130

$99

Kensington, System Saver

S 90

$65

KeyTronic. KB200keyboard(M+)

S298

$219

• Koala, Graphics Pad

$ 125

$8b

Market Microscope

S 700

$525

Kratl.Joysbck (Apll/ll + )

$ 65

$49

Paddte(Apll/ll+)

$ 50

$39

M&R,SupRfan(4ore)

$ 50

$39

•Microsoft, Z80 Softcard ( + ore)

$345

$235

Z80SoftcardPlus(+ore)

$645

$459

Soltcard Premium Pack (II+

$ 695

$495

SoftcardPremiumPack(lte)

$ 495

$395

Micro Tek, Dumpling 64, Buffer

$349

$269

• Orange Micro. Grapp!erPlus(eor -t- )

$ 175

$119

16K Buffer Boar dforGrappler +

$ 175

$119

Buffered Grappler + . 16K

$245

$179

2ChipKitforabovefor64K

S 28

$ 19

Paymar,LowerCaseChip(ll +)

$ 50

$ 39

Practical Peripherals.

MBP He 64K Par. (Epson Internal) ( +/e)

$ 279

$209

MBSIIe32KSer.(Epsonlntemal)(+/e)

$ 219

$169

Microbufferlt+,l6K,(+ore)

Par/Ser(speciry)

$ 259

$199

Microbuffe r 1 1 + , 64 K . ( + ore)

Par/Ser (specify)

$ 349

$259

• PCPI,Appli-Card, 1 4 features 6Mhz

$375

$2/5

RH Electronics, Super Fan II

$ 75

$59

• Saturn Systems, Accelerator II

$ 599

$449

SSM.A10 II. Senal/Para Interface

$225

$169

TG Products, Game Paddles (II + )

$ 40

$29

Joystick(lt+)

S 60

$45

Select-A-Port(ll + )

$ 60

$ 45

TrakBall(ll + )

S 65

$ 44

Videx, PSIO, Para'Ser Interface

S229

$169

■■■■I # Electronics by ComX

^/S 7i4 DiskPak V1200. 6MBBackupSys. S1549 $1049
•V1000Dual8".Std. Format S2195 $ 995

VIDEO CARDS

APPLE lie 128K, 80 COLUMN $1,295

APPLE lie, STARTER SYS. B Y APPLE(Sy s. A)

64K and 80 column
Disk 1 1 with controller
Apple Monitor III

Monitor Stand $1,650

APPLEIIeSTARTERSYSTEMBY
CONROY-LA POINTE [SYSTEM B]
128K and 80 column
1 Micro-Sci Drive with controller
Filer, Utility and DOS 3.3 Disketle
Zenith 12" Green Monitor
RF Modulator (for color TV)
Game Paddles

Game w/color graphics and sound
20 Blank Diskettes $1,650

WARRANTY:

Limited wananty is 100% Pails & Labor for 90 days by us.

RAM EXPANSION

LIST OUR

PRICE PRICE

• ComX,torlle,80col./64KAdderCard $295 $109

• ComX, RAMCard, 1 Yr.Wly.(ll + ) 16K S 179 $39

• ALS,ADDRam(ll+) 16K $ 100 $59
•Microsoft, RAMCard(tl+) 16K S 100 $ 69
•SaturnSystems,RAMCard(ll+) 32K $ 249 $169

RAMCard(ll+) 64K S 425 $299

RAMCard (II+J128K S 599 $399

• Axlon RAM Disk System (+ ore)320K S1000 $650

BUSINESS

Applied Soft Tech.. VersaForm $ 389 $259

Artsci.MagicWmdowll NEW' S 150 $ 99

Ashton-Tate.dBasell(ReqCPM80) S 700 $395

Financial Planner (ReqCPM 80) S 700 $395

Fnday(RequiresCPMBO) S 295 $199

BPISystems.GLAR.AP.PRorlNV.each S 395 $295

S 70 S 47

$ 250 $165

S 75 $ 49

S 100 S 68

S 350 $275

$ 300 $235

S 295 $185

$ 295 $185

S 99 $ 66

$ 225 $149
S 150 $ 99

S 995 $469
$ 180 $119

Broderbund.Bank StreetWriter
Continental, GL.AR.APorPRea

HomeAccountant

FCM
Dow Jones, Market Analyzer

Market Manager
Fox & Geller, Ouickcode (tordBase II)

dGraph(tordBasell)

dUtitity(tordBasell)
Hayden.Pie Wnter(Speciry 80col. board) $ ISO $ 99
Howard Soft, Real Estate Analyzer II S 195 $129

TaxPreparer
L JK, Letter Perfect w Mail Merge

• Micro Craft, (requires Z80 CP M-Card)

Verdict orBillkeeper
Micro Lab. Tax Manager
Micro Pro, (all require Z80-CP M Card)

• WordStarwApplicard&CP M SPECIAL S 495 $325
WordStar 1 - Training Manual SPECIAL S 495 $239
MailMerge " SPECIAL S 250 $129
SpellStar" SPECIAL S 250 $129

• WordStarProtessional,4Pak SPECIAL S 895 $429
Microsoft. Mutb-Plan(CPM or Apple DOS) S 275 $199

Hnancial. Muibtool (CP Mot DOS) S 100 $75

Budget,Multitool(CPMorDOS) S 150 $115

Osborne'C.P. Soft. (Disk and Book) (Stat . Bus. & Math)

SomeCommonBasicPrograms(75eacti) S 100 $ 49

PracticalBasic Programs (40each) S 100 $49

Peachtree, Requires CP M & MBasic, 40 columns.

Series40GL&AR&AP,all3 S 595 $365

Series40 Inv.or Payroll, each S 400 $275

Series9Texl&Spell&Mail.all3 S 595 $395

Perfect.PerfectWriter

Perfect Speller

PerfectWriler Speller 2 Pak

PerfectFiler

Ouark.Word Juggler (He)

Lexicheck I le (use w Juggler)

Sensible.Sens. Speller, specify 80 Col. Brd S 125 $85

Sierra/On-Line. ScreenWriterll S 130 S 89

The Dictionary NEW! S 100 $ 69

General Manager I NEW! S 230 $155

•Silcon Valley .WordHandler S 250 $ 39

• List Handler S 90 $ 35
Sof.Sys., Executive Secretary S 250 $169

Executive Speller S 75 $ 55

S 495 $149

S 295 $ 99

S 695 $199

S 595 $259

S 239 $179

S 149 $ 99

on disk for Apple ll/ll+/lle

BUSINESS

Software Publishing, PFS: File S 125 S 84

(specity * ore) PFS:Report s 125 $84

PFS:Graph S 125 $ 84

Stoneware. DB Master Version 4 S 229 $229

DBUt tytortl S 99 S 69

Videx. Apptewriter 1 1 preboot disk S 20 S 15

Visicalc80col.prebootdisk S 50 $ 39

VisiCorp/Personal Software.

Visicalc3.3 S 250 $169

Visicalc Enhanced (lie) NEW S 250 $169

VisiFileor VisiDex. each $ 250 $169

UTILITY & SYSTEM

Beagle.UtnityCity
DOSBoss
Apple Mechanic
Central Point.Filer. DOS3.3 andUtihty
• Copy 1 1 Plus ( bitcopier)

Einstein. Compiler, for ApplesoftBASlC
Epson, GraphicsDump
Insolt.G raFORTH byPaul Lutus
Microsoft, A.L.D.S.
CobolBO
FortranSO

Complete Line in Stock
•Omega. Locksmith (bitcopier)
Penguin. Comp. Grphcs Sys. NE 1
Graphics Magician NE'

Phoenix, Zoom Grafix
Ouality Bagof Tncks
Saturn Systems. VC-Expand

VC-Expand80
Sensible, Back itUp. (bitcopier)

NEW

S 129

S 15

S 75

S 125

S 750

S 195

S 100

S 70

S 60

S 40

S 40

S 100

S 125

S 60

$ 22

$ 18
$ 22

$ 15
S35
$85
$ 9
$59
$75

$75
$53
$41
$34
$29
$49
$69
$49

HOME & EDUCATIONAL

Broderbund.Choplifler
BudgeCo. Pinball Constr. Set
•Continental. Home Accountant
Datamost AztecorZaxxon.each
Edu-Ware. (Large Inventory)
Einstein. MemoiyTramer
Hayden. Sargon II (Chess)
Infocom. Zork I, ll.or lll.or Siarcross, each
Lightning. Masteriype
Micro Lab. Miner 2049er
Sierra On-Line, Ultima II
Sir-Tech. Wizardry
Spinnaker. Kmdercomp
Sub Logic. Flight Simulation

Pinball
Terrapin, Logo
OTHER BRANDS AND PROGRAMS IN

S 35
S 40
S 75
S 40
Call
Call

S 26

$27
$49
$27
Catl
Calt
$29
$27
$27
$27
$40
$39
S 20
$25
S 25
S 150 $ 99
STOCK, CALL.

DISKETTES

CDC, 100 each, SS,DD,48T(Apple, IBM) S 550 $179

10each,SS,DD,48T(Apple,IBM) S 55 $ 19

100each,OS,DD,48T.(IBM,HP) $ 750 $ 295

10each,DS,DD,48T(IBM,H'P) $ 75

DYSAN, 10each.(Apple,elc.) S 69

10each,48T(IBM,K/P,etc.) S 89

MAXELL, 10each,MD-1,SS,DD $ 55

10each,MD2-D,DSDD % 75

VERBATIM, 10 each, Verex.SSSD $ 40

10each.MD525-0t.SSSD $ 49

10each,DD34,DSDD $ 84

10each.Optima.DSDD S 121

GENERIK'" DISKETTES-AS LOW AS$1

1 00 eachSS,SD,35Trac*(Apple, Atan) S 415 $ 130

1 000 eacriSS.SD, 35Track(Apple. Atari) S4150 $ 995

100eachDS,DD,40Track(IBM,H/P) S 626 $ 170

1000eachDS,DD,40Track(IBM,H/P) S6260 $1400

W/jackets, no labels, top quality. 90 day limited wananfy by us.

MONITORS""

ACCESSORIES

•AMDEK, 1?'Green, #300G

• 1?' Amber, #300A

• 12"Amber.310AforlBM-PC

• l3"Colorl, Composite

• 13"Colorll.RGB,HiRes

• 13 Color lll,RGB.(Ap II. IK)
DVM CoortlorltlloApplell F

NEC,12"Green,ModelJB1201M
l2"Color. Composite, JC1215M
12"Color, RGB, IBM ModeiJC 1203
PRINCETON, RGBHiRes,HX-12
•OUAORAM, Quadchrome 1 2" RGBCoior
Ouadrscreenir,968x512
SAN YO,9"Green.Model DM5109

1?Green,ModelDM8112CX
ZENfTH, 12"Green, Model ZVM121

$ 200 $ 135

$ 210 $ 149

$ 230 $ 159

S 379 $ 289

$ 529 $ 439

$ 479 $ 399

$ 199 $ 175

S 249 $ 159

$400 $299

$699 $ 569

$795 $539

S 795 $ 499

S1995 $1595

S 200 $ 139

$ 260 $ 199

$ 150 $ 89

MODEMS

GENERIK™
DISKETTES

SSSD $1.00 Each
DSDD $1.40 Each

CDC
SSSD $1.79 Each

Minimum order quantities apply. See above. Money
back guarantee is by COMX Corporation not us.

AND

ACCESSORIES

ANCHOR,SignaJmanMKIModem(RS232) S 99

HAYES, IBM-PC Smartmodem 1200 B S 599

IBM-PC Smartcom 1 1 Software S 119

StackChronograph(RS-232) S 249

Stack Smartmodem 300 (RS-232) S 289

Smartmodem 12O0 (RS-232) $699

MicromodemlOO(S-lOObus)

Micromodem II (fortheApptelt)

AppleTerminalProgram

IBM-PCtoModemCable

NOVATION,Apptec3tllModem,300BAUO $ 389

212 Apple Cat, 1200BAUD $725

Cal

D-Cat

J-Cat

212 Auto Cal
SmartCal103£l2
Apple Catll
212AppJeCat
SSM, Transcend t forAppiellDataComm.
ModemCanjforlhe Apple II
Transmodem 1 200 ( 1 1 0300/1 200)

S 399
$ 379
$ 100
S 39

S 189
S 199
$ 149
S695
S 595
S389
$ 725
S 89
$299
$695

$ 75
$439
$ 89
S 189
$225
$ 535
$ 275
$275
$ 65
$ 29
$ 269
$ 599
$ 139
$ 159
$ 109
$ 579
$ 435
$ 269
$ 595
S 69
$ 259
$ 559

PRINTERS ACCESSORIES
DOT MATRIX PRINTERS:

EPSON,MX80FT,80CPS,w.Graftrax + $745 $485

FX80.CPS Call

MX100F.T,80CPS,wGrartrax+ $ 995 $639

FX100.CPS Catl

ApptellGraphicsDumpProgram $ 15 $ 9

GraltraxPlus,MX80orMX100 $ 95 $ 79

LEADING EDGE, Gorilla Banana S 250 $ 209

OKIDATA,82A,80cot..120cps.Para. $ 549 $ 448

83A.132coL.120cps.Para. $899 $699

92,160CPS,80Col.,Para. $699 $559

93,160CPS,136Col..Para. $1249 $969

ORANGE MICRO. Grappler +. for Apple $165 $119

PRAC.,Microbuffertn-Line64K,Para: $ 349 $ 259

Mjcrobuffer In-Line 64K Serial $ 349 $ 259

•STARMICRO..Gemini10"X,120cps,2.3K Z 499 $ 289

Gemini 15". 100cps.2.3K $ 649 $ 389

Germ15"X.lQ0cps,2.3K Call Call

IBM-PCtoEpsonor St arMicronics Cable $ 60 $ 35

Apple If andCabteforEpsonorGemini $ 95 $ 59

LETTER QUALITY- DAISY WHEEL PRINTERS:

JUKI.6100. 17cps.80Col.. Parallel $ 700 $ 539

NEC.3550IBMParallel,33cps,136Col. S2350 $1995

•TTX, 13 cps, Para. &Ser, Pin & Friction $649 $499

SUPPLIES: Tractor Feed Paper, Ribbons, Daisy Wheels.

PLOTTERS

ENTER COMPUTER. Sweet-P $ 795 $ 595

AMDEK.OXY-l00.10"xl4".Para $749 $599

Amplottt.10"x14".6cotof.&P $1299 $999

CORVUS?^

Wfthoutlnterface 20 Meg

IBM-PC InteitaceManualfi CableKit

Mirrorbuillmforeasybackup
Appletnterlace, Manua I & CableKit

$2395 $1895

S3195 $2695

S4195 $3495

$ 300 $ 239

$ 790 $ 595

$ 300 $ 239

Other Inieriaces, Omni-Net, Constellation. Mirror, Aft in Stock

A

.ATARI.

fbrihe ATARI

RANA 1000 Drive, 320K $449 $369

KOALA, Graph.cs Pad $100 $ 75

ADncDiur iLirrmn a Timi a un Tcnuc A " Maii: p0 - Box 23068 > Portlan(l > 0R 97223 - Include telephone number.
UHUtHINb INrUKMA I IUN ANU I trlMo! All items usually in stock. We immediately honor Cashiers Checks, Money Orders, Fortune lOOOChecksand
Government Checks. Personal or Company Checks allow 20 days to clear. No. C.O.D. Prices reflect a 3% cash discount so ADD 3% to above prices for VISA or MC. For U.S. Mainland,
add 3% for shipping, insurance and handling (SI&H) by UPS with $5 minimum f or SI&H. UPSground is standard so add3% moreforUPS Blue with $10 minimum for SI&H. Add 1 2% total
lor SI&H for US Postal, APO or FPO with Si 5 minimum for SI&H. For Hawaii, Alaska and Canada. UPS is in some areas only, all others are Postal so call, write, or speofy Postal. Foreign
orders except Canada for S.I&H add 1 8% or $25 minimum for SI&H except for monitors add 30% or $50 minimum tor SI&H. Prices subject lo change and typo errors, so calt to verify. All
goods are new. include warranty and are guaranteed to work. Due to our low prices, ALL SALES ARE FIN AL. Catl before returning goods for repair or replacement. Orders received with
insufficient S.I&H charges will be refunded. ORDER DESK HOURS 6 A.M. to 6 P.M. PST. Monday through Friday and 1 to 4 Saturday. 6 A.M. here is 9 A.M. in New York.
OUR REFERENCES." We have been in computers and electronics since 1958, a computer dealer since 1979 and in mail order since 1980. Banks: 1st Interstate Bank,
(503) 643-4678. We belong to the Chamber of Commerce (503) 644-0123, Belter Business Bureau (503) 227-0648 and Direct Markeling Association, or call Dunn and Bradstreet if you
are a subscriber. Fastrak " and Generiik '" are trademarks of ComX Corporation. WordStar, MailMerge, Starlndex, InfoStar, are trademarks of MicroPro.

* Means a BEST buy

AD #983

CASH & CARRY OUTLETS:

Over-fhe-countersalesonly. Open Monday through Saturday 10:00 unlil 5:00.
PORTLAND, OREGON, 11507-D S.W. Pacific Hwy, Terrace Shopping Center, ligard
On 99W between 217 and I-5. Call245-1020.

SEATTLE, WASH., 3540 128th Ave. SE, Bellevue, WA 98006, Tele.: 641 -4736,
between Lodimann's Plaza and Factoria Race. SE of Hwy. 4 05 & 90and atSE38th& 128th

#>

Dealers 1

WE BUY
EXCESS

.INVENTORIES j

lor the
IBM-PC or XT

HARDWARE

IBM is a

trademark of
J IBM Corporation

IBM-PC

System Includes

Two 320K Disk Drives by CDC

90 Day Warranty By Us
Call For Details And Configurations

LIST
PRICE

OUR
PRICE

UCIIADV f*UID l/ITO Add -on to your memory cards or mother
MLIVlUnT Unlr fVI I O board lOOMested With 90 day warranty

• 64KKit.2O0NS.9cf ups. 4164 S 150 $ 45

16KKrt.200NS.9cfnps.41l6(forPC-1rnotheitX)afd) $ 30 $ 16

4-IN-1MuflipleBoard.ColOf Graphics. Mono. 128K S 599 $519

CotnboPlus.64Kw Set asyucparaA dock calendar S 395 $ 279

Above Combo Plus. 256K. S P C S 695 $ 475

MegaPlus II. 64K. 2-S P C. and software S 495 $ 345

256K.2-S PC. and software S 795 J 495

Expand256K MegaPlus Uto5l2KK?l S 395 $ 295

CCS

Supervision, monochrome 132 Col. x 44 hnevxleo board
Z Plus 64. fast 280B. 64K (expand to 1 92K). para port

S 850

S 875

$660
$ 695

* POmy 256K R AMCardwilh Fastrak '" RAMdisk emulator
^ ** and printer spooler software 2 Year Warranty S 695

PI IDTIC p C p edestai "IcyDispayonPC
l/Un I lO 9 Foot Cabie lor IBM Keyboard (erlends 3 lo9 l
Vertical "System Stand lor PC CPU

HERCULES HiResGraphicsBoard

KGy TrOnJC KB5150 Standard Typewmerkevfcoaid

LIST

OUR

PRICE

PRICE

S 80

J 65

S 50

S 35

S 25

S 19

|-<r-i^l^ KoaiaPad' TouchTabtet

I lUdld Programmer sGuide

S ISO
S 15
256K RAMCard SPECIAL S 875
MJOP060TT 64KSyslemCard 4 Function S 395
MI^KV*X-T I 2S6KS y ystemCard 4Function

S625

ADPUin f ^- ne1 " LrxajA/eaMwcrtJTjStarte* System. 20
UnUnlU MBXxtraveGn(tmM&9 720H t 350V *64K

PLANTRONICS/FREDERICKS

CoiorPlus l6coiorbrd w ParaPorl

QIJADRAM

k Ouadlmk Apple II Emulator NOWIN STOCK NEW 1

k Ouadboard noRAM e«pandableto256K.6tunction NEW 1

Ouadboard 64K expandable to 256K. 6 lundion
k Ouadboard256K. 6 function
Ouadboard 1 1. 64K 6tunction
Ouadboardll 256K 6functton

Ouad5l2 • 64K plus senai port expandable to 51 2K.6lunct>on
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Installable Device Drivers for

PC-DOS 2.0

The latest version of the IBM PC's DOS
provides support for device drivers

Support for device drivers is one of
the most significant new features pro-
vided by Microsoft's PC-DOS 2.0. In
addition to other significant improve-
ments over earlier versions, this re-
lease incorporates powerful new
commands into the DOS as well as
BASIC. In this article I'll define a de-
vice driver, explain its importance, and
show how it works with the IBM PC.

The DOS (disk operating system)
enhancements visible to the average
user represent only the tip of the
iceberg; much of the real power add-
ed to PC-DOS can be appreciated on-
ly by hardware and software design-
ers. As those designers take advan-
tage of PC-DOS 2.0's flexibility, we
can expect to see new products that
will work only with this and subse-
quent versions. These products will
provide a major impetus for the
average IBM PC user to abandon
earlier versions of PC-DOS in favor
of the latest release.

Devices and Drivers

A device is merely a piece of equip-
ment that attaches to a computer.
Some examples are printers, floppy-
and hard-disk drives, monitors, and
keyboards. You can even simulate
devices; a RAM disk, for instance,
appears to the PC as a disk drive, but
it is actually a special program run-
ning in the computer's RAM
(random-access read/write memory)
that simulates the operation of a
floppy-disk drive.

An interface is used to attach a
device to the PC. The interface can be
a standard type, such as an RS-232C

by Tim Field

or parallel port, or you can use one
designed to work with a particular
device, such as a keyboard. Either
type of interface provides the
necessary electronics to allow the PC
and a device to communicate.

So far, so good. You know you
need a device and an interface to plug
it into the PC, but that combination
is not sufficient. You must also pro-
vide the PC with the software re-
quired to "talk" with the device; that
is, to perform input and output (I/O)
operations on it.

Each device requires special signal
and timing schemes to allow the PC's
processor to communicate with it.
Applications programs running on
the computer don't provide such soft-
ware routines, which can sometimes
be quite complex; these programs
must be able to perform specific
tasks, though, such as sending a
character to the modem or reading
the sector of a particular address on
drive A. What is needed, then, is a
set of general-purpose software
routines that match the high-level
needs of applications programs with
the low-level requirements of the
hardware interfaces. These software
interfaces are called device drivers.

It is one of the main tasks of the
operating system to provide the sup-
port that applications programs need
to use the devices attached to the
computer system. Thus, the respon-
sibility for supplying and supporting
device drivers falls in the realm of
DOS functions.

One device driver that comes with
the PC is the parallel-printer driver.

That code is stored in the system's
ROM (read-only memory) and inter-
faces system software with the
parallel interface port.

A program running on the PC does
not get involved with how characters
are printed out; it's the printer's
responsibility to actually print out
text characters. A program requests
that a string of characters be printed
out, and the printer device driver
handles that request, receiving
characters from a program and con-
verting them into the Is and 0s that
the parallel interface card requires.
The interface then takes these binary
values and converts them into ap-
propriate electrical signals, which are
sent to the printer through cabling.
The printer converts these signals
back into characters, which are then
printed out.

Without the device driver, each
software program that required the
use of the printer would have to pro-
vide the appropriate signals for the
parallel adapter. But because most
programs require the use of many
devices (usually at least a keyboard,
monitor, disk drive, and printer),
general-purpose device drivers prove
most efficient; they supply the
highest level of software support
possible.

The internal activities of device
drivers are invisible to applications
programs. Yet when you run an ap-
plications program or a DOS com-
mand, the device drivers work with
that program to accomplish the re-
quested task. The device-driver con-
cept provides an additional benefit:

188 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

it helps make programs device-inde-
pendent. In other words, the driver
ensures that the program need not
get involved with a particular device's
idiosyncrasies; it works directly with
the device-driver interface.

For example, the signals and tim-
ing schemes required to communi-
cate with a floppy-disk drive differ
from those required for a fixed-disk
drive. A high-level device interface,
however, permits an applications
program to read or write to either
type of drive identically.

Device Drivers in PC-DOS 2.0

The IBM PC provides two levels of
device drivers. At the low end is the
BIOS (basic input/output system)
ROM (read-only memory) interface,
which makes a set of simple device
interfaces available to assembly-
language programs. The PC-DOS in-
terface, however, provides device
drivers of a somewhat higher level.
The DOS contains a set of functions
that enables a program to access a
number of useful operations, in-
cluding the device operations. The
DOS device drivers (or device func-
tions) actually use the BIOS drivers
to accomplish portions of their work.
The DOS drivers' higher level pro-
vides them with greater flexibility
than those in BIOS.

Using earlier versions of PC-DOS,
applications programmers had to
specially rig (or "kludge") device
drivers to work with the DOS. This
was often accomplished at the BIOS
interface level. And although the
drivers worked, they were not stan-
dard ones, nor were they easy to
implement.

PC-DOS 2.0, however, permits pro-
grammers to create installable device
drivers at the DOS-interface level in
a standard way. These new drivers
can either define a new device type
to be used on the PC or replace an
old device driver. For example, a
device driver can be added to sup-
port an intelligent pen plotter, or the
PC's standard keyboard device driver
can be replaced by a new driver that
looks for input not only from the
keyboard but also from a mouse
device.

Normally written in assembly Ian-

c

POWER ON

Dd

CTRL-ALT-DEL
SYSTEM RESET

EXECUTE DIAGNOS-
TICS TO TEST
PC's HARDWARE

)

DOS "BOOTS" UP-
LOADS AND
EXECUTES IBM BIO,
IBM DOS. AND
COMMAND
SYSTEM FILES

L_

IS THERE A
"CONFIG.SYS"
FILE ON THE
SYSTEM DISK I

I

1

EXECUTE SYSTEM
CONFIGURATION
ROUTINE {SEE
FIG. 2)

IS THERE AN
"AUTOEXEC.BAT
FILE ON THE
SYSTEM DISK

I

YES

Tno

EXECUTE ALL
COMMANDS FOUND
IN AUTOEXEC.BAT

PROMPT USER FOR
DATE AND TIME

'

\

' DOS IS RUNNING.N

DISPLAY SYSTEM

PROMPT AND WAIT

^OR USER INPUT/

Figure 1: This flowchart outlines the tasks the DOS performs before it issues the system
prompt and waits for user input.

guage, an installable device driver is
assembled and linked into a COM
file. It makes its corresponding device
available to any program using the
standard DOS function calls. You in-
stall a device driver in PC-DOS by
copying the COM file onto the
system disk and creating a special file
called CONFIG.SYS, which is mere-
ly a text file (created using Edlin or
a text editor) into which you add the
command line:

DEVICE = driver.COM

(where the word "driver" is replaced
by the name of the device driver).
You must complete this process for
each device driver you install.

The installation process is then ac-
complished at system start-up. When
the PC is turned on, or whenever a

system reset is issued (via the Ctrl-
Alt-Del key sequence), PC-DOS per-
forms a number of tasks before it
issues the system prompt and waits
for user input. One of those tasks is
to configure the system as instructed
through the CONFIG.SYS file, which
includes installing any specified
device drivers. Figure 1 outlines these
activities. For a more detailed discus-
sion of the inner workings of device
drivers and their installation process,
see "A Peek into PC-DOS Device
Drivers" on page 190.

Device Categories

The types of devices that the PC
recognizes fall into two categories:
character devices and block devices.

A character device performs input
and output in a serial manner— char-
acter by character. For example, a

November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. 189

A Peek into DOS
Device Drivers

Let's take a look at the implementation
of device drivers in PC-DOS 2.0. As
discussed in the main text, the PC uses two
types of devices: character and block. The
device-driver format is structured in such
a way that the same approach is used for
either type of device.

An assembly-language program designed
to work as a device driver consists of three

f START J

user-defined parts: a device header, a
strategy routine, and an interrupt routine.

The Device Header

The device header is an 18-byte block
found at the beginning of a device driver.
This header is used by the DOS to install
and identify a particular driver. The header
is broken into the following five
components:

Next Device Header Field (4 bytes):
This is a pointer (offset followed by seg-
ment) used by the DOS to make a linked
list of all of the installed device drivers.
Both offset and segment addresses must be

1 ANY MORE TEXT ,

J.INES IN |_

. CONFIGSYS I
FILE

READ IN FILE
SPECIFIED BY
"DEVfCE="
COMMAND LINE

LINK THE DEVICE
HEADER TO THE
FRONT OF DOS
DEVICE QUEUE

BUILD

REQUEST BLOCK
TO "IN IT"
DEVICE DRIVER

INVOKE DEVICE
DRIVER STRATEGY
ROUTINE (PASS
ADDRESS TO
REQUEST BLOCK)

INVOKE

DEVICE DRIVER
INTERRUPT ROUTINE
(RECEIVE "END-OF-
DRIVER" ADDRESS)

MARK

"END-OF-DRIVER"
ADDRESS INTERNALLY
TO PREVENT
OVERLAY

Figure 2: A summary of the steps PC-DOS takes to install device drivers.

set to -I by the assembler (unless you have
more than one device driver in the file, in
which case the pointers of each device
header in the file should be set up in a
linked list at assembly time, and the last
driver in the list should be set to -1).

Device Attribute (2 bytes): This group
of bits defines the type of device and some
special attributes about that device. For ex-
ample, one bit specifies whether it is a
character or block device. Other bits in-
dicate current clock device, current stan-
dard input device, and standard output
device. (Standard input is generally the
keyboard, standard output is the screen
display. See the section on redirection of
standard input lout put in the PC-DOS
manual for more information.)

Device Strategy Pointer (2 bytes):
This is an offset into the device-driver seg-
ment to the strategy routine.

Device Interrupt Pointer (2 bytes):
This is an offset into the device-driver seg-
ment to the interrupt routine.

Device Name Field (8 bytes): This
field contains the device name for a
character device. For a block device, the first
byte of the field contains a count of the
number of devices supported by the driver
and the remaining 7 bytes are not used.

The Strategy Routine

When the DOS receives a request for a
device operation, it looks through its list
of device drivers, searching for the driver
specified by the request. When a match is
found (i.e., when the device name matches
the requested device), the DOS invokes
that driver's strategy routine at the ad-
dress found in the device header.

With PC-DOS 2.0, the strategy routine
doesn't play a very important role. It sim-
ply queues up a device request and returns
to the DOS. In future versions of the DOS,
however, it could assist in such operations
as priority-queued multitasking or time-
sharing situations.

Interrupt Routine

Upon receiving control back from the
strategy routine, the DOS invokes the
driver's interrupt routine. This routine
provides all of the functionality for the
driver— the code to execute the device-
driver operations.

Because there are many different tasks
a device driver might perform for a given
device, a standard mechanism is needed for
the DOS to specify to any device the com-
mand to be executed. This mechanism takes
the form of a request header.

190 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

POINTER TO NEXT
DEVICE HEADER

ATTRIBUTES

CHARACTER
DEVICE

POINTER TO DEVICE
STRATEGY ROUTINE

POINTER TO DEVICE
INTERRUPT ROUTINE

DEVICE NAME-. PRN

,\W\^\\\V:^S^

DEVICE STRATEGY CODE

DEVICE INTERRUPT CODE

BLOCK
DEVICE

DEVICE UNIT FIELD:
1 (SINGLE UNIT)

\v^\v\- • '- -v^>

• • • — »■

-1 (LAST DEVICE
IN QUEUE)

CHARACTER
DEVICE

i

X

DEVICE NAME: PLOTTER

;A\^xn\ x ; : \- \ <

Figure 3: Examples of several device drivers installed in DOS.

A request header is a block of memory
that the DOS sets up. A pointer to this
header is passed to the device driver in the
ES:BX register pairs during the strategy-
routine call. The strategy routine saves this
address.

When the interrupt routine receives con-
trol, it fetches the saved address to the re-
quest header and uses the contents of the
header to determine the operation it is to
perform. The request header contains the
following data:

Request-Header Length (1 byte).

Unit Code (1 byte): This byte specifies
the subunit (for block devices only) that the
requested operation should use.

Command Code (1 byte): This gives
a value specifying the operation to be
performed.

Status (2 bytes): This is a word set aside
to allow the device driver to return the
status of the operation to the DOS. A
status word can indicate an "ERROR"

(returning an 8-bit error code with the er-
ror indication), "BUSY" (used by an ex-
plicit status-function request), or "DONE"
(which has no functional use in PC-DOS
2.0 but appears to be set aside for future
uses such as multitasking or perhaps even
multiprocessing).

DOS Reserved Area (8 bytes).

Data Area (variable length): This seg-
ment contains any data appropriate to the
operation.

Figure 2 outlines the PC-DOS procedure
for installing device drivers. You specify
which devices to install by including in the
CONFIG.SYS file the command " DE-
VICE =device. COM" (replacing "device"
with the device-driver filename) for each
driver. Because CONFIG.SYS can contain
other system-configuration commands,
figure 2 includes a check for DEVICE=
requests.

The DOS loads each device driver from
the system disk into memory, adds it to the

front of its list of device drivers, and ex-
ecutes the driver's INIT command. INIT
will return to the DOS an end-of-driver
address (actually the end of the device-
driver code plus 1 byte). The DOS then
reserves the area before this address, being
careful not to overlay any other programs
on the device driver.

Figure 3 shows the structure of multi-
ple device drivers installed in PC-DOS;
three drivers are portrayed. The first is a
character device named PRN, which acts
as the standard printer device. The second
is a block device and thus is unnamed. The
third is a character device called PLOT-
TER. Notice that the length of different
device drivers can vary.

If the DOS installs yet another device
driver in the scheme shown in figure 3, it
will be placed in front of PRN. If it, too,
is a character device with the name PRN,
it effectively replaces the older one. Thus,
any characters sent to PRN will use the
first driver in the list with that name.

November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. 191

Command

Function Character

Block

Code

Requested Devices

Devices

INIT •

•

1

MEDIA CHECK

•

2

BUILD BPB

•

3

IOCTL INPUT •

•

4

INPUT (read) •

•

5

NON DESTRUCTIVE INPUT NO WAIT •

6

INPUT STATUS •

7

INPUT FLUSH •

8

OUTPUT (write) •

•

9

OUTPUT WITH VERIFY •

•

10

OUTPUT STATUS •

11

OUTPUT FLUSH •

12

IOCTL OUTPUT •

•

Table 1: A list

of device request codes, indicating whether they are used with character

or block devices or both.

Device Commands

There are 13 specific device operations
(see table 1) that may be requested of a
device driver in PC-DOS 2.0. Some of
these are valid with both block and
character devices; some are used only by
one or the other.

The DOS requests a particular command
by placing the appropriate command code
into the request header. It is efficient for
a device driver to set up a separate routine
for each of the 13 operations using single
entry and exit points to the drive?'. A stan-
dard jump table can be used to determine
which routine to execute. (A jump table
contains the entry addresses for each
routine. The command code found in the
header is used to index into the table and
get the correct address.)

Each command is briefly described below.
Refer to chapter 14 of the PC Disk
Operating System manual (Boca Raton,
FL: IBM Corporation, 1983) for more in-
formation on these functions. It is helpful
to look over the listing of the RAM drive
at the end of chapter 14 to see how such

things as the device header and jump table
can be implemented. The device commands
are:

INIT— This routine is executed once
after system start-up. It allows the device
driver to install itself and perform any
necessary initialization tasks— including
initializing devices, returning the driver's
ending address to the DOS (so that the
DOS knows where it is safe to load other
programs without overwriting the driver),
and returning an initial device status in
the request header.

MEDIA CHECK (Block devices only):
This command checks to see if the media
(e.g., disk) has been changed.

BUILD BPB (Block devices only): The
BPB (BIOS parameter block) is a 13-byte
chunk of memory that describes the block
device. It contains device-specific data such
as number of bytes per sector and sectors
per unit. The BPB is returned to the DOS.

IOCTL INPUT/OUTPUT: IOCTL
(input/output control) is a mechanism
that lets the DOS determine and change

the status of a device (not the status of the
device driver). For example, DOS might
use IOCTL INPUT to determine the lines-
per-inch setting of an intelligent printer
and then change this with an IOCTL
OUTPUT command.

INPUT: This command reads the data
from the specified device (at a given address
for block devices) and returns it to the
DOS.

NON DESTRUCTIVE INPUT NO
WAIT (Character devices only): This
allows the DOS to check for data waiting
to be read. For example, the DOS can use
the command to check the keyboard buffer
to see if any keys have been pressed. If the
keyboard buffer is empty, a normal INPUT
command to the keyboard will wait until
a key is pressed. Sometimes it is desirable
for a program to check first and ensure that
it will not have to wait.

INPUT/OUTPUT STATUS (Charac-
ter devices only): This command returns
the status of the specified device.

INPUT/OUTPUT FLUSH (Character
devices only): This terminates all pending
device requests. For example, it might clear
the keyboard buffer on an INPUT FLUSH
or a printer buffer on an OUTPUT
FLUSH.

OUTPUT: This command writes the
data to the device (at the given address for
block devices).

OUTPUT WITH VERIFY: This
writes data to the device and then verifies
that the operation has worked correctly.

The device-driver mechanism is a
straightfonuard implementation that is suf-
ficiently general to support a large variety
of devices. Several of its features hint at
powerful things to come in later versions
of PC-DOS. By using such a standard
mechanism, the DOS gives users the
capability to develop products now that will
be easily integrated into future versions.

printer is a character device through
which a string of characters is printed
out; the printer device driver is called
once for each character.

Character devices are given specific
names. The standard ones have pre-
defined names, such as CON (the
system console, which uses the key-
board for input and the display
screen for output), AUX and COM1
(the auxiliary communications port
through which you can attach serial
printers and modems), and PRN or
LPT1 (the parallel-printer port). You

can assign a new character device to
a driver by giving that device the
name of the device it is replacing. To
attach a new character device to the
PC, you give it a unique name.

A special character device,
CLOCKS, can be defined to allow in-
tegration of a real-time clock into the
PC for TIME and DATE operations.
CLOCKS provides a standard mech-
anism for integrating a battery-back-
up clock chip, contained on many
multifunction boards, into the
system.

The other type of device, the block
device, is a mass-storage unit, such
as a floppy, hard, or RAM disk. In-
stead of accomplishing data I/O one
character at a time, a block device
passes whole chunks (or blocks) of
data in one shot. Usually, each block
contains one disk sector (512 bytes)
of data.

Unlike character devices, block
devices are not specifically named.
Instead, they are mapped via the
drive letters (A, B, C, etc.) PC-DOS
maps a new block device by internal-

192 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

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ly assigning it the next available drive
letter and automatically maps a
block-device operation to the ap-
propriate device driver, which can
support multiple devices of the same
type.

For example, suppose you have two
floppy-disk drives, A and B, and a
fixed disk, C, and you want to add
two RAM disks. You do so by defin-
ing one block-device driver with sup-
port for two disks. The DOS will use
this device driver to initialize and add
two RAM disks, D and E. Then when
a program attempts to read or write
to either D or E, the DOS will execute
the device driver to perform the re-
quested task.

DOS Support for Device Drivers

As mentioned earlier, PC-DOS
automatically provides the necessary
support for newly installed device
drivers. When an applications pro-
gram requests any DOS operation on
a given device via a DOS I/O func-
tion call, the DOS determines which
device driver is required and invokes
it to perform the requested task.

Earlier versions of PC-DOS inter-
nal function calls also support 2.0's
installable device drivers. An applica-
tions program designed with PC-
DOS 1.1, for example, uses a function
call to the DOS to invoke a disk-read
operation. Under PC-DOS 2.0, the
disk-read operation supports the
device driver. You can thus run the
applications program on the PC with
a newly installed device without
modifying the program. In fact, the
program will not sense the change.

To remember all its device drivers,
PC-DOS uses a linked list. At system
start-up, as the DOS installs a new
driver specified in the CONFIG.SYS
file, it adds that device to the top of
its list. When it later receives a re-
quest for a device I/O function, it
starts at the head of the device list
and searches through it for the device
whose name matches the I/O re-
quest, then invokes the first device
driver that matches the name re-
quested. This technique allows you
to replace any existing character
devices by giving your device driver
the same name as the device to be
replaced.

194 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

Circle 369 on inquiry (

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Circle 93 on inquiry card.

BYTE November 1983

195

Two Sample Device Drivers

With the purchase of PC-DOS 2.0, you
receive two device drivers. One is a char-
acter-device driver that enhances the
capabilities of both your display and key-
board. The other is a block-device driver
with a RAM disk for use with the PC. I
will briefly describe each of these drivers
and then look at the glaring problems each
reveals about PC-DOS 2.0.

A New Console Driver

The PC-DOS 2.0 disk includes a file
called AN SI. SYS, a character-device driver
that replaces the standard console device
(CON:) and enhances the capabilities of
the display and keyboard. You can set up
DOS to use this driver simply by creating
a CONFIG.SYS file using Edlin and
adding the line DEVICE=ANSI.SYS.

ANSI.SYS establishes the American Na-
tional Standards Institute (ANSI) standard
terminal-control sequences that allow ap-
plications to be moved between various ter-
minals and personal computers. Any
system using this standard will support the
same console-control sequences.

This console device driver provides two
basic capabilities. First, it allows you to
reassign the meaning of any key on the
keyboard, including using a single key to
replace a string of keys. Second, it gives
you direct cursor and attribute control of
your display screen. It permits you, for ex-
ample, to specify where on the screen the
cursor is to move to.

The ANSI.SYS control commands are
issued via the standard DOS screen and
keyboard function calls 1, 2, 6, and 9.
Basically, you first send a special sequence
of characters to the screen or keyboard func-
tions. These characters are then interpreted

by the ANSI.SYS device drive?', and the ap-
propriate action is taken.

The IBM RAM Disk

In chapter 14 ("Installable Device
Drivers") of the PC-DOS manual, IBM
supplies an assembly-language listing of a
block-device-driver implementation of a
RAM disk. The listing can be typed in, as-
sembled, and used with PC-DOS 2.0 as
a single-sided, nine-sector -per -track (180K-
byte) simulated disk drive.

IBM's main purpose in including the
RAM-disk listing was for demonstration
purposes. The code and comments help you
to get a better feel for how a device driver
is actually implemented. Furthermore, it
provides a nice frame for setting up the code
for your own drivers.

Note that this RAM driver is not found
on the DOS disk. IBM left it up to you
to enter and assemble the program. If you
do not have an assemble?', you can use
Debug to set up the file. This task is very
tedious at best.

Problems, Problems, Problems

These two device drivers do more than
demonstrate the potential of installable
device drivers, however. They also display
some of the chaos found in PC-DOS 2.0— a
most unfortunate and distressing situation.
These two programs should be Microsoft's
showcase, where it displays how well
device drivers work. Instead, the programs
spotlight some of the inconsistencies found
in the latest version of the DOS.

ANSI.SYS pinpoints the most glaring
deficiency of the whole device-driver setup
on the PC; BASIC apparently does not use
the standard DOS character functions and

thus will not work with user -installed
character-device drivers. (BASIC does,
however, work with user-installed block-
device drivers). The character I/O opera-
tions of BASIC (the screen, keyboard,
printer, auxiliary port, etc.) normally use
the lower-level BIOS ROM (read-only
memory) device interfaces instead of the
DOS function calls, thus nullifying any
user-installed character device.

For example, ANSI.SYS can be used to
replace the standard console device to allow
you to assign any keystroke sequence to any
key on the PC. The most obvious use of
this feature is to assign commonly used
strings of keystrokes to the function keys
to make it easier to use an applications pro-
gram. If that program is written in BASIC,
however, the DOS console driver is by-
passed and ANSI.SYS is useless.

The RAM-disk device driver demon-
strates a less harmful yet still frustrating
problem. At first the program seems to
work beautifully. The DOS correctly in-
stalls the simulated drive, and you can use
DIR to get a directo?y of the simulated disk.
COPY works to move files from a floppy
or fixed disk to the RAM drive, and
COMP lets you compare them. Even
BASIC uses the standard DOS function
calls for block device I/O; you can thus use
the RAM drive for reading and storing
data and programs.

However, for some reason, the DISK-
COPY and DISKCOMP commands do not
work. Both indicate an "invalid drive" er-
ror and then halt. No methods I tried were
able to coax the two DOS commands to
perform with the RAM disk.

While these problems are not major
catastrophes, they do indicate carelessness
on the part of IBM and Microsoft for let-
ting them through their quality-control
checks. It appears that there will be limita-
tions with user-created device drivers in
this version of PC-DOS that may prevent
the concept from being exploited to the
fullest extent. However, easy fixes to this
situation could be quickly forthcoming.

Conclusion

The device-driver capability of PC-
DOS 2.0 gives it significantly more
power than previous versions. This
feature, along with some other
special enhancements, should do
much to spur the development of
more powerful hardware and soft-
ware options for the IBM PC.

All is not well with PC-DOS,
however. As the discussion in the text

box 'Two Sample Device Drivers"
(above) illustrates, the current im-
plementation is suffering from some
nontrivial problems. Note, though,
that PC-DOS is in transition, quick-
ly evolving from a system with
limited capabilities to one with a flex-
ible and powerful Unix-like structure.
Each step forward will likely present
a problem here and there, but the
power of its enhancements far out-

weighs the troublesome areas. I look
forward to the next revision of PC-
DOS, fully expecting solutions to cur-
rent problems, additional goodies,
and, undoubtedly, some difficulties
with its new features. ■

Tim Field, a software engineer and technical
writer; works for Field Computer Products (909
North San Antonio Rd., Los Altos, CA 94022).

196 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

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registered trademark of Hayes
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3043A © RIXON INC. 1983

A Communications Package
for the IBM PC

With a little help from our friends, the Transend PC software
evolved through several iterative design stages

by Richard K. Moore and Michael Geary

such as The Source or Dialog

In the process of creating a commu-
nications software package at Small
World Communications Inc., we dis-
covered that a good package was the
result of many factors. To us, the most
surprising of these factors was the
iterative product-development cycle
that begins with design, continues
with evaluation by users, and starts
over again with a redesign based on
user feedback. By letting our friends
try out each intermediate version that
resulted from such a cycle, we
pruned those ideas that didn't work
and expanded the ones people
seemed comfortable with.

The result of our efforts is a product
that was not so much designed as it
was allowed to evolve. Called Tran-
send PC (published under a licens-
ing agreement by Transend Corpora-
tion of San Jose, California), it runs
on the IBM Personal Computer (PC),
a machine for which powerful, ver-
satile code can be written. Many
users would agree that most com-
mercial software falls short of such a
high performance level. This article
describes the design decisions that

resulted in a powerful product de-
signed with ease of use in mind.

The Choice of Features

Our first step was to discover
which communications functions
personal computer owners needed
most. To get this information, we
looked at the products available on

By trying out each

intermediate version,

Transend PC was not

so much designed as it

was allowed to evolve.

the market, but we learned more by
asking users what they wanted to do
and by looking at the experience of
research centers such as Xerox PARC
(Palo Alto Research Center). There
seemed to be three distinct needs:

• the ability to send and receive
short, informal messages (electronic
mail)

•the ability to send and receive disk
files

• the ability to access teleser vices

But these functional requirements
were only the tip of the iceberg. As
we examined typical communications
scenarios, we found that the actual
communications process is the least
of the user's worries. For example,
with electronic mail, most of the
user's time is spent with the local
management of messages: creating,
reading, editing, printing, filing, and
retrieving them. In addition, for each
person or service users wish to com-
municate with, they need to deal
with such troublesome details as
phone numbers, data rates, log-in
codes, protocols, user IDs, and so on.

Our conclusion was that electronic
mail should be the central focus in
the product design. We wanted man-
agers, secretaries, and clerks to feel
comfortable using this communica-
tions device, even if they had no
other occasion to use a personal com-
puter. Our problem then became one
of selecting a metaphor that would
express the function of electronic
mail.

November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

199

Open Basket

Label Basket

Print Summary

Print Basket

Exit from Transend

a Terminal
Send/Receive Mail

Transend PC (tm)
TEST Uersion 1.8

Press a function key or use |

| keys to select a basket

IN

J L

b l

ADDRESS BOOK

SENT OK

Jeff

Mike

Fred

Bill « Liz

L

J L

J L

J L

J L

Spec Changes

Schedule

Protocols

SERUICES

WASTE

L

YOUR PC

Byte Article

Tutorial

Figure 1 : Based on a desktop metaphor, Transend PC includes in, out, and sent baskets; phone
numbers and access information reside in the services and address-book baskets. The waste-
basket retains a copy of recently discarded messages. The lower 16 baskets serve as a simple
filing system for electronic messages, which can be moved between baskets at will; printing
and duplicating require only a single keystroke. (Editor's note: The figures accompanying
this article are screen dumps from a monochrome display.)

The Choice of Metaphors

In Visicorp's popular Visicalc pack-
age, the metaphor is simply a piece
of ledger paper. That idea is strong
enough to express the program's
functionality while at the same time
being simple and familiar to the in-
tended audience. We, too, wanted a
metaphor appropriate to our focus
that was as powerful, yet as simple
and familiar.

As did Apple with Lisa and Xerox
with Star, we chose the desktop as
our central metaphor. On our desk-
top is a collection of baskets in which
the user can place messages and
forms (figure 1). The forms describe
the communications parameters for
the people and services of interest to
the user. We found this metaphor ex-
tremely powerful: the in-basket, out-
basket, and wastebasket are im-
mediately familiar and help establish
the reality of the metaphor for the
user. We introduced other baskets to
provide needed system functions,
and a number of nondedicated
baskets are available so that users can
create their own filing systems for
messages.

We made a commitment to our-
selves that we would maintain the
chosen metaphor with dogged con-
sistency. We wanted our users to
believe that they really were working

with paper and baskets and to en-
courage them to try unfamiliar tasks
without fear. We wanted the illusion
to be so reliable that users would
have a clear expectation of the results
of their actions, based on their real-
world experience with paper and
containers.

Our problem became
one of selecting a

metaphor appropriate
to electronic mail.

The Choice of Machines

When we began work on this proj-
ect, the IBM PC had just been intro-
duced and had not much force in the
marketplace. We were considering
doing communications-package ver-
sions for the Apple II or for CP/M,
and when we began work on an ini-
tial prototype, an IBM PC was loaned
to us by a friend. He had an educated
hunch that this machine was to have
an immense impact on the market
and wanted to be sure we were get-
ting on the bandwagon.

We had no way of knowing how
correct his prediction would turn out
to be, but our experience with the PC
was favorable from the start. We
found it a superb development vehi-

cle that incorporated several lessons
from earlier machines. The large
memory capacity, the elaborate key-
board, and the extensive mono-
chrome character set all contributed
to an environment in which we had
the freedom to effectively communi-
cate our metaphor to the user. Most
important, however, was IBM's deci-
sion (borrowed from Apple) to offer
"open system architecture." Opening
up the machine to third-party hard-
ware and software vendors is what
made the product an instant hit
within the industry and with cus-
tomers.

Taking Advantage of the PC's
Architecture

With so much machine at our dis-
posal, we had to decide which fea-
tures were appropriate to our needs.
We decided early, for example, to ig-
nore the possibilities of color and bit-
mapped graphics and develop in-
stead the potential of the mono-
chrome graphics set. We chose this
route for three reasons: text mode is
much faster than graphics mode, the
monochrome screen's appearance is
more attractive than IBM's graphics
display, and a text-mode version can
run on all installed machines. We
have been very happy with this
choice and have found the character
graphics capabilities sufficient for our
needs.

The PC keyboard is both a blessing
and a curse. The large number of
keys provides many ways to invoke
commands, support scrolling, and
permit optimized data-entry— such
amplitude is a blessing to the user-in-
terface designer. But the curse is on
the first-time user who must navigate
the sea of keys: he needs to dis-
tinguish among four left-pointing-
arrow keys, to remember whether he
pressed one of the three Lock keys,
and to remember the meaning of the
10 function keys. We set out to
simplify the keyboard through ap-
propriate use of graphics on the
screen.

In the top region of each of our
screens is a control panel (figure 2).
The left part of the control panel
shows a map of the 10 function keys
together with the menu of the cur-

200 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

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BYTE November 1983 201

Circle 194 on inquiry card.

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COMPACT

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>0. Box 11 238
kee.WI 53211

Transend PC (tm)
TEST Uersion 1.0

Revise List

Test Interpreter

Print Message

<- Delete Word

*F1 F2-»
<-F3 F4*
€-F5 F6-»
«-F7 FB-»
«-F9 FIB

Save Message
Restore Original
Insert H

Delete Word -»

Grey Q deletes errors; HffiEl U2J Q Q EHJ1 EEH scroll

Subject: [Word-Processor Design

]

11S1MPLE APPROACH

•RThe goal is to be as easy to use as a typewriter. Informal messages
don't need multiple columns, footnotes, pagination control or font-change
commands, so we don't need lots of comands or control characters.

^SUPPORT FOR LOCK KEiYS

Figure 2: The large rectangle at the top of the screen, bounded above and below by double
lines, is the user control panel The control panel furnishes the tools and information the user
needs to manipulate the desktop environment. The control panels top portion maps the 10
function keys onto a menu of available commands; the lower control-panel line suggests ac-
tions appropriate to the current state of the desktop.

rently available commands. The func-
tion-key map is laid out in two ver-
tical columns, exactly mimicking the
keyboard. This layout lets the user
tap a key after a quick glance at the
control panel, without slowing down
to say, "I want option three . . . let's
see, where is F3?" The right part of
the control panel has space for three
rectangles, which can display Shift
Lock, Num (Numeric) Lock, and
Scroll Lock so that the user always
knows the state of those functions.
As a final touch, references to keys in
our help messages use graphics
whenever possible.

After continuous refining, we have
perfected these screen aids to the
point that first-time users of Transend
PC have very little trouble using the
keyboard.

Users Know What They Want

Having analyzed the machine and
chosen the metaphor, we thought the
project would then proceed accord-
ing to the classic paradigm: analyze
the problem, design a solution, and
implement the design.

We dutifully proceeded to outline
which commands would be needed
on each screen and what mechanism
the user would employ to select
operands for the commands. When
we had our prototype running, we
sat a friend down at the machine and
asked her to try to use it. First she

asked, "What do I do now?" We said,
"Choose a function key, of course."
The pattern continued— at each step
her assumptions and interpretations
were different than we had planned.

Then we let another friend try the
system, hoping that the first person
was atypical. No such luck. We
learned that each person very quick-
ly creates an idea of what the ma-
chine is trying to do. Wherever two
interpretations of the screen are
possible, the user draws the wrong
one (or, more often, invents a third).
We wanted the user to adapt to our
metaphor, so we had to make the
metaphor totally clear and unam-
biguous at every step.

This goal turned out to be very
costly to pursue. At each stage of re-
finement, the ambiguities uncovered
were more subtle— maintaining the
user illusion took an ever greater
sleight of screen.

How Many Screens?

As the user interface began to take
shape, the first issue was how many
different screens to have and how
much information to put on each
one. In many menu-driven software
products, the labyrinth of screens is
so formidable that "Where am I?" and
"How do I get back to where I was?"
are the usual questions asked by the
inexperienced user. In an attempt to
keep the user out of such traps, we

202 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

Circle 189 on inquiry card.

Select

a message to

view, then hit RfTff5Bl!T3 ;

isaa

cancels

In Touch (tm)
Uersion 0B

«-Fl F2+ Show Message
<-F3 F4+H

<-F5 F6->B

F8+B

*-F9 F10H

'J L

J L

1 r Richard -1 r UP tests -1

Out

1 1- Jims test -1 r Test Name -1 r Jeff L. 1 r Gossip -1

r Sent OK -1 r Not Sent -. r IT info i r i r Waste

From:

TRAINING SYNERGY3

SUBJECT

a test message

SENT -n
05mar83

1 To:

sunergu3

a test message

B5mar83«

From:

TRAINING SYNERGY3

this system

27feb83

In basket

3 messages

Figure 3: This early screen version got the cold shoulder from users. The help line at the
top was universally ignored. The open basket at the bottom was not seen as a blow-up of the
selected basket, but rather as a different basket. Users never knew what to expect from the
scroll keys. The crowded screen also had the effect of limiting the number of baskets and messages
that could be displayed.

Transend PC (tm)
TEST Uersion 1.8

Show Message

Add a Message

Print Message

Copy Message

Move Message

*F1 F2+
«-F3 F4->
«-F5 F6->
«-F7 F8->
«-F9 F10

™

UseH or D^ e y t° select a message,' then

press a

'unction key

rp

SUBJECT

SENT -n

To:

Mike Geary

Word-Processor Design

To:

Jeff Luther

Using W/C error diking

To:

Mike Geary

Use of Protocols

To:

Mike Geary

Update Byte Article

X To:

Richard Moore

Notes on Protocols

II

To:

Mike Geary

Support of DOS 2.0

To:

Fred Krefetz

Accessing New Services

To:

Richard Moore

Avoiding Graphics Snow

To:

Mike Geary

Conversion to C

lilliTl basket

9 messages

Figure 4: By devoting an entire screen to the display of a basket's contents, we could show
more messages than we could using the figure 3 screen. Moreover, we could si?7iplify scrolling
for the user.

packed as much information as pos-
sible into our screens.

In figure 3, you can see an early at-
tempt at a main screen. Below the
control panel each of the baskets is
shown, with an expanded view of
the selected basket. The expanded
view shows a scrollable list of the
messages in that basket. This screen
seems to make a lot of sense. Users
can look at the contents of one basket
without losing the global context.
Users, however, were confused by
the clutter of images, and they
couldn't predict what the effect of

using the scroll arrows would be.
Sometimes the arrows would select
a basket; at other times they would
cause the message list to scroll.

In response to user confusion, we
replaced the main screen with the
two screens in figures 1 and 4. The
two-screen approach did reduce con-
fusion, and users learned their way
around each of these screens more
quickly. The transition between the
screens now became the point of con-
fusion. The OPEN BASKET com-
mand would cause the array of
baskets to be replaced by a blown-up

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November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

203

Circle 505 on inquiry card.

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NAME

TITLH_

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STATI- .

. Z1P_

TELEPHONE .

(5a)

Open Basket <-Fl F2->

<-F3 F4+

*F5 P6+

f-F? F8-*

«-F9 FIB

Transend PC (tm)
TEST Uersion 1.0

Just a moment please

(5b)

Transend PC ( tm )
TEST Uersion l.B

«-Fl F2-» Show Desktop
<-F3 F4+H
<-F5 F6*B
*F7 F8-B
<-F9 Fie|

Just a moment please . . .

Figure 5: Simple outline animation provides continuity between the screens in figures 1 and
4. Compare this screen to figure Is, and note how this kind of animation, captured here suc-
cessively in parts a and b, makes a basket appear to grow.

view of the selected basket. One of
our friends tried this and com-
mented, "Well, what do we have
now?" We pointed out that the
blown-up basket came from his
selected basket, and he said, "Oh, of
course." But others who test-drove
the system had the same initial con-
fusion when the screen changed. We
were in a quandary— the combined
screen was too cluttered, and the
separate screens seemed uncon-
nected. Could we build a bridge be-
tween the two screens?

Animation with Character
Graphics

What we wanted was some way to
make the screen transition easier for
the user to understand. We looked
again at our metaphor. In real life, a
basket can appear to get bigger (or
come closer) only by passing through
intermediate sizes (or distances). But

animation, popular on bit-mapped
screens, was impractical on a charac-
ter-oriented screen— or so we had
assumed. We experimented a little
and found that simple outline anima-
tion was both practical and effective.
We introduced an animated sequence
to show the basket opening out from
the desktop array, as shown in figure
5. Not only did this simple animation
remove the confusion, but our
friends responded with actual plea-
sure at our fidelity to the metaphor.
Could a productivity-oriented soft-
ware package actually be fun to use?
Transend PC seemed to have edged
beyond being merely nonhostile into
the realm of being truly friendly.

Simple animation was so success-
ful in solving the open-basket prob-
lem that we couldn't avoid the impli-
cation that this kind of animation
should be used wherever a screen
transition needed clarification. There

204 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

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Transend PC ( tm )
TEST Uersion 1.0

Revise List «-Fl F2-*

■<-F3 F4->
■^F5 F6-*
■*F7 F8-*
■<-F9 F10

Use il or El to select a name, then h i t H^T» • ;M'J ; RS3 cancels

From: 1
To: 4=
Attach:
Subject: [

7 entries in Address Book

Name Service

\=>

Bill & Liz
Fred Krefetz

Gregg Will tarns

Jeff Luther

Mike Geary

PCUG Bulletin Board

Richard Moore

Transend PC
OnTyme

The Source

OnTyme
OnTyme
Other host
OnTyme

Figure 6: The Transend PC address book contains an entry for each electronic correspondent.

Transend PC (tm)

Revise Entry

«-Fl F2-»

Show Basket

«-F3 F4*

Discard Entry

TEST Uersion 1.8

Print Entry

«-F5 F6->

Look Above

«-F7 F8->

Look Below

<-F9 F10

IYM3 BH Q Q EH! BED scroll text for viewing

ADDRESS BOOK

This form describes a person or computer that you communicate with.

Name: Fred Krefetz (to send messages "To")

Where do we reach this person or computer:

On an elect ronic mail service:

The Source

Direct dial to:

Another PC using Transend/PC

Another PC using a different communications program

Figure 7: An example of an address-book form.

were many such transitions, and
handling each one of them was long
and tedious work. Sometimes, wait-
ing for a compilation in the middle
of the night, we had to ask ourselves
whether we were in charge of the
user interface or if it was leading us
by the nose. As refinement con-
tinued, even slighter user annoy-
ances came to our attention.

Reassuring Sounds

Often, users couldn't tell whether
their commands were being pro-
cessed, if they were supposed to hit
another function key, or whether the
program had received their most re-
cent request. We found that a few
judiciously placed beeps and chirps
let users know that the machine was
listening and, indeed, was respond-

ing. Our biggest surprise was that we
didn't get any feedback from friends
after sound was introduced. We
thought they would say, "Oh, how
neat, you're using sound." But they
were so accustomed to sound from
computer games that they proceeded
merrily along, knowing the computer
was following them, not conscious of
why they were so sure.

The Help Line

Even though we made each part of
the system as easily understandable
as we could, we found that a prompt,
or help line, was needed on the
screen at all times. We put the help
line at the most prominent place on
the screen— the very top. Unfor-
tunately, users didn't notice it. We
had to keep reminding them to look

206 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

Circle 296 on inquiry card.

I

Introducing the capability the world has
been waiting for. A single personal com-
puter able to handle Applef IBM?
TRS-80* UNIX™ and CP/M'* based
software.

The Dimension 68000 Professional
Personal Computer does it all. It actually
contains the microprocessors found in all
of today's popular personal computers.
And a dramatic innovation creates the
environment that these systems function
merely by plugging in the software.

Add to this the incredible power of a
32 bit MC68000 microprocessor with up
to 16 megabytes of random access
memory.

Dimension. At about the same price
as the IBM • PC, it's obviously the best
value you can find. For more informa-
tion ask your dealer or call us at "(214)
630-2562 for the name of your nearest
dealer.

dimension

\

A product of Micro Craft Corporation
4747 living Blvd.. Suite 241

Dallas. Texas 75247. .* 1983

r jr v _r r r r r j - j t t

%'

d h- V - 3

w ■ r^m k ■;

• t

\

Apple is a registered trademark o[' Ap
re g isle red trademark of Radio Shaek,
Digital Research Corporation.

mputer. Inc.: IBM is a registered trademark of International Business Machines Corporation: TRS-SO is a
y Corporation company: UNIX is a trademark of Bell Laboratories, Inc.; CP/M is a registered trademark of

FOR TRS-80 MODELS 1 , 3 & 4
IBM PC, XT, AND COMPAQ

The MMSFORTH

System.

Compare.

• The speed, compactness and
extensibility of the
MMSFORTH total software
environment, optimized for
the popular IBM PC and
TRS-80 Models 1,3 and 4.

• An integrated system of
sophisticated application
programs: word processing,
database management,
communications, general
ledger and more, all with
powerful capabilities, sur-
prising speed and ease of use.

• With source code, for custom
modifications by you or MMS.

• The famous MMS support,
including detailed manuals
and examples, telephone tips,
additional programs and
inexpensive program updates,
User Groups worldwide, the
MMSFORTH Newsletter,
Forth-related books, work-
shops and professional
consulting.

FORTH

A World of
Difference!

• Personal licensing for TRS-80:
$129.95 for MMSFORTH, or
"3+4TH" User System with
FORTH WRITE, DATA-
HANDLER and FORTHCOM
for $399.95.

• Personal licensing for IBM
PC: $249.95 for MMSFORTH,
or enhanced "3+4TH" User
System with FORTHWRITE,
DATAHANDLER-PLUS and
FORTHCOM for $549.95.

• Corporate Site License Exten-
sions from $1 ,000.

If you recognize the difference
and want to profit from it, ask us
or your dealer about the world
of MMSFORTH.

MILLER MICROCOMPUTER SERVICES

61 Lake Shore Road, Natick, MA 01760

<61 7) 653-6136

Circle 317 on inquiry card.

Revise List «-Fl F2-»
«-F3 F4-»
«-F5 F6*
*F? F8-»
«-F9 F18

Transend PC (tm)
TEST Uersion 1.0

Use Q or Q to select DOS file, then h i t piftEEEMlifB ; [^Q cancels

From:
To:

Gregg Will iams

Attach: 4=
Subject: t

23 DOS files
Fi lename. Ext
HIDEF .PAS
KEYBOARD. PAS
LISTIT .BAT
L0DEF
MACHINE

on drive B".

.PAS
.ASM

Chars
2525

16144
174

11474
7746

Date
lljul83

7jul83
10jul83
12jul83

2jul83

Time
18:l7p

8:44 P
11: 17a

1:23a
10:02p

MACLIB .ASM 2921 19jun83 1:21a

PAS4TH

PASLIB

SCRASM

SCREEN

SETUP

TEST

.ASM
.TXT
.ASM
.PAS
.PAS
.PAS

4234 20jun83

4739 28may83

2754 30mar83

13474 10jul83

4679 7jul83

727 7jul83

10:59p

10:04a

l:19 P

10:37p

8:46p

8:46p

Figure 8: When mail is being sent between PCs, disk files can be sent along as attachments.

at the top of the screen. We finally
moved the help line to the bottom of
the control panel. The user's eye is
then forced to cross over the help line
when moving from the function-key
menu to the main screen.

Transend PC Features

The result of Transend PCs itera-
tive design process is a product that
fills a wide range of communications
needs. Consider, for example, some
of its message-exchange capabilities.
Its address book (figure 6) contains
an entry for each correspondent.
When you're ready to send a mes-
sage, you simply pick the names you
want from a list of entries— Transend
PC automatically copies them into its
message header. When the message
is later transmitted, the full address-
book entry is used to route messages
to their destination.

The forms within the address book
are of variable length, depending on
how the correspondent is to be
reached (figure 7). For someone who
has a mailbox on an electronic-mail
service, you need only supply the
mailbox name (ID). To dial direct, you
must supply the phone number and
the characteristics of the modem you
are dialing.

When mail is being sent directly
between PCs, any disk file can be
sent along as an attachment to the
message (figure 8). Both the message
and the file are sent with a protocol
that eliminates data errors. Files are
attached to messages via the same

kind of lookup window used for
address-book access. In Transend
PC, we have tried to minimize the
number of user-interface concepts by
applying each technique in as many
contexts as possible.

A Continuing Process

We expect that the process of ex-
tending and refining the product and
its user interface will continue even
after its initial publication. For exam-
ple, future plans include porting the
product to other popular machines
(so that diverse machines can easily
communicate with one another) and
integrating it with local-area net-
works and in-house mainframes.
And, relative to product refinements,
it will be only after groups of people
are using Transend PC to communi-
cate with each other daily that the
next level of subtle concerns will
emerge. Fortunately, our software
base is flexible— having bent under
the wind of so many changes, it
seems to accept new requirements
without snapping. ■

Richard K. Moore worked at Xerox PARC and
Tymshare and participated in the development of
Xerox's Star and Apple's Lisa before cofounding
Small World Communications (10311 S. DeAnza
Blvd., Suite 4, Cupertino, CA 95014) with Michael
Geary.

Michael Geary was an employee and later a con-
sultant to Tymshare before cofounding Small World
Communications. He is the principal designer of the
Transend PC and is experienced in the use ofmini-
and microcomputers to access communications and
mainframe services.

S^e &ttf/utffm /BAfP&MomeCoJHptffoi •«•

Take a close look at the new
Sanyo MBC 550 and MBC
555 Computers — The IBM-
PC Look Alike, Work Alike
That Coat Only One Third
As Much.

Because they use the
MS/DOS operating system,
the de-facto standard for
IBM-PC compatibility, over
80% of the IBM software
runs without modification.
Because of the long list of
exceptional features below,
The Sanyo MBC 500 and
MBC 555 are the only
responsible alternatives to
the unreasonably high cost
of the IBM-PC.

SANYO

Exceptional Features
Standard on the MBC 550

• Powerful 16 bit 8088 CPU

• The same CPU as used In the
IBM-PC

• 128K User Memory (Expandable to
256K)

• 160K Single Disk Drive

• High-Quality, Full Featured, Low
Profile Detached Keyboard

• Full 80 Column Display with Color
Graphics

• A must for Spread Sheets & Word
Processing

• MS/DOS Operating System
Included

• Sanyo BASIC Included

• Centronics (parallel) Printer Port

• Speaker • Joystick Port

• Diagnostics

• Includes: Calc Star Spread Sheet,
Word Star and EZ Writer One
Word Processing Software

Sanyo MBC 550
128K — Single Disk

Your Cost

$

999.95

Includes $1000.00
Software Free

Special System Packages

Single Drive Computer with
Monitor and Printer

• MBC 550 Computer with 128K
memory

• 12" Green Monitor

• Epson RX-80 Printer

Your Cost

s 1,399 95

Sanyo MBC 555
128K — Dual Disk

Your Cost

$

1,399°°

Includes $1500.00
Software Free

Dual Drive 256K System with
Monitor and Printer

• MBC 555 Computer with 256K
memory

• 12" Green Monitor

• Epson RX-80 Printer

Your Coat

M.999 95

Special Software

Enhancement

With the purchase of a MBC 555

Dual Drive Computer, your free

software package Is enhanced by

the addtlon of your choice of SmartPacks:

SmartPack 1

• Mailmerge

• Spell star

• Infostar

SmartPack 2

• Easy Filer
• Easy Planner
• Easy Mailer

COMMODORE EXECUTIVE 64
Briefcase Type Portable Color

64K Dynamic RAM memory • 65 central processor (6502 pro-
gram compatible) • Built-in 6-inch color display monitor • Built-
in 170K single disk drive. 2 disk option • External video port
(color. LUM, composite output) ■ Full upper/lower case
keyboard • Commodore serial bus. • External bus. (C-64 com-
patible) • C-64 full compatibility • Size; 5" H x 14 1/2" W x 14
V2" D • Detachable keyboard ■ IEEE-488 interface • 40-column
x 25-llne display w/16 colors | graphics • Music 1 sound
capabilities

With single disk drive

... Your Cost: $7QQ95
With dual disk drives ■ ****
.... Your Cost: $QQQ 95

Additional Expansion Options

• 126K Memory Expansion (256K
total)

• 8087 Number Cruncher
Coprocessor

• 2nd Disk Drive for 320K or 640 K
with Double Sided Drives

• Double Sided • Double Density
Drives for 1.2Mb on line

• 8Mb Winchester Hard Disk

COMMODORE 64

Commodore 1701 Color Monitor
14" screen-big screen, high quality-
direct connect to 64 & VIC 20

Your LOW Cost:$269.95

All systems are expected to
be supply limited, so place
your order now to be
assured of prompt delivery.

Commodore 1525E Printer
Quality dot matrix, direct
connect to Com. 64 & VlC-20.
No interface necessary.
Your LOW Cost:$269.95
Commodore 1541 Disk Drive
High quality at low cost, direct
connect to Com. 64 & VlC-20
Your LOW Cost:$299.95

Commodore Datasette
Includes interface & cable,
yL for use with Com. 64 &
^ VlC-20. Your Cost: S69.95
Commodore C1600 Modem
The best deal in the country for
a modem-Your LOW Cost:S69.95

Commodore Software Package (30 programs)

only $12.95 with the purchase of one of these packages:

COMMODORE64 $ 189

COMMODORE 64 Computer -only $189.95" ""*' ^ **

"when purchiwd with iny of thtw ihree pickagei.

95*

COMMODORE 64

with the purchase of
1 1541 Disk Drive
1 1525E Printer

ALL FOR

S189.95 J

HEWLETT
PACKARD

HP-75C Computer $699.95

8K module 164.95

7470A opt 003 print/plotter 1 199.00
Call for math pac, surveying pac.text
formatter & VisiCalc for HP-75C
HP IOC Scientific ale 59.95

HP-11C Scientific ale 76.9D

HP-12C Fiiunciilalc 99.95

HP-15C Scientific ale 99.95

HP 16C Prog.«« wwn.eilc 99.95
HP 97 Prog.tcien.w/print 595.00

HP41C ftoe. calculitor
HP41CV Pros, calculator
Optical wind
Prinltf foi 41CV
C«rdrMdfiior41C/CV
HP 121 S3 A V.dto inUrfte*
HP II lyitt man hand
II inttriact module
Diftllcatj»nidi!¥t
Thnmilelontr/printti
Extended function mem. mod
Extended memory module
TimrmOdul*

Memory module lor 41 C/CV
Quad memory module for 41C

161.15

71115
10415
799.15
159.95
259.95

104.95
379.95
379.K
1495
MIS
(415
24.95

Accessories & Upgrades Your Cost

FDD 1655 Second 160K Disk Drive 399.95

MBC 64K 64K Memory Expansion 120.00

MBC 128K 128K Memory Expansion 240.00

MBC 232 RS-232C Serial Interface 100.00

MBC BMHD 8MB Winchester Hard Disk . 2,495.00

ROiMAR II only

64K-DUAL PROCESSOR

THE ONLY APPLE ][ COMPATIBLE
COMPUTER APPROVED FOR IMPORT
BY U. S. CUSTOMS

FEATURES:

• DUAL PROCESSOR 6502 MAIN CPU Z-80
CO-PROCESSOR

• 64K RAM EXPANDABLE TO 192K

• 4K ROM USES DISK DRIVE TO BOOr CP/M,
APPLESOFT. FORTRAN, FORTH, COBOL.
INTEGER BASIC, AND OTHER STANDARD
LANGUAGES

• HARDWARE PLUG-IN CARDS AVAILABLE
TO SUPPORT OTHER OPERATING
SYSTEMS

• STANDARD SWITCHING POWER SUPPLY
WITH FAN INSTALLED

• STANDARD QWERTY KEYBOARD HAS 72
KEYS WITH NUMERIC PAD. FUNCTION
KEYS INCLUDE BASIC PASCAL, FORTH,
AND CP M INSTRUCTION COMMANDS

• ACCESSORY SLOTS COMPATIBLE WITH
APPLE ADD-ONS

• COMPLETE LINE OF ACCESS AVAILABLE

FRANKLIN PRODUCTS

ACE 1000

ACE 1200 w/disk drive /controller

Vista disk drive w/controller

Vista drive only

ACE Top (5)

ACE 80 CPU card

ACE display card

ACE dual interface

ACE 10 shielded drive cable

ACE I/O ext cable (5' parallel)

ACE I/O ext cable (S* Serial)

749.95
1469.95
269.95
199.95
179.95
359.95
179.95
199.95
19.95
39.95
39.95

DUAL DISK PACKAGE

• Romar II - 64K

Dual Processor Computer

• Vista Controller Card

• 2 Vista Disk Drives

YOUR COST

ONLY
$00095

DISK. MONITOR.
80COLUMN SYSTEM

• Romar 11 - 64K

Dual Processor Computer

• Vista Controller Card

• Single Vista Disk Drive

• 80 Column Display Card

• 12" Green Monitor

YOUR COST
ONLY

$QQQ95

DISK. MONITOR, 80 COLUMN SYSTEM
W/PRINTER

• Romar II - 64 K

Dual Processor Computer

• Vista Controller Card

• Single Vista Disk Drive

• 80 Column Display Card
■ 12" Green Monitor

• RX80 or Gemini 10X Printer

YOUR COST

S 1289 9S

DRIVE. MONITOR,

80 COLUMN SYSTEM WITH

LETTER QUALITY PRINTER

• Romar II - 64K

Dual Processor Computer

• Vista Controller Card

• Single Vista Disk Drive

• 80 Column Display Card YOUR COST

• 12" Green Monitor $ -» COA95

• Letter Quality Piinter ^ "*

s 1589 9

COMMODORE 64

with the purchase of
1 1541 Disk Drive
1 1701 14" color monitor
ALL FOR

Texas Instruments
Home Computer

COMMODORE 64 $189.95

with the purchase of
1 1541 Disk Drive $299.95

1 1526 Fast printer-includes $349.95
IFC/cable direct connect to 64
ALL FOR $839.85

Tl 99/4A including the
Tl rebate '(you pay u

$ 99

95'

The only 16K COLOR computer
under S100-16 bit-MST'
Purchase of TI-99/4A includes One Year Full
Warranty & 2VS hrs class from Tl-also New
Tl-Hot Line phone number.

COMMODORE 4040 Dual Disk Drive
Dual Disk Drive for the 64 & other models
340KB each-total storage 640KB
Come & try them-they're GREAT!
Retail:$1 295.00 Y/C!$589.95

30 Programs for less than $30!
Commodore Software Package $29.95

NEW Impact Dot Matrix Primer by "Fidelity"
direct connect to VIC 20/Com. 64. 30 cps
ribbon cartridge, inc. adapter. Uses VU" plain

tape-does graphici! Y/C:$99.95 (90 day warranty)

0ATA 20 Accessories

Z-80 card For Commodore 64 $269.95

80 column card For Commodore 64 169.95

• 40 column card For VlC-20 99.95

40 column cird w/8K mem built-in for VIC 20 139.95

. Video Peck 64K For VICZO 329.95

"F REE wrth the purchite at each of the above (*)
products -Word Master /word processing software,
Mailing Lirt ioftwire & Telecommunication] software.

owmpic sales compAny

P.O. Box 74545 21 6 S. Oxford Ave. Los Angeles, CA 90004
Phone (213) 739-1130 Cable "0LYRAV" LSA Telex:67 34 77

FRANKLIN

FRANKLIN ACE 1 000 - \N
APPLE COMPATIBLE!
64K with many more
features than Apple! Upper/
lower case, typewriter-style keyboard, VisiCalc keys.
Built-in fan, 12-key numeric pad & much more!

SPECIAL PACKAGE:

ACE 1000 computer (64K of RAM)

Disk drive w/controller

80 column card

Ace Calc - Spread sheet

Ace Writer - word processing software

12" green monitor

Epson printer or Star Gemini 1 0X

(Dot matrix printer, current model)

$1 00 worth of software for Apple (retail $)

Sugg. retail:$2895.00 Y/C:$1699.00

Package Two:Same as Special Package,
but with second Vista Disk Drive-Y/C:$1 898.00
Package Three: Same as One & Two, but with
letter quality printer, instead of dot matrix:
w/Diablo 620 2629.00
w/SCMTPI 2238.00
w/Olivetti Praxis 41 2069.00
w/Brother 50 2069.00
w/C.ltoh F10 2749.00

SPECIAL OFFER TO ACCREDITED SCH00LS-
on Commodore Executive 64. SANYO MBC 550,
& Franklin ACE 1000 & 120ti-Buy 10 systems-
GET 1 FREE! CALL for details & eligibility!

FRANKLIN ACE 1200 with 128K RAM
total dual processors-Two computers in one!
64K Apple compatible w/6502 processor
64K CP/M Z80-B processor inc. CP/M 2.2
and other features include: color, serial &
parallel IFC'S, upper & lower case, etc.

Package

ACE 1200 dual processor, total 128K

Disk drive w/controller

Disk drive II only

40/80 column card

Dual IFC board, parallel/serial

Word Star software Cllilil d«4„;i.

Mail Merge software Sugg. Retail.

AceCalc - spread sheet $3650.00
Welcome diskette Y/C:

12" green monitor $1799.95

Package Two: Same as Package One with
one Epson printer or Star Gemini 1 0X
Sugg, retail: $4100 Y/C:$2189.00
Same as Package One plus:
Letter Quality printer:
w/Diablo 620 2879.00

w/SCM TP 1 2479.00

w/fOlivetti Praxis 41 2299.00

5 language typewriter
w/Brother 50 2259.00

w/C.ltoh F10 2999.00

w/Silver-Reed EX43 2299.00

and many more, please inquire
Opt'l interfaces & cables

Order Desks: 7:00 AM to 7:00 PM Mon thru Sat-TOLL-FREE: (out of CA) 800-421-8045 (in CA) 800-252-2153 TELEX:67 34 77 CABLE:"OLYRAV"LSA

Goods subjet
to verificatii

' to availability; this ad supercedes all previous ads; FOB our warehouse; prices subject to change without notice,
<; minimum shipping & handling:$5.95. Send for our catalog— $2 domestic, $5.95 foreign. Some of the goods n

tot responsible for typographical errors, all orders subject
f available all stores-Call first to be sure!

Circle 340 on inquiry card.

BYTE November 1983

209

iiijtji^ ' '",'yi!

Six things you can do
with your obsolete floppies.

Floppies were fine in their day.
But they just don't make sense
with the professional desktop
computers of today

What's the answer? The
DMA 360 removable 5J4" Win-
chester It's exactly the same
size as a 5%" half-height floppy
drive-but that's where the
similarity stops.

The DMA 360 gives you hard-
disk reliability. Floppies don't.

The DMA 360 protects your
data in a totally sealed cartridge.
Floppies don't.

The DMA 360 packs 7.5
megabytes on a single ANSI-
standard cartridge. Floppies
don : t. It takes up to 25 floppy disks
to achieve an equal capacity.

Fall '83

For more information on
what you can do with your obso-
lete floppies, write DMA Sys-
tems, 601 Pine Avenue, Goleta,
CA 93117 Or call us at (805)
683-3811,Telex 658341.

Introducing the floppy replacement:
DMA Systems' new half- height
removable 5 1 /*"
Winchester.

See us at Comdex
booth number 166.

The DMA 360 even has a
lower cost-per-megabyte than
a floppy But it gives you so
much more.

Like an average access time
of 98 milliseconds. A transfer
rate of 625 kilobytes per second
And an error rate
that's on par with the
most reliable con-
ventional Winchester
disk drives.

There's no way
you'd get that kind of
performance from
a floppy!

In fact, anything
you can do with a
floppy you can do
even better with a
DMA 360. That's why
we call it the floppy
replacement.

5V5TEM5

The Removable Winchester Company. Circle 157 on inquiry card.

A Graphics Editor for the

IBM PC

Glyphe makes drawing with the PCs graphics characters

productive and enjoyable

One of the most attractive features
of the IBM Personal Computer (PC)
is its complete graphics character set.
The computer's designers made a
wise decision in assigning a graphics
character to virtually every code not
used by the standard set of printing
ASCII (American National Standard
Code for Information Interchange)
characters. Unfortunately, they pro-
vided no convenient means of gen-
erating these characters from the
keyboard or printing them. Glyphe,
a graphics editor, simplifies use of the
PC's extensive graphics capabilities.

The problem of printing the graph-
ics characters has been addressed by
developers of printer-driver replace-
ments for the PC (see Tim Field's ar-
ticle, "A Peek into the IBM PC,"
March 1983 BYTE, page 331). Gener-
ating graphics from the computer's
keyboard, however, involves at best
hitting the Ctrl key and another key;
or at worst, using a four-key com-
bination involving the Alt key and
the number pad. This constraint is
intolerable if you're in the midst of a
creative project and can't remember

by Charles B. Duff

the key combinations you need.

I discovered this drawback when I
first tried to use the PC to create
flowcharts and diagrams. I hoped to
produce an image on the machine,
store it on disk, and later build a new
image by editing the original rather
than starting over. I also wanted to
use an existing word processor rather
than burden the world (and my
brain) with yet another homemade
editor. So I fired up Wordstar and
entered a sequence that in BASIC
would have generated a graphics
symbol. Nothing happened. Because
Wordstar uses the high-order bits in
some characters as an internal for-
matting flag, it accepts only ASCII
codes lower than 128. Most of the
PC's graphics, however, occupy the
codes from 128 and above and have
the high-order bit turned on.

Thus, I was confronted with the
prospect of having to write an editor
in BASIC before I could use that
wonderful graphics set that includes
algebraic, foreign-language, and
block graphics as well as useful sym-
bols for screen formatting and creat-

ing charts and tables. After a little ex-
amination, however, the problem
didn't seem too discouraging.

The PC's BASIC environment,
which was created by Microsoft, pro-
vides the most powerful integral
screen-mode editing feature I have
ever used. Keys are used to move the
cursor to a point in a listing where a
change is required, and the change
is made over old text. Although many
of the keys on the PC's keyboard are
intended for use in full-screen edit-
ing, they are not fully exploited in the
BASIC editor. Cursor-control codes
that enable a program to detect the
use of cursor keys and update the
cursor's position on the display are
provided, however, making the task
of writing a screen editor for the PC
simpler than it would be for other
systems.

Glyphe is the result of my attempt
to make drawing with the PC's
graphics characters fun as well as ef-
ficient. The editor has seen plenty of
use in a production environment and
benefits from an iterative redesign
based on user comments. The pro-

November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

211

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GLYPHE SCREEN VARIABLES

SCN% VIRTUAL SCREEN BUFFER

LINES MAXIMUM NUMBER OF LINES IN SCN$

SCNUM INDEX OF FIRST DISPLAYED LINE INTO SCN$

SC INDEX OF CURSOR LINE INTO SCN$ = CSRLIN +SCNUM -1

CP CURRENT CURSOR COLUMN = POS (0)

Figure 1: With this screen-handling information, you can always know the location of the
cursor in the screen buffer.

gram for this graphics editor is pro-
vided in listing 1 on page 220.

I set four goals to guide Glyphe's
design:

1. The PC's keyboard must be used
as fully and logically as possible to
provide maximum function with
minimal keystrokes.

2. Use of the editor should be sim-
ple enough to learn in an hour or
less.

3. The software design should be
modular to promote easy modifica-
tion and adaptation to user needs.

4. Glyphe should be easy and effi-
cient to employ for a variety of
graphics tasks including creation of
flowcharts, tables, graphs, and use of
algebraic symbols.

Functional Design

The following list comprises my set
of the minimum functions a useful
editor must have.

•four cursor movement keys

•the most useful graphics characters

for a given application available via

one keystroke

•modeless character insert and

delete

•frame scrolling (16 lines at a time)
•line copy and move

• a "memory key" that reenters the
last character typed

•indicators of the line and column of
the cursor's location
•single-keystroke access to frequent-
ly used primitives, such as boxes and
diamonds in a flowcharting applica-
tion

•the capability of saving work to
disk

• the capability of abandoning edit
(with verification)

• the capability to print during
editing

•a "graphics mode" in which all keys

produce graphics instead of ASCII

characters

•full use of the PC's user function

keys

These features would maximize
utility while minimizing program-
ming time and complexity. For in-
stance, single-keystroke primitives
provide a much higher payoff for the
work involved than a block-move
function would. Of course, an exten-
sible design would allow such a func-
tion to be added later if it proved
worthwhile.

File Design and Data Structures

My first step was choosing a file
structure that would support perma-
nent disk storage of edit files.
Random-access files have certain ad-
vantages over those accessed sequen-
tially, but they are somewhat more
complex to use. Performance is bet-
ter using random access, particular-
ly when you want to retrieve a given
record, because you can access files
without reading through all the
previous records. Access by record
number would permit an extension
of Glyphe to include reading or
writing sections of files by line
number ranges. I decided to use
random-access files with 80-byte
records as Glyphe's method of per-
manent storage. This format provides
good results with the DOS TYPE
command when you must view an
image file without using the editor,
for example, setting up a batch file to
do printing.

Designing an editor screen buffer
can be a complex task if you attempt
to optimize use of memory and/or in-
sert time. Optimizing memory gen-
erally involves a method of space
compression, such as replacing a
string of blank spaces with a byte that
indicates the number of spaces. An
even more efficient method involves
text-compression algorithms.

Optimizing line-insert time is best
accomplished by minimizing the
amount of text that must physically
be moved in the buffer. The best way
to do this is to store lines in a linked
list, which means storing each line in
a fixed location in the buffer and
keeping its address in another set of
variables. When the order of lines
changes, the address variables, or
pointers, are merely updated to
reflect the new order. This procedure
is much more efficient than actually
moving the text.

Accomplishing either of these tech-
niques for optimizing use of the buf-
fer in BASIC is less than straightfor-
ward and hardly necessary if you are
dealing with a small number of lines.
Because my goal was to make the
program as simple as possible, I
elected to keep the size of the image
file relatively small: graphics applica-

212 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

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SPELLING
CHECKER

i

READ

CHECK

WRITE

Figure 2: This diagram is an example of a "source, transform, sink" problem structure. The
main module calls the three subordinates in order from left to right, repeating the process
until the input is exhausted.

tions aren't likely to require a very
large file anyway. The buffer can then
be an exact image of the screen as it
would appear at any point in the file,
which simplifies the entire program.
Using the following screen-han-
dling information (detailed in figure
1), you can always determine the cur-
sor's position in the screen buffer:

•the correspondence between the

first line in the screen and the screen

buffer

•the current cursor column (1-80)

•the current cursor line (1-24)

•the maximum number of lines in

the buffer

In addition to the basic screen-
handling data structures, I defined
string arrays that would hold the
graphics primitives that the applica-
tion required. BOX$, DIAM$, and
CR1$ define a process box, a decision
diamond, and a screen symbol, re-
spectively. A brief subroutine could
then be written to appropriately copy
each type of primitive to the screen
buffer.

Another data structure is the string
buffer PIK$. I needed a means of
moving and copying lines and
developed the functions Pick and
Drop. Pick provides a nondestructive
copy of the line the cursor is currently
on into a buffer. By moving the cur-
sor and hitting the Drop key, you can
then drop (insert) the buffer
anywhere. It remains intact and can
therefore be dropped any number of
times. This feature is extremely
useful when you're building tables or
charts, which tend to involve many
similar lines stacked on top of each
other. Pick and Drop, together with
Line Delete, provide a flexible yet
simple function set.

A Modular Software Design

The purpose of using modular
design is to minimize maintenance
and extension activities— the most
costly portions of a program's life cy-
cle. To the extent that such a design
makes a program more comprehen-
sible and error-free, it also reduces
the effort required to support these
inevitable activities. One of the most
significant factors in making a soft-
ware product comprehensible is the
way it is partitioned; that is, how ef-
fectively it is divided into less com-
plex parts. Our minds deal with com-
plexity by creating hierarchical struc-
tures into which new information can
be placed, thus enabling a complex
set of facts to be grouped under, and
replaced at some level, by a single
piece of information. Modular design
attempts to exploit this tendency by
setting up in a system explicit hierar-
chies that the mind can assimilate
more easily than it can an unstruc-
tured list of details.

The goal of such design is to create
a set of modules that exhibits four
basic characteristics: (1) Each module
ideally performs one function ap-
propriate to the level of the decom-
position, providing what is known as
functional integrity, (2) each module
is minimally coupled via external
data structures to other modules. Up-
date access to a given datum should
therefore be restricted to as few
modules as possible. In languages
with a local variable concept, such as
C or Pascal, this criterion is much
easier to enforce than in BASIC
because all BASIC variables are global
(accessible to any routine by name),
(3) the size of a module should be
roughly a printed page or less, de-
pending on the program's complex-
ity, and (4) within the module, the

flow of control should be confined to
the patterns that comprise a struc-
tured-programming approach: se-
quence, decision, and iteration. Min-
imizing the number and obscurity of
control paths within the module
enhances a user's ability to under-
stand the program.

Glyphe's Program Structure

In order to make Glyphe easily ex-
tensible, I applied modular-design
techniques to its structure. Small
modules with high functional integri-
ty prove inherently more adaptable
to other uses. In some cases, though,
the modules in Glyphe seemed too
small; because subroutine linkage
slows down the computer, the effort
to minimize module size must be
balanced by also restricting the
number of subroutines. But I
planned to compile the code anyway
and felt that the calling overhead was
justified by the benefits of restricting
module size.

Another essential feature of good
software design is that the structure
of the code should map the structure
of the problem it is solving. This does
not mean that a program that tracks
elephant mating patterns should con-
tain big modules that bump into each
other a lot. Rather, this method is
based on an abstraction of problems
into broad classes amenable to a com-
mon method of analysis.

Consider the following situation,
which illustrates this structuring
technique. You decide to write a pro-
gram to read documents you have
created, check them against a dic-
tionary, and mark misspelled words.
This problem (outlined in figure 2) is
a repetitive execution of three se-
quential steps: read the next word,
check its spelling, and write an in-
dication of whether it is right or
wrong. A system designer might
term this a "source, transform, sink"
kind of problem, which is a fancy
way of saying that this procedure in-
volves taking something in, trans-
forming it into something else, and
then placing it somewhere. Most
problems lend themselves to this
type of treatment.

Consider a very different kind of
problem. Suppose you are bored

214 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

1

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GRAMMAR
PROCESSOR

READ

DISPATCH

PROCESS
A NOUN

PROCESS
A VERB

PROCESS

AN

ADJECTIVE

PROCESS
AN ADVERB

PROCESS

A

PREPOSITION

Figure 3: An example of transactional processing. The program takes different paths for each
type of input data.

GLYPHE

I N IT

READ

EDIT

COORD
DISPLAY

GET
CHAR

EXIT

ERROR

DISPATCH
COMMAND

INS /DEL
CHAR

DROP

INS /DEL

LINE

DISPLAY

LINE

DISPLAY
CHAR

WRITE
FILE

PICK

P6 UP
PG DN

DISPLAY
CURS DN

PRIMITIVES

DISPLAY
SCREEN

CURSOR
CONTROL

t

PRINT
BUFFER

DISPLAY
CURS DN

Figure 4: The hierarchy of Glyphe modules.

with your spelling checker and want
it to act on each word differently,
depending on whether the word is a
noun, verb, adjective, adverb, or
preposition. The spelling program
you were using was process-driven:
it performed one particular process
(checking spelling) for each word.
Your new program, however, is data-
driven: it bases the type of process-
ing it does on the data it reads. A
transactional problem of this sort
does not operate sequentially. In-
stead, it is characterized by a dis-
patcher that calls one of several serv-
ice tasks, depending on the transac-
tion indicated by the input- data (see
figure 3).

An editor typically demonstrates
both of these structural patterns. At
the highest level, it consists of these
sequential modules: read a file,
modify the file's information (edit),
and write the file. (Although this

outline oversimplifies the actual pro-
cess of file-handling, it does describe
the high-level function of an editor.)
Figure 4 illustrates the decomposi-
tion of the edit module into subordi-
nates—the first point at which the
program structure becomes transac-
tional. The edit module calls a
routine to get a character and then
must decide whether the input is a
printable character (ASCII/graphics)
or a command character, such as a
function key. If the character is a com-
mand, it gets passed to a dispatcher
that determines its validity, calls the
proper subroutines to service it, and
then returns to get another character
from the keyboard (see figure 5). A
few routines are called by more than
one command service routine; Dis-
play Line is an example. Making
these functions modular usually
results in a very compact and easily
understood service routine and

216 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

QUBIE'

Why pay more for a 1 200 ba
21 2A Modem for your I

Flip the pages. You see PC modem cards with
fewer features advertised for as much as $599.
Up until nowthat'showmuch itcostto make a
modem capable of transmitting at 1 20 charac-
ters per second (1 200 baud). It doesn't take a
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NOW COME THE SMART GUYS

You can imagine how precise the components
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the economics of scale drove the costs of
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(modulating) and receiving (demodulating)tones
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— Your name and shipping address
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TO ORDER BY PHONE
Call (805) 987-9741
PRICE:

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DISTRIBUTING

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(805) 987-9741

UNSHIFTED

SHIFTED

CONTROL

r n

i —

2
4
6
8
10

11
13
15
17
19

IL

DL

Drop

Pick

BOX

DIAM

Save

SBOX

■

+

12
14
16
18
20

21
23
25
27
29

CRT

Rep

Gmod

22
24
26
28
30

IL
DL
Drop
Pick
BOX
DIAM
SBOX
CRT
Rep
Gmod

INSERT LINE AT CURSOR POSITION

DELETE LINE AT CURSOR POSITION

INSERT THE CONTENTS OF THE PICK BUFFER AT CURSOR

MAKE THE CURRENT LINE THE PICK BUFFER

GENERATE A FLOWCHART PROCESS BOX

GENERATE A FLOWCHART DECISION DIAMOND

GENERATE A SMALL BOX

GENERATE A SCREEN SYMBOL

REPEAT THE LAST CHARACTER ENTERED

TOGGLE GRAPHICS/NORMAL MODE

Pg Up

Pg Dn

Ins

Del

Home

shift PrtSc

Ctrl-PrtSc

arrows

Esc

End

OTHER EDITING KEYS

MOVE 16 LINES TOWARD TOP OF FILE
MOVE 16 LINES TOWARD BOTTOM OF FILE
INSERT A SPACE IN THE CURRENT LINE (NO
DELETE A CHARACTER FROM THE CURRENT
MOVE TO UPPER LEFT CORNER OF SCREEN
PRINT THE CURRENT SCREEN
PRINT THE ENTIRE BUFFER
MOVE THE CURSOR

EXITS 6LYPHE WITHOUT SAVING WORK
WRITES TO DISK AND LEAVES GLYPHE

WRAP)
LINE

Figure 5: An explanation of how function and editing keys are used in Glyphe.

facilitates adding new routines
because most of the necessary house-
keeping can be done via calls to
previously defined modules.

Program Logic

The logic of Glyphe can best be
understood by dividing the Glyphe
code (listing 1) into the following
sections:

1. initialization and file open
(lines 2-570)

2. keyboard read and dispatcher
(lines 610-1530)

3. file save, exit to DOS
(lines 1550-1710)

4. command service subroutines
(lines 1730-5070)

5. error handler
(lines 0000-20040)

1. Initialization and file open: The DE-
FINT statement in line 10 is used to
improve performance and space uti-
lization because Glyphe does not
need floating-point variables. Error
trapping is set up to avoid dropping
into DOS in the event of a printer
timeout, and the arrays are defined
and initialized. COORD$ is a coor-
dinate line that is always displayed
on the 25th line as a reference for the
slave cursor, which always indicates
the current cursor column. Distinc-
tive graphics mark five- and 10-col-
umn intervals as well as screen
center. The primitives BOX$, CRT$,
and DIAM$ are loaded with the pro-
per graphics characters in lines
170-344, then the screen is cleared
and prompts are issued for the input
and output files. If an input file is

specified, it is opened as a random
file with a record length of 80 bytes.
Many editors permit a user to read
parts of files for inclusion in another
file, write parts of the edited file to
other files, and perform these func-
tions at any time in the editing pro-
cess. I looked at several file-handling
schemes in other editors and decided
that the most powerful facility they
shared was the capability to provide
independent input and output file
specifications. With this feature, you
can either edit an existing file in place
or use it as a template for a new file
that possesses characteristics of the
original one. In a graphics editor, this
capability is particularly important.
For example, you could create a
graphics template for a status report
on a project, then use the template

218 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

Introducing a sensible solution
to the problems of dBASE IE

dBASE II

The Sensible Solution

Records Per File

65,535

999,999

Maximum Record Size

1,024 bytes

1,536 bytes

Fields Per Record

32

384

Key Fields Per File

7

10

Number of Files
Simultaneously Accessible

2

10

Number of Screens Per Program

Limited by
system memory

Limited only by
system storage

Data Dictionary

No

Yes

We don't mean to debase dBASE II, but if
you're looking for a data base manager that's long
on features, dBASE II can come up a little short.

For instance, a single dBASE II record can only
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And that's why we created The Sensible Solution.

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Along with all the usual things you expect
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A data base manager without ready-to-run
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When you purchase The Sensible Solution,
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If, after 30 days, you're not satisfied, just return the
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So why not take us up on our trial offer? You've
got nothing to lose.

Except the problems of dBASE II.

The Sensible Solution

To order, write or call: O'Hanlon Computer Systems, 11058 Main Street, Bellevue, WA 98004 USA,

Phone (206) 454-2261. Prices; The Sensible Solution -$695, Sensible Solution Bookkeeper-$495, Sensible

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dBASE II is a registered trademark, of AshtonTate. Sensible Solution, SensibleS«lution Bookkeeper and SensibleSolution Management are trademarks of O'Hanlon Computer Systems, Inc.

Circle 334 on inquiry card. byte November 1983 219

Circle 513 on inquiry card.

WHERE TO

SELL YOUR

PROGRAMS

1984

PROG /SER'S
MARKET

mputer software pumsl
freelsKer
• wbattbeyneed

Edited by Brad M. McGehee

1984 Programmer's Market is
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You'll also find five articles on
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• prepare a query letter and
proposal package for
submission

• write user manuals to
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• document your program

• write user-friendly software

• write game programs that
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Listing 1: Glyphe, a character graphics editor for the IBM Personal Computer.

REM
REM

GLYPHE - a character graphics editor for the IBM PC

4 REM * Requirements - one disk drive, monochrome or

5 REM * color display. A modified printer driver is

6 REM * needed to print the PC's character graphics.

7 REM * Author - Charles B. Duff 03/06/83

8 REM ============================================

10 DEFINT A-Z:ON ERROR GOTO 20000
30 FOR 1=1 TO 10: KEY I , " " : NEXT
50 KEY OFF
70 DIM SCN$(88)

90 PIK*=SPACE$<80) ' pick buffer

100 T0F$=CHR$<12) :LPIB$=CHR$(27>+"0":LPI6$=CHR$(27)+"2" ' codes for MX-80

110 DIM DIAM$(10> ,B0X$(5) ,CRT$<6) ,SB0X$(4) ' diamond, box and screen figures

Turn off function key definitions
Erase 25th line key help display

150 COORD$=" • •
.. «6* •••«••« <7

170 DIAM$<1)

190 DIAM$<2)

210 DIAM$<3>

230 DIAM$(4)

250 DIAM$<5>

270 DIAM$(6)

290 DIAM$<7)

310 DIAM$(B)

330 DIAM$(9>

340 NU$=CHR$<0>
344

346 LINES=88 '

• 1 •

► ♦ 3 ♦

"+CHR*(127>+"

A"
/ V

V
V

>"

\

/"

/

:B0X$<1)=
:B0X$(2)=
:B0X$<3>=
:B0X$(4)=
:B0X$(5)=
:CRT$<1)=
:CRT$<2>=

1 I I

:SB0X$<1>=" r-
:SB0X$<2)=" I
:SB0X$<3>=" I
:SB0X$(4)=" <-

' display the first
home and turn on the cursor
print slave cursor in 25th line
get a character
if function or special key

\ /" :CRT$<3)=" I I
Y" :CRT$<4>=" II II

CRT* (5)=" II II

CRT$(6)=
max lines in editor: 88= 1 printed page at 8 lpi

370 REM * Prompt for files and enter main edit loop
390 REM ======================================

400 CLS:PRINT " GLYPHE (c) Copyright 1983, Charles B. Duff"

404 PRINT:PRINT:

410 FILES:PRINT:PRINT: INPUT "Input Image file": IMS

430 INPUT "Output image f i 1 e " ; 0M$: CLS

440 IF 0M*="" THEN OM$=IM$: IF 0M$="" THEN CLOSE: END ' output defaults to in

450 IF IM*="" THEN 570 ' if no entry don't open input file

470 OPEN IMS AS #1 LEN=80: IF LOF ( 1 ) =0 THEN CLOSE: GOTO 570 ' open input

490 FIELD #1,80 AS IL* ' 80-char text field

510 FOR LIN=1 TO LINES ' fill buffer

530 GET ttl,LIN:SCN$<LIN>=IL$

550 NEXT LIN

570 GM0DE=FALSE:SC0LD=1:SCNUM=1:G0SUB 1730 ' display the first page

590 LOCATE 1,1,1

610 GOSUB 2270

630 A$=INKEY$: IF A$="" THEN 630

650 IF LEN(A$>=2 THEN 710

660 IF A$=CHR$<27) THEN GOSUB 3690: GOTO 610

670 IF A$=CHR$<13) AND CSRLIN=24 THEN GOSUB 3470: GOTO 610 ' scroll

680 IF A$=CHR$(9) AND POS(0)<72 THEN LOCATE CSRL I N , POS (0) +8: GOTO 610

690 GOSUB 3770:PRINT A*; : 0A$=A$: GOTO 610 ' update buf f er ,d i spl ay and loop

710 AV=ASC(MID*(A*,2,1) )• ' get ascii value of 2nd char

712 REM ============================================

730 IF AV<71 THEN 1120 ELSE IF (AV>83 AND AV<115) THEN 1320 ' if function key

750 ON AV-70 GOTO 810,830,870,610,930,610,950,610,1550,970,1090,1050,1010

790 GOTO 610

810 LOCATE 1,1: GOTO 610 ' home

830 IF CSRLIN>1 THEN LOCATE CSRL IN- 1 , POS (0 ): GOTO 610 ' up arrow

850 GOTO 610

870 SCOLD=SCNUM: IF SCNUMM6 THEN SCNUM=SCNUM- 16 ELSE SCNUM=1 ' Pg Up

890 GOSUB 1730:GOTO 610 ' display new page

930 PRINT CHR$(29) ; : GOTO 610 ' left arrow

950 PRINT CHR$(2B) ; : GOTO 610 ' right arrow

970 IF CSRLIN<24 THEN LOCATE CSRLIN+1 , POS (0) : GOTO 610 ' down arrow

990 GOTO 610

1010 GOSUB 2370: GOSUB 2550 ' delete a character

1030 GOTO 610

1050 GOSUB 2690: GOSUB 2550 ' insert char

1070 GOTO 610

1090 SCOLD=SCNUM: IF SCNUM<L INES-38 THEN SCNUM=SCNUM+16 ELSE SCNUM=L INES-23

1110 GOSUB 1730: GOTO 610 ' Pg Dn - display new page

1120 IF AV<59 THEN 610 ' this section handles Fl-10

1130 ON AV-58 GOTO 1140,1160,1180,1200,1220,1240,1260,1280,1300,1310

1132 GOTO 610

1140 A$=" r ": GOTO 690 ' FC 1-10 are graphics characters

1160 A*='S":GOTO 690 ' for building tables, graphs, etc

1180 A$=" l":GOTO 690

1200 A$ = "-i ":GOTO 690

1220 A$=" | ":GOTO 690

1240 A$="-":GOTO 690

1260 A$ = " f-":GOTO 690

1280 A$ = "-| ":GOTO 690

1300 A$="J-":GOTO 690

1310 A$ = "-r":GOTO 690

1314 REM =================================================

1320* IF AV>93 THEN 1480 ' this section handles Fll-20

1322 ON AV-83 GOTO 1328,1330,1350,1370,1390,1410,1430,1450,1460,1470

1328 INSLIN=CSRLIN+SCNUM-1: GOSUB 3210: SCN$ ( INSL IN) =SPACE$ (80 ): GOSUB 389£:G0T0 61

' i nsert 1 i ne

1330 GOSUB 3310: GOSUB 3890: GOTO 610 ' delete line

1350 GOSUB 3090: GOTO 610 ' drop

1370 GOSUB 2930: GOTO 610 ' pick

1390 GOSUB 4010: GOTO 610 ' box

1410 gosub 4210: goto 610 ' diamona Listing 1 continued on page 222

220 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

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Business and computer experts agree the key
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THE BOSS BUSINESS SOFTWARE PRODUCTS

Circle 43 on inquiry card.

BYTE November 1983

221

to create a complete report every
week. The approach I used in
Glyphe was to prompt at program
start-up for input and output files. If
the user responds to the input
prompt with a carriage return (CR),
presumably no input open is
needed, and the buffer is initially
blank. A response of CR to the out-
put prompt implies that the same file
will be used for both purposes, and
such a response to both prompts
ends the program. After this initial
session, no further file specification
is permitted. Any SAVE command
will result in the current contents of
the screen buffer being written to the
output file. This arrangement is flex-
ible and simple to implement.

Next, the screen is cleared, and the
input file is read. The first 24 lines of
the file are displayed with a call to
2270, the screen-display primitive.
The cursor is turned on and placed
in the upper left-hand corner of the
screen with a LOCATE 1,1,1 state-
ment, and the edit session is ready
to begin.

2. Keyboard read and dispatcher: Line
630 polls the keyboard with INKEY$
to determine whether a key has been
pressed, then loops if it hasn't.
Distinguishing printable characters
from function keys and special keys
is made easier by the way INKEY$ is
implemented. All of the keys on the
PC with special functions, such as Pg
Up, Home, and the function keys,
cause INKEY$ to return with a string
length of 2. The first character in the
string is null, and the second in-
dicates which key was pressed. Line
650 thus determines whether the
keyboard input is a printable charac-
ter; if it is not, the character is sent
to line 710 to be processed as a possi-
ble command. If the character is
printable, two checks must be made
before it can be printed: ESC is used
as a quit-without-save command; it
causes a prompt to this effect to be
issued. A carriage return causes a
single-line scroll when issued on the
24th line. If these checks fail, the
character is printed, the slave cursor
is updated, and another character is
read.

If the input was a possible com-
mand rather than a printable charac-

Listing 1 continued:

1430 GOSUB 1570: GOTO 610 save to disk

1450 GOSUB 5200: GOTO 61W small box

1460 A*="l":GO"IG 690

1470 A*="+":GOTO 690

1472 REM =================================================

14S0 IF AV>103 THEN 1520 ' this section handles F21-30

1484 ON AV-93 GOTO 1490,1500,1510 ' room for expansion

1486 GOTO 610

1490 GOSUB 4510: GOTO 610 ' crt screen fiqure

1500 A*=OA*: GOTO 650 ' F22 remembers last key pressed

1510 GMODE= NOT GMODE:GOTO 610 ' toqgle graphics mode

1518 REM ==========================================

1520 IF AV=114 THEN GOSUB 5000:GOTO 610 ' Ctrl-Prt Sc

1530 GOTO 610

1550 GOSUB 1570: COLOR 7,0:CLS:END ' End was pressed - save and exit

1570 OPEN OM* AS #2 LEN=80 ' write image to disk

1590 FIELD #2,80 AS OL* ' open random output file reel =80

1610 FOR LIN=1 TO LINES

1630 LSET OL*=SCN*(LIN)

1650 PUT #2,LIN

1670 NEXT LIN

1690 CLOSE 2: RETURN

1710 END

1712 REM ************************************

1720 REM * Begin subroutine code

1730 REM ====================================

1750 REM * Display screen given by SCNUM
1770 REM ====================================

1790 CF-POS (0) : CL=CSRLIN pickup cursor column and line

1810 CLS:GOSUB 2190

1830 FOR SCL=1 TO 23

1850 LOCATE SCL , 1 , : PR INT SCN* < SCNUM+SCL- 1 ) ;

1870 NEXT SCL

1890 LOCATE 24,1: PRINT MI D* (SCN* (SCNUM+23) , 1 , 79) ;

1910 LOCATE CL,CP,1: RETURN restore cursor and return

2130 REM ==========================================

2150 REM * Print coordinates on the 25th line

2170 REM ==========================================

2190 LOCATE 25,1: PRINT COORD*;
2210 RETURN

2250 REM * Print slave cursor at current column, and current line indicator

2290 NCP=POS<0) :NL=CSRLIN: LOCATE 25 , CP , : PR INT M ID* (COORB* , CP , 1 ) ;

2310 IF NCP<80 THEN LOCATE 25 , NCP , : COLOR 8, 7: PR I NT CHR*<127);

2330 LOCATE 25,1:PRINT USING "##"; NL+SCNUM- 1 ;: COLOR 7,0

2350 LOCATE NL , NCP , 1 : CF-NCP: RETURN

2370 REM =====================================

2390 REM * Delete a character from the current line
2410 REM =====================================

2430 SC=SCNUM+CSRL IN- 1: CF-POS (0)

2470 SCN*(SC)=LEFT*<SCN*<SC) , CP- 1 ) +RI GHT* ( SCN* (SO ,80-CP>+" "

2530 RETURN

2550 REM ===================================

2570 REM * Print the current line from screen buffer
2590 REM ===================================

2610 CP=POS<0) :CL=CSRLIN

2630 SC=SCNUM+CL-1:IF CL=24 THEN 2670

2650 LOCATE CL , 1 ,0 : FRINT SCN* (SO ;: LOCATE CL , CP , 1 : RETURN

2670 LOCATE 24,1,0:PRINT M ID* ( SCN* ( SC ), 1 , 79) ;: LOCATE CL , CP , 1 : RETURN

2690 REM =====================================

2710 REM * Insert a spaCe in current line
2730 REM =====================================

2750 SC=SCNUM+CSRLIN-1 :CF-POS<0)

2790 SCN*(SC) =LEFT* ( SCN* (SC) ,CP-1)+" " +M I D* ( SCN* ( SC ) ,CP,80-CP>

2870 RETURN

2890 REM ======================================

2910 REM * Pick a line from SCN* to the pick buffer
2930 REM ======================================

3 010 PIK*=SCN*(CSRLIN+SCNUM-1)

3030 RETURN

3050 REM =======================================

3070 REM * Drop a line to the screen (insert)
3090 REM =======================================

3110 SC=CSRLIN+SCNUM-1: IF SOLINES THEN RETURN

3130 INSLIN=SC: GOSUB 3210

3150 SCN* (SC)=P IK*: GOSUB 3830: RETURN

3190 REM * Move lines down in sen* for insert

3210 REM =======================================

3230 FOR LIN=LINES TO INSLIN+1 STEP -1

3250 SCN* (LIN)=SCN*(LIN-1)

3270 NEXT LIN

3290 RETURN

3310 REM =======================================

3330 REM * Delete a line from the screen

3350 REM =======================================

3370 SC=CSRLIN+SCNUM-1

3390 FOR LIN=SC TO LINES-1

3410 SCN* <LIN) x =SCN*(LIN+l)

3430 NEXT LIN

3450 SCN* (LINES) =SPACE* (80) : RETURN

3470 REM =======================================

3490 REM * Handle a scroll from a CR on line 24

3510 REM =======================================

3590 IF SCNUM >LINES-24 THEN LOCATE 24 , 1 , 1 : RETURN

3610 PRINT A*;: LOCATE 24, 1,0: PR I NT M ID* ( SCN* ( SCNUM+24 ) , 1 , 79 ) ;

3630 SCNUM=SCNUM+1: GOSUB 2270: LOCATE 24 , I , 1 : RETURN

3450 rem =================================== Listing 1 continued on page 224

222 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

*•*»*

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Listing 1 continued:

3470 REM * ESC to quit without save

3690 REM ===================================

3700 CP=POS (0) : CL=CSRLIN save cursor position

37 10 LOCATE 25 , 1 : INPUT: "Qui t without saving (Y/N)";ANS*
3730 IF ANS*="Y" OR ANS*="y" THEN CLS:END
3750 GOSUB 2170: LOCATE CL,CP: RETURN

3780 REM * Update buffer with character entered, and

37S4 REM * handle a scroll if at 24,80 and not bevond

3736 REM * the end of the screen buffer. Add 127 to code if Graphics mode.

3^89 AV=ASC (A*) : IF GMCJDE AND AV: ,13 AND AV032 AND AV .. 1 27 THFN A*»CHR* vAV+ L 2~"

3791? IF A*< CHR* (13) THEN MID* ( SCN* i SCNUM+CSRL IN-1 > , f-'OS ^Q) , 1 > = A*

3B00 IF CSRLINC2 4 OR POS <0) - 80 THEN RETURN

3804 IF SCNUM>LINES-24 THEN RETURN

3806 SCNUM=SCNUM+ 1 : RETURN

3 810 RETURN

3850 REM * Print screen -from current line down

3870 REM =====================================

3890 CP=POS<0) :CL=CSRLIN:

3910 FOR LIN=CL TO 23

3930 LOCATE LIN, 1: PRINT SCN* ( SCNUM+L IN- 1 ) ;

3950 NEXT LIN

3970 LOCATE 24,1: PRINT M I D* (SCN* < SCNUM+23) , 1 , 79) ;

3990 LOCATE CL,CP: RETURN

4010 REM =======================================

4030 REM * Print a box with top center at cursor

4050 REM =======================================

4070 SC=SCNUM+CSRLIN-1:

4090 IF POS(0)< (LEN (BOX* (1) )/2)+l THEN RETURN

4110 CF-POS <0>- (LEN (BOX* (1) )/2)

4130 FOR LIN=1 TO 5: IF SC+LIN-1 =LINES+1 THEN 4190

4150 MID*(SCN*(SC+LIN-1) , CP ,LEN (BOX* ( 1 ) ) )=BOX*(LIN)

4170 NEXT LIN

4190 GOSUB 3870: RETURN

4210 REM ========================================

4230 REM * Print a diamond with top at cursor

4250 REM ========================================

4270 SC=SCNUM+CSRLIN-1

4290 IF POS(0XLEN(DIAM*(5) ) /2 THEN RETURN

4310 CF-POS (0) - (LEN (DI AM* (5) ) /2)

4330 FOR LIN=1 TO 9: IF SC+L IN-1=LINES+1 THEN 4390

4350 MID*(SCN*(SC+LIN-1) , CP , LEN ( D I AM* (5 ) ) )=DIAM*(LIN)

4370 NEXT LIN

4390 GOSUB 3870: RETURN

4510 REM =======================================

4530 REM * Print a crt screen with top center at cursor

4570 SC=SCNUM+CSRLIN-1

4590 IF POS(0)< (LEN ( CRT* (1 ))/2)+l THEN RETURN

4610 CP=POS(0) - (LEN(CRT*(1 ) ) /2)

4630 FOR LIN=1 TO 6: IF SC+L IN-1=LINES+1 THEN 4690

4650 MID*(SCN*(SC+LIN-1) , CP , LEN ( CRT* ( 1 ) ) )=CRT*(LIN)

4670 NEXT LIN

4690 GOSUB 3870: RETURN

5010 REM * Print the contents o-f the screen buffer

5020 REM * on the printer

5030 REM ======================================

5032 LPRINT LPI8*+T0F*; ' (MX) set 8 lpi , top of form

5040 FOR LIN=1 TO LINES

5044 IF INK'EY*="" THEN 5050

5046 CF-POS (0) :CL=CSRLIN: LOCATE 25,1: INPUT; "Quit printing (Y/N)";ANS*

5048 GOSUB 2170:LOCATE CL,CF':IF ANS*="Y" OR ANS*="v" THEN 5070

5050 LPRINT SCN*(LIN>;

5060 NEXT LIN

5070 LPRINT LPI6*; ' RESTORE 6 LPI

5080 RETURN

5200 REM =======================================

5220 REM * Print a small box with top center at cursor
5240 REM =======================================

5280 SC=SCNUM+CSRLIN-1

5300 IF POS(0)< (LEN(SBOX*(l) ) /2)+l THEN RETURN ' check if off screen

5320 CF-POS (0)- (LEN (SBOX*U )) /2) ' center it

5340 FOR LIN=1 TO 4: IF SC+LI N-1=LINES+1 THEN 4690

5360 MID*(SCN*(SC+LIN-1) , CP , LEN ( SBOX* ( 1 ) ) )=SBOX*(LIN) ' store in sen*

5380 NEXT LIN

5400 GOSUB 3870: RETURN

20000 REM =====================================

20010 REM * Error handler

20020 REM =====================================

20030 IF ERL <> 5050 THEN 20200

20040 CF-POS (0) :CL=CSRLIN: LOCATE 25, 1 : INPUT; "Pri nter error - quit printing (Y/N

) ";ANS*

20050 GOSUB 2170:LOCATE CL,CP:IF ANS*="Y" OR ANS*="y" THEN RESUME 5080

20060 RESUME 5050

20200 IF ERLO470 THEN 20400 ' input open errors

20220 CP=POS(0) :CL=CSRLIN: LOCATE 25 , 1 : I NPUT; " I nput open error - abort (Y/N)";AN

S*

20230 GOSUB 2170:LOCATE CL,CF':IF ANS*="Y" OR ANS* = "y" THEN RESUME 570

20240 RESUME 470

20400 IF ERLO530 THEN 20600 ' input read errors

20420 CF'=F'OS(0) :CL=CSRLIN: LOCATE 25 , 1 : I NPUT; " I nput read error - abort (Y/N> " ; AN

S*

20430 GOSUB 2170:LOCATE CL,CP:IF ANS*="Y" OR ANS*="y" THEN RESUME 570

Listing 1 continued on page 226

224 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

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TDK floppy disks are available in 57a and 8-inch sizes in
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©1 982 TDK Electronics Corp.

Circle 463 on inquiry card.

&TDK

The heart of your system.

BYTE November 1983 225

Listing 1 continued:

20440
20600
20620
NS*
20630
20640
20800
20820
20830
i 20840
2090C3

RESUME 530
IF ERLO1570 THEN 20800
CF-POS (0) : CL=CSRLIN: LOCATE

output open errors
25, 1 : INPUT; "Output open error

abort (Y/N) '

GOSUB 2170:LOCATE CL,CP:IF ANS*="Y" OR ANS*="y" THEN RESUME 1690

RESUME 1570
IF ERLO1650 THEN 20900 ' output write errors

CP=POS(0) :CL=CSRLIN: LOCATE 25 , 1 : INPUT; " Write error - abort (Y/N)" : ANS*

GOSUB 2170: LOCATE CL,CP:IF ANS$="Y" OR ANS$="y" THEN RESUME 1690

RESUME 1650
ON ERROR GOTO

ter, lines 710-750 decide whether the
key was a function key or a special-
purpose key, which is done because
these groups are each assigned con-
tiguous ranges and can be dispatched
most easily with independent com-
puted GOTOs. Line 750 handles the
range from 71 through 83 (for special-
purpose keys), and function keys are
sent to line 1130. Most processing for
the various special-purpose keys,
such as Ins and Del, is accomplished
with subroutine calls rather than in-
line code in order to keep the dis-
patcher as small and simple as possi-
ble (a further encouragement to ex-
tensibility). Pg Up and Pg Dn scroll
the screen 16 lines unless it's near the
top or bottom of the buffer. The cur-

sor control keys, which come in as
two-character INKEY$ sequences,
cause Glyphe to generate one of four
codes that produce cursor control
when sent to the display These
codes cause the cursor to wrap
around when it's near the vertical
screen borders; Glyphe simply sends
the code and then finds out with
CSRLIN and POS where the cursor
ended up. Why, you might ask, don't
the cursor keys just generate these
codes directly? They were probably
given two-character sequences
because not every application will
use them for cursor control, and this
method makes them easily distin-
guishable as special-function keys.
Or, perhaps, someone was just lazy.

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processor
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Requires APPLE II + , IBM-PC, TRS80-III, OSBORNE, KAYPRO, or CP/M 8"

Function keys 1-10 display the
graphics characters that form lines
and boxes. I tried using the KEY
statement to directly assign graphics
to these keys, but a bug in the PC
monitor code turns off the eighth bit
on strings assigned to function keys,
which makes the graphics come out
as ASCII characters. The four box cor-
ners are arranged logically as the top
four keys. Function keys 11-20 per-
form most of the remaining edit func-
tions, such as insert and delete line,
drop and pick, and save to disk. The
box and diamond primitives are also
in this group. Incidentally, the
characters used in the diamond prim-
itive are translated by my printer
driver to graphics that differ from
those displayed on the PC's screen
because the PC has no characters ap-
propriate for a diamond figure.
PR256 provides the ability to define
custom characters for Epson's MX/FX
Series printers.

Only three keys in the F21-30 group
are used. The screen primitive is
assigned to F21, and F22 is a "mem-
ory key" that always repeats the last
character entered. This setup can be
useful if you discover a graphics char-
acter you want to use again yet can't
remember how you originally pro-
duced it. Also, if you have just
entered one of the clumsy Alt se-
quences, this key can repeat the se-
quence with one stroke. F23 toggles
the graphics mode, in which all the
normal keys produce graphics sym-
bols. This is done by simply adding
127 to the normal ASCII value of the
key, putting that key into the graphics
set. The resulting arrangement of
symbols is less than optimal but easy
to implement. The four combinations
of mode keys that produce keyboard
graphics are shown in figure 6.

3. File save, exit to DOS: Lines
1570-1690 save the buffer contents to
the disk file previously specified as
the output file. This procedure can be
performed at any time with F17 (Shift
F7). The normal exit is at line 1520,
in response to the End key. The Buf-
fer Write routine is called, the screen
color is set back to normal, and the
screen is cleared before the program
ends.

4. Command service subroutines: The

226 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

Circle 51 on inquiry card.

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Apple is a registered trademark of Apple Computer, Inc.
IBM is a registered trademark of International Business Machines Corporation.
Xerox is a registered trademark and Xerox 820 and 820-II are trademarks of the
Xerox Corporation.

Atari is a registered trademark and Atari 800 is a trademark of Atari, Inc.
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Corvus, Corvus Systems, Omninet. and Corvus Concept are trademarks of
Corvus Systems, Inc.

Circle 447 on inquiry card.

BYTE November 1983

227

Circle 274 on inquiry card.

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OMNIGRAPH is a versatile graphics printer
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subroutine library that does most of
the work in Glyphe starts with line
1712. Several routines are used by the
others as utilities: Display Screen
displays the 24-line section of the buf-
fer starting with SCNUM for Pg Up
and Pg Dn. Print Coordinates re-
freshes the 25th line after a clear-
screen operation. Print Slave Cursor
updates the 25th-line information by

providing current cursor position.
Print Current Line refreshes the cur-
sor's line from the buffer, and Print
Screen from Current Line refreshes
the display after a line insert or delete
operation (because lines above the
cursor do not change).

The Update Buffer routine is called
whenever a printable character is
entered, placing the character in the

SIBHQQQQQSQBQ

123456 7830- =

]00000Q0000Q0

BQWERTYUIOPC3

000000000000
sVoVoVo 0V0

GRAPHICS MODE - UNSHIFTED

000000000000

1234567890- =

O00000000HB00

B QWERTY UIOPC:

000000000000

ASDFGHJKL;'

00000000000H

1 Shf 1 1 r |

1 1 *

GRAPHICS MODE- SHIFTED

O0O0OO0OOO0OE

12 3 4 5 6 7

00000000000D0

tab qwertyuiopl:

000000000000

A s D F G H J o K L o

\ZXCVBNM

GRAPHICS MODE- CONTROL

\ZXCVBNM

NORMAL MODE - CONTROL

Figure 6: Graphics can be generated in four different Glyphe keyboard modes.

Shf Prt

000000000000000
00 H

TAB QWERTYU I P C 3

000000000000

ASDFGHJKL'-.

0000000000000

228 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

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DEALERS, WE BUY EXCESS STOCK, PLEASE CALL OR WRITE
Circle 1 on inquiry card

METHOD FOR EVALUATING

/

l n sin n x (dx)

EVEN

1 -3.5

(n-1) t

2-4-6

n 2

ODD

2-4-6

(n-1)

1.3.5

WRITE
THE

RESULT

Figure 7: This flowchart was prepared using Glyphe.

buffer before it is displayed. Thus,
the screen and the buffer are always
current. This routine also acts as a
filter during graphics mode, mapping
each alphanumeric character to a
graphics character.

One final routine that deserves
mention is the Print Buffer subrou-
tine at line 5000, called whenever
Ctrl-PrtSc is hit. A formfeed character
(TOF$) is sent to the printer, followed
by a sequence that sets the printer at
8 lines per inch (LPI8$). The printer
is set at this format because those
graphics symbols that span the full
width or length of the character and
connect on the display will not con-
nect on a printer set at 6 lines per
inch. The parameters in Glyphe are
set up to work with Epson printers;
if you have a different type of printer
or don't want form ejection, you can
change them accordingly. Printing
can be interrupted at any time by hit-
ting a key; the routine polls INKEY$
after printing each line. The Esc key
can be used to exit Glyphe without
saving to disk and is protected by a
prompt to avoid catastrophe.

5. Error handler: Printer and disk er-
rors are possible during execution of
Glyphe. When either occurs, the user

is prompted to abort or retry the
operation.

Enhancing Glyphe

No two users of Glyphe will have
the same expectations of what it
should do for them (figure 7 provides
one example). To adapt it to your
special needs, you'll have to be
creative. I did the groundwork,
which I hope will encourage you to
modify the program for your appli-
cations.

Here are some suggestions. You
might want to set up a key to gener-
ate a string of keystrokes while
editing. This capability could be
added to Glyphe, or you could pur-
chase a package that would do it (for
example, Keynote, from Advanced
Software Interface, 2655 Campus Dr.,
Suite 260, San Mateo, CA 94403. It
costs $99.95). This feature would add
incredible power and flexibility to
Glyphe and allow dynamic definition
of primitives and macro-like se-
quences. Another nice feature would
be column-insert and -delete com-
mands, which are a real lif esaver for
work with tables. You can easily ex-
pand the buffer capacity of Glyphe
by changing the LINES variable and

the DIM SCN$ statement in line 70;
this modification would probably be
limited only by memory size. With a
large buffer, a GOTO PAGE n com-
mand would be another asset.

Any number of other editing fea-
tures, such as erase line, search for
string, and set table tabs, could be
easily added. And adding primitives
and functions only requires placing
new entries in the computed GOTO
lists that point to the new routines,
then returning to line 610 (690 if A$
must be printed). My only caveat:
before you dive in, consider what
changes provide the greatest capabil-
ity for the least effort, and make sure
your modifications support the clean,
modular structure of the program so
that you can easily add new features
when your needs change. Have
funiB

Charles B. Duff manages a line of educational and
recreational software for Kriya Systems Inc.

An extended version of Glyphe is available from
the author on a PC-DOS disk for $25. It includes
a small character font editor for defining custom
characters on Epson printers. Address orders and
inquiries to Charles B. Duff in care of Kriya Systems
Inc., 505 North Lakeshore Dr., Suite 5510, Qticago,
IL 60611.

230 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

THIS IS ALL
IT TAKES
TO RUN
OUR HARD DISK.

Compatibility. A lot of
manufacturers talk about it. Mostly,
compatibility is defined as
something that almost works like
the original. Our hard disk sub-
system for the IBM PC runs on 2.0
without modifications, patches or
use of device drivers. Just boot 2.0
and run.

And we haven't cut back on
reliability either, the Apparat hard
disk uses the Xebec controller and
connects via a host interface
module to one of the slots in your
PC. The HIM also contains an RS-
232 serial async port for use with a

mouse, modem, etc. Even with
compatibility and reliability built in,
we've managed to provide some
very competitive pricing. The 10, 15
and 26 megabyte drives are priced
at $2,295, $2,695 and $3,395
respectively.

When you use a multifunction
RAM Card, such as the Apparat
Combo II (with up to 512K of RAM,
RS232, parallel printer, clock
calendar, and game adapter) along
with the HIM, floppy disk controller
and CRT monitor adapter cards in
your PC, you still have one slot
available for future expansion.

If you're considering a fixed disk
for your IBM PC, look at all the
systems available. Look for
compatibility. Look for reliability.
Look for value. We think you'll pick
ours.

For more information or to order
yours call 800/525-7674 or write
Apparat, Inc., 4401 S. Tamarac
Parkway, Denver, CO 80237,
303/741-1778. Dealer inquiries
invited.

IBM PC is a registered trademark of International

Business Machine Corp.

Price and specifications subject to change without

notice.

Apparat ,lnc.

Circle 29 on inquiry card.

Comparing the
IBM PC and the TI PC

Although the two computers look
similar, each has its own special features

by Bobbi Bullard

.

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Photo 1: 77ie 77 PC (top) and IBM PC (bottom) keyboards. Notice the larger number of keys on the TI PC keyboard (photo by Randy Bullard).

232 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

A year and a half after the intro-
duction of the IBM Personal Com-
puter (PC), Texas Instruments
entered the market with the TI Pro-
fessional Computer. Obviously de-
signed to compete with IBM's ma-
chine, the Professional Computer
resembles the IBM PC in many ways
and even provides some useful fea-
tures that the IBM PC doesn't offer.
However, because IBM's Personal
Computer is firmly entrenched as the
16-bit microcomputer standard, com-
puters that are not compatible with
it, including the TI PC, will face a
struggle in the marketplace.

Physical Appearance

Based on its physical character-
istics, TI's computer appears to be
another in a line of IBM clones. The
IBM PC and the TI PC both measure
about 6 inches high and a little less
than 20 inches wide. Each has two
disk drives inset in the front of its
cabinet on the right and vents on the
left. Detachable keyboards connect to
the main unit via coiled cords, and
both units sport separate cathode-ray
tubes. Green screens and color moni-
tors are available for both. Aside from
the TI PC's color, which is slightly
pinker than the IBM PC's beige, and
TI's enlarged keyboard, the com-
puters are strikingly similar.

The keyboards are their greatest
physical difference. TI's keyboard is
considerably larger, supporting more
keys than does IBM's keyboard (see
photo 1). The IBM PC uses the same
keyboard IBM has used for years
with various older and larger com-
puters. The IBM keyboard, however,
is far from perfect. For example,
numeric-keypad keys double as cur-
sor keys, which complicates any
function that requires movement
around the screen and numeric in-
put. Placement of the return key has
been criticized by users; the key is on
the far side of the seldom-used squig-
gle key known as a tilde, instead of
next to the quotation mark, where it
is most easily reached. Anyone who
learned to type on anything besides
the IBM PC will find that the tilde is
unnecessary and out of place. More-
over, because no lights indicate when
the Num Lock and Caps Lock keys

have been pressed, problems may
arise. For example, a user can press
an arrow key to move a cursor and
instead produce numbers on the
screen. The Caps Lock key causes
similar headaches.

The people at TI, however, didn't
make these errors when designing
their keyboard. The typewriter sec-
tion of the Professional Computer's
keyboard follows the configuration of
an IBM Selectric's keyboard (didn't
the designers at IBM have access to
this keyboard?). TI's key arrangement
is also comfortable to use: cursor keys
are separate from the numeric key-
pad, which provides numerous
amenities. The numeric keypad has
its own Enter key (which works the
way the return key does), a tab and a
space key, and keys for the numeric
operands *, +, and =. The TI PC
supports 12 function keys, as op-
posed to the IBM's 10. The extra func-
tion keys are seldom supported with
software, though, because most of
the programs provided were con-
verted from software for the IBM PC.
But it's nice to know they're available
should you need them.

The feel of the two keyboards is

A Typical Slot
Configuration for the TI PC

1 192K-byte memory board and asyn-
chronous/synchronous card

2 video-controller card (graphics board
can clip on)

3
4
5

Disk controller is built in and parallel
printer is attached to built-in parallel port

A Typical Slot

Configuration for the IBM PC

Disk-controller board
Monochrome adapter and parallel-
printer port
Asynchronous/synchronous card

IBM PC with Green Screen
and Color Monitor

Disk-controller board
Monochrome adapter and parallel-
printer port

Asynchronous/synchronous card
Color-graphics adapter

Table 1: The IBM PC and the TI PC dif-
fer in the way their expansion slots are
used.

also different. TI's uses a tactile-feed-
back system that feels light to the fin-
gertips. It offers no resistance until
the finger is halfway down, then the
key lightly engages. Ergonomic re-
search has shown that typing speed
can be improved as much as 3 or 4
percent on this type of keyboard. The
IBM keys, on the other hand, have a
definite spring and click and produce
a fair amount of noise. Users who are
dedicated to the IBM computer are
convinced that TI's keys are too light
to the touch. But most people with
access to both machines prefer the
touch on the TI keyboard, and cer-
tainly no one has criticized TI's place-
ment of keys.

Hardware

TI had the advantage of seeing
IBM's design and the opportunity to
improve on it before going into pro-
duction, and in many respects it did
just that. However, in setting up the
motherboard, TI failed to match IBM.
IBM's newest release uses 4164 chips,
providing 256K bytes of memory on
the motherboard alone. TI, which
has access to a wide array of chips
from its own manufacturing facilities,
instead incorporates 4116 chips in the
Professional Computer, limiting
motherboard memory to 64K bytes.

However, TI made more econom-
ical use of expansion slots than IBM
did, as illustrated in table 1. IBM's slot
design is not highly functional. In its
aim to cater to all potential buyers,
from the home user to the business
professional, IBM included nothing
in the basic computer configuration—
everything must be added on. Al-
though this configuration allows ver-
satility, it also causes the expansion
slots to fill up quickly. Using only
IBM equipment (as opposed to third-
party manufacturer's products), the
slots are soon filled. One of the five
slots is used for a disk-controller
board, one for a green-screen/
parallel-interface board, and one for
the video controller. If additional
memory is needed (more than the
256K bytes that can plug into the
motherboard), another slot accom-
modates a memory board. And still
another slot is for asynchronous/
serial communications. However,

November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. 233

j

1
■

Bft^^^B^-'rM- :i M: -rBv^'M-Vl^^B

•

1 •

/ ■/,

■ ••-•■■ , h v nj - - i i i-

Photo 2: Compare the TI and IBM video displays. Although the TI display is easier to read, it looks faded when compared to the IBM
display. The contrast and brightness controls were adjusted on both screens to give the best picture (photo by Randy Bullard).

third-party boards are available from
other manufacturers that combine
ports, memory, and other functions.
In 1981, Seattle offered a memory/
asynchronous board and Quadram
introduced the first four-function
board— with memory, a clock, a
parallel port, and a serial port. These
boards can help overcome the con-
gestion problem in the IBM expan-
sion slots.

The XT, IBM's newest offering on
the PC market, is configured dif-
ferently. It has an internal 10-mega-
byte hard-disk drive and comes with
a serial port. Inside, it sports eight
slots that are narrower than the slots
on the IBM PC. This difference has
limited manufacturers of peripherals
somewhat but provides the XT with
versatility the IBM PC lacks. The XT's
slots, however, like the IBM PC's, are
not economically arranged. One slot
goes to a video board, one is for the
hard-disk controller, and another
handles the serial-port board. The
slot for the serial-port board has dif-
ferent pinouts then do the other slots,
so the serial board cannot be re-
moved and replaced with a third-
party manufacturer's multifunction
board, thus limiting users options. If
a color monitor for creating graphics
and a green screen for producing text
are added, two more expansion slots

are filled; a video-controller board is
required for each monitor.

For use of expansion slots, TI walks
away with the honors. By labeling its
computer a professional computer in-
stead of a personal computer, TI
made certain assumptions. For exam-
ple, the company expects users to
employ disk drives with its PC in-
stead of cassette tapes. For this
reason, TI included a disk drive and
disk controller in the computer and
thus freed an expansion slot from
use. A built-in parallel port makes it
unnecessary to use a slot for a paral-
lel printer. Moreover, TI's green
screen and color monitor run off the
same board. And because the graph-
ics board clips onto the video board,
the two can share a slot. This makes
it harder for third-party hardware
manufacturers to make competitive
color boards. (TI's color board is
exceptional.)

Though the TI PC is advertised as
providing five expansion slots, it ac-
tually has six; one of the slots has two
plugs. Two small boards can be at-
tached to it, one at each end. This
configuration provides one of the
boards access to a port at the back of
the computer. The other board would
have to be one that doesn't need an
outlet— for example, a memory-ex-
pansion board.

Hard-Disk Drives

Both TI and IBM offer internal
hard-disk drives. You can purchase
the TI computer with one or two
floppy disks and decide later to up-
grade to a hard disk. But you must
decide when you buy an IBM PC
whether you require hard-disk stor-
age; you cannot add hard-disk capa-
bility later. You could use another
manufacturer's equipment on the
IBM PC; however, you might en-
counter memory-address problems.
Only the XT version comes with a
hard disk.

The original TI hard disk stored
only 5 megabytes. In an age when
microcomputers are carrying a
greater amount of the computer work
load, 5 megabytes falls short. The
IBM XT, however, has a 10-megabyte
hard-disk drive and can connect to an
expansion chassis to provide addi-
tional hard-disk storage. TI now has
a 10-megabyte hard disk, but no DOS
2.0 is available for it, and DOS 1.1
cannot sector the hard disk or create
directory volumes, making this disk's
directory unwieldy.

The TI and the IBM units both
come in a variety of configurations.
TI, however, makes more peripherals
than IBM does. The Dallas-based
firm, for example, offers an internal
modem with rates of 300 or 300/1200

234 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

WHAT'S
THE

DIFFERENCE

between Optimal Software's dBASE interpreter
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dBASE II is a trademark of AshtonTate. .

dCLONE is a trademark »f Optimal Software.

v» ^ £^ m Unconditional

ty£&& 30 day money

back guarantee.

Circle 372 on inquiry card.

BYTE November 1983 235

Vector Interrupt Listing

Description

Tl

IBM

Divide by zero

Single-step trap

1

1

Nonmaskable interrupt

2

2

Break (single-byte interrupt)

3

3

Overflow trap

4

4

Print screen

5

5E

Time of day

8

4E

Keyboard

9

n.l.

Keyboard mapping vector

n.l.

5B

Keyboard program pause key vector

n.l.

5C

Keyboard program break key vector

1B*

5D

*(l_isted in IBM as user-supplied routine)

Keyboard queueing vector

n.l.

5F

Disk interface

E

4D

Video

10

49

Communications

14

n.l.

Table 2: A partial listing of interrupt vectors for the two

computers. Using such a list,

you could place an IBM- or Tl-specific module at the begim

ling ofyourassetiibly-language

program to set up variable names for the vectors and thus make the

remaining code com-

patible. (n.l. stands for "not listed.")

bits per second (bps); IBM has left
the task of making peripherals to
other manufacturers.

Screens

In its most obvious departure from
the IBM design, TI chose not to sup-
port separate green-screen and color-
screen boards. IBM offers a slow
green-phosphor screen on a green
monitor board; TI provides a green
screen that runs off the same board
as the color screen. TI's color board
has higher resolution, a higher hori-
zontal-scan rate, and less scatter than
the IBM's color board and screen do.
When a green screen is plugged into
the IBM's color-monitor board, TI's
screen is much clearer and easier to
read. However, when TI's screen is
placed beside an IBM green screen
plugged into its own board, TI's
screen looks faded (see photo 2). TI's
screen appears to shimmer if it's
placed within a few feet of an IBM
screen, yet it doesn't shimmer
around other computers and other
computers don't experience this
problem around the IBM PC. The
cause of the shimmer is not ap-
parent—it could be inadequate
shielding on IBM's computer, inade-
quate shielding on TI's unit, or just
poor grounding on the TI PC.

TI's bright color screen is clear and
easy to read. It provides very high
resolution— 720 x 300 pixels (picture

elements)— and its eight colors are
vivid and distinct. Indeed, this
screen has been compared favorably
to CAD (computer-aided design)
computers costing tens of thousands
of dollars more than the TI PC. By
comparison, the IBM PC has a reso-
lution limit of 640 x 200 pixels and
supports only four colors in this
mode.

TI's color screen provides a super-
ior scan rate. While the IBM PC's
horizontal scan rate is around 15.4
kHz, TI's is 19.2 kHz. Although it
provides better resolution and clari-
ty, TI's board, though RGB (red-
green-blue), does not have a standard
output, and versatility is limited
because large projection screens re-
quire alteration before they can be
used.

TFs Voice-Recognition Interface

TI has touted its voice-recognition
interface, and although this option
may at first seem to be just a publicity
gimmick, it does have some usable
features. The interface has two char-
acteristics. The first is that it permits
the computer to recognize words.
This feature attacks one intimidating
aspect of computer use: dependence
on the keyboard. Instead, a user
speaks into a microphone that plugs
into the RS-232C port. The computer
recognizes about 100 words, even if
they are embedded in sentences. It

analyzes the voice of a user who
speaks the requested words into the
microphone four times and uses an
average to produce a voice template.
The other advantage of the voice-
recognition interface is that it permits
the computer to store sound on disk,
making the machine an intelligent
telephone-answering device that can
play different messages at different
times.

Software Comparisons

It's unfortunate for software pro-
grammers and users that the TI and
IBM machines are not compatible;
software for the IBM PC (except for
some BASIC programs) will not run
on the TI PC, even though the two
share the same type of microproces-
sor (the 8088). The reason? Their ad-
dresses and methods of numbering
DOS BIOS (basic input/output sys-
tem) calls are different (see table 2).
The DOS BIOS calls perform the
same functions on the two com-
puters. For instance, "Print Screen"
is a 5 on the IBM and 5E on the TI.
This difference could be handled by
assigning the DOS BIOS call num-
bers to a variable. Each PC would
then require an initialization module
that assigned correct numbers to the
variable names.

Screen-handling techniques for the
two computers also differ. For exam-
ple, the IBM PC includes an attribute
byte (display attributes include such
characteristics as reverse video and
blinking characters) that directly
follows each character byte in the dis-
play buffer. With the TI PC, however,
attributes are set via a separate latch,
located at a different address in mem-
ory and not directly adjoining the
character byte.

The green screen's video buffer on
the IBM starts at the address B000
hexadecimal, and the color screen's
video buffer begins at 8000 hexa-
decimal. TI's video buffer begins at
DE000 hexadecimal, and the attribute
latch is at DF800 hexadecimal.

Both computers set aside memory
for the screen, yet the addresses for
each are different. The IBM PC has
an address of B000 hexadecimal or
8000 hexadecimal with 16K bytes of
dynamic RAM. The last bytes are not

236 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

Pi

-

a J

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der's
to

Please add S:I.3II Posintfo and Handling for
i-nch ilt'm. ('al residents add (J.: - )''., Sales Tax.
ITS Rlue Lahel is an additional $1.50 per item.
C.O.I). $:UH) extra. Call for overnight delivery.
Prices subject to change without notice. All
terms subject to availability. * Mir. Trademark.
(T/M is a registered trademark of Digital
Kes.Mtvh, Inc. Outside Continental U.S. Add
$10.00 plus Air Parcel Post.

M SOFTWARE

Circle 151 on inquiry card.

BYTE November 1983

actually used on the screen but are
set aside for the screen as a hidden
buffer. The TI computer, on the other
hand, has the same amount of mem-
ory set aside, but as it places a
character on the screen, it fills the
memory buffer, and after the bottom
of the screen is reached, text appears
at the top, overwriting what was
there. TI says this feature is meant to
help scrolling, but software develop-
ers who have used these addresses
as a hidden buffer say it forces them
to rewrite code when transferring
software from the IBM to the TI PC.

Compatibility in BASIC

Because both the TI and the IBM
use MBASIC, many people expected
that the two computers would be
compatible. In fact, when BASIC pro-
grams written on the IBM were tried
on the TI PC, many ran straight from
one to the other. But, in some cases,
odd things happened to the cursor;
for instance, sometimes it disap-
peared. When cursor keys were
needed, though, the TI PC's Fll and
F12 keys could be used to control the

horizontal motion of the cursor.

Most scan codes are the same for
TI's MBASIC and IBM's version, PC
BASIC, and the codes for the cursor
key immediately follow the code for
function keys on both computers, but
because the TI PC has two extra func-
tion keys, its cursor-key scan codes
begin two numbers higher.

The disappearing cursor on the TI
is a result of the ineffective LOCATE
command in TI's BASIC. The two
computers' operating manuals say
that their LOCATE commands
should work the same way—
"LOCATE x,y" should place a cursor
at point x,y on the screen. However,
on the TI PC, LOCATE used in con-
junction with an INKEY statement
causes the cursor to disappear. A
PRINT statement immediately
following LOCATE brings the cursor
up at point x,y + 1. And if you need
a cursor on a screen full of text, TI's
BASIC requires that you reprint what
is already on the screen. One soft-
ware developer solved this problem
by printing a line under the location
where the user is being directed. Pro-

A WHIZ Of a

RS-232 Transfer Switch lets you switch your com-
puter between printers, modems, terminals, any
RS-232 peripherals. No plugging and unplugging
cables. Like having extra ports. Choice of 8 models.

Switch

Pictured:
MFJ-1240
1 in-2 out
7x2x6 in.

Exclusive features:
LEOs monitors data fines • Data lines spike/surge protected
• Switch reverses transmit-receive lines

These multi-function RS-232 transfer switches

let you switch between peripherals, test for data
and line failure, protect data lines and use as null
modem for less cost than a switch alone.

Switches 10 lines (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 11, 15, 17,
20). LED data/line indicators monitor lines 2, 3,
4, 5, 6, 8, 20. Metal oxide varistors protect data
lines 2, 3, 7 from voltage spikes and surges. Push
button reverses transmit-receive lines. PC board
eliminates wiring, crosstalk, line interference.
CHOOSE FROM 8 MODELS

• MFJ-1240, $79.95, 1 input - 2 outputs.

• MFJ-1241, $99.95, 2 inputs - 2 outputs.

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• MFJ-1243, $119.95, 1 input - 4 outputs.

• MFJ-1244, $139.95, 3 inputs - 3 outputs.

• MFJ-1245, $169.95, 3 inputs - 5 outputs.

• MFJ-1246, $199.95, 5 inputs - 5 outputs.

• MFJ-1247, $99.95, 1 in-2 out {switches 20 lines)
Order from MFJ and try it. If not delighted,

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during such a character (which actu-
ally has to be printed in two pieces,
with a left and a right underline) is
certainly more involved than using a
functioning LOCATE command.

The only other differences between
TI's MBASIC and the IBM PC BASIC
involve their color statements. The
IBM PC has three parameters on the
color statement that control fore-
ground, background, and border col-
ors. Each available color has an
assigned number (which is docu-
mented in the BASIC manual). To
control the blinking attribute, the
number 16 must be added to the
number for the chosen color. The col-
or statement on the TI computer has
four parameters. The fourth is an at-
tribute code.

The IBM PC includes 48K bytes of
ROM (read-only memory), which
contains much of its BASIC. To pro-
vide similar capability, the TI PC
employs extra code in RAM. TTs
MBASIC thus needs a minimum of
128K bytes of memory to run, while
the IBM 1.1 BASIC requires only 48K
bytes. Once running, however, the
two versions are similar. Many IBM
BASIC programs will run on the TI
with no alterations.

Programmers working in BASIC
can easily convert their IBM pro-
grams for use on the TI PC using one
of two methods. They can write a
simple conversion program that will
seek all LOCATE commands, and
COLOR and INKEY statements, or
they can use a text editor with a
Search and Replace function.

Peachtree Software has taken ad-
vantage of the compatibility of the
disk formats for the IBM PC, the TI
PC, and two other computers by
manufacturing one disk to run on all
four computers. The programs,
Peachtree 5000 and the Series 8
Accounting programs, are sold with
a configurator disk that sets up a
screen interpreter for each computer.
Because of the video buffers in the TI
and IBM PCs, the interpreter does
not have to be called upon often, so
the screen handling doesn't take
much time. The attribute latch, or the
second 8 bits of the character in the
video buffer, must also be set up, and
the configurator must address a few

238 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

Circle 293 on inquiry card.

Its graphic system makes brilliant
color more affordable.

T I f ? » » i • « ■ i T^
* r i f i i i • « ■ ■

J

Eafi&m

Company-

Now everyone can have the advantage of a full-color r

graphics system at a very affordable price.

The Canon AS-100 microcomputer gives you a choice of 27
high resolution colors. Plus, its quiet color ink jet printer
generates clean, crisp, impressive copies.

And it isn't just the AS-100's vivid color that dazzles. It has a
powerful, fast 16-bit microprocessor with standard 128K RAM.

A choice of storage capacity that includes 5V4-inch mini or
8-inch floppy disks, with hard disk drive also available.

Operating systems CP/M-86* or MS-DOS* that accept a
wide range of software programs, including WordStar*" (word
processing), CalcStar** (spreadsheet) and InfoStar** (data base
management).

Even a choice of color or monochrome green display unit.

All of which make it the perfect tool for business and
professional needs.

The new Canon AS-100. It's so smart, it makes life simple. I

*CIVM -86 is a trademark of Digital Research. 'MS-DOS is a trademark of Microsoft. * *WordStar, CalcStar and InfoStar are trademarks of MicroPro.

Circle 64 on inquiry card.

B 11/83

Canon U.S.A., Inc.

Systems Division

One Canon Plaza, Lake Success, NY 11042

Please send me more information about the Canon
AS-100 Microcomputer.

Name

(Please print)

(Zip)

IMk me (

Canon

So smart, it makes life simple.

BYTE November 1983 239

THE SUPERB QUALITY

OF THIS PRIZE

CHAROONNAY IS

ANOTHER MILESTONE
ACHIEVEMENT.

While the grapes struggled to grow and mature, the vintners were

| struggling with a problem of
J their own.

The problem was When?
When to pick. When to crush.
I When to test. When to taste. When
I to bottle. When to age. When to ship.
And when to wait.
And each variable affected
I the cost and release date of
I what promised to be their prize
| Chardonnay

Fortunately they used
Milestone Project Management
Software.

Milestone told them when.
| And helped the vintners manage
the project right down to the day
| when they savored their first glass.

You can savor the rewards
of Milestone whatever field you're
in — banking, building, retailing,
| manufacturing.

Milestone plans the lifetime
of your project, and streamlines
its schedule, by analyzing its
J "critical path!' Milestone finds
I which activities are crucial, pre-
pares cost estimates, keeps track of
J progress, makes trade-offs, and
recomputes the project schedule
[ when anything changes.

Milestone's price? Just S295.
About what you'd expect to
pay for a few bottles of Chardonnay.
Prize Chardonnay that is.

For more information about
Milestone, call

TOLL-FREE 800-826-2222.

Or write to:
Digital Marketing Corporation
2363 Boulevard Circle,
Walnut Creek, CA 94595
(415) 947-1000/Telex 17-1852

Milestone requires 56K RAM and CP/M," CP/M-86" or
UCSD-P" system CP/M-86 version requires 128K RAM

DIGITAL MARKETING

other differences, but in general, the
programs require little alteration to
run on both the IBM and TI
machines.

Benchmark Tests

Run-time speed is an important
consideration when comparing com-
puters, and matching the IBM PC
against the TI PC produced interest-
ing results. Tests conducted in the
past used disks formatted for the IBM
PC. Although the TI and the IBM can
read each other's formats, their for-
mats are different, and a program on
an IBM-formatted disk runs more
slowly on the TI PC than the same
program on a Tl-formatted disk.
Consequently, these test results
showed the TI to be considerably
slower than the IBM. In our testing,
however, we used only disks for-
matted for each respective machine.

To compare run times, we used a
program called Cope from Antech of
Roswell, Georgia. Cope is an elec-
tronic-spreadsheet program with
trend analysis and goal seeking
(which involves circular or reiterative
references) built in. Each sheet con-
structs a BASIC program to solve the
problems created on the spreadsheet.
The program is available in a com-
piled version for the IBM PC, but
Antech developers are waiting for
Microsoft to fix the bugs in the TI's
BASIC compiler before it compiles a
version for the TI PC. The testing
done on interpretive BASIC pro-
grams produces results in measur-
able numbers rather than milli-
seconds.

The first test used a program that
read a screen full of information from
disk in a disk-seek action and dis-
played it on the screen in a formatted
fashion. The average time on the IBM
PC was 21 and 30/100 seconds. The
TI PC took an average of 19 and
26/100 seconds— demonstrating a 10
percent edge over the IBM machine.

The second test used a cost-justifi-
cation model that reads data off a
disk, performs calculations with the
four major math functions, and
writes results back to disk. The
results showed dramatic differences,
giving the TI PC a 30 percent advan-
tage. The average time on the TI was

Circle 147 on inquiry card.

THE HARD PART IS MAKING SURE
THEYSTAYTHATWAY.

DISKS
COME

A disk is built with certain safeguards. That's why most disk makers
offer guarantees that the product you receive comes to you error free.
We at Memtek Products are concerned that the minidisk remains
error free. Every time you use it. After exposure to dust, cigarette
smoke, fingerprints, even wear caused by your computer. And so, we
have built safeguards around the disk, as well.

Memtek Products' latest innovation...
acknowledgment of a real world
beyond the laboratory.

The hub ring. Designed to prevent our minidisks from jam-
ming in your machine. Rigid. Durable. Reinforced.
The coating. A critically-controlled coating of high-energy
magnetic oxide particles that covers the disk's surface, which is then
micro-polished to improve head to disk contact, preventing
dropouts, lowering head abrasion.

The lubrication system. A constant lubricant protects both the
disk surface and the drive head from wear.
The sleeve. Comes with a soft liner that protects the disk while
gently cleaning the surface, i

The guarantee.

We'll replace, free, any
minidisk if it fails to
accurately store and
retrieve data due to a
defect in materials or
workmanship for up to
5 years from date of
purchase. Simply mail the
disk back.

The Memtek lineup.
Premium, double and quad
density minidisks as well as 10-
and 15-minute computer
cassettes and a 5!4" disk drive
head cleaner.

MEMTEK.

WE PLAY
FORKEEPS

IBM PC with
IBM Components

TI PC

64K-byte computer with two
320K-byte disk drives

$2633

Monochrome display

$345

Disk drive

$220

Monochrome display and
printer-adapter card

$335

Total

$3533

$2695 (comes with all of
these features standard)

Extra memory card with
64K bytes

(not necessary on IBM; you
can plug up to 256K bytes
on motherboard)

$300

64K bytes of chips

$165

$165

Color-graphics card

$244

$350

Color display

$680

$695

Asynchronous card

$120

$225

MS DOS 1.1

$40 (includes BASIC)

$40 (BASIC separate)

MS DOS 2.0

$60

not available yet

10-megabyte hard disk for
upgrade

available only with
expansion chassis

$2300

Expansion chassis with
10-megabyte hard disk
and eight expansion slots

$3390

not available

Table 3: Price comparisons fc

>r the IBM PC and TI PC.

2 minutes, 21 seconds; the average
time for the IBM was 3 minutes, 26
seconds.

In formatting, however, the TI com-
puter didn't fare as well. The TI for-
mat operation took an average of 1
minute, 10 seconds, while the IBM
PC finished in only 39 seconds.

Available Software

For the prospective purchaser, soft-
ware as well as speed is an important
consideration. Regardless of its hard-
ware features, a computer is only as
good as the software that runs on it.

Because TI made its computer
available to major software pro-
ducers, the TI PC runs many of the
best-selling programs. When it was
introduced, the TI PC could run pro-
grams such as dBASE II, Wordstar,
Supercalc, Multiplan, and Easy writer
II. Some were sold under TFs name

brand, some through independent
publishers. TI made only a limited
number of computers available for
software-development, and only
large-scale software companies were
provided with a free computer.

Although converting IBM PC soft-
ware for use on the TI PC is not dif-
ficult, it is time consuming. Most in-
dependent software authors with
limited funds are waiting to see if the
TI PC will take a large share of the
market before purchasing or borrow-
ing a computer to produce programs
for it. Currently, more software is
available for the IBM than there is for
the TI PC.

Prices

TI competes with IBM by offering
the Professional Computer at a lower
price than IBM charges for its PC. For
comparably equipped models

(stocked with only their respective
manufacturers 7 equipment), a TI PC
costs almost a thousand dollars less
than an IBM machine. Shortly after
TI introduced its PC with a price
lower than that of the IBM, IBM re-
duced its price. TI countered with an
offer of free memory and later
dropped its price again. However, TI
does not as yet offer the option of
buying third-party hardware, which
can reduce the cost of a complete sys-
tem. TFs options, such as extra mem-
ory, are as overpriced as the ones
offered by IBM. Table 3 shows prices
for comparably equipped models.

Summary

Deciding whether to buy the TI PC
or the IBM PC boils down to use. If
you know your needs and can meet
them with existing software, and if
you don't need a hard-disk drive im-
mediately, you will do well to choose
the TI PC. It is reasonably priced,
runs commonly used software pro-
grams, and has a superior keyboard.
It also runs faster than the IBM PC
and can be upgraded for a hard-disk
drive. By the time you need a hard-
disk drive, the TI PC's 10-megabyte
drive will probably have been re-
leased and DOS 2.0 will be available
for hard disks.

On the other hand, you should
choose the IBM PC if you currently
need a hard-disk drive, if you need
one of the thousands of programs
available for the IBM but not for the
TI PC, or if you don't know what
your future needs will be and you
want to leave yourself open for the
newest, most innovative software
and hardware.

There is no guarantee that IBM's
software or hardware will be usable
with TI PCs. Although the Profes-
sional Computer is a serviceable,
nicely designed machine, whether TI
can gain a market share, considering
IBM's position in the market, remains
to be seen.B

Bobbi Bullard currently writes a column for Com-
puter Retails and is manager of Computer Head-
Quarters, 333 Peters St., Atlanta, GA 30313.

Editor's Note:

The December 1983 BYTE will contain a for-
mal System Review of the Texas Instruments
Professional Computer.

242 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

Before You Read Another
Mail-Order Ad, Take Five

IGet Service Before You Buy.
We tried a little experiment once. You should
too. Call all the mail order houses. Ask about
one product (we used the ProWriter), and see
what happens. We found that 80% of the time you'll get
price, delivery date and then a pregnant pause awaiting
your order. That's it.

On THE BOTTOM LINE s Technical Line you'll get
answers. We've put together a technical sales staff second
to none, a staff with the experience and knowledge you
need to help select computer hardware. You'll get straight
talk, because we don't have commissioned salespeople
who must sell. And we know our products. We don't
advertise half of the products available to us because we
don't know them well enough. Which means you'll know
even less about them before you buy.

2 Stop Paying Extra.
Try as you might, you'll be hard-pressed to find
a mail order company that doesn't tack on
1-4% for credit cards, an additional 2% for
shipping or some fee somewhere on top of their "cash
prices." We think that's lousy. Period.

When you see a price in our ad, or if you call our Toll-
Free Order Line, you'll get one price. No 2% for shipping.
No 3% for MasterCharge (4% for American Express!). We
accept all major credit cards with a smile. And we never
rake the privilege of charging your account until your
purchase has been shipped from our warehouse.

3 We' re Authorized
Meaning we've been approved by the
manufacturers to sell their products. If you
don't think that makes a difference, try getting
some warranty work done once you've bought from an
unauthorized dealer. You're stuck in a Catch-22. "Take it
to your dealer," says the factory, but the "dealer" washed
his hands of you the day t'rnt box was shipped. "It's got
the manufacturer's warranty," he'll tell you, "so you deal
with them."

It's called the Grey Market. And if you fall victim,
you've only yourself to blame.

4 Let's Get Technical
Nothing's perfect, and we both know you may
need service. So we've sent our technicians to
school. They've been trained to do factory-
authorized warranty and post-warranty repairs on C. Itoh,
Epson, Okidata, Smith-Corona and Star-Micronics
printers and the Franklin Ace 1000. And they've got the
diplomas to prove it.

But school's not out yet. We're expanding our technical
department even further, to include all the printers,
modems and monitors we sell. If your purchase does have
to go to the factory, we watch over it (we've dropped two
product lines because the factory repairs took two
months). At THE BOTTOM LINE we honor all the
warranties, and even offer extended warranties on our
own, so no matter what you buy, you're covered.

5 Professional Mail-Order
The Direct Marketing Association is a
professional organization that rides herd on the
business practices of mail-order marketers.
THE BOTTOM LINE is proud to be a member. We subscribe
to the DMA's guidelines for responsible advertising,
billing, customer service and after-sale
support. We urge you to look for the
DMA symbol whenever you shop by
mail, and use their Action Line
(212-689-4977) should you encounter any trouble with a
mail-order marketer, computer or otherwise. We think
this organization deserves both business and consumer
support.

Take five again, and turn the page for a

listing of our products, and if you don't

see what you want, give us a call...

we can probably get it for you

Technical Sales Desk:

(603) 881-9855
Toil-Free Order Desk

(800) 343-0726

ALS* AMDEK • AN ADEX • AST* C ITOH • COMREX • COLUMBIA DATA • DIABLO • DC HAYES* EAGLE COMPUTER* EPSON* FRANKLIN COMPUTER

IDS* INTERACTIVE STRUCTURES* KENSINGTON* MANNESMAN TALLY* MAYNARD ELECTRONICS* MICROSOFT* MICROTEK

MOUNTAIN COMPUTER* NEC • OKIDATA • OTRON A • PRINCETON GRAPHICS* QUADR AM • QUME • QCS* RAN A SYSTEMS • SATURN/TITAN

STAR MICRONICS* TANDON • TECMAR* TOSHIBA • USI • US ROBOTICS

HIGH TECHNOLOGY AT AFFORDABLE PRICES

THE BOTTOM LINE

IMILFORD, NH 03055-0423 □ TELEPHONE (603) 881-98551

BYTE November 1983 243

Plain talk about printers...

Dot Matrix Printers

There've been some big changes in
IBM PC printer compatability.
Okidata's new Plug-n-Play ROMs
(see below) make a Microline 92 or
93 fully compatible with PC screen
graphics. We expect that other
printer manufacturers will offer
similar upgrades shortly.

EPSON

FX, RX&MX

TheFX-80(160cps) has a
correspondence font, 1 0, 1 2 & 1 7
cpi, italics, double-strike/width/
emphasis & dot graphics, plus a 2K
buffer. Friction & pin feed is
standard; the adjustable tractor is
optional & cost extra. The FX-100 is
the 1 36 column version & includes
the adjustable tractor.

The RX-80 & RX-80 F/T (1 00 cps)
are upgraded versions of the MX
Series.

RX-80 $389.88

RX-80 F/T $499.88

MX-1 00 $669.88

FX-80 $569.88

FX-80 Tractor $39.88

FX-100 $749.88

C. ITOH

Prowriter

C. Itoh's Prowriter has speed (1 20
cps), a buffer ( 1 .5K), 1 0, 1 2, & 16 cpi
(plus a proportional font with
correspondance quality) and dot
graphics (160x-144 dpi). One of our
biggest sellers. The Prowriter 2
has the same specs, but in a 1 36
column format.

Prowriter $399.88

Prowriter 2 $71 9.88

STAR MICRON ICS

Gemini 10X/15
Delta 10/15

The Gemini 10X(1 20 cps)
features 1 0, 1 2, 1 7 cpi, italics, a
correspondance font, 1 20 x 1 44 dpi
graphics matrix & a 1 K buffer. The
Qemini 1 0X comes with friction/
tractor feed & uses plain spool
ribbons. The Qemini 15 is the 1 32

column version, & it has a propor-
tional font.

Star's Delta 10 features both
parallel and serial interfaces, 160
cps print speed, an 8K buffer, plus
the standard fonts (1 0, 1 2 & 1 7 cpi),
dot graphics, friction/tractor feed
and spool ribbons. The Delta 15 is a
136 column version.

Gemini 1 0X $309.88

Gemini 15 $459.88

Delta 10 $529.88

Delta 15 $CALL

OK I DATA

Microline Series

The Microline 92 (80 col) & 93
(132 col) are ideal for word pro-
cessing. They offer a 1 60 cps draft
mode, a 40 cps correspondance
mode, 1 0, 1 2 & 1 7 cpi (w/double-
width), pin/friction feed (tractor is
optional on the 92) & dot-address-
able graphics (120x1 44). Cen-
tronics parallel interface is standard;
the serial (RS-232C) interface is
optional.

A new PROM called PC Plug-n-
Play turns a 92 or a 93 into an IBM
printer, withfull screen dump
capabilities. You will sacrafice a few
features (like 1 2 cpi) but the PROMs
areworth it if totalcompatibility is
your goal.

The Microline 82A (80 col) & 83A
(132 col) are data crunchers, period.
They print 1 20 cps, at 1 & 1 6 cpi (5/
8 double-width). Dot-addressable
graphics are optional.
The Microline 84 (1 32 col) is the
Step 2 version, featuring 200 cps at
1 0, 1 2, & 1 7 cpi (w/double-width), all
with a correspondance mode & dot
addressable graphics. Parallel or
serial (RS-232C) interfaces
available.

Microline 82A $389.88

82A/92 Tractor $59.88

Roll Paper Holder $49.88

Microline 83A $599.88

82A/83A Okigraph 1

Graphics ROM $49.88

Microline 92 $459.88

Microline 93 $759.88

92/93 IBM-PC Plug-n-Play

Graphics ROM $49.88

92/93 RS-232C Interface. . . $99.88

Microline 84 $1024.88

W/RS-232C Interface .... $1 1 39.88

DIABLO

Series 32

Diablo has now entered the dot
matrix printer market, and their new
Series 32 (150 cps) looks very
promising. It features 1 32 column,
with 1 or 1 6 cpi, plus a near-letter
quality font. It has all the sub/super-
scripting features you'd expect, plus
both dot & block graphics. We can't
tell from the spec sheet, but we
assume the Series 32 is Diablo
compatible.
Series 32 $CALL

MANNESMANN TALLY

MT-160 L
MT-180 L
Spirit

The MT-1 60 L ( 1 60 cps) is a sharp
printer. The 1 0, 1 2, 1 7 & 20 cpi, plus
correspondance font, makes the
MT-160 L very versatile. It has both
parallel & serial (RS-232C)
interfaces, and the menu-driven
installation from the control panel is
easy to use. Friction and adjustable
tractor feed are standard issue. The
MT-180 L is the 1 36 column
version.

The Spirit (80 cps) is Tally's new,
low cost draft printer. It has 1 0, 1 2 &
17 cpi fonts, friction & adjustable
tractor feed, and a unique square-
wire printhead that makes even draft
printing a pleasure.

MT-160 L $679.88

MT-1 80 L $849.88

MT-Spirit $329.88

Other Dot Matrix
Printers,

Anadex

DP-9501 $1439.88

DP-9620 $1539.88

DP-9625 $1689.88

WP-6000 $2279.88

IDS

Prism 80 $1 079.88

w/4-color $1439.88

Prism 132 $1239.88

w/4-color $1 669.88

MicroPrism $569.88

Inforunner

Riteman $349.88

Letter-Quality Printers

The new, low-speed letter-quality
printers are making quality afforable.
And the high-speed models are
coming down in price too. Still, get a
dot matrix printer for drafts & as a
backup.

C. ITOH

StarWriter
PrintMaster

The C. Itoh StarWriter (40 cps)
offers top speed at a good price. It
uses Diablo code, wheels & ribbons,
10 or 12 pitch, 6, 8& 1/48" line
space, plus 1 /1 20" horizontal
spacing— ideal for proportional
modes. We've found the Star-
Writer exceptionally reliable.

The Printmaster has the same
specifications, but prints at 55 cps.

Starwriter Parallel $1 21 9.88

Printmaster Parallel $1569.88

SILVER REED

EXP-550/500

The Silver Reed EXP-550 (1 7 cps)
is a 1 32 column letter-quality printer
with 1 0, 1 2 or 1 5 pitch, sub/super-
script, underlining and true Diablo
1610 emulation making it compat-
ible with most word processing
software. It's friction fed, and it
features a page injector; an optional
tractor is also available.

The EXP-500 ( 1 2 cps) is a 1 00
column letter-quality printer with the
same specs as the EXP-550, but
slower and without page inject or a
tractor.

EXP-550 (Parallel) $699.88

EXP-550 Tractor $1 39.88

EXP-500 (Parallel) $469.88

NEC

Spinwriters

The new 2000 Series are slower (20
cps), but they've retained all the
qaulity of the 3500/7700 Series.
Uses the same thimbles & ribbons.

201 0/2030 $1 049.88

2050 $1199.88

3530 $1759.88

3550 $2009.88

77 1 0/7730 $2289.88

SMITH-CORONA

TP-1
Messenqer

The Memory Correct III Mes-
senger (the full name) is ideal for
the home or small office. It combines
the features of an electric typewriter
and a letter-quality printer. It
features 12 cps, 3 pitches (10, 12 &
1 5), variable line spacing, 1 0.5"
writing line, backspacing & auto-
correction. It comes complete with
parallel/serial interface.

The TP-1 has fixed pitch (1 or 1 2
cpi) & underlining, but cannot sub/
suprscript. The tractor feed is
optional. (Specify 10 or 1 2 cpi when
you order.)
Memory Correct Mi

Messenger $629.88

TP-1 $459.88

TP Tractor $1 39.88

Other Letter Quality
Printers,

Comrex

CR-1 $849.88

CR-2 $509.88

Diablo

620 (RS-232C) $999.88

630 (PC) $1979.88

Qume

Sprint 11+ $1 539.88

244 BYTE November 1983

Circle 55 on inquiry card.

Monitors

USI

Pi Monitors

The Pi-3's 20MHz bandwidth and
sharp, clear phosphor make it our
favorite. Comes in 9 or 1 2", & in
green.

Pi-3 (12" amber) $189.88

Pi-4 (9" amber) $1 59.88

NEC

JB1205M

A close second to the USI Pi
Series. 18-20Mhz bandwidth and a
crisp, clear amber display (or green).
JB1 205M-A (1 2" amber). . . $1 79.88
JB1201 M (12" green) $1 79.88

PRINCETON GRAPHICS

HX-12

^.i..

.—■

mmi

The HX-12 is one of the highest
resolution RGBs available. 16 colors
(using NEC's tube), 690 dots by 240
lines (480 non-interlaced) & 15MHz
bandwidth. The case is identical to
IBM's, & it comes with its own cable.
PGS HX-12 $499.88

QUADRAM

QuadChrome

The QuadChrome has the same
spec's as the HX-12. Same price too.
QuadChrome $809.88

QUADRAM

QuadColor

Supports RGB or composite
display, up to 480 non-interlaced
RGB output
QuadColor $CALL

USR

MultiDisplay

Supports 32K graphics, with
composite, RGB, PC monochrome
display and a parallel port
MultiDisplay $399.88

TMCMAR

Graphics Master

192KforRGB or composite display,
supporting 480 non-interlaced RGB
output.
Graphics Master $879.88

COLUMBIA

DATA PRODUCTS, INC.

COIT1PUTER

We are now offering both the Columbia MPC and the
Eagle PC-2 to our customers. These machines are IBM-PC
compatible, with 1 28K RAM on board, two 320K disk
drives, one parallel port, two RS-232C ports and bundled
software packages.

The Eagle PC-2 includes MS-DOS, CP/M 86, plus Eagle-
Writer and EagleCalc. The Eagle PC-2 also includes a
monochrome monitor, with a resolution equal to the PC
monitor. The PC-2's ideal for first-time users. It's easy to
learn & easy to use.

The Columbia MPC includes MS-DOS, CP/M 86, BASICA,
Perfect Writer/Speller/Calc/Filer, Home Accountant Plus,
Fast Graphs, Asynch Communications, a Macro Assembler,
plus numerous utilities. This system is for more sophisticated
users who have a PC at work and want a system at home or
in a remote location.

Please call (603) 881-9855 for further specifications, price
and delivery.

Modems

DC HAYES

Smart modems

The Smartmodems are originate/
answer, auto dial/answer, full/half
duplex modems. There are two
external modems (300 & 300/1 200
baud) & the 1 200B (300/1 200
internal for the PC). Modular phone
cable & power supply included. (RS-
232C cable is optional).
"Stack" Smartmodems

300 baud $219.88

300/1 200 baud $539.88

1 200B w/Softcom II $459.88

US ROBOTICS

Password

The Password is an originate/
answer type modem. 0-300 & 1 200
baud capability with auto dial/
answer, auto mode/ speed select,
full/half duplex (local echo),audio
phone line monitor. Comes with an
RS-232C cable (specify male or
female DB-25), power supply &
modular telephone cable.
Password $379.88

STANDARD MICROSYSTEMS

M-Term $79.88

Peripherals

AST RESEARCH

MegaPlus II

The MegaPlus has one RS-232C
port, a parallel port, a clock & up to
256K RAM. An optional game and
second serial port are also available.
Comes with SuperDrive/Spooler
software.

The MegaPak is a 1 28K or 256K
piggy-back card that attaches to the
MegaPlus & gives you additional
memory to 256K.

64K MegaPlus $309.88

256K MegaPlus $509.88

128K MegaPak $329.88

256K MegaPak $329.88

RS-232C Port $49.88

Game Port $49.88

AST RESEARCH

SixPak Plus

The Sixpak holds upto384K on
the board. Added to a 256K
motherboard, you've got 640K, the
maximum addressable memory.
Sixpak has an RS-232C port,
parallel port, clock & SuperDrive/
Spooler software. An optional game
port is also available.

64K Sixpak $289.88

256K SixPak $469.88

384K SixPak $659.88

Game Port $49.88

AST I/O Plus II

The I/O Plus II has one parallel
port, one RS-232C port, one game
port & a clock. A second RS-232C
port is optional.

I/0+ $199.88

ConnectAII $CALL

RS-232C Port $49.88

QUADRAM

Quadboards

The Quadboard has an RS-232C
port, a parallel port, a clock &
memory up to 256K (you can also
get your Quadboard "naked," with
no memory installed). QuadSpool/
Drive software is included with every
Quadboard, along with a one-year
warranty.

Quadboard OK $21 9.88

Quadboard 64K $279.88

Quadboard 256K $429.88

QUAD 512+

Quad 512+s have a single RS-
232C port on them, and sockets for
up to 51 2K RAM. QuadSpool/Drive
software is included.

Quad 51 2+ (64K) $239.88

Quad 512+ (256K) $439.88

Quad 512+ (51 2K) $679.88

Single Function Cards

Parallel Card w/cable $89.88

RS-232C Card $89.88

Clock/Calendar Card $89.88

QuadLink

QuadLink lets you run Apple II/II+
software on the PC. It's like an Apple
computer on one board, with 64K.
You can use all PC l/O's and color/
graphics video. There's no disk
conversion, no reformatting, and no
fuss. QuadLink takes up only one
slot. Specify IBM PC, Columbia MPC
or Compaq computers when you
order.
QuadLink $499.88

Disk Drives

TANDON

Disk Drives

Tandon's TM-1 00-2, at 320K
storage, is still holding its own.
We've used them exclusively for a
year now and will continue to do so.
Double-sided $239.88

MAYNARD ELECTRONICS

Disk Controller

Perfect for bare-bones configura-
tions. Handles two internal floppy
disk drives (A & B), plus two
externals.
MFD Standard $159.88

Hard Disks

12Mb Hard Disk $2099.88

20Mb Hard Disk $2339.88

26Mb Hard Disk $2509.88

Hard Disks
w/Tape Backup

12Mb Disk/Tape $291 9,88

20Mb Disk/Tape $3339.88

PC Interface $130.88

Information/Orders:

(603) 881-9855

Prices/Orders Only:

(800) 343-0726

No Hidden Charges:

We pay UPS ground shipping on
all our orders, and we never charge
extra for credit cards. We accept
CODs ($1 fee per order), payable
with a certified check, money order
or cash. We have a $50 minimum
order. Personal checks are cleared
in 3 weeks.

All our equipment is shipped with
all manufacturer's warranty. We are
an authorized dealer for all products
we sell to insure full warranty
support, & we're authorized for
warranty work on a number of
printers. We also offer extended
warranty plans for most printers.

Sorry, we cannot accept open POs
or extend credit/terms at these
prices. APO and foreign orders are
not accepted. We prepared this ad in
September & prices do change, so
call to verify them.

Our Computer Showroom,
located in Amherst, New Hampshire,
is now open.

HIGH TECHNOLOGY AT AFFORDABLE PRICES

THE BOTTOM LINE

MILFORD, NH 03055-0423 □ TELEPHONE (603) 881-98551

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%
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.

U

Built-in versatility.

Much more than just a voice output
device, the Votrax PS System lets
you mix either speech and sound ef-
fects or speech and music. A pro-
grammable master clock and 255
programmable frequencies give you
unmatched control of speech and
sound effects.

The Votrax PS System offers user
expandable ROM for custom appli-
cations, user downloadable software
capability and sound effects
subroutines for easy user program-
ming. Its programmable speech rate
provides more natural rhythm, while
16 programmable amplitude levels
give you greater control of word
emphasis.

Actual size: 12.2 " x 4.5" x 2.6"

p- f<Stax

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

1/cAcbX'

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.

D Highly articulate Votrax text-to-
speech translator.

□ 255 programmable frequencies for
speech/sound effects.

n 16 amplitude levels.
D Simultaneous speech and sound effects
or speech and music.

□ 8 octave, 3 note music synthesis.
D Serial and parallel interface standard.

□ User programmable master clock.

□ User defined exception
word table.

D User programmable speech
rate, amplitude and inflection.
□ User expandable ROM
for custom applications.

□ User downloadable
software capability.
□ 3,500 character
input buffer: sub-
divisible for a printer
buffer.

□ Internal speaker and external
speaker jack.

D 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).
D Interrupt driven Z-80 microprocessor.

□ Parallel /Serial interconnect modes.

□ Proper number string translation: the
number "1 54" is pronounced "one
hundred fifty four".

To order, see your local computer
retailer or call toll-free

1-800-521-1350

Michigan residents, please call
(3 13) 58 8-0341. 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

f)

*«SQfc

^% ti

**mi,

Circle 500 on inquiry card.

Technical Aspects of IBM
PC Compatibility

It takes more than an 8088 board to create a plug-compatible

machine

by Charlie Montague, Dave Howse, Bob Mikkelsen, Don

In late 1981, IBM unveiled the IBM
Personal Computer (PC), which in-
cluded features that encouraged
third-party software and hardware
vendors to design compatible prod-
ucts. Unlike IBM's previous com-
puters, the PC offers an open ar-
chitecture and system software pro-
duced by Microsoft. Additionally, the
company published technical speci-
fications for the PC's hardware and
software interfaces in its Technical
Reference Manual.

Almost immediately following the
introduction of the PC, it became ob-
vious that the economic success of
the machine, the promise of a large
applications-software base, and the
inclusion of the features noted above
would combine to make the PC an in-
dustry standard. The opportunity for
a PC-compatible computer was here.

To produce a compatible computer
requires addressing a variety of
issues that generally fall into two
major categories: hardware com-
patibility and software compatibility.
If both hardware and software prod-
ucts designed for the PC can run
without modification on your new
machine, you have a PC-compatible
computer.

Hardware Aspects

Hardware compatibility divides
into the areas of system architecture

and physical interface. The architec-
ture, or central processor and its I/O
(input/output) and memory maps,
obviously is of primary importance to
the hardware/software interface.

The architecture of a compatible
system must be either equivalent to,
or a superset of, the IBM PC.
Plug-compatible hardware achieves
compatibility when the differences in
implementation techniques remain

With the introduction

of the PC, it became

obvious that IBM had

established a new

microcomputer industry

standard.

transparent to installed hardware and
software modules.

The first step is selection of a micro-
processor compatible with the 8088.
While Intel produces a family of
microprocessors that are compatible
with the 8088 at a machine-code
level, important architectural dif-
ferences affect compatibility at the
system level. Specifically, these dif-
ferences include variations in the
data-bus structure, the hardware-
interrupt interface, and the ability to

Rein, and Dick Mathews

interface to the 8087 numeric-data
processor. System timing is also an
important design consideration be-
cause many factors affect processor
throughput, and changes to these
factors often produce unpredictable
effects. The processor reference-clock
frequency affects the execution speed
of the 8088 microprocessor. While
changing the clock frequency yields
predictable results with external
events, a change in the data-bus
width results in unpredictable
changes in throughput. Obviously,
the most compatible microprocessor
is the 8088. (See the text box "Levels
of PC Compatibility" on page 248 for
a detailed description of the architec-
tural differences and their effects on
compatibility.)

Input and Output

Software modules must interface
with hardware input and output reg-
isters. Because IBM released the
internal register descriptions of the
PC's I/O system to independent pro-
grammers, most applications soft-
ware makes use of them. When you
design a compatible machine, you
can include any type of I/O devices
provided that the command, status,
and data registers appear exactly the
same to the software. The processor
makes decisions based on the status
registers; a processor will make cor-

November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. 247

rect decisions if the status registers
respond correctly to output com-
mands. All register and bit addresses
for both the status and command in-
formation must therefore correspond
exactly with those used by the IBM
PC.

Higher-level communication or
data-transfer protocols depend on the
hardware/software interface, thus re-
quiring physical compatibility with
the IBM PC I/O system. Any dif-
ferences in the I/O devices must be
transparent to both the software
modules and to the user. For exam-
ple, if a software module writes data
to video memory, its location on the
display device and its content must
replicate what would appear on the
PC.

Another essential area of com-
patibility, the floppy-disk drive and
controller, becomes relatively easy to
implement. Generally, the disk for-
mat must be compatible with the
PC's, which requires a controller
compatible with the NEC 765 or Intel
8272.

The keyboard may be the most
maligned component of the IBM PC,
but it is still important for com-
patibility. Obviously, the software
and hardware interfaces to the key-
board must be compatible, but even
adherence to the layout and ap-
pearance of the PC's keyboard be-
comes important because many ap-
plications programs refer to pictures
of the IBM keyboard in their docu-
mentation. Fortunately, a number of
suppliers of PC-compatible key-
boards exist.

The final hardware-compatibility
consideration takes into account the
variety of expansion boards available
for the PC. These add-on peripheral
boards plug into a 62-pin expansion
slot and the 8288 bus controller deter-
mines the electrical characteristics of
the data transfer in response to status
information from the 8088. The data
transfer occurs in 8-bit bytes upon re-
quests from the 8088 processor and
the 8237 DMA (direct memory ac-
cess) controller. Bus signals allow
synchronization of the transfers by
either the system-processor board or
the expansion board. Other inputs to
the bus connector allow the board to

Levels of PC Compatibility by Ronnie Ward

(Editor's note: Future Computing
has done a large amount of research
on the effect of the IBM PC on the
microcomputer marketplace. One of
its reports, released in the May 31,
1983, issue of the company's newslet-
ter, Future Views, analyzes the field of
IBM PC-compatible computers. The
following information, excerpted from
this issue, discusses various levels of
PC compatibility as it is achieved by
these machines. . . . G.W.)

Future Computing divides machines into
four compatible categories:

1. Operationally compatible. These
computers should be able to run the top-
selling software intended for the IBM PC.
Their degree of software compatibility can
be determined by the number of the three
interface areas implemented (display key-
board, and sound) and the correctness of
the implementation. They should be able
to use add-on boards designed for the IBM
PC and read and write IBM PC disks
(single- and double-sided). They provide
the same user interface for software
documentation compatibility and useful-
ness. The machines typically offer com-
plementary features to the IBM PC. These
features (which may include portability,
monochrome display graphics, or a low
price) attract buyers. Retail stores carry the
products initially if the IBM PC is unavail-
able. These products are carried even if the

IBM PC is sold in the same store. They
sell well with the IBM PC because of their
complementary features. They also serve
as a backup to the store should something
happen to hinder availability of the IBM
PC. As shown in table 1, Future Com-
puting Inc. categorizes several machines as
operationally compatible.

2. Functionally compatible. These
computers cannot run software intended for
the IBM PC because of significant varia-
tions in their implementation of the three
interface areas. Instead, the manufacturer
or software publisher separately packages
a different version of the top-selling IBM
PC programs. This means that they can
read/ write and process information for
IBM disks. The machines cannot use IBM
add-on boards. Due to design differences
in the three interface areas, they cannot
move to become operationally compatible
with the IBM PC. Moreover, the manufac-
turers of these machines do not want to
become operationally compatible with the
IBM PC. These products are positioned to
sell against the IBM PC. The machines are
priced competitively and offer functional
advantages. The functions attract buyers.
Retail stores carry these products instead
of the IBM PC, or in addition to the IBM
PC. Currently, only one machine, the
Texas Instruments Professional, is con-
sidered by Future Computing Inc. to have
the software base to be categorized as func-
tionally compatible.

3. Data compatible. These machines do
not run the top-selling software intended

request service either by interrupt or
DMA. Obviously, a compatible sys-
tem must provide a PC-compatible
bus interface to allow users access to
the myriad of peripheral boards on
the market. (See "Expanding on the
IBM PC," page 168.)

Software Compatibility

To establish software compatibility,
three major areas were explored:
ROM (read-only memory) compati-
bility, MS-DOS compatibility, and
BASIC compatibility. You must start
with the firmware located in ROM,
sometimes referred to as the ROM
BIOS (basic input/output system) or
Bootstrap ROM. This software per-
forms the system checkout and test-

ing; the initialization of the memory,
interrupt vectors, I/O, scratchpad,
and flag values; the BIOS level inter-
face via interrupt vectors for I/O
manipulation; and the operating sys-
tem bootstrap.

The first function, system checkout
and testing, is normally not critical to
any off-the-shelf software. Therefore,
the degree of compatibility must
assure only that the components and
functional elements that are similar
to the PC's are indeed present and
tested. The more critical compatibil-
ity requirements occur with the ini-
tialization of the memory, interrupt
vectors, I/O, scratchpad, and flags.
IBM uses both a format and location
criteria for the scratchpad and a flag

248 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

for the IBM PC, nor has the manufacturer
separately packaged its own version of the
top IBM PC software. Add-on boards de-
signed for the IBM PC cannot be used.
These machines can read or write IBM
disks (sometimes), but in most cases,
nothing can be done with the data trans-
ferred. They can move to become func-
tionally compatible by releasing their own
versions of the top-selling IBM programs.
This would require significant effort on the
manufacturer's part and close cooperation
with software vendors. The most likely
candidate machines to move in the next
year are the NCR Decision Mate, the
Wang PC, and the Zenith Z-100. Manufac-
turers of data-compatible machines do not
necessarily want to become functionally
compatible with the IBM PC. These ma-
chines are sold either in markets where
they do not compete with the IBM PC, or
they are positioned to coexist with the IBM
PC in organizations with multiple personal
computers.

4. Incompatible. These machines cannot
exchange data disks with the IBM PC.
Even if they could, they do not run the top-
selling software available on the IBM PC.
These machines use Intel 16-bit micropro-
cessors, and some have implemented MS-
DOS. The manufacturers of these ma-
chines have chosen not to be compatible at
any level with the IBM PC. They are posi-
tioned to be sold in completely different
markets and are included in Future Com-
puting's non-IBM compatible forecast,
which, by the way, is a very large market.

Operationally

Functionally

Data

Compatible

Compatible

Compatible

Incompatible

• uses 8088 micro-

• uses 8088/8086

• uses 8088/8086

• uses 8088/8086

processor

microprocessor

microprocessor

microprocessor

• runs top IBM PC

•runs their own

• may not run top

• may not run top

labeled software

version of top IBM

IBM programs

IBM programs

• uses IBM

programs

• cannot use IBM

• cannot use IBM

peripheral cards

•cannot use IBM

peripheral cards

peripherals

• can read/write

peripheral cards

• can read and/or

• cannot read/write

IBM disks (SSDD

• can read/write

write IBM disks

IBM disks

and DSDD)

IBM disks (SSDD

(SSDD and/or

• can move to data

• same user inter-

and DSDD)

DSDD)

compatible

face for documenta-

• different user

• different user

tion, display,

interface

interface

keyboard, sound

• cannot move to

• can move to

operationally

functionally

compatible

compatible

Best:

Tl Professional

Datamac 1600

Altos 586

Columbia Data's

EAGLE 1600

CDJ Dot

MPC

Hitachi PC

DEC Rainbow 100

COMPAQ

MAD-1

Durango Poppy

Better:

MTI P.E.C.

PBS

Corona PC

NCR Decision Mate

Fujitsu Micro 16

Dynalogic

Olivetti M20

Gavilan

Hyperion

with 8086 card*

Grid Compass

Good:

Pronto Series 16*

NABU 1600

Eagle PC

SORD M343*

NEC-APC

Seequa

Wang PC

ONYX 2000

Chameleon

Zenith Z-100

*According to prod-
uct specifications

SKS Personal
Computer

Sumicom 330

Televideo TS
1602/3

Victor 9000

Table 1: The IBM PC-compatible categories

region that begins at <Seg> 0040
hexadecimal : < Offset > 0000 hexa-
decimal. The ROM BIOS interrupt
vectors (INT through INT 1FH)
must be initialized to point to func-
tions identical to the PC's.

The ROM BIOS also maintains
control of the standard low-level
hardware and peripheral interfacing
required for I/O manipulation and
parameter passing. The BIOS is es-
sentially a collection of routines and
tables accessible through the soft-
ware-interrupt feature of the 8088. In
designing a compatible machine, you
must derive the functional definition
of each BIOS entry point by study-
ing the PC standard and performing
exhaustive testing. IBM documents

the input and output parameters of
each function but no existing docu-
mentation specifies the resulting sys-
tem behavior.

The last major function of the ROM
BIOS is bootstrapping the operating
system. Compatible bootstrapping
requires reading sector #1 (512 bytes)
on track #0 of head #0 into RAM
memory at location <Seg> :
< Offset > 7C00 hexadecimal using
ROM BIOS INT 13 hexadecimal.
When this boot sector is in memory,
control transfers to the boot address
(0000:7C00).

MS-DOS and PC-DOS

Because PC-DOS and MS-DOS
share the same origins, the quest for

a compatible operating system isn't
formidable. To successfully emulate
PC-DOS, we at Columbia Data Prod-
ucts (CDP) provided a second BIOS
and modified the MS-DOS source
code. MS-DOS requires its own BIOS
to provide a well-defined interface
between the operating system and
the hardware and peripherals. On
the PC or a compatible, however, the
PC/MS-DOS BIOS uses the ROM
BIOS and its existing low-level
drivers. Therefore, the machine-
independent part of MS-DOS resides
in RAM with the tailored MS-DOS
BIOS. The resulting operating system
behaves like PC-DOS. Because the
same level of documentation is not
made available for the PC-DOS BIOS

November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. 249

as is for the ROM BIOS, you must
resort to information from Microsoft's
documentation and exhaustive test-
ing for defining the tailored MS-DOS
BIOS. The BIOS and the DOS reside
in the memory area from < Seg > 0:

< Offset > 600 hexadecimal to

< Offset > 2E00 hexadecimal.
Even the size of MS-DOS becomes

an important compatibility con-
sideration. Most applications-soft-
ware packages provide instructions
for the initial program setup. Often,
the setup procedure requires that you
copy the operating system to the
system-tracks portion of the program
disk to make it bootable. If a compati-
ble DOS is larger than PC-DOS, this
procedure would overwrite data on
the program disk. Therefore, the
maximum disk BIOS size is 2K bytes.
In general, the Columbia Data
Products implementation of MS-
DOS 1.25 supports all PC-DOS func-
tion calls and performs all re-
quired actions. Furthermore, we in-
corporated software handshaking on
Serial Communications Device #0 via
<XON - XOFF> . Other extra func-

tions include the redirection of
parallel-printer data (nongraphics) to
Serial Communications Device #0 and
the inclusion of RAM-disk capability.

A BASIC interpreter (GW BASIC)
from Microsoft, renamed BASICA for
compatibility reasons, is compatible
with IBM's Advanced-Disk BASIC. In
IBM's implementation of BASIC, part
of the interpreter resides in ROM,
always available. Because of the high
cost of fixing ROM bugs as well as the
degree of difficulty in making GW
BASIC compatible with BASICA,
CDP chose to implement BASIC en-
tirely in RAM.

Tailoring GW BASIC for compati-
bility involves purchasing and modi-
fying Microsoft's sources as well as
implementing a third BIOS. This task
poses particularly difficult problems
because most details of IBM's im-
plementation can be determined only
through testing. Most of the com-
patibility problems caused by having
RAM-based BASICA instead of
ROM-based BASICA can be over-
come by simulating the IBM PC's en-
vironment. You accomplish this by

loading different parts of the BASIC
in different locations in RAM. A
problem occurs, however, in that GW
BASIC requires larger disk space than
IBM's BASICA because part of IBM's
BASIC already resides in ROM.
When a software vendor's installation
instructions include copying BASICA
to the program disk, a RAM-based
BASICA may not fit. Another related
problem involves direct calls to the
IBM BASIC ROM. Some software de-
velopers use routines and entry
points located in IBM's BASIC ROM
interpreter, making direct calls func-
tional parts of software. These pro-
grams, needless to say, will not run
on our (or any other) PC-compatible
machine.

Testing for Compatibility

While product testing plays an im-
portant part in any product develop-
ment program, it takes on new di-
mensions and increased importance
when compatibility is involved. Be-
sides assuring product quality and
design feasibility, testing provides a
yardstick for measuring the level of

UNIQUE: The I/O Processor

The I/O PROCESSOR is an advanced multifunction board for your IBM PC*, XT* and compatible systems.
The I/O PROCESSOR is like no other. The I/O PROCESSOR includes its own on-board "computer" — a Z-80
microprocessor. This computing capability offers a versatile selection of features, expandability and
time-saving speed.

The I/O PROCESSOR includes two parallel ports, one RS-232 serial port, 64K RAM printer buffer and a
Real Time Chronograph with reliable battery back up.

The I/O PROCESSOR'S printer buffer saves you from many wasted hours of waiting to useyourcomputer
while the printer is printing. The printer buffer takes data from your computer, stores it, then sends it to your
printer. Your computer is free for you to use! The I/O PROCESSOR'S one-touch copy button allows you to make
numerous copies of important information — quickly and easily.

The I/O PROCESSOR offers unmatched versatility. The I/O PROCESSOR allows you to reproduce pictures,
charts and graphs from the screen directly to any of the popular dot matrix printers. Now your valued
information and designs won't be lost — simply print them.

The I/O PROCESSOR is expandable to meet your growing needs. Expandable features include down-
loading programs, color plotter controls and more. These features can be added with the simple installation
of optional PROMs.

The I/O PROCESSOR is built to exceed the highest industry standards and is backed with a two year
replacement warranty Available from your local dealer from $249.

For more information on the I/O PROCESSOR and other fine products for your IBM and Apple computers,
please call or write us. Dealer inquiries invited.

mfl svsTGms

An Enconi Company

" PC and XT are registered trademarks ol IBM

2015 O' Toole Ave., San Jose, CA 95131
(408)943-0596

250 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

Circle 275 on inquiry card.

It s True - We Did It !

We have met or have beaten most advertised prices.

Don't be foolish. Buy Direct!

EAGLE

OUR PC FLYS

IBM Compatible

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HAYES 1200B 300/ 1200 Baud. Internal
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IBM Word Processor $349,00

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and CP/M. Wordstar. Mailmerge. ACECALC,
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Head Cleaning Kit .
16KRamKits4116 200NS
64K Ram Kits 4164 200 NS.
Epson Printer Service Manual .
Epson Graftex Pius . .
Paper (Prices F.O.B S.P.)

.$24.95

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252 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

Circle 297 on inquiry card

compatibility with the IBM PC. The
result to someone who buys our
computer is that the software and
hardware solutions offered for the
IBM PC can be used on ours as well.
The goal for this compatibility test-
ing is simple— test everything. When
priorities must be set, the hot-
test-selling products are tested first.
However, all commercially available
products must eventually be tested.

Additions and Enhancements

If features are going to be added to
a configuration, they must not affect
compatibility. New features must not
interfere in any way with existing or
optional system components. Addi-
tional expansion slots, an external
reset switch, a combination mono-
chrome/color graphics board, a faster
power-on sequence, and a ROM
monitor with diagnostics and debug-
ger cannot affect compatibility. In ad-
dition, compatibility cannot be sacri-
fied when software is bundled with
the system. Nor can it be sacrified
when features that are optional on
the IBM PC are made standard on the
compatible computer.

Summary

Many important issues confront
any manufacturer of a PC-compatible
product. Even though IBM published
the hardware and software interfaces
for the PC, it is not a trivial task to
build a compatible computer. Not
only must all the hardware issues be
addressed (IBM's Technical Reference
Manual is neither complete nor total-
ly accurate), but also all software
issues, including DOS, DOS utilities,
BASIC, and ROM-based software,
must be addressed. In addition, with
the introduction of the XT, IBM pro-
vides another subtly different stan-
dard to emulate. As IBM extends its
PC product line, it will undoubtedly
set new standards that all manufac-
turers of IBM-compatible products
will be forced to emulate. ■

This article was written by staffers at Columbia
Data Products Inc. (9150 Rumsey Rd., Columbia,
MD 21045): Charlie Montague, director of technical
services; Dave Hawse, hardware desigJi manager;
Bob Mikkelsen, program office manager; Don Rein,
software engineering manager; and Dick Mathews,
vice-president of planning and development.

NEW ENGLAND'S

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COLUMBIA PC
1600

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SOFTWARE

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dBase tl $ 457.25

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SOFTWARE ARTS

TK. Solver S CALL

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PFS: File S 93.95

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PFS: Graph S 93.95

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Visiword S 286.00

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DISK FILE, .5Vi Elephant Trunk" ,.S 21.95

THE ENHANCED IBM ALTERNATIVE

TRULY IBM COMPATIBLE

IBM Hardware & Software compatability in a
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Runs MS-DOS, CP.M 86 or MP/M 86, OASIS-
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PLUS Perfect Writer, Speller, Calc and File.
Fast Graph, Space Commanders & Home Ac-
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comes w MS-DOS Super pak

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KEY TRONIC, INC. QUADCOLOR I IBM Color Card . . S CALL

Enhanced Word Processing Keyboard Model QUADCOLOR II 640 by 200 S CALL

KB-5150. Familiar key placement of QUADCOLOR III 640 by 400 .... $ CALL

touchtypists. Key legends instead of obsure QUADLINK $ CALL

Symb0lS S 1 " 00 STB SYSTEMS "SUPER RIO" CARD

The Truly ultimate IBM add-on Eight+ Func-

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Full expandability from 64K to 256K • Two RS232 P° rts - one parallel

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Serial Modem Port • Parallel cable

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Drive (software) * Serial cab!e

64K starts at $ 295.00 Simply The Best $ CALL

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The Making of the IBM PC

IBM sat back and watched the microcomputer market develop before

jumping in and dominating the race

by Brian Camenker

Back in 1914, a banker persuaded
three companies to combine and
form the Computer-Tabulating-
Recording Corporation. Thomas Wat-
son Sr. was hired as the general
manager; he renamed the company
International Business Machines
(IBM) in 1924, after starting a suc-
cessful branch in Canada.

The world's number-one computer
company now owns 11,000 patents
and spent $3 billion on research and
development last year. But IBM's
70-year success story can be ex-
plained in one word: marketing.
Nobody does it better. This fascinat-
ing company is an example of institu-
tionalized excellence. It has never had
a layoff (even during the Great
Depression), never failed to make a
profit and grow internally, and, in its
domestic operations, has never been
unionized.

If you are one of the few who have
been around computers from their
beginnings, you may have found
IBM's jump into the personal com-
puter world something of a deja-vu.
Many people think that IBM was the
first producer of commercial com-
puters; however, a company called
Remington Rand introduced the

UNIVAC in 1951. IBM entered the
market a full year later with a less
advanced model, but within five
years Big Blue's market share was 85
percent.
For one reason or another, when

During a year of six-

and seven-day work

weeks, one IBM

tradition after another

was broken.

the minicomputer market appeared
in the late 1960s and early 1970s, IBM
failed to move into it, leaving the gap
open for upstarts like Digital Equip-
ment Corporation and Data General
to make it big. Therefore, in the late
1970s, people were wondering if IBM
would jump into microcomputers or
let this open market slip by, too.

However, a company of 365,000
people as heavily layered in bureau-
cracy as IBM does not normally
sprint along with the changing
events. But when Apple Computer
and Radio Shack proved the ex-
istence of this lucrative new market,

IBM executives took notice. Time was
of the essence, though, and IBM
wondered, says retired chairman
Frank T. Carey, "How do you make
an elephant tap dance?"

Current Chairman John Opel elab-
orated on the problem, saying, "You
have to have people free to act, or
they become dependent. They don't
have to be told; they have to be al-
lowed." To remedy that, Opel has
established separate entities— within
IBM but emancipated from the
bureaucracy— called Independent
Business Units (IBUs). IBM acts as
the venture capitalist, if you will, to
these companies- within-the-com-
pany. Fortune magazine called it
"How to start your own company
without leaving IBM," and others
have recognized it as a low-risk way
to enter new markets. In the past four
years 14 IBUs have been chartered.
Some have prospered, but by far the
most successful is the Entry Systems
(Personal Computer) unit.

In July 1980, Philip D. Estridge, a
division vice-president, was placed in
charge of a 12-member team and
given 12 months to create a com-
petitive personal computer (see
"IBM's Estridge," page 88). The team

254 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

Circle 329 on inquiry card.

With the p-System from -~

For: IBM PC & XT CORONA COLUMBIA EAGLE COMPAQ COLBY DOT HYPERION

Do you feel stifled by your operating
system? The p- System from NCI wfll
release you. It is the complete program
development environment for the IBM
Personal Computer and compatibles. This
is the fast p-System with the special
p-machine emulator developed by NCI.

The p-System from NCI gives you
everything you need in one system at far
less than the cost to add similar utilities
to any other OS. It includes a powerful
screen editor, a multi-function file
manager and RAMdisk support for fast
access to files. Dynamic memory
allocation lets you create programs larger
than 64K and a print buffer frees your

computer to perform other tasks while
printing.

This operating system is stable, friendly
and easy to use. Command options are
presented on a menu requiring only a
single keystroke. The 8087 Numeric
Coprocessor Support allows extremely fast
floating point calculations and the
asynchronous I/O lets you use serial
printer and communications routines.

With the p-System you can choose either
UCSD Pascal, Fortran 77 or Basic as your
programming language. NCI also offers
hard disk support for the IBM XT,
Corona, Columbia, Corvus, Tallgrass,
Davong, Genie 5+5, QCS, Datamac,

SPEED. PORTABILITY. RELIABILITY.

Microdisk and Santa Clara. Corvus,
OMNINET support can easily be added
as well as memory cards from AST
Research and Tall Tree Systems, the
Colorplus card and the Hercules graphics
card.

When you buy the p-System from NCI you
get technical support and complete
documentation.

For full details call or write:

Network Consulting Inc.
Discovery Park,
Suite 110 - 3700 GUmore Way
Bumaby, B.C. Canada V5G 4M1
(604) 430-3466

_ M Personal Computer and IBM Personal Computer XT are trade marks of International Business Machines Corporation. The p-System™ is a trade mark of Softech Microsystems. Inc. UCSD Pascal is a trade mark
of the Regents of the University of California. OMNINET is a trade mark of Corvus Systems Inc. 5+5 is a trade mark of Genie Computer Corporation. Colorplus is a trade mark of Frederick Electronics.

looked and listened to what was hap-
pening in the microcomputer market
at that time and speculated on what
future users' needs might be. During
a year of six- and seven-day work
weeks, the planners broke many IBM
traditions— acts that are in many
cases keys to the PCs present
success.

The PC is built around Intel's 16-bit
8088 microprocessor. Although 8-bit
computers were the fashion at the
time, the design team wanted a com-
puter that was powerful enough to
"be used without too many changes
for the next decade or so." Because
the 8088 is cheaper to use than its
older brother, the 8086, cost has been
kept down.

The PC's open architecture philos-
ophy was quite a contrast to the tight
world of mainframes. IBM made all
the technical specifications available
to outside companies, opening a
fountain of compatible software and
hardware peripherals for the PC In
the microcomputer world, this serves
to strengthen a company's market
position. Even the operating system,

PC-DOS (IBM's name for MS-DOS),
is licensed from Microsoft.

But being in the IBM-peripheral
business isn't as easy as it would
seem. When the new version of the
PC, the XT, came out in March 1983,
the expansion slots were narrower.

Many of IBM's peripherals for the
PC are bought outright from periph-
eral suppliers and simply given the
IBM tag and sold through IBM's dis-
tribution channels with a hefty mark-
up. Many customers have found that
they can save hundreds of dollars by
buying disk drives and memory
chips directly from the manufacturer.
Sometimes even computer stores
stock items labeled both ways.

Independent Retailing Allowed

IBM has broken a tradition in mar-
keting by letting independent re-
tailers sell PCs. Again, direct selling
is de rigueur in the mainframe realm,
but it wouldn't really get the PC out
to the general public. IBM studied
Apple's successful methods of setting
up networks with franchises such as
Computerland and independents,

emphasizing dealer support and
customer education. This allows for
broad-based distribution to the
public. IBM also has its own product
centers that handle PCs. In practice,
the retailers sometimes find them-
selves competing with Big Blue for
corporate customers. In addition,
IBM's sales reps have a tendency to
try to persuade customers to buy the
higher-priced Displaywriter instead
of PCs, once they're interested.

We can certainly speculate on
where the PC may go from here. The
PC-to-mainframe connection seems
obvious. And earlier this year IBM
bought 15 percent of Rolm Corpora-
tion, a manufacturer of telephone-
switching networks. Recent invest-
ments such as this may be seen as
part of IBM's long-awaited local-
network scheme. ■

Brian Camenker (133 Waban St., Newton, MA
02158) is a microcomputer consultant specializing
in the IBM PC. He is a member of the Boston Com-
puter Society and has done software reviews for its
IBM PC magazine, PC REPORT. Recently, he and
friends have fonned a software company.

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256 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

Circle 433 on inquiry card.

Concurrent CP/M

By permitting a 16-bit microcomputer to execute several processes

that seem to occur simultaneously, this operating system

efficiently uses computer and operator resources

by Joe Guzaitis

A growing sentiment at Digital
Research can be expressed as

CCP/M : 16 :: CP/M : 8

that is, Concurrent CP/M is to 16-bit
microcomputers as CP/M is to 8-bit
machines. Bold stuff. But not really,
when you consider that CP/M (con-
trol program for microcomputers) has
come to dominate the 8-bit market.

But what exactly is concurrency,
the major enhancement of this oper-
ating system? Concurrency does not
allow two processes to occur at the
same time in the same place, but it
does permit many processes to occur
sequentially in round-robin fashion
in infinitesimal time slices, so that
they seem to occur simultaneously in
the same place. Therefore, although
most systems spend a lot of time
waiting for input from a person or
process, Concurrent CP/M permits a
computer to perform a task while
waiting for input from another
process.

Multitasking, multiprogramming,
and concurrency allow as much of a
system's resources as possible to per-
form useful work for as much of its
operating time as possible. Concur-
rency increases throughput, which in
turn results in increased efficiency
and cost-effectiveness.

16-bit Advantages

Concurrent CP/M has the potential
of stimulating the 16-bit microcom-
puter market the way Visicalc stimu-
lated the early 8-bit field— by giving
the world a powerful example of a
microcomputer's capabilities.

Let's face it: 16-bit computers are
not inherently faster or more versatile
than 8-bit machines. In fact, an 8-bit
computer can often run rings around
a 16-bit machine. In addition, a wider
variety of applications software is
available for 8-bit computers than for
16-bit machines. Why spend the extra
money for this new technology?

There are two good reasons. The
first is memory. Getting an OUT OF
MEMORY message in the middle of
a program is a frustrating experience
that nearly every computer user will
encounter eventually. But this prob-
lem isn't insurmountable; there is
usually a way to work around mem-
ory limitations.

A better reason to choose a 16-bit
machine is concurrency. Its large
memory requirements make its use
within an 8-bit architecture imprac-
tical. Concurrent CP/M takes up as
much as 90K bytes; 256K bytes are
actually needed to make it useful.

How Concurrency Works

To understand how concurrency is
possible, we can look at our work
habits, which resemble a type of con-
current processing. For example, as
I sit here at my word processor typ-
ing away, I break momentarily to jot
down an appointment on my calen-
dar, go back to typing, break away
again to use my calculator, return to
the keyboard, stop to look up a word
in the dictionary, then go back to typ-
ing, all the while waiting for a phone
call.

Breaks can be self -generated, such
as those made to check a word in the

dictionary, or they can be imposed
from the outside. We work in an
interrupt-driven manner, allowing
phone calls, messages, or fellow
workers' inquiries to tear us from the
task at hand. Many users of Concur-
rent CP/M say that the operating
system seems like a natural extension
of the way they work because it
enables them to switch among tasks
without losing the thread of any of
them.

Because it provides the capability
for processes to seemingly execute
simultaneously, Concurrent CP/M in-
creases processing efficiency much
the way online processing proved
more efficient than batch processing.
In batch processing, similar types of
data are accumulated over a period
of time and processed in one run.
Online processing, on the other
hand, allows a computer to appear to
handle many sources of input simul-
taneously, then usually returns to the
task's origin. Batch processing works
serially; online processing allows
another task to begin before the first
is completed, and it appears to han-
dle both processes at the same time.

Similarly, single-tasking operating
systems must process sequentially,
and multitasking systems such as
Concurrent CP/M rapidly go from
one process to another, appearing to
perform many tasks at once. And,
whereas single-tasking systems left
the operator idle much of the time,
waiting for a process to be com-
pleted, Concurrent CP/M has the
machine waiting for the operator,
ready to do more work. Concurrent
processing involves one user at a

November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. 257

time, who feeds various types of in-
put into the processor via several vir-
tual consoles, whereas online pro-
cessing provides for many users at
many consoles, all feeding into a cen-
tral computer.

How Concurrency
Looks to the User

The concept of virtual consoles
helps some users understand concur-
rent processing but confuses others.
The computer can be thought of as
having only one actual console (the
terminal) but several virtual con-
soles—equivalent consoles that can
also interact with the central pro-
cessor. The terminal can monitor one
process at a time. A concurrent oper-
ating system allows a user to go from
one process to another, switching to
various virtual consoles to monitor
different processes (see figure 1).

This procedure is analogous to the
way a television user can switch from
one channel to another, sequentially
viewing several programs. Both the
television and Concurrent CP/M per-
mit screen switching. Use of a com-
puter differs from that of a television,
though, because a computer allows
a user to interact with its programs,
whereas a television does not (we
will ignore those few cable-TV exper-
iments that permit user participa-
tion).

Another way to think of concur-
rency is to picture a computer oper-
ator sitting among several computers,
each running a different applications
program. By swiveling around, the
operator can interact with each appli-
cation—use the output from one pro-
cess to inform another, print one let-
ter while writing another, and com-
pile one program while editing an-
other and debugging a third. With
Concurrent CP/M, swiveling is re-
placed by a keystroke, which sum-
mons the program you want to mon-
itor to the terminal screen.

Processes and

Data Modes in CP/M

In Concurrent CP/M, we talk of
processes more than programs. In
this environment, a program is a
static piece of code, and a process is
what is executed. Whenever a pro-

gram is loaded into memory, a pro-
cess is created that involves code
from the program, the operating sys-
tem, and housekeeping data that in-
dicates, for example, which virtual
console to use. The operating system
monitors the process, not the
program.

There are two modes in which con-
sole output generated by a process
can be handled: dynamic and buf-
fered. Whatever task you have
selected to be in the foreground
directs its output to the console
screen, and you monitor the virtual
console assigned to that selected pro-
cess on the terminal. You must set
each virtual console to either
dynamic or buffered mode so that
the system knows how to handle con-
sole output in your absence.

However, a process not being
monitored on the screen is con-
sidered to be in the background, and
its output is not monitored. In
dynamic mode, when you select a
virtual console, you do not see the
procedure as it happened; instead,
you see the net results. For instance,
if your word processor was perform-
ing a search-and-replace procedure in
a lengthy file, you would return to
see the strings replaced but would
have missed the replacements as they
occurred.

Output is handled differently in
buffered mode. To return to our TV
analogy, buffered mode works as
though you had a videotape recorder
connected to a channel you're not
viewing, recording everything that
was going on in your absence. When
you return to that virtual console, it
replays all the updates that happened
on that console while you were away
in the sequence and context in which
they occurred.

Depending on the implementation,
information on which mode you're in
is usually available on the status line
at the bottom of the screen. The
status line also typically tells which
virtual console is being displayed and
the name of the process running and
may also include information such as
time of day, printer assigned to that
console, and disk drive in use. As
you switch screens, the status line
changes, providing information for

the next virtual console you want to
monitor.

Shared Files

Another feature that Concurrent
CP/M provides is a shared-file struc-
ture. By using BDOS calls pro-
grams can open files in one of three
modes: locked, read only, and un-
locked. Two or more concurrent pro-
cesses can access the same file; that
access is controlled by the file-access
mode.

The locked mode is the default
one. In that mode, a file can be
opened only if no other process has
that file open already. Once opened
in locked mode, the file must be
closed before any other process can
open, access, or delete it. (An ex-
tended lock feature allows a process
to keep the file locked after it's
closed.)

If a file was opened in read-only
mode, no process can write to it, but
any process can read from it. But if
a file was opened in unlocked mode,
it can be read from or written to by
any process.

For a process to access either a
read-only or unlocked file, it must
open the file in that mode. Record
locks are also available in unlocked
file mode to deny access to individual
records within an otherwise un-
locked file.

Advanced Features

As more software vendors realize
the power of concurrency, applica-
tions programs will share common
data structures that allow the pack-
ages to work interactively. Shared
files give us a hint of what's possible.
Other features that lend themselves
to the interactive environment Con-
current CP/M affords are queue man-
agement and priority setting.

A queue, a line of items waiting for
the processor's attention, is a way for
one concurrent application to com-
municate with another. In other
words, a process on one virtual con-
sole can be made to share data with
a process on a different virtual con-
sole. Because queues operate entire-
ly in RAM (random-access read/write
memory), they work quickly and
efficiently. Queues can be created,

258 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

When critics rate you tops, what do you do for an encore?

"VISUAL 50 is in a class by itself
for visual quality; the character set
is unusually clear and sharp."*

"The VISUAL 50 is the most prom-
ising new terminal to come out so
far, especially in light of its price."*

"We consider this terminal to be
one of today's best products in price/
performance, its incorporation of
economically designed features and
its broad range of functionality. "* *

Feature Comparison Chart *

ADDS VISUAL
Feature 60 50

TeleVideo Zenith
925 19

Wyse
100

Style 4 4

4 3

5

Overall Quality 2 5

3 4

3

Keyboard 3 5

2 4

2

Rollover/false keying 5 5

3 4

4

Video Quality 1 5

4 4

3

No. of attributes 5 5

5 2

5

Attribute method 2 5

2 4

2

Suitability for micros 2 5

3 5

3

24 39

26 30

27

List Price $895 695

995 895

995

*MICROSYSTEMS-March 1983

* THE ERGONOMICS NEWSLETTER- August 1982

Meet the
VISUAL 55

The VISUAL 50, widely acclaimed
as the best performing low cost
terminal in the industry, is a
tough act to follow. But the
new VISUAL 55 extends
its predecessor's per-
formance even further by adding
12 user-programmable non-
volatile function keys, extended
editing features and selectable
scrolling regions ("split screen").

Both the VISUAL 50 and
VISUAL 55 offer features you
expect only from the high priced
units. For example, the enclosure
is economically designed and
can be easily swiveled and tilted
for maximum operator comfort.
A detached keyboard, smooth
scroll, large 7 x 9 dot matrix
characters and non-glare screen
are only a few of the many human
engineering features.

Another distinctive feature of the
VISUAL 50 and VISUAL 55 is their

emulation capa
bility. Both terminals are
code-for-code compatible with the
Hazeltine Espirit,™ ADDS View-
point,® Lear Siegler ADM3A and
DEC VT52f In addition, the
VISUAL 55 offers emulations of the
Hazeltine 1500/1510 and VISUAL
200/210. Menu-driven set-up modes
in non-volatile memory allow easy
selection of terminal parameters.
And you're not limited to mere
emulation. Unbiased experts
rate the combination of features
offered by the VISUAL 50/55 fam-
ily significantly more attractive
than competitive terminals.

Both VISUAL terminals are
UL and CSA listed and exceed
FCC Class A requirements and
U.S. Government standards for
X-ray emissions.

Call or write for full details.

See for yourself

Visual Technology Incorporated

540 Main Street, Tewksbury, MA 01876

Telephone (617) 851-5000. Telex 951-539

Circle 497 on inquiry card.

APPLICATIONS

PROGRAM

1

WORD PROCESSOR

/"virtual \_

^PROCESSOR/

DISK

DRIVE

A

DISK

DRIVE

B

f VIRTUAL V /""

V CONSOLE J ^

APPLICATIONS

PROGRAM

2

SPREAD SHEET

— i

/
1

APPLICATIONS
PROGRAM
3
DATABASE

APPLICATIONS

PROGRAM

4

MODEM

< VIRTUAL \_ __AviRTUAL \

PROCESSOR^ " \^PROCESSORy~

-~ C

f OPERATING "N
V SYSTEM J

VIRTUAL
CONSOLE

, PHYSICAL
-*7 CONSOLE

~\_ _f VIRTUAL A

J V CONSOLE J

Figure 1: This diagram illustrates a system where the terminal, or physical console, is monitoring a virtual console running an electronic-
spreadsheet program.

opened, closed, and deleted just as
disk files can, and you can read or
write to them on a conditional or un-
conditional basis. The data structures
of the programs must be compatible,
however, to allow for queue manage-
ment.

Another advanced feature that con-
currency permits is priority setting.
Specifically, it allows you to set a
priority level on each process so that
important processes are not hindered
by lesser ones. Because a system's
processes all share the same central
processor, they affect each other's
operation. For instance, if your
modem is attached to one console
and is receiving data, you want to en-
sure that the data is not slowed down
by work you're performing on an-
other console. Moreover, because
data integrity and telephone charges
are involved, the task receiving the
data demands top priority. Less im-
portant tasks can run more slowly.

To ensure that the more crucial task
gets preferential handling, you need
not use such tactics as postponing
"saves" as you work in your word
processor or stopping the compiler
while data is being sent or received.
The priority-setting capability lets
you assign the reception of data

priority over other processes. If the
modem is using bits-per-second (bps)
rates above 1200, other processes may
slow down when the modem is re-
ceiving or sending data. A lower bps
rate, however, should cause no
problem.

Priority setting will probably be a
standard feature of applications pack-
ages designed to run under Concur-
rent CP/M. Until those packages are
available, however, it must be accom-
plished via a system-function call.

Another advanced capability that is
also implemented through a system-
function call is process detachment,
which allows certain processes that
need not be monitored, such as print
spooling, to be detached from a vir-
tual console and run unattended,
thus freeing a virtual console for
other tasks. Concurrent CP/M also
provides the program logic for other
features that do not actually reside in
the operating system. Until they are
made available in software packages,
though, the only way to get them is
to program them yourself. Those
packages should also encourage soft-
ware designers to standardize user
interfaces because when users can
rapidly switch back and forth among
programs, the differences between

software packages can affect operator
efficiency.

Additional Benefits

Because printing can take a great
deal of time and use little of the pro-
cessor's power, many people invest in
a hardware or software spooler,
which allows printing to operate as
a background task while another task
is carried out in the foreground.

With concurrency, a spooler is un-
necessary, because the operating sys-
tem allows you to print a file from
one virtual console while working on
several others. Moreover, each virtual
console can be assigned to a different
printer, so you can print several files,
each from a different console, on the
same or different printers, while
working with other programs. If two
files are trying to print a file on the
same printer, the first to begin print-
ing "owns" the printer, and the other
one must wait until the first is fin-
ished. During that time, all activity
on the waiting console is suspended.

Communication is another task for
which concurrency will prove useful.
Linking many microcomputers in
your organization can increase the
efficiency of each operator because it
makes available such features as

260 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

At Last!

ISbur Final Assembly

Is Final

If you are like most computer
designers and manufacturers, you
build products from the inside out,
drawing board or CAD, to bread-
board, to assembly line, and finally,
into a "can'.'

That last thing that you do is the first
thing your customer sees. In today's
competition, functional packaging is
paramount. Your competitive edge is
PARA DYNAMICS. And, they provide
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Whether a rack mount, desk top,
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heat related failures, the cause of
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Para Dynamics constant voltage
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Para Dynamics builds a variety
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See us at

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Telex: 140238 PDC UT

Circle 352 on inquiry card.

Circle 533 on inquiry card.

"TIT

INTELLIGENT
PERIPHERAL

CONTROLLER

i i \

8 SERIAL I/O PORTS

3 PARALLEL I/O PORTS

32 If BYTE STATIC RAM

. Z80B 6 MHz PROCESSOR with 32K
byte RAM and up to 32K byte ROM
allows the IPC to be used as a STAND
ALONE COMPUTER

. DUAL PORTON-BOARD RAM available
to the S-1 00 BUS through either BANK
SELECT or 24 Bit addressing

. PROGRAMMABLEVECTORSforS-100
Interrupts provide INCREASED FLEX-
IBILITY

. ON-BOARD 9519 INTERRUPT CON-
TROLLER for FAST port servicing

. 4 PROGRAMMABLE 1 6 Bit COUNTER
TIMERS

. BAUD RATES (50-38.4K Baud)

. TRANSPARENCY ABILITY - For easy
DEBUGGING or INITIALIZATION by
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Parallel Ports and Interrupt Controller

. I/O HANDLER PROMS available for
CROMEMCO, ERG* and other S-1 00/
IEEE 696 systems
•Empirical Research Group, Inc.

CLOCK/ W A TCHDOG-RELA Y

. The WATCHDOG must be "TICKED" by
the program and GENERATES AUTO-
MATIC RESTARTS via S-1 00 reset pin
upon timeout.

. ADJUSTABLE RESTART ATTEMPTS
from 2 to 8 (to prevent DISK WEAR)

. On-board BATTERY BACKED-UP
CRYSTAL CLOCK outputs month, day,

• day of week, hours, minutes and sec-
onds down to .01 sec. and interrupts at
preset times

. 8DPDTDRYCONTACTRELAYS-Hard-
ware delay on dropout, 0-2 seconds

• 8 BYTE battery backed-up RAM

PIO CARD

. 64 BIT OUTPUTS - 8 Bytes of 8 Bits

. Outputs can DIRECTLY DRIVE relays
. 32 BIT IN PUTS -4 Bytes of 8 Bits each
. 2 Input Bytes are OPTICALLY ISOLA-
TED

• 2 Input Bytes are TTL COMPATIBLE

Write ortelephoneformore information, applica-
tion assistance, spec-sheets or price and delivery.

2800 E. BERNICE ROAD, LANSING, IL 60438

REQUESTOR
NODE

G

P/M
ERMINAL

LETTER-
QUALITY
PRINTER

CONCURRENT
MICROCOMPUTER

SERVER AND

REQUESTOR

NODE

>

CONCURRENT
H SERVER NODE
MICROCOMPUTER

)

CONCURRENT
MICROCOMPUTER

REQUESTOR
NODE

Figure 2: CP/Net supports concurrent computers connected in a network as well as other
CP/M-cot7ipatible machines.

shared files, shared resources, and
electronic mail. Figure 2 shows how
CP/Net and Concurrent CP/M permit
each computer to share files and
other resources (such as printers and
disk drives) with other computers in
the network.

The next level of utility is having
several virtual consoles running the
same or different programs at the
same time. Running the same pro-
grams can be of help to writers or
reporters, for instance, who may be
working on several articles or stories
at the same time. As an idea strikes
you for story two while you are in the
middle of story one, merely hit a key
and type some notes in that story file.
To non writers, this feature may seem
unnecessary, but I assure you it is an
efficient way to work. Flashes of in-
spiration are best recorded quickly.

This feature would also be helpful
to a financial analyst who might have
several spreadsheets running side by
side in different currencies and who
might want to use the same base-line
data and generate figures in pound,
franc, mark, and yen denominations.
By switching screens and entering
common base-line data, the appro-
priate currency spreads can be gen-
erated instantly.

Theoretical and Realistic Limits

The number of virtual consoles that
may someday be supported by a sys-
tem depends ultimately on the mem-
ory available. Let's imagine we manu-
facture computers. Knowing that
8086/8088 systems provide as much as
1 megabyte of memory and that Con-
current CP/M can use as much as 90K
bytes (supporting four virtual con-
soles with full-screen buffers), we
have about 900K bytes to work with.
By dividing that value by the number
of applications programs that are to
run concurrently, we can determine
how much memory we can use for
each application program.

Taking another approach, we could
divide 900K bytes by an estimated
average of how much memory each
application (including files) will re-
quire to see how many virtual con-
soles we could expect to have in our
system. This result is still only a
rough estimate because the operating
system must grow when the number
of virtual consoles increases beyond
four if additional screen buffers are
added.

Sixteen-bit microprocessors other
than the 8086/8088 have even more
memory. Motorola's 68000 provides
up to 16 megabytes of RAM, and the

262 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

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Circle 14 on inquiry card.

VIRTUAL \
CONSOLE )

J

(VIRTUAL
CONSOLE
1

VIRTUAL
CONSOLE

VIRTUAL
CONSOLE

USER NUMBERS

USER NUMBERS

Figure 3: Under Concurrent CP/M, each disk drive supports as many as 16 user areas, which
are numbered through 15. Any virtual console can log on to any disk drive to access pro-
grams or files.

80286 from Intel furnishes much
more than that. Clearly, with such
abundant memory, tomorrow's ma-
chines will be able to handle many
consoles, as well as highly sophisti-
cated integrated applications pack-
ages.

Two to eight virtual consoles will
probably be offered in the first wave
of Concurrent CP/M implementa-
tions. Four will probably be the
average number. After the first wave,
manufacturers may find themselves
in a race to add consoles to get the
attention of increasingly adept users.

Concurrent CP/M supports up to
16 logical disk drives— separate flop-
py drives or several virtual drives on
a hard disk or combinations of the
two. Any virtual console can log on
to any disk drive to access programs
or files.

And as do other Digital Research
operating systems, each disk drive
supports as many as 16 user numbers
(areas), numbered through 15 (see
figure 3). These areas are partitions
within the file system's environment
for grouping files. Files that are to be
accessed by any or all user numbers
on the drive are placed in user
number and given the system attri-
bute. Otherwise, you must be work-
ing in the user number to access files
within it.

Concurrent CP/M does have some
limitations. Because disks are fre-
quently shared by processes on dif-
ferent virtual consoles, you must be
careful not to have an open file on a
disk you're removing. In many
implementations, you will be able to
tell this from the status line.

Occasionally you will come across
a program that requires a lot of mem-
ory, Certain spreadsheets, debuggers,
and assemblers fit into this category.
If they are loaded first, they could use
all available memory and prevent you
from loading other programs. It is
wise, therefore, to load these last, so
that they can use only what memory
is left.

Certain applications programs
create temporary files during their
operation that never appear in the
directory. For that reason, if you load
several programs from the same
drive, they should be loaded in dif-
ferent user numbers to prevent the
process on one console from over-
writing the temporary file of a pro-
cess on another.

Concurrency on the IBM PC

The most popular implementation
of Concurrent CP/M thus far is on the
IBM Personal Computer. The PC is
designed to support four virtual con-
soles with a minimum 256K bytes.

Because the PC version of the oper-
ating system requires 90K bytes (with
all four screen buffers used), you
really would not want to run the sys-
tem with less than 256K bytes.

A PC running Concurrent CP/M
requires at least two disk drives. To
load the system, the boot disk must
be placed in drive A and a system
disk in drive B. When the system is
running, the boot disk is removed
and applications programs are
loaded from drive A. On the XT
hard-disk version of the PC, the sys-
tem can be automatically booted from
hard disk when the power is turned
on.

The system supports both serial
and parallel printers, the number of
which is determined by the number
of printer cards installed, either in the
main motherboard or in an expan-
sion interface. Both color and mono-
chrome monitors can also be used
with Concurrent CP/M.

Other Machines That
Can Run Concurrent CP/M

The list of OEMs (original equip-
ment manufacturers) signed up for
Concurrent CP/M is a lengthy one
and is growing longer every day. It in-
cludes Digital Equipment Corp.,
Texas Instruments, National Cash
Register, Fujitsu, Nippon Electric,
Olympia, Eagle, Corona, Com-
modore, MADD, Vector Graphic, and
Toshiba.

Computer systems using Concur-
rent CP/M may differ; they will prob-
ably boot differently, support dif-
ferent subsets of the CCP/M utility
superset, or have a different status
line. Most of the initial hardware
implementations will support two to
eight virtual consoles, and some
OEMs will also provide unique hard-
ware enhancements that will later
build upon the operating system's in-
herent power.

Popular Application
Combinations

One of the beauties of concurrency
is that it becomes more useful as the
operator becomes more adept. It is
also immediately useful, even to the
novice. A typical novice might, for
example, run only one applications

264 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

THE EASY CHOICE

Best Separate Compilation — Best Error Handling — Best Implementation on a Small Computer

Comments From 1983 LA AdaTEC Compiler Faire

". . . J ANUS/ Ada encompasses at least 5 times as much
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Encouragement of this kind deserves a just reward;
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Our Ada line is available on the following operating
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fts

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Copyright 1983 RR Software

OFTWARE, INC.

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BYTE November 1983 265

OPTIMIZING C86™

is now (8/15/83) in Beta Test.

Call us to see if it is available now.

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• 1,000K Addressing of code and data is supported as a compile-time
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When released commercially it will also have:

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• 8087 code inline (faster execution)

• Option for Assembler output from the compiler

• Extra functions for MSDOS 2,0

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Other Notes:

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Library
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266 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

OPTIMIZING C86 and C_to
^dBASE are trademarks of
Computer Innovations. dBASE
is a trademark of Ashton-Tate.

Circle 99 on inquiry card.

program and use another console to
run system utilities. It is helpful to a
beginner to be able to have the disk
directory on one virtual console and
the HELP utility on another, so that
while he learns how to use the sys-
tem, useful reference tools are always
on line, only a keystroke away.

For those who make intense use of
a particular applications program, it
can be useful to have several versions
of that program on the computer at
one time. Such a setup would permit
you to jump from one process to
another without having to save,
unload, and load another file.
Managers can thus have several
department's budgets on line on dif-
ferent virtual consoles, for instance,
to permit quick comparisons of the
impact of a percentage change on
each.

More popular applications con-
figurations will combine programs
that will be more powerful to a user
when run concurrently rather than
serially. Consider the programmer
who can simultaneously run a de-
bugger, an editor, and a compiler or
assembler. As the debugger turns up
bugs on one virtual console, the pro-
grammer can switch to another con-
sole and begin editing the program
immediately, while on a third console
the compiler works on a program
that had been debugged earlier that
day. After each edit, the programmer
can then switch back to the first con-
sole, find the next bug, switch back
to the editor, and continue in that
manner until all the required tasks
are completed. What used to be a
long tedious linear process thus
becomes an interactive one, eliminat-
ing much idle time.

Similarly, consider the busy project
manager, who may have a word pro-
cessor on one virtual console, a
spreadsheet on another, a database-
management program on a third,
and the fourth connected to a
modem awaiting a call. When the
data is phoned in, it is stored in a file
that can be shared by any of the other
processes. It can be entered into the
database or used by the spreadsheet
as input for other projections, which
may then be entered into the report
being written on the word processor.

i Gifford gives you more.

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In addition, our systems can run
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out and shared data bases.

All Gifford systems use Compu-
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By-P

GIFFORD COMPUTER SYSTEMS □ San Leandro, CA( 4 15) 895-0798 □ San Francisco, CA (415) 391-4570 □ Los Angeles, CA( 213) 477-3921
D Miami, FL (305) 665-9212 □ Houston, TX (713) 877-1212 D Amherst, NY (716) 833-4758 □ Telex: 704521 □

Circle 199 on inquiry card.

Photo 1: Two examples of dynamic windows, which allow a user to work and monitor several other consoles at the same time.

Moreover, the data can be made avail-
able to different processes in a frac-
tion of the time and by fewer people
than it would have taken otherwise.
Consider the secretary who is con-
nected to a network and has a word
processor on one virtual console, a
critical-path schedule on another,
and an appointment calendar on a
third. That secretary can receive in-
put and transmit output to a large
number of sources efficiently and,
more important, be more up to date
each time information is sent out
than was ever possible before.

The Future of Concurrency

Concurrent CP/M is having an im-
pact on software developers. Inte-
grated software packages represent
the first step in the development cy-
cle of a new generation of software,
and other enhancements are appear-
ing. For example, it has already
become possible to interact with pro-
cesses on several virtual consoles by
means of dynamic windowing (see
photo 1). As you work on one con-
sole you can use one or more win-
dows, of whatever size you specify,
to show you what is going on in real
time in other consoles. Furthermore,
you can log on to any console being
monitored and send input to it. A
programmer can thus see which bugs
are turning up on the debugger with-
out ever having to leave the editor
and simultaneously see how the
compiler is running without having
to log on to its virtual console.

Similarly, a project manager can
use dynamic windowing to monitor

data being received by a modem
through a window in his word pro-
cessor without having to switch
screens. Furthermore, the manager
can also work on those consoles
because they are dynamic (i.e., it is
possible to interact with them). In
other words, if he presses the func-
tion key to log on to console 3 and
has customized the window so that
he can see enough output, the man-
ager can work right there without
switching screens, while also mqni-
toring several other consoles. It may
take some effort to customize each
window to be able to see the crucial
screen output needed, but the results
can be impressive. Going back to the
TV analogy, it's like having a small
window in the corner of your TV
screen showing you what's happen-
ing on the news while you're watch-
ing MASH. When a commercial
comes up during MASH, you can
always switch the big screen to the
news and put the MASH channel in
the window to wait for that commer-
cial to end.

The hardware implications of con-
current processing are not as easy to
speculate about. Because many ma-
chines handle concurrency well, it
may be some time before we see
hardware designed around concur-
rent processing. However, features
that are desirable for this environ-
ment include the hard disk, which
can alleviate file-storage problems;
multiple floppy drives, for those who
want to eliminate shared drives; and
larger monitor screens to allow addi-
tional and bigger windows.

Conclusion

Three concepts can be used to
summarize the effects of concur-
rency: synergy, holism, and heuris-
tics. Synergy is the total effect of
separate processes working together.
It describes the cooperative action
that single-user Concurrent CP/M
permits.

Holism is the tendency in nature to
produce larger organisms from
ordered groupings of smaller organ-
isms. It is exemplified by people ex-
ploring the manifold possibilities that
16-bit computing technology repre-
sents and applying it to their needs.

Finally, heuristics, the principle of
discovery as it applies to learning,
will be practiced as computer users
and designers discover the capabili-
ties of concurrency. Concurrent pro-
cessing will exert a powerful in-
fluence on the development of hard-
ware and software and the user in-
terfaces to both.

Computer users have become more
aware of how human thinking differs
from the way a computer "thinks"
and are not as easily impressed by
computers as they once were. Users
now want enhancements that are ex-
tensions of the way they work; they
don't want to be forced to adjust to
the way a computer works. Concur-
rency is such an enhancement. It's an
idea whose time has come.l

joe Guzaitis is currently a senior technical writer
at Digital Research Inc., 160 Central Ave., Pacific
Grove, CA 93950. Prior to joining Digital Research
he was an editor for CTB/McG raw-Hill in
Monterey, California and before that a project direc-
tor with SRA/IBM in Chicago.

268 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

Microsoft languages

connect your software to

more 16-bit systems.

The largest market for 16-bit software. Over
95% of all 16-bit microcomputers run Microsoft^
operating systems, languages, or both. That means
your programs written in Microsoft languages find
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port software between systems.
A full range of languages. The versatile MS-
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Microsoft Business BASIC and MS-COBOL for
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language. And MS-Pascal, a high-level language
compiler specifically designed for microprocessor
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A total programming environment. Compatible
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Leadership in micros.
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What's more, we are constantly enhancing both
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• LSI smart modem, 300 or 1200 baud, full duplex, uses just one
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Access 1-2-3 and PC1200Bare trademarks of Novation, Inc.

Crosstalk XVI is a trademark of Microstuf Inc.

The IBM PC Meets Ethernet

Adoption of Ethernet technology enables IBM PCs to share

peripherals and information

by Larry Birenbaum

Photo 1: 3Com's Etherlink, consisting of a plug-in board and disk-based software.

272 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

Local networking, the interconnec-
tion of computers located within a
building, provides a unique comput-
ing synergy whose effectiveness is
most dramatic in the case of personal
computers.

The technology involved in local
networking of personal computers
(LNPC) combines the friendliness,
accessibility, and large software base
of personal computers with the ex-
tensibility and cost savings of local
networking. This article reviews how
one popular local network, Ethernet,
was applied to the IBM Personal
Computer (PC).

Local Networking of PCs

Local networking of personal com-
puters provides three major benefits:
peripheral sharing, information ac-
cess, and personal communication.
The most obvious benefit is perhaps
peripheral sharing, which, for exam-
ple, enables networked PCs to share
printers and high-performance disks.
Another important example of pe-
ripheral sharing is extra-network ac-
cess in the form of shared mainframe
gateways, such as IBM's 3270 and
modems.

The principal motivation for pe-
ripheral sharing is to distribute the
cost of expensive or seldom-used pe-
ripherals among the entire PC com-
munity. Less recognized, but equal-
ly important, are ergonomic improve-
ments—sharing of centralized disks
and printers that make for smaller
and quieter workstations.

The second benefit, information ac-
cess, enables several networked PCs
to share common information. Infor-
mation sharing has a significant im-
pact on personal productivity not
only because of the ease and speed
of access, but also because the infor-
mation is more timely and up to date.
And data resident in one place,
multiply accessed, isn't prone to
errors of transcription and media
conversion.

The most underrated benefit of
LNPC is personal communication, as
epitomized by electronic mail. To be
cost-effective, electronic mail must be
actively and widely used. Such wide
use is often difficult to document in
advance, therefore preventing the

cost justification needed to get ap-
proval for electronic mail's implemen-
tation. Nevertheless, any experienced
electronic-mail user can attest to the
very real productivity improvements
that electronic mail provides: it per-
mits the managing of communication
at the user's convenience, eliminates
"telephone tag," and it allows the dis-
pensing of information directly,
quickly, and reliably.

Ethernet

A technology capable of imple-
menting these three benefits— pe-
ripheral sharing, information access,
and personal communication— on
personal computers, Ethernet is a
high-performance, bus-oriented
local-networking system initially de-
signed by Xerox Corporation in the
early 1970s. It was later promulgated
as a standard by Digital Equipment
Corporation, Intel Corporation, and

Ethernet is a hardware

standard that defines

connecting equipment.

Xerox and has since been adopted by
numerous other companies, includ-
ing Apple, Hewlett-Packard, NCR,
Data General, ICL Ltd., and Fujitsu.
Equally significant is the adoption of
Ethernet by local-networking stan-
dards bodies, such as the IEEE.

Ethernet is a hardware standard; it
solves fundamental problems of
equipment interconnection. It does
not, however, address all the higher-
level (software) protocols. Neverthe-
less, as a standard, Ethernet does
pave the way for efficient communi-
cation among a wide variety of com-
puter equipment, from mainframes,
through minicomputers, to personal
computers. On the 3Com in-house
network, for example, about 50 com-
puters from DEC, Apple, IBM, Altos,
and other manufacturers all com-
municate with one another at various
levels.

As a consequence of this standard-
ization, Ethernet hardware conforms
to a standard architecture whose
components are interchangeable re-

How Ethernet Works

Obviously, some cunning scheme must
be employed to enable several PCs to share
the same piece of wire. In the case of Ether-
net, it's a packet-switching access method,
formally knoivn as carrier-sense, multiple-
access with collision detection (CSMA/
CD). Like many technical terms, it sounds
more formidable than the concept it
represents.

Every station has a unique address. Data
to be transmitted is first divided into
"packets," each one bearing the address of
the destination station. To send a packet,
the sending station first listens to the cable
to see if it's busy; when the cable is quiet,
the sending station transmits the packet.
The packet, heard by all stations, is cap-
tured by the one with the matching
address.

An interesting situation arises when two
stations hear a quiet cable and apply their
packets simultaneously, which, not sur-
prisingly, results in garbled data. It is im-
portant that such "collisions" are detected
by the stations, whereupon they each wait
a random amount of time and simply re-
transmit.

At 10 Mbps, Ethernet is an efficient sys-
tem in practice. In one large, heavily loaded
Ethernet implementation, it was found
that average utilization was less than 3.6
percent during the busiest hour of the day.
Also, collisions are rare events, with
servers involved in one per hour on the
average (two per day for user stations) on
this network.

gardless of manufacturer. The bus
part of Ethernet is a coaxial cable
(figure 1). Stations can be attached to
this cable anywhere by way of an
Ethernet transceiver and a multiwire
drop cable. The drop cable, in turn,
attaches to an Ethernet controller,
which plugs into the computer.
Seven companies have announced
commitments to supply Ethernet
controller ICs (integrated circuits), an
important impetus to Ethernet's
success.

The coaxial cable can be strung
around a building according to com-
munication needs. Each coaxial seg-
ment is limited to a length of 500
meters; the use of repeaters allows
stations to be up to 2.5 kilometers
apart. The number of stations is
limited to 100 per segment and to
1000 per network.

November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. 273

Circle 392 on inquiry card.

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• Expanded list of directives

• 1 year free update

Assemblers now available
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■COMPUTER

Figure 1: A typical Ethernet connection.

A notable feature of Ethernet is its
transmission speed of 10 Mbps
(megabits per second). In addition to
facilitating high-performance com-
munication applications such as disk
sharing, this speed makes networks
with very large numbers of stations
viable.

Network Architecture Defined

In early 1982, 3Com began investi-
gating the application of Ethernet
technology to the world of personal
computers. Many would have con-
sidered this mission misbegotten,
claiming that Ethernet couldn't,
wouldn't, and shouldn't be used with
personal computers. It had a reputa-
tion for being too complex, too ex-
pensive, and even too fast for hum-
ble little microcomputers. Un-
daunted, 3Com proceeded to define
a network architecture suitable for
personal computers, called Ether-
series, initially focusing on the IBM
PC

Clearly, the main peripherals to be

shared by PCs were printers and
disks. Printing, dubbed Etherprint in
Etherseries terminology, was to be
spooled to improve performance and
enable concurrency. Disk sharing,
called Ethershare, had to be imple-
mented in such a way as to permit
data sharing while realizing price-
performance benefits. Etherprint and
Ethershare are now the fundamental
services; other 3Com-supported ap-
plications include functions such as
electronic mail (Ethermail).

The architecture for realizing these
services is based on user PCs and
servers, as shown in figure 2. User
PCs are the workstations of in-
dividuals; servers are computers at-
tached to the high-performance
disks, printers, and other shared
resources, such as electronic-mail
"post offices."

Three server types are available:
PC, AP, and VAX. At the low end, the
PC Network Server consists of a stan-
dard IBM PC, IBM PC XT, or IBM PC
look-alike, with a 3Com Ethernet in-
terface and appropriate software. A
hard disk is required to support
Ethershare service but is optional for
Etherprinting. A medium-range sys-
tem, the AP Network Server is a
separate 3Com box containing a
high-performance processor and a
30-megabyte disk, with an optional
printer, disk, and tape add-ons. The
high-end server is a standard DEC
VAX computer running the Unix
operating system, combined with a
3Com Ethernet interface and soft-
ware. In this VAX-based system, the
server code coexists with the cus-
tomer's normal VAX/Unix operations.

All three servers provide virtually
identical services and are in fact in-
distinguishable to user PCs. In order
to achieve multivendor support, they
were carefully developed to have no
specific PC dependencies. Ether-
share, Etherprint, and other network
services are each composed of two
parts operating in concert, one in the
user PC and the other in the server,
communicating over the "ether," in
this case, coaxial cable. To maximize
overall performance, the two-part
partitioning shifts responsibilities
from the servers to the user PCs
whenever possible. Moreover, servers

November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

UNBELIEVABLE!

XCOMP sat down to design a
truly distributed IBM network so
versatile and complete that it
would satisfy any user's needs.
It seems too good to be true,
but we did it!

X-NET is so advanced that it can only be imitated.
It has all the features of standard networks and
many more. And, because it is not depen J
central file server you save the high cost i
hardware.

Call our sales department tod!
complete details on X-NET. The
exclusive network of PC-DOS 2.

X-NE

A Network Superset <

Other quality products available from XCOMP.

CONTROLLERS

XCOMP manufactures a
complete line of controllers
for all popular drives. The
X/R Series is a controller for
3 to 300 megabyte drives.
We also produce a S100
controller package. A
microprogrammable data
board is common to each
package and operates with
a second drive interface
board. Buffer size is 256
bytes, with disk data rate
ud to 10MHz.

HARD DISK
SUB-SYSTEMS

10 megabyte and 16
megabyte hard disk
sub-systems for the IBM PC,
Apple II and III and nearly
all popular personal
computers.

XCOMP sub-systems are 2
to 3 times faster than many
of the competition's and
come complete with our
extensive software.

PACKAGE
DEALS

Exceptional prices on 10 and
16 megabyte formatted
drives and controllers. The
ST/S for S100 computers and
the ST/R for single board
computers. An optional Z-80
adapter allows for simple
plug-in convenience.
Optional equipment
includes software, cables
and cabinetry.

Circle 516 on inquiry card.

Apple, Apple II and Apple Ml are trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc.

IBM and IBM PC are trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation

*

THE TOASTER

THE TOASTER is a hard disk
sub-system containing TWO
REMOVABLE 3.9", 5
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TOASTER provides unlin~"
storage and conven :
back-up with to* c

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XCOMP

© 1983, XCOMP, Inc.

XCOMP, Inc., 7566 Trade Street, San Diego, CA 92121, (619) 271-8730, Telex 182786

GATEWAY

USER PC

USER PC

USER PC

SERVER

USER PC

USER/SERVER
TRANSACTIONS

DISKING
PRINTING
MAIL
3270

DISK

SERVER

USER PC

PRINTER

PRINTER

Figure 2: The Etherseries networking environment.

implement extensive caching and
buffering.

A critical objective was to realize
one of LNPCs major advantages:
modular extensibility. A local net-
work permits smooth growth in com-
puting resources; servers can be
added as existing servers become
overloaded or as the cost of special
peripherals, such as laser printers,
becomes justifiable. (A network's
degree of standardization becomes
very important in these situations.)

Relative to the Etherseries architec-
ture, extensibility requirements dic-
tate that multiple servers operate in
a fully integrated fashion, almost as
if they are one. This integration is
achieved by enforcing unique user
names across the entire network.
That a particular user is actually
assigned to a particular server be-
comes a condition that's transparent
to users. For example, a user can log
in or send a mail message without
regard to the specific servers in-
volved. Another powerful example of
this integration is the ability to access
another user's data by simply speci-
fying that user's name, regardless of
where the data actually resides.
However, a unique server name can
be invoked— if, for example, a user
wants to produce a hard-copy output
on a particular network printer.

An Interface for the IBM PC

All this elegance would have been
for naught without a viable Ethernet
connection for PCs. Three technical
obstacles— space, power, and cost-
faced the 3Com hardware designer.
Before the IBM PC interface, the
smallest complete Ethernet connec-
tion measured 100 square inches,
drew 30 watts, and cost about $1800
for the controller, transceiver, and
drop cable. The IBM PC restricts the
connection to 52 square inches and
about 5 watts. 3Com knew the cost
had to be kept under $1000.

The space and power solution was
based on VLSI (very large-scale in-
tegration). 3Com collaborated with
Seeq Technology in the development
of what turned out to be the first
commercialized Ethernet chip, the
Ethernet Data Link Controller, which
handles the entire Ethernet algo-
rithm. This controller is the func-
tional equivalent of about 50 standard
ICs and consumes one-fifth their
power.

Although VLSI promised drastic
cost reductions, additional economiz-
ing was needed to meet the price
goal. The breakthrough was to imple-
ment the transceiver on the same
printed-circuit board as the controller,
thus saving the cost of an outboard
package and drop cable. A radical

new transceiver design, smaller and
less power-hungry, was concocted,
and the result was a fully compatible
Ethernet interface that plugs into one
slot of the IBM PC (photo 1).

Recalling the Ethernet hardware ar-
chitecture (figure 1), using an on-
board transceiver means that the
coaxial cable can be connected to the
PC itself. Standard Ethernet coaxial
cable is relatively expensive and in-
flexible and thus not suitable for this
application. Instead, 3Com promoted
the use of Thin Ethernet, which is
nothing more than standard 50-ohm
RG-58 coaxial cable, a TV-like cable
that is less expensive, more flexible,
more readily available, and easier to
install than the standard cable. The
only drawback of Thin Ethernet is
that the cable has greater electrical at-
tenuation, reducing the single-coaxial-
segment limit from 500 meters to 300
meters.

Emulating a Real Disk Driver

With the feasibility of a low-cost
compatible personal computer Ether-
net interface proven, the challenge
fell to the software designers to pro-
vide an effective software comple-
ment. Not surprisingly, the software
took about four times the effort that
the hardware did. (Etherseries is
comprised of about 85,000 lines of

276 Novem er 1983 © BYTE Publications" Inc.

The Benchmark.

^

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High Quality Software for Personal Computers

• Word Processor ^vl • Graphics Package

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• Spelling Checker $H • Data Manager

• Telecom

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Now it's time for you to get the kind of software that's
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ginners and yet is so powerful it satisfies the demands

Circle 292 on inquiry card.

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The Benchmark software and see why many leading
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APPLICATION

FILE/RECORD

MS-DOS

NETWORKING
APPLICATIONS

LOGICAL SECTOR
NUMBER

VIRTUAL
DRIVE
\ID

REAL
DRIVE
ID

IBM PC DISK

DRIVER

(BIOS)

I

ETHERSHARE
DRIVER

HEAD/TRACK/
SECTOR

DISK
CONTROLLER

Figure 3: Anatomy of a disk request.

code.)

The primary objective was clear: to
introduce Ethernet software into the
IBM PC in such a fashion that
networking would be implicitly af-
fected without any applications pro-
gram being aware of it. This
transparency was the foundation on
which 3Com intended to support
every existing MS-DOS program.
That philosophy is shared by several
other networking vendors, but its at-
tainment can be measured only by
degree.

3Com had several secondary objec-
tives relating to transparency. One
was to make the networking facilities
available not only to application pro-
grams, but also to all MS-DOS com-
mands and to MS-DOS itself. For ex-
ample, standard commands such as
DIR, COPY, PRINT (the print-spool-
ing command), and even CHKDSK,
plus built-in operations such as Shift-
PrtSc and Control-PrtSc, were to op-
erate without change as they would

PRINT REQUESTS
(VIA MS-DOS)

I I

J ETHERPRINT I
| DRIVER I

I I

1 I

PACKET

ETHERNET
DRIVER

normally. For reliability and support
reasons, another important objective
was to avoid operating-system modi-
fications, thus promising easier up-
grades to new versions of MS-DOS.

The addition of a special network
driver to MS-DOS was the natural
approach, but this had to be con-
sidered in light of the transparency
objective. While the integration of
custom device drivers is a fully sup-
ported facility in MS-DOS, how
would standard programs avail them-
selves of the network services with-
out explicitly invoking the network
driver?

The answer was to have Ethernet
software emulate a real disk driver.
(For the purposes of this discussion,
we will focus on the shared-disk facil-
ity; the spooled-printing develop-
ment followed similar trade-offs and
implementation.) The idea was to
have any program, command, or
function that normally uses a disk
automatically wind up using the

analogous network service, Ether-
share.

The user's selection of a real disk
or a network disk is accomplished
simply by the MS-DOS drive ID
specifier. The network driver appro-
priates its own specifiers; for in-
stance, D: through G:, distinct from
the real-disk specifiers, say A:, B:,
and C:. The network specifiers are
called virtual drives, and referencing
them causes disk requests to access
virtual disks, or volumes, that actual-
ly reside on a server. In all other
respects, the virtual disks appear
identical to real disks— those within
a user PC.

Let's examine an MS-DOS disk re-
quest (figure 3). The application
makes an initial call in the form of
file/record to the operating system.
MS-DOS references privileged disk
and file tables to locate the record on
the disk, treating the disk as a linear
space. It converts the request to a
logical sector number. Normally this
number would be passed on to the
disk driver, which then would con-
vert the request to head/track/sector
information and would access the
disk controller directly. But in the
case of a virtual-disk request, MS-
DOS, directed by drive ID, passes
the request on to the Ethershare
"disk" driver. This driver passes a
logical sector number on to the
server, which accesses the appropri-
ate volume.

The communication protocol em-
ployed is the nonproprietary Xerox
Network Systems (XNS) protocol.
For this service, the Packet Exchange
Protocol option was used to send a
disk read or write request to the
server and receive the data (read) or
acknowledgment (write). In the rare
cases when nothing is returned, the
request is simply retransmitted.

Managing Network Data

A problem related to disk requests
centers on how servers' virtual
volumes get assigned to users' virtual
drives. This assignment is achieved
through the use of supplementary
commands supplied with the Ether-
series software.

Every user is assigned to a specific
server. There, each user owns a set

278 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

Circle 248 on Inquiry card.

IS OUT....

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of named volumes, each of which can
be dynamically associated with any
virtual drive. The first step in access-
ing this data is to use LOGIN. This
step serves three purposes: it auto-
matically locates the particular server
to which a user is assigned; it estab-
lishes the user's private volume do-
main; and it identifies the user for
other purposes, such as Etherprint
printout banners and Ethermail
delivery. User IDs can be protected by
a password for LOGIN.

The next step is to join a volume,
by name, to a local virtual drive using
the LINK command. (This step is
analogous to inserting a disk.) Once
connected by a LINK command, the
drive is accessed normally. This
framework provides a convenient
mechanism for data sharing, which
is achieved by using LINK to associ-
ate other users' volumes to your
drives as governed by a concurrency
and security system. There are three

Supplementary

commands assign

servers' virtual volumes

to users' virtual drives.

types of volumes: Private volumes
provide read/write access to one user
at a time; public volumes provide
single- writer, multiple readers access;
and shared volumes provide read-
write access to any number of users.
Appropriate defaults coupled with
volume passwords determine who
can access what. Any volume on the
network can be so linked, regardless
of what server it's on.

To realize the full potential of data
sharing in LNPCs, a small but vital
additional capability is required: con-
current file update. While network-
ing systems can control concurrency
at the volume (or even the file) level,
no workable system has been devel-
oped to automatically (i.e., without
program change) interlock record re-
quests because systems software can-
not accurately foresee when a pro-
gram has finished with a record. To
address this problem, Etherseries
and other systems provide sema-

phores or abstract flags that enable
programmers to synchronize their
own accesses from multiple PCs.
Semaphores are managed by a com-
mon server and can be tested,
locked, and unlocked.

An Assessment

How well has the Etherseries net-
working approach satisfied its objec-
tives? Use of the Ethernet hardware
standard and the public XNS proto-
cols have addressed the compatibil-
ity objective, although complete com-
munications compatibility awaits
standardization of the uppermost
protocol layers, such as those govern-
ing electronic mail. The Thin Ether-
net concept has garnered interest
from standards bodies (such as the
IEEE), who are now investigating its
implementation as a standardized
communications network. Hardware
cost objectives were met by incorpo-
rating VLSI and an on-board trans-
ceiver, overcoming the claims of
critics that Ethernet would remain
too costly for microcomputer appli-
cations.

The principal Etherseries software
objective was ease of use, a feature
addressed by, for example, patterning
the basic command style after that of
MS-DOS and supporting the intrin-
sic MS-DOS functions (such as the
COPY and PRINT commands).

Finally, success in meeting the ob-
jective of transparent peripheral shar-
ing is evidenced by the fact that an
overwhelming majority of MS-DOS
applications programs run on an
Etherseries system without modifica-
tion. Those that do not run on Ether-
series provide their own disk drivers,
require insertion of specific floppy
disks during operation, or are not
relocatable. ■

Author's note:

Thanks are due to the people who brought this
technology to life: Mike Bonnain, Ron Crane, Pitts
Jarvis, Jeff Mason, Ken Powell, Greg Shaw, and
Lynn Welge.

Larry Birenbaum is vice-president of engineering
at 3Com Corp. (1390 Shorebird Way, Mountain
View, CA 94043).

280 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

The ABM-83

delivers a lot more

features for a

lot less

money

$300°°

LESS

The ABM-83 is truly your best choice for

a versatile and highly productive business terminal that

costs $300.00 less than the competition.

Why pay more to get the code compatibility of a
TVI 920 or 925 when you have a better choice...
the ABM-83!

Not only does the ABM-83 offer far more features
essential in day-to-day data entry and word pro-
cessing tasks than the 920 or 925, but the ABM-83
provides designed-in end-user ergonomics better
suited for a highly productive business environ-
ment. Our crisper, high resolution display
dramatically reduces eye fatigue and our humanly
engineered keyboard with sculptured keys provides
for greater operator ease and productivity. Standard

with the ABM-83 are 24 user-programmable func-
tion keys (non-volatile memory optional).

In addition to the ABM-83 shown, ask about the
unique ABM-85H that offers user selectable embed-
ded or non-embedded attributes, 93 graphics and 4
international character sets: all set-ups, 16 pro-
grammable function keys and programmable
answerback stored in non-volatile memory; up to
three pages of additional display (optional), as well
as all of the great advantages of the ABM-83.
(Third party service by RCA.)

(408) 727-1510
2225 1 Martin Avenue • Santa Clara, CA 95050

Distributor and Dealer Inquiries Invited.

Circle 258 on inquiry card.

^

bySEEQUA

For business, professional and
personal computing, Chameleon is
the tool that works as hard as you
do. It's there where you need it,
when you need it. Complete with
word processing and spread-
sheet software at no extra cost. Put
Chameleon in your environment. It
blends right in.

Find out more at your authorized
Chameleon dealer. For the one
nearest you call 1-800-638-6066.

imm Compatible
CP/M™ Compatible
$1995 Complete*

'Manufacturers list price. Includes 320K disk
storage. 128K RAM, dual 8 and 16 bit processor,
Perfect Writer word processing software, Perfect
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Odenton.MD 21113
(301) 672-3600 or
(800) 638-6066

The following are registered trademarks:
IBM — International Business Machines
Perfect Writer— Perfect Software
Perfect Calc — Perfect Software
CP/M — Digital Research Inc.
Circle 413 on inquiry card.

Upsy-Daisy.

At $649 TTX raises letter-quality
daisywheel value to an all-time high.

Now there's a letter-quality daisywheel printer that even the most
value-conscious customer will appreciate. The TTX-1014 Daisywheel.

Reliable and efficient, the TTX-1014's list of standard features
make it a best buy in its class. Serial and parallel interface... standard.
Interchangeable, 100-character ASC-II printwheel.. .standard. Pin- and
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All at a list price that's irresistible: $649.

And if that's not enough, our new TTX family of compatible print-
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Find out more about the TTX-1014. And how we've "up-ed" the
already high quality of our "daisy" with printwheels and ribbons. For
full specifications and the TTX dealer nearest you, call the number below.

Call TOLL-FREE

800-447-4700

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COMMUNICATION CORPOHATION

3420 East Third Avenue
Foster City, California 94404
415/341-1300 TX-466913

Circle 466 on inquiry card.

MS-DOS 2.0: An Enhanced
16-Bit Operating System

Features such as installable device drivers and Xenix compatibility
have improved this popular operating system

MS-DOS 2.0 is the most recent ver-
sion of Microsoft's popular 16-bit,
single-user operating system. In this
article well take a look at its most sig-
nificant new features and how they
benefit users.

PC-DOS 2.0 (IBM's version of MS-
DOS 2.0) is the operating system
used on the IBM Personal Computer
(PC), a machine that represents what
Microsoft refers to as the third gen-
eration of microcomputers. The first
generation encompassed such 8-bit
machines as the MITS Altair 8800
and other S-100 computers, which
were marketed mostly to hobbyists.
Stand-alone 8-bit computers, such as
those from Apple, Radio Shack, and
Commodore, with Microsoft BASIC
built into ROM (read-only memory),
made up the second generation.
With those machines, software pro-
ductivity tools, such as Visicalc pff,
started to appear.

Third-generation microcomputers
provide additional power with an In-
tel 8086 (or its sibling, the 8088), a
16-bit microprocessor that enables
you to do more than you could at the
8-bit level, where you were con-

by Chris Larson

strained by the lack of space and
speed. Typically, 16-bit systems have
128K bytes of memory, even though
their minimum configurations may
have much less memory. A variety of
high-level languages can be run on
these machines, and end-user tools
are becoming easier to use as the
larger addressing space of the 16-bit
microprocessor permits the im-

The new MS-DOS 2.0

represents a significant

advance in personal

computer operating

systems.

plementation of more sophisticated
user interfaces.

The new MS-DOS 2.0 represents a
significant advance in personal com-
puter operating systems— especially
compared with 8-bit operating sys-
tems.

Installable Device Drivers

A significant new feature of MS-
DOS 2.0 is installable device drivers,

the software routines used to control
such hardware as the keyboard and
monitor, which are attached to the
machine. Device drivers work dif-
ferently with systems from different
manufacturers.

Specifically, this feature allows the
end user, at initialization time, to load
any device driver into memory— for
block as well as serial devices. A
block device transfers more than one
byte of data (i.e., a fixed-length block)
at a time; a disk, for example, is a
block device. A serial device passes
bytes one at a time in a stream, which
is of variable length. Printers, key-
boards, and display screens are serial
devices.

In the past, it was the responsibil-
ity of the computer-hardware vendor
to provide the BIOS (basic input/out-
put system) to permit the operating
system to run that company's par-
ticular hardware configuration. In-
dependent hardware manufacturers
who wanted to sell their equipment
for use on another company's com-
puter thus ran into problems. For ex-
ample, firms marketing hard disks
for use on the IBM PC cannot legally

November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. 285

distribute IBM's BIOS to their end
users because IBM owns its BIOS.
Consequently, those manufacturers
have two courses of action available
to them. They can completely rewrite
the BIOS code for the PC, incorpo-
rating the hard-disk code, then mar-
ket that package. Or they can write
a rather complicated utility that will
read the end user's legitimate copy of
the BIOS, alter it, adding in the code
required to run the independent
firm's device, and finally come up
with a working BIOS for the PC. Not
surprisingly, this approach hasn't
worked out too well. Both of these
techniques result in a nonstandard
software environment. Each time a
revision of the BIOS comes out, in-
dependent manufacturers must go
through the difficult process of re-
writing their code.

MS-DOS 2.0 makes life easier for
these independent manufacturers by
implementing installable device
drivers. Indeed, it also simplifies the
work of the computer manufacturer
by making it necessary to supply a
hard-disk device driver only to those
users who actually purchase hard
disks. Device drivers thus benefit the
manufacturer of the machine as well
as third-party vendors.

Previously, some operating systems
had a configurable BIOS— the manu-
facturer included code for every con-
ceivable device and let the end user
choose from the list, matching the
code with his particular equipment.
That approach works well if the
manufacturer is supplying all the
peripherals; however, users often
want to buy peripherals from other
manufacturers, so it's important to
give the independent manufacturer
the capability of installing its hard-
ware in the MS-DOS environment.

The capability of installing device
drivers also enables MS-DOS 2.0 to
support foreign keyboards. A user
can reconfigure his machine by in-
stalling, for instance, a French key-
board driver. And although the user
will continue to type on an English
keyboard, it will behave as though it
were designed for use in French ap-
plications. The installable-device-
driver capability provides the gate-
way to a sophisticated networking

system. Networking drivers can be
installed in the same way.

Moreover, MS-DOS 2.0 eases in-
stallation and removal of serial-
stream processing. Cursor position-
ing and graphics, for example, can be
added to or removed from the con-
sole driver. Thus, if a user wants to
switch from DEC VT-52-type to ANSI
(American National Standards In-
stitute) cursor positioning, he mere-
ly installs the appropriate device
driver. Then if he wants to add a Vir-
tual Device Interface (VDI) graphic
serial-stream interpreter later, he can
do that as well.

Microsoft is committed to promot-
ing several serial-stream-processing
standards and is trying to make it
easy for manufacturers to adopt
those standards. The firm has chosen
the ANSI terminal-driver standard

Installable device

drivers control the

peripherals users attach

to their machines.

for cursor positioning, for example,
which is used on such systems as the
DEC VT-100 series and enjoys wide
acceptance. It also is the most ver-
satile of the available standards.

The VDI graphics system provides
the programmer with a standard set
of primitive vector operations that
work the same way on many dif-
ferent graphics output devices.
[Editor's Note: For more information on
the Virtual Device Interface, see ''Realiz-
ing Graphics Standards for Microcom-
puters" by Fred E. Langhorst and
Thomas B. Clarkson III, February 1983
BYTE, page 256.]

In addition to VDI, Microsoft will
provide system-level support for a set
of raster primitives to allow program-
mers to make use of BASIC'S graphics
capabilities from other languages.
This set of primitives will also allow
programs in BASIC to redirect output
to graphics devices other than the
video-display screen.

For each of these standards, Micro-
soft will provide skeletal drivers, the
code to interpret specific serial-
stream sequences. Manufacturers

will have to implement the skeletal
drivers in their specific hardware
environment.

Xenix Compatibility

The second most important feature
of MS-DOS 2.0 is Xenix compatibil-
ity, which is divided into several
areas. First are the file primitives,
which provide a very efficient way of
invoking the operating system to per-
form a file-management function.
The parsing of filenames, for in-
stance, is handled in a more sophis-
ticated way, and the operating system
takes care of all the file characteristics,
so you are not left with file-control
blocks (FCBs) floating around in your
memory space. MS-DOS 2.0 also
provides a more powerful and effi-
cient way to develop software.

The latest release of MS-DOS also
includes Xenix executive-mode sys-
tem calls, which allow it to deal with
a hierarchy of tasks set up in the
operating system. With previous ver-
sions, only one program could run at
a time, and when it ended, computer
control was returned to the operating
system and the user would see the
operating-system prompt on the
screen. MS-DOS 2.0, however, pro-
vides the capability for one process
to invoke another, then either to in-
voke yet another one or return to the
parent process when it is finished.

Suppose, for example, you are
within the operating-system shell
and then execute an application pro-
gram such as Multiplan. You can re-
invoke the shell at the next level
deeper, then go back into Multiplan,
and, when you are done, return to
the original copy in the shell. This
powerful feature thus enables you to
be in a context-switching environ-
ment.

MS-DOS 2.0 also makes it possible
to create programs that can run in
either a Xenix or an MS-DOS en-
vironment. By avoiding earlier types
of system calls and restricting pro-
gram design to version 2.0's file-sys-
tem primitives and executive-mode
system calls, a software developer can
write a piece of source code that can
run and be compiled down into
either environment with no modifica-
tions. Microsoft provides a set of

286 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

For people who want power.

And something more.

If you are seeking power in software we
believe we have created the program you seek.

And our opinion is shared by a great many
computer analysts who consider 1-2-3™ from
Lotus® the most productive program in the
marketplace.

Like many great ideas the essence of its
success is its simplicity. With 1-2-3, you have
spreadsheet, information management and
graphic functions — all in one program.

You can switch from one function to another
with the touch of a key, instantaneously.
Although it seems faster.

In effect, it's a perfect combination of raw
power and spectacular speed.

But for those who want more, 1-2-3 is spe-
cially designed so you can develop customized
applications for your business needs. And the
world's largest electronic spreadsheet has
enough operators, functions and commands
to perform virtually any task you ask of it.

In fact, the only limit is your imagination.
1-2-3 from Lotus is power and something more.

Call 1-800-343-5414 (In Massachusetts call
617-492-7870) and find out more about 1-2-3
from Lotus.

Lotus

The hardest working software in the world.

Circle 270 on inquiry card.

1-2-3 and Lotus arc trademarks of Lotus Development Corporation. All rights reserved.

rules that strictly define the realm of
functions within which the software
developer must remain to ensure that
the program created is transportable
between the two operating systems;
that is, to provide source-code com-
patibility but not direct binary com-
patibility for the end user.

An Improved File Directory

Another example of MS-DOS 2.0's
compatibility with Xenix is its en-
hanced directory system. Logically
consistent with the Xenix file struc-
ture and physically consistent with
the existing MS-DOS file structure, it
is a hierarchical system that permits
the logical organization of user files.
It would allow you, for example, to
partition a hard disk shared by five
office workers into several areas. One
directory might contain all accounts
payable, for instance, and another
might hold data on accounts receiv-
able, while a third could have pro-
grams that all five employees use.
Another could contain separate sub-
directories labeled Fred, Joe, and
Mary— set aside for individuals who
would store their own programs
there. Those users could each then
subdivide their subdirectories into
such categories as work and personal
files.

This hierarchical structure eases
storage and retrieval of files. The last
thing anyone wants to do when run-
ning a machine with a hard disk is
to type a directory command and see
8000 files go zinging by on the screen;
most of them won't be of interest. A
hierarchical structure eliminates that
problem. A well-organized directory
not only simplifies the task of finding
a file, it also allows you to keep your
files together, not intermixed with
someone else's. This capability can
save time and effort in situations
where several users share one
machine.

Input/Output Enhancements

In addition to modifying the file
structure of MS-DOS, Microsoft has
added the capability to redirect input
and output. (The company received
some criticism for not including this
feature in earlier releases because it
was possible to accomplish this to

some extent in other operating sys-
tems.) MS-DOS 2.0's method of
redirecting I/O involves an advanced,
user-friendly procedure. Logically
consistent with Xenix, it uses char-
acters in the same fashion. Output
from standard devices, such as a key-
board, display, and communications
port, can be redirected to either files
or other devices. The redirection can
be either a dynamic one, where it is
performed on the command line, or
one that invokes a utility to redirect
output permanently. One type of
redirection, for instance, would be to
send output from the screen to the
printer.

For use in international

environments, MS-DOS

provides features that

are not offered by

other operating

systems.

The capability of redirecting input
and output is closely coupled to the
concept of device drivers. When you
use a new serial device, you can give
it any name you like, as long as you
accurately define it in your device
driver. The same name can then be
used in the redirection of I/O.

MS-DOS 2.0 also provides a
limited form of piping, a means of in-
terprocess communication available
in Xenix. This type of piping permits
you to take the output of one process
and have the operating system auto-
matically feed it to another process as
input. Suppose, for example, that
you wanted to sort a directory. Under
MS-DOS 2.0, you could issue the
directory command and pipe the out-
put into a utility that would sort it.
The operating system could auto-
matically handle this procedure.

The SORT utility, a type of filter, is
a standard utility that is very helpful
for this kind of piping. Other utilities
include a simple one called MORE,
which suspends output on the
screen every 24 or 25 lines so that the
user doesn't see all his output go by
without being able to read it.
Another utility, called FIND, helps
locate a given string of characters
within a file.

An International Flavor

In addition to the features men-
tioned thus far, MS-DOS 2.0 contains
certain capabilities that are tailored to
the operating system's use in various
countries. As manufacturers of large
computers, long involved in world-
wide sales, such as IBM, Wang, and
Digital Equipment Corporation, enter
the personal computer arena, they
are making their products adaptable
to various countries. For use in inter-
national environments, version 2.0
provides features that are not offered
by other operating systems. Many of
these features, however, may not be
noticed by an end user in the U.S.,
as the first distribution of MS-DOS
was designed around the require-
ments of the U.S. market.

For example, 8-bit character storage,
important for the support of interna-
tional character sets, has always been
used internally in the DOS. In addi-
tion, a system call in MS-DOS 2.0
provides important information
about the national environment. For
a specific country (including the
default country for which the system
has been configured), the operating
system supplies such information
about how numeric data is formatted:
what character is used for a decimal
point (a comma or period), what
character is used to separate
thousands (a comma, period, or
space), what symbol is used to repre-
sent currency, and whether that sym-
bol precedes or follows the printed
number. Information on the number
of decimal places used when the cur-
rency symbol is invoked is also pro-
vided (for instance, in systems con-
figured for the United States, two
decimal places are used, but in Japan
the default is zero; the Japanese write
about quantities of yen without stat-
ing any fractional amounts). Lower-
case to uppercase character-conver-
sion information is used in filenames,
and the SORT collating sequence is
adaptable to different character sets.

The hardware manufacturer sup-
plying MS-DOS 2.0 with its products
can customize error messages to suit
different languages. The package
shipped to manufacturers is a relocat-
able binary version of the operating
system plus source code for the

288 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

Like television and stereo, computers
can be used by many different people,
in offices and business, in schools and
at home . . . the interest in programs is
the difference.

Excessive
consumption
of mass quanti-
ties is EASY with
280Aand6S02
processors and up
to FOUR 400KB
DISK DRIVES.

Here are a few of the ways (or software
programs) in which you can put Magic
in your life.

Extensive selec-
tion of software

abound every-
where at
V economy

levels.

Professional Appointment Book •
Income Tax Preparation • Accounts
Receivable

64K RAM, dual
processor sys-
tem, video, com-
munications and
printer interfaces.

Accounts
Payable
and Aging
School

/ Administration

[/•Property and
Asset Manage-
ment-Engi-
neering Cir-
cuitry
Sports and
Activity Sta-
tistics • Medical and Legal Accounting •
Wordprocessing and Letters • Travel

Circle 279 on

mm

t»IWR

- the computer for the serious of mind.

Planning and Scheduling • Church and
Association Management • Mortgage
and Interest Details •

LOVE is a \ %&£%?,

ready-to-use k^* M \* »

computer system,

MAGIC speaks many languages
including CBASIC which comes
with system, plus a dictionary,
a word processor, an electronic
spreadsheet and a filing sys-
tem— FREE.

Games for Execu-
tives • Menu and Rec
ipe Files • Retail and Store
Management- Mail List Operations •
Activity and Hobby Organizing • Learn-
ing FORTRAN • Order and Sales Entry
• Christmas Presents List • College

WS«~^

ATTENTION HUMANS!
Our mission hereon earth is rapid
conversion of excessive data into
functional modes of information . . .
this may be accomplished
with Itty Bitty Machine
...but more produc-
tively with
MAGIC.

BASIC

Programming
and Learning-
Electronic
Spreadsheet •
Administrative
Reports •
Address File,
Control and Up-
Dating- Dictio-
nary and Spelling • Your Own Private
Secretary • Designing Forms • Informa-
tion for Insurance and Hospitalization •
Learning Computers • Managing Home
Purchases and Inventory • Structural
Engineering • Medical Office Scheduling

Thesis and Reports • Data Com-
munications • Business Market-
ing • File and Retrieval Systems •
Dental Office Management •
Librarying and Cataloging •
Indexing for Small Business •
Household Inventory • Invest-
ment Analysis and Tracking •

inquiry card.

4 ^{sssssss^^fiR

WRITE TO: Magic Computer Company, Inc. • Two Executive Drive • Fort Lee, N J 07024
(201) 944-6700 • CALL: (800) 221-1565 • Telex: 144594

messages, which the manufacturer
can link together. Microsoft provides
samples of error messages for major
European languages and Japanese.
Because manufacturers provide
various character sets to support use
of their products in Europe, they
must adapt the error messages to
each type of set.

Other Microsoft products are
suited to use in international settings.
Therefore, if a user ran Microsoft's
Multiplan under MS-DOS with the
French default parameters set, he
would see numbers using a comma

to indicate decimal points, incorpo-
rating the symbol for the French
franc. MS-DOS would also express
the date and time in the appropriate
format.

By having this functionality incor-
porated into language processors,
although a user might be running an
application program that was not de-
signed to run in an international en-
vironment, the operating system will
automatically incorporate the appro-
priate changes. Of course, the best
programs will be customized for each
environment, but for programs that

The MICROWRITER
Daisy Wheel Printer.

Price $480

Features:

• Microwriter parallel interface mounted internally in the Olivetti Praxis machine • Built in self test

• Portable... comes with deluxe carry case • Low noise level • Slim modern styling • Print quality
is identical to the finest office typewriters on the market • Can tab • Rule single lines both vertically
and horizontally • Underline • Print at 10, 12, or 15 characters per inch (switch selectable) • Ten
character memory automatic error correction, with lift-off carbon film correction ribbon (for
typewriter use) • Automatic or programmable page formats • Handles letter, legal size sheet and
fanfold paper in widths up to 12 inches wide • 165 character/12 inch print width • Wide selection of
21 interchangeable daisy print wheels available • Ribbon cassettes just drop in • Switch selectable
European keyboard* Centronics compatible parallel cables are currently available from stock
With the Microwriter you will never again have to send an important letter or a simple correspondence
that doesn't look impressive. Why settle for just any printer when you can have a
MICROWRITER. , .a fine letter quality typewriter for you and your computer. For more information,
see your local computer dealer or contact Ammicro directly.

ccirp

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ViSA*

are not, the user won't have to inform
the application program that he is
tailoring it to a foreign environment.
Error messages and menus are also
suitable for use in particular places.
In addition, the operator using an ap-
plication program— a French version
of Peachtree's accounting package, for
instance— can tell the operating sys-
tem to pretend that, instead of
France, he is in Great Britain; subse-
quently, the numbers he uses will be
printed in a British format. Eventual-
ly, all of Microsoft's products will take
advantage of this feature.

Background Tasking

In addition to providing the ability
to adapt to a variety of international
formats, MS-DOS 2.0 makes it possi-
ble to process interrupts in real time
through the use of background tasks.
MS-DOS 2.0 is not a reentrant
operating system and does not sup-
port true multitasking. It is thus
limited to background processing in
interrupt time— the background task
can only make use of the operating
system as a resource if the fore-
ground task is not interrupted in the
middle of an operating-system call.

The operating system still considers
only one task at a time, although you
can fool it and work on rather intel-
ligent tasks in the background. By fol-
lowing some specific rules, you can
also let the computer perform con-
current processing. A print spooler,
provided as part of MS-DOS 2.0 (ac-
tivated by PRINT.COM), makes ex-
tensive use of this capability. Poten-
tial uses made possible by back-
ground tasking include background
communications such as receiving
electronic mail.

The power of 16-bit micropro-
cessors has provided the foundation
for more sophisticated personal com-
puter applications. MS-DOS 2.0
demonstrates the significance of a
step in this direction by incorporating
many new features. As memory
prices continue to drop, users can ex-
pect more power and capability in
future versions of MS-DOS. ■

Chris Larson is a marketing manager at Micro-
soft Corporation (10700 Northup Way, Bellevue, WA
98004).

290 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

Circle 20 on inquiry card.

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HP***

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® Apple is a registered trademark
of Apple Computers Inc.

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d&

CONCORDE PERIPHERAL SYSTEMS, INC.

23152 Verdugo Drive
[71-4] B5S-2B50 Laguna Hills, CA 32653

Circle 536 for dealer inquiries. Circle 537 for end-user inquiries.

BYTE November 1983

291

8?"-— -■ — - ........... > /^:V-y-^^. ^v—^-^te-v-y

The Corona PC's, desktop and portable, give
you everything you've ever wanted in an IBM-
compatible PC and more. For a great deal less.

Compatible and more.

The Corona PC is a 16-bit microcomputer
based on the 8088 microprocessor, just like the
IBM PC. And like the IBM PC, it runs any software
that conforms to the IBM standard.

But unlike the IBM PC, the Corona PC comes
with 128K of memory Supports up to 512K on the
main board. Includes a 320K floppy drive, a com-
munication port, a printer port and an improved
IBM PC keyboard.

Both the desktop and portable Corona PC's
include high-resolution monitors and built-in
graphics. Higher character definition makes both
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resolution graphics are over 60% better than the

IBM PC. It's a complete system, the standard for
microcomputing in the IBM-compatible world.

You can take it with you.

And unlike IBM, we have a portable version.

Its high-resolution, high-contrast 9" display is
easy to read. It has all the power and features of our
desktop, but lets you take it to the office next door,
across the country or just conveniently tuck it onto
a comer of your desk.

More expandability.

You may never add a thing to your Corona PC
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But just in case, we've built all the important
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RA -disk for Incredible speed.

Our RAM-disk software lets you treat an area of
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More software.

The Corona PC includes the MS-DOS operating
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word processor and the PC Tutor 2 training course.
So you can start being productive immediately.

And you can run Context MBA? dBASE II?
LogiCalc 5 and LogiQuest^the EasyFamily? Wordstar 7
and the "Star" family, the SuperWare 8 series, TI.M?,
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And It Improves your bottom line.

The Corona Portable PC is $2,545, the desktop

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O corona
The Compatible Company

© Corona Data Systems 1983 L TM Softword Systems. 2. TM Comprehensive
Software Support. 3: TM Context Management Systems. 4: TM Ashton-Tate.
5= TM Software Products International. 6: TM Information Unlimited Software.
7: TM Micropro. 8: 1M Sorcim Corp. 9: TM Innovative Soft ware. 10: 1M Visicorp.
11 : TM Perfect Software Inc.

Circle 115 on inquiry card.

System Review

The IBM PC XT and DOS 2.00

DOS 2.00 has changed more radically relative to its predecessor
than the XT has compared to the PC

by Rowland Archer Jr.

Speculation about the IBM Personal Computer XT
reached a feverish pitch a few days before IBM unveiled
the new machine. Industry pundits had IBM announc-
ing a new PC with everything from 256K-bit memory
chips to an Intel 80186 processor running multiple users
under the Unix operating system. If you too were look-
ing for an announcement as dramatic as this, you were
probably disappointed by the XT, which didn't even
replace the PC's 8088 microprocessor with its compati-
ble big brother, the 8086. TBM chose instead to take a con-
servative, evolutionary step in the development of its
highly successful Personal Computer. Perhaps by the
time you read this IBM will have announced its "super
system." Meanwhile, based on the order backlog at area
computer stores, IBM is selling all the XTs it can build.

The PC XT looks just like a PC except for the XT on
the name plate and the replacement of the right-hand
floppy-disk drive by a 10-megabyte Winchester hard disk
(see photo 1). Inside, the XT has eight expansion slots,
correcting the frequent complaint that the PC had too
few slots— five. Up to 256K bytes of memory can be
plugged into the motherboard, which now uses 64K-bit
dynamic RAM (random-access read/write memory)
chips instead of the earlier 16K-bit chips. The XT comes
with 128K bytes of RAM as standard equipment. Also
standard is an asynchronous-communications board,
providing one RS-232C serial port with modem controls.
The cassette port is gone, but it never really caught on
anyway. In fact, IBM's latest Hardware Fact Sheet brochure
fails to mention its presence on the PC at all.

Concurrent with the announcement of the PC XT, IBM
introduced new versions of its PC-DOS and BASIC, both
revisions 2.00. PC-DOS 2.00, or DOS 2.00, was supplied
to IBM by Microsoft and is compatible with the generic
MS-DOS 2.00. DOS 2.00 provides many of the features
found in Microsoft's Xenix operating system (a licensed
version of Unix), including hierarchical directories, pipes,
and filters. BASIC 2.00 contains a number of powerful
new features, including support for hierarchical direc-
tories, double-precision trigonometric functions, exten-
sions to BASIC 1.10's graphics and music statements, and
more.

Hardware Overview

The first thing you are likely to notice when you turn
on the XT is the sound of its fan. Combined with the
whirring of the hard disk, this noise makes the XT a
much more obtrusive workmate than the floppy-disk-
only PC. On the positive side, the sound of the hard disk
in action, evidenced by flashes of its front-mounted LED
(light-emitting diode), is only a faint pinging; the familiar
groans that accompany floppy-disk-drive head move-
ment are notably absent.

When the XT is powered on, it spends about 30
seconds running through a number of self-test diag-
nostics, including a memory check. Satisfied that it is
in working order, it attempts to boot from the floppy-
disk drive. If the drive door is left open, the XT will then
try to boot from the hard disk. This two-step process lets
you boot floppy disks with ease, a necessity to run some

294 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

protected software such as Microsoft's Flight Simulator.
On the other hand, it also lets you boot directly off the
hard disk without having to start from the floppy disk,
as some systems require.

The hard disk's speed is impressive if you are used
to floppy-disk-based systems. BASICA loads in under
1 second, compared to about 4 seconds from a floppy
disk. You hardly notice the pause while Wordstar disk
overlays are loaded. In addition to its greater transfer
speed (5 million bits per second compared to 250 thou-
sand bits per second for the floppy-disk drives), there
is no start-up time associated with a hard-disk access;
by comparison, floppy-disk drives take Vi second to
come up to speed if their motors are off when they are
accessed.

The hard disk contains two platters, for a total of four
writable surfaces. Each surface contains 306 tracks; each
track has seventeen 512-byte sectors, for a total storage
capacity of 10,653,696 bytes. Although this is a lot of
storage compared to most floppy-disk-based systems, I
was surprised at how fast I filled up half the disk.

The XT I reviewed came with a Seagate Winchester
disk that developed an intermittent howling noise after
a couple of days. I never lost any data, but the noise was
unnerving, and I returned the system for repair under
warranty. The dealer swapped in a new hard disk,
manufactured by Miniscribe. I haven't had any trouble

since then. The disk does its job quickly and reliably;
if the fan were quieter, I would have no complaints at all.

Color Display

With the announcement of the XT, IBM concurrently
unveiled its first RGB (red-green-blue) color monitor for
both the PC and the XT. After using it for several months
I must say it has the best colors I have seen on an under-
$1000 unit. Resolution is very good, although characters
are not quite as readable as on the standard IBM mono-
chrome unit. I have used it alongside the new Quad-
chrome monitor from Quadram; the Quadchrome has
slightly better resolution, but the IBM has truer colors.
The IBM also has a nearly black background that gives
displayed characters plenty of contrast for improved
readability. The color display does have one annoying
characteristic. This problem is actually related to the
color-graphics card and the software using it, not to the
RGB monitor. Machine-language software is supposed
to restrict itself to writing only during display-retrace
time; some software, notably MS-DOS itself, ignores this
rule. As a result, the entire display blinks whenever it
scrolls. This problem does not occur in BASIC, which
follows the rules for display generation.

Expansion Slots

The first reviews of the IBM PC complained that it

Photo 1: The XT looks like a PC until you examine the right-hand disk drive closely.

November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. 295

Photo 2: The XT has eight expansion slots to rectify the common
complaint against the PC— that it has only five slots.

didn't take long to fill the PC's five expansion slots. You
need at least one slot for a display card; the second slot
is for a disk controller; and a color graphics card fills slot
number three. Because the 8088 processor can address
a megabyte of memory, you'll want more than the 64K
bytes that fit on the motherboard. Add a memory card
to the fourth slot, and all the other options must com-
pete for the one remaining slot.

Seemingly hundreds of vendors jumped at this
marketing opportunity, offering multifunction cards that
provide memory expansion, serial and parallel ports,
and extras like clock calendars with battery backup, all
in a single slot.

The XT, with its eight expansion slots, should cause
these vendors to rethink their strategy. A serial port is
standard equipment on the XT. Below the expansion
slots are four banks of nine chips (see photo 2). Each
chip is a 64K-bit part, giving each bank a capacity of 64K
bytes, including a parity bit. The standard XT comes with
two banks populated, for a total of 128K bytes. Each of
the other banks can be filled separately, up to a max-
imum of 256K bytes on board, using no expansion slots.
You can add memory cards to bring the XT up to a max-
imum memory configuration of 640K bytes.

Photo 3 shows the system unit from the top, with five
of its slots loaded. The slot on the far left is empty; the
next slot holds the optional color-graphics card. Skip-
ping a slot, we come to the optional monochrome-dis-
play/parallel-printer-port card. Next is the Winchester
disk controller card. It boasts automatic error detection
and correction, onboard memory to buffer a sector, and
use of the system's DMA (direct memory access) feature.
The next slot contains the floppy-disk controller card,
which is unchanged from that of the IBM PC. The slot
to the right of the floppy-disk controller is empty in the
photograph, and the slot on the far right holds the stan-
dard asynchronous-communications card (RS-232C
serial port, 50 to 9600 bits per second).

Not all of the slots are equal. Two of the eight are

behind the floppy-disk drive and have only enough
space for short cards; one of them comes loaded with
the asynchronous-communications card. The other
holds cards such as the parallel port or game paddle I/O
(input/output) card.

The six full-sized slots are packed into the same space
as the five slots in the PC. If you purchase add-on cards
for an XT from a non-IBM source, verify that the card
will fit in the narrower space of an XT, especially with
cards that use piggyback arrangements to package extra
boards in a single slot.

The XT comes with a beef ed-up power supply to sup-
port the extra expansion slots and the hard disk (see the
right-hand rear corner of the cabinet in photo 3, behind
the Winchester drive). Rated at 130 watts (W), it puts out
more than twice the PC's 63.5 W.

Sorry, We Can't Sell You That . . .

I discovered an oddity in the XT's configuration when
I tried to design a system with two floppy-disk drives.
It seems that the only "legal" way to get an XT with two
floppy-disk drives is to buy two 10-megabyte hard-disk
drives, too! I wanted two floppy-disk drives so it would
be easy to make backups of a floppy disk and so I could
run CP/M-86 floppy-disk-based software that required
two disk drives (CP/M-86 from IBM does not support
the hard disk). The floppy-disk controller in the XT is
the same as that used in the PC, and there is even a spare
connector on the internal cable, ready to be plugged in-
to a floppy-disk drive. If IBM sold a half -height floppy-
disk drive, you could fit two where the left-hand floppy-
disk drive now sits, and the problem would be solved.
To stay within the official guidelines, however, you must
buy an expansion chassis that includes another hard-
disk drive; you then move the hard disk out of your XT
and into the expansion chassis and put the second flop-
py disk in the space vacated by the hard disk in the cen-
tral processor chassis. If you are willing to buy a PC in-
stead of an XT, you can get one with two floppy-disk
drives and add the hard disk via the expansion chassis.

DOS 2.00

Although it was overshadowed by the announcement
of the XT hardware, DOS 2.00 actually contains far more
radical changes relative to its predecessor (DOS 1.10)
than the XT does compared to the PC. Microsoft says
that DOS 2.00 is a complete rewrite; it incorporates many
of the features found in that firm's more expensive Xenix
operating system.

I have used DOS 2.00 for several months now, and al-
though it is not without its faults and bugs, it does con-
tain a lot of useful features, and it's fast. I am not easy
on software products— I have abandoned many of them
as unusable. DOS 2.00 and I have had some quarrels,
but I would not want to give it up, either.

Compatibility

DOS 2.00 is a superset of its predecessor, DOS 1.10.
Although many of the new commands are related to sup-

296 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

port for the hard disk, DOS 2.00 will also run on a
floppy-disk-only PC system. Not all programs written
to run under 1.10 will run under 2.00, but many will.
The IBM DOS 2.00 manual contains an appendix ex-
plaining how to use programs that will run under 2.00
and listing some programs that won't run under it. It's
a safe bet that most software vendors will be providing
versions of their products for DOS ZOO in the months
ahead.

DOS 2.00 takes up more memory than 1.10, and many
programs that ran in 64K bytes under 1.10 require 96K
bytes or even 128K bytes in their 2.00 incarnations. This
requirement alone is enough to keep DOS 1.10 alive for
a while because lots of 64K-byte PC's are still in use.

File System Changes

Many of the most obvious changes in DOS 2.00 relate
to the support for a "hierarchical, tree-structured" file
system. This complex-sounding concept can be ex-
plained simply. Under DOS 1.10, each floppy disk had
a single directory, and that directory could contain one
or more files. Under 2.00, a directory can hold files as
before, but it can also hold other directories, which in
turn can hold more files and directories, and so on.

DOS maintains the concept of a "current" directory,
usually referred to as the directory you are "in." You can
move freely from one directory to another, but you only
have one current directory. You can access files in the
current directory by simply specifying their names, and
you can access files in other directories by giving their
"pathnames."

A pathname is a list of directory names ending in a
filename. The master or "root" directory is created when
you format a disk. It is prenamed " \ " (backslash). Let's
say that two users, Phil and George, share an XT's single
hard disk. They create directories called "PHIL" and
"GEORGE" in the root directory and store all their files
in their own directories. When Phil uses the machine,
he enters the command "CHDIR \PHIL," which
changes his current directory to " \ PHIL." If this direc-
tory contains a file named "TEXT," he can list it with the
command "TYPE TEXT 1 ." Suppose George has a file
named "TEXT" too, in his own directory " \ GEORGE."
Phil could list it with the command "TYPE
\ GEORGE \ TEXT." Note that DOS contains no security
features; there is nothing to keep Phil from reading any
of George's files on the hard disk they share.

This same concept extends to as many directory names
as you can fit in a maximum pathname of 63 characters.
For example, George may create a directory called
"ACCOUNTS" in " \ GEORGE," and the pathname of
a file named "BILLS" in that directory would be
" \ GEORGE \ ACCOUNTS \ BILLS."

The motivation behind this directory hierarchy can be
traced to the need to support large mass-storage devices
such as the XT's 10-megabyte Winchester. DOS 1.10 and
most other floppy-disk-based operating systems keep all
the files in a single directory. This is simple and works
well if the number of files is small. On a hard disk with

Photo 3: The XT system unit with five expansion slots filled— see
text for description.

hundreds or thousands of files, this structure is inade-
quate. Just think of the time it would take to find a file
if you had to search through a DIR command listing of
a thousand filenames.

There have been several approaches taken in the past
to solve this problem, the most common of which has
been to "partition" the hard disk into multiple "logical
disks," each one of which appears to the user as if it were
a separate floppy-disk drive. Most such arrangements
require the user to establish the partitions in advance,
when the disk is formatted. When this choice is made,
it is assumed you already know the number of partitions
you will need. The disk usually cannot hold a single file
larger than the largest partition, so you are also setting
a ceiling on file size when you determine partition size.

The MS-DOS 2.00 solution is a far more flexible one.
It has most of the advantages of the fixed-partition
scheme but lets you add new directories dynamically.
Furthermore, each file and directory can grow to take
up any available space on the Winchester, as it is needed.

DOS 2.00 supports a form of disk partitioning in ad-
dition to the hierarchical directory scheme. You can par-
tition the disk when you format it, and each partition
can belong to a different operating system. This is IBM's
way of letting you share a single hard disk among multi-
ple operating systems. You can make any of these parti-
tions the "boot" partition, and it will get control when
the system is started up.

Application Woes

Although hierarchical directories are basically a great
convenience, the applications-software world has some
catching up to do before we can take full advantage of
these directories. For example, I wanted to keep all my
commonly used tools, such as BASCOM (the BASIC
Compiler) and Wordstar, in a single directory and use
them from any directory on the disk. DOS has a PATH
command that should be just the ticket— it takes a list

November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. 297

of directories as its arguments, and it sets those direc-
tories up as places that DOS will look for command files.
Using the directory structure discussed earlier, I could
load Wordstar and its supporting files into the root
directory " \ ," issue the command "PATH \ ," and then
be able to invoke Wordstar to edit the file "TEXT" while
in the directory " \ GEORGE." Unfortunately, this
doesn't work. Wordstar gets invoked correctly, but it then

At a Glance

Name

The IBM Personal Computer XT

Manufacturer

International Business Machines Corporation

POB 1328

Boca Raton, FL 33432

Dimensions

System unit: 20 by 16 by 6 inches, 32 pounds
Keyboard: 20 by 8 by 2 inches, 6 pounds

Processor

Intel 8088

Memory

128K bytes of RAM (random-access read/write memory) standard,
expandable to 256K bytes on board; to 640K bytes through ex-
pansion cards; 40K bytes of ROM (read-only memory) holding
BASIC interpreter and DOS I/O (input/output) software

Data Storage

10 megabytes on Winchester hard-disk drive; 360K bytes on
double-sided, double-density floppy-disk drive; can add one more
of each through purchase of optional expansion unit

Keyboard

Detached with 6-foot coil cord connecting to system unit, 83 keys
including 10 function keys, 10 keys for numeric entry and cursor
control, automatic repeat on all keys

Standard Features

Eight expansion slots for additional memory display cards, printer
connection, game-control adapter; speaker for sound or music, 50
to 9600 bits-per-second RS-232C asynchronous communications
adapter

Software

Runs PC-DOS 1.10, 2.00 (both extra cost); DOS 2.00 required for
hard-disk support; most but not all programs that run under DOS
1.10 will run under 2.00; programs that require DOS 1.10 and two
floppy-disk drives will require purchase of the optional expansion
unit to obtain a second floppy-disk drive

Documentation

Guide to Operations: Personal Computer XT: installation, prob-
lem determination, operating procedures, step-by-step instructions
with illustrations. 170 5/2- by 8/2 -inch pages, loose-leaf binder

Price

System unit, 128K bytes of RAM, keyboard, asynchronous com-
munications card, 10-megabyte hard-disk drive. 360K-byte floppy-
disk drive: $4995. Requires DOS 2.00 ($60) and either
monochrome-display adapter ($335) and monochrome display
($345) or color-graphics display adapter ($244) and color display
($680) to have a usable system.

Audience

Computer buyers looking for an expandable system with 10
megabytes of hard-disk storage, capable of running most IBM Per-
sonal Computer software

sonal Computer software

looks for its overlay file in the current directory
(" \ GEORGE") and bombs out when it doesn't find it
there. For now, you must copy Wordstar's supporting
files into the directory containing the files to be edited.
Programs compiled with BASCOM have a similar
problem; the BASRUN.EXE file must be in the current
directory, or the compiled program will not execute. All
this is not to say that hierarchical directories are poorly
implemented; it is just a warning that you will have to
work around some problems like these until the appli-
cations-software developers catch up with DOS 2.00.

Winchester Backup

One of the industry's least favorite topics is discuss-
ing how to back up your 10-megabyte Winchester disk.
The mainframe and minicomputer world solve this prob-
lem with high-speed, large-capacity, high-cost tape

At a Glance

Name

The IBM Personal Computer Disk Operating System version 2.00
including BASIC version 2.00

Type

Microsoft MS-DOS 2.00 Disk Operating System and Microsoft
BASIC version 2.00 for the IBM Personal Computer

Author

Microsoft Corporation
10700 Northrup Way
Bellevue. WA 98004

Distributor

International Business Machines Corporation

POB 1328

Boca Raton. FL 33432

Software

Complete disk operating system and BASIC for the IBM Personal
Computer and Personal Computer XT. Includes support for the PC
XT Winchester disk drive, tree-structured directories, pipes and
filters, a line editor, assembly-language program debugger, and
linker for Microsoft standard relocatable object programs. BASIC
2.00 includes advanced support for graphics, music, and
communications.

Format

Supplied on two double-density single-sided 40-track floppy disks,
formatted with nine 512-byte sectors per track for 180K bytes of
storage per disk (360K bytes on double-sided drives)

Computer

IBM Personal Computer with at least 64K bytes of RAM (random-
access read/write memory] and one floppy-disk drive; IBM Personal
Computer XT with at least 128K bytes of RAM

Documentation

Disk Operating System version 2.00: complete guide with every-
thing from an introduction for the first-time user, to advanced
material for the assembly-language programmer, 794 5/2- by
8/2 -inch pages, loose-leaf binder

Price

S60 for DOS 2.00 and BASIC 2.00

Audience

IBM Personal Computer and Personal Computer XT users in need
of a disk operating system and BASIC language for their systems

298 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

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A typical use of ASCOM is to ac-
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ASCOM works on IBM PC,
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• Transfers both text and program files
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drives. Because these drives typically cost more than an
entire microcomputer system, they are not cost-effective
for backup in the microcomputer world. The XT, like
most of its competitors, uses the built-in floppy-disk unit
for backup.

Given the restrictions in the hardware, DOS 2.00 has
introduced several features to help with this problem.
Not the least of these is a change in floppy-disk format
from 8 sectors per track to 9 sectors. This gives double-
sided floppies a capacity of 360K bytes, 40K bytes more
than DOS 1.10's 320K-byte size. This change benefits
floppy-disk-only users as well as XT users. Furthermore,
DOS 2.00 does a super job of automatically recognizing
both single- and double-sided disks, with either 8 or 9
sectors per track. The FORMAT and DISKCOPY com-
mands can read and write disks with any of these
formats.

DOS 2.00 adds some new features

to make batch-file processing even

more flexible.

Unfortunately for XT owners, however, even this in-
creased floppy-disk capacity works out to about 30 flop-
py disks needed to back up the entire hard disk; if you
can afford two hard disks, you'll need 60 floppy disks.

To try to cut the backup task down to size, a new com-
mand called BACKUP is provided with DOS 2.00. It sup-
ports the dumping of files from a hard disk to multiple
floppy disks. Although you should periodically make a
complete backup of your hard disk, you can also give
backup some parameters to restrict the files that get
backed up in a given operation. For example, you can
supply a filename template, and only those files match-
ing the template will be backed up. One restriction is
that you can only give BACKUP a single template; if you
wanted to back up all files matching the templates
"*. DAT" and "*.COM," you would have to perform two
different BACKUP commands. BACKUP allows switches
that specify:

•BACKUP-only files modified since they were last

BACKed up

•BACKUP-only files modified since a given DATE

BACKUP will write its output to multiple disks, but
they must be preformatted. Thus, you must anticipate
the number of floppy disks you will need before you
begin the operation. Once you have executed BACKUP
and created a set of backup disks, you can load them
back onto the hard disk with the RESTORE command.

Filters and Pipes

DOS 2.00 inherits some of the most popular features
of Xenix, based on the concept of a "standard input" and
"standard output" file. These files are by default mapped

to the keyboard and CRT, respectively. Programs that
read the standard input and write to the standard out-
put are called "filters." DOS 2.00 includes several filter
programs:

• SORT sorts input lines and writes the result to the
standard output.

•MORE copies standard input to standard output a
screenful at a time, then prints MORE and waits for you
to press a key.

•FIND reads standard input and passes lines that con-
tain a specified string to the standard output.

Programs, including DOS commands, that read the
standard input or write to the standard output can have
their input or output streams redirected when they are
invoked. For example, the command "DIR > NAMES"
puts a directory listing in the file called "NAMES." The
command "MORE < NAMES" will type the filenames
on the screen, pausing for you to hit a key after every
screenful of data.

"Pipes" are DOS 2.00 constructs that allow you to
specify multiple filter programs to be run in a single com-
mand line, with the output of each one automatically
connected by DOS as the input of the next one. For ex-
ample, DIR | MORE writes a listing of all the files in the
current directory to the standard output, which is
redirected to the input of MORE; the filename listing will
be printed a screenful at a time by the MORE filter.

DOS 2.00 does not actually run pipelined programs
simultaneously as Unix does; they are run sequentially,
and the output of all but the last is written to a temporary
file, which serves as the input to the next program. The
temporary file is deleted when the last program finishes.
A pipelined command can fail if you run out of disk
space while it is executing.

New Batch Commands

One of the powerful features of DOS is the ability to
create a file of commands, called a "batch file," that can
be executed without user intervention. DOS 2.00 adds
some new features to make batch-file processing even
more flexible:

•ECHO can write messages to the screen during batch-
file processing. Provision is also made to turn off the
echoing of commands to the screen as they are executed.
There is no way to not echo the ECHO OFF command.
•FOR lets you execute a single DOS command multi-
ple times, giving it new parameters with each invocation.
•IF executes a command conditionally, based on an er-
ror code set by a previous command or on the existence
of a file. The only commands that currently set an error
code are BACKUP and RESTORE. More powerful selec-
tion criteria would be useful here.
•GOTO alters the flow of execution in a batch file based
on the results of an IF test.

• SHIFT can be used in conjunction with FOR to step
through a list of command arguments.

300 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

Finally, Selecting The Right Digitizer Is Easy. Here's Why:

And It's Made In The U.S.A., Certified By CIL and CSA, And Meets FCC Class B Requirements

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Translucent drawing area for tracing complex originals
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Meets FCC Class B requirements, to make life easier
for you and your neighbors.
Resolution of 0.010" or 0.005".
Coordinate locations accurate to ±0.015".
Four-button cursor for selecting data-entry options.
Your choice of outputs — all built in — to match either
serial or parallel requirements . . .
... if serial, both RS-232-C and TTL levels are pro-
vided on the standard DB-25P connector.
... if parallel, both binary and BCD protocols are also
provided on the standard DB-25P connector.
Output rates of up to 100 coordinate pairs per second
to meet the requirements of your computer.
Coordinate pairs sent to your computer singly or in
streams; construct figures dot-to-dot or freehand .

Fixed or relocatable origins.

Scaling in either English or Metric dimensions.

CJL and CSA listed for safe, reliable operation.

And lastly, no stray magnetic fields to erase precious

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ivision

4P0I0

One serious limitation of batch-file processing still per-
sists; there is no way to carry on an interactive dialogue
with a user during batch-file execution (ask questions
and execute commands conditionally based on the user's
response).

Miscellaneous Enhancements

One of the problems you will frequently encounter
when trying to run software written for DOS 1.10 is the
"hard-coding" of drive designators in the program itself.
For example, the program may try to open a file named
"B:PROGRAM.DAT;" but there is no drive "B:" on most
XTs. The DOS 2.00 ASSIGN command can redirect all
references to the "B:" drive to a different drive, say "A:"
(the floppy-disk drive) or "C:" (the hard-disk drive).

DOS 2.00 makes the installation of assembly-language
code designed to support peripherals (device-driver
code) much easier than before. A section in the manual
describes the format of a device-driver program (even
advanced programmers will puJl some hairs figuring this
out). A file named CONFIG.SYS, containing the name
of your device driver, must be created in the root direc-
tory. All device drivers located in this file will be installed
when DOS comes up. This procedure will help periph-
eral manufacturers to add driver support to DOS 2.00
without having to resort to patching the operating
system.

Another nice feature is a built-in print "spooler." This
feature lets you queue up to 10 files to be printed in a
"spool queue," then go on and use the machine to do
something else. The files will be printed, somewhat spas-
modically, whenever the computer is idle. The design
of the SPOOL queue servicing code can be questioned,
because it appears to give the spooler the lowest
priority— printout halts whenever you are typing at the
keyboard, or when a program does disk I/O. It appears
that a design giving highest priority to the spooler was

attempted but took too great a performance toll on in-
teractive-user-response time. Nonetheless, it is a strange
feeling to have the printer start up when I stop typing,
and stop when I hit a key; it disturbs my concentration.
Note also the difference between this print spooler and
the usual implementation: this prints files that already
exist on disk, whereas most print spoolers sold in the
microcomputer market buffer all program output des-
tined for the printer. If, for example, you have a BASIC
program that uses LPRINT statements to write to the
printer, you cannot take direct advantage of this spooler.
You must redirect your print output to a file, then print
the file after your BASIC program finishes executing.

Another much-requested feature in DOS 2.00 is the
ability to dump a screen containing graphics output on
the system printer. Medium- and high-resolution graph-
ics are both supported, and color is represented by gray
scales.

DOS 2.00 provides several ways to recover lost files.
The CHKDSK command checks the directory and finds
files that are allocated on the disk but have no directory
entries. New entries are created for such files, and it is
up to you to examine the file and determine if it con-
tains valuable information or not. The RECOVER com-
mand can recover files that have become partially un-
readable due to bad media. A new directory entry is
created for such files, skipping over the bad sectors. Al-
though neither of these recovery techniques is perfect,
they may be preferable to trying to reconstruct a file from
scratch.

The DOS 2.00 disk format command lets you name
a disk with a "volume ID." Unfortunately, you cannot
change the ID without reformatting the disk.

DEBUG has been enhanced to allow direct entry of
assembly-language statements into memory.

The EDLIN line editor has new commands to read in
the contents of a file, move, and copy lines of text.

NOT ONLY ANOTHER TECHNOLOGICAL BREAKTHROUGH

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STARCOM is a 300/1200 bps Auto Dial/Auto Log On/Auto Answer Modem.

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302 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

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As a performance enhancement, you can specify the
number of file buffers that DOS allocates when it comes
up. Data read from files is kept in these buffers until they
are used up; they are "recycled" each time a new buffer
is needed. If your program requests data that is in one
of these buffers, a disk I/O operation may be avoided.

VERIFY forces DOS to perform reads after each disk
write, to ensure that the intended data has made it out
to the disk.

BASIC 2.00

The new version of BASICA contains many new fea-
tures, primarily in the screen and music I/O areas. If you
are willing to dig in and learn the peculiar syntax of the
graphics and music-generating commands, you will have
a powerful programming capability at your disposal.

Some of the changes in BASIC 2.00 are in the file area.
BASIC statements and commands dealing with file-
names have been expanded to accept pathnames. The
EOF (end-of-file) function handles redirected standard
input files. The LOF (last-of-file) function gives the
number of bytes allocated to a file. GET and PUT can
handle record numbers up to 16,777,215.

The graphics commands have lots of new features.
PAINT takes a parameter that allows you to "tile" an area;
that is, to fill it with a pattern instead of a solid color.
LINE has an enhancement similar to the tile feature of
PAINT; you can specify a line "style" and draw lines
composed of patterns of dots and dashes. DRAW sup-
ports a command to turn by a given angle, and to issue
a PAINT command (no tiling) from within a DRAW com-
mand. WINDOW lets you treat the screen as having
an arbitrary coordinate system. You must establish the
x and y coordinates of the corners of the screen, and then
everything you draw using the CIRCLE, LINE, PAINT,
POINT, PSET, and PRESET statements gets scaled to the
coordinates established by WINDOW. Any points out-
side the WINDOW are not plotted— this is called "clip-
ping." VIEW defines a portion of the screen as a "view-
port," and all output goes only to this portion of the
screen until a new viewport supersedes it. By defining
multiple viewports on the screen at once, you can ex-
periment with the currently in vogue "multiple-window"
techniques used by Visicorp's Visi On and Apple's Lisa.

Odds and Ends

The PLAY statement now recognizes a symbol that
raises or lowers the octave of succeeding notes. An ON
PLAY statement has been added to play continuous
music concurrently with the execution of a program.
Whenever there are a given number of notes left in the
"music queue," control is transferred to a subroutine in
your program that can fill the queue with more notes.

Double-precision support is now available for the ATN,
COS, EXP, LOG, SIN, SQR, and TAN functions. RAN-
DOMIZE also supports double-precision seeds for the
random-number generation routine.

The "ON TIMER" statement allows you to set up a
single-count-down timer; after the specified number of

seconds has elapsed, control is transferred via GOSUB
to a statement in your program.

You can now specify that all output to the screen
should also be sent to your printer. This option was
formerly available from DOS, but was disabled when
you entered BASIC. It is still turned off when you enter
BASIC, but you can now turn it back on.

Documentation

Although still among the better manuals in the micro-
computer industry, the DOS and BASIC manuals took
a beating when being upgraded to version 2.00. The DOS
manual is now bursting at the seams, and it is just a mat-
ter of time before pages start falling out. Its formidable
size will keep many people from even trying to learn
more than "How do I load Visicalc?" It appears to have
been rushed out, with a number of typographical errors,
some rather glaring (the table of contents lists nine en-
tries for Appendix K, then starts all over again). Con-
sidering the volume of information it presents, it is
usable, and thoughtfully includes an index as well as
a master table of contents and a mini table of contents
for each chapter.

The BASIC manual is a "do-it-yourself" kit containing
a 1.10 manual and a fat packet of pages to insert. The
first manual I received omitted the 2.00 upgrade pages;
the second one contained the pages, but repeated a
subset of them and left out the VIEW and WINDOW
commands.

The examples in both manuals are acceptable, al-
though many are so vague they give the impression the
writer did not understand the purpose of the command.
The examples also show evidence of hurried prepara-
tion and minimal proofreading. It is evident that even
IBM, with its enormous pool of resources, must cut
corners to get timely updates out in the breakneck-paced
world of microcomputer software.

Conclusions

The PC XT is a solidly engineered, although technical-
ly modest, encore to the IBM Personal Computer. It is
competitively priced, which indicates that not only is
IBM in this game to stay, it wants to build its market
share.

DOS 2.00 has the right features to support the XT's
expanded capabilities and brings many features formerly
found only in high-priced microcomputers down to the
mid-price range. BASIC 2.00 builds on Microsoft's
reputation for innovative features in microcomputer
BASICs; its powerful graphics features make it worthy
of its generic name GW BASIC (Gee Whiz BASIC).

Now that we know what the XT is all about, we can
start speculating on the PC II again; I think it will be
multiuser, with an 80186 running Xenix and MS-DOS,
and . . .■

Rowland Archer Jr. (5420 Loyal PL, Durham, NC 27713) is a manager of
software development at a Fortune 500 corporation. He holds an MS in com-
puter science from MIT.

304 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

INTRODUCING THE 5 AFT

STANDBY POWER SYSTEM. IT KEEPS

YOU FROM LOSING YOUR MEMORY

WHEN THE LIGHTS GO OUT.

If the power fails while you're reading this ad,
everything your computer knows could be lost.

In an instant, information crucial to the smooth
operation of your business can vanish without a trace.
Memories can be flushed, disks can be damaged.

That's why you need a Saft Standby Power
System. In the event of a blackout or brownout, it
takes over instantly — before the computer can tell
there is anything wrong. There are two systems
available. The 200 VA, which provides power up

to 20 minutes. And the 400 VA, with power up
to 10 minutes. Which gives you plenty of time to get
off the machine safely, without missing a
single byte.

And during normal operation it acts as a line filter,
protecting against damaging voltage spikes.

Ask your dealer about the Saft Standby Power
System. It's the first standby system designed specifi-
cally for small business computers. And offered at a
small business price.

More power to you.

Circle 403 on inquiry card.

e -

as?

SAFT America Inc. Portable Battery Division, 931 N. Vandalia St., St. Paul, MN 55114 612-645-8531 SAFT Batteries Ltd. , 200 Middlefield Road, Scarborough, Ont. Can. M 1S-4M6 416-298-7322

I***) I ' / # r ■ I** v i 4 - w

■■

The Chaplin character licensed by Bubbles, Inc. , S.A.

Congratulations. We published your program.

The envelope, please.
There's an acceptance letter inside. And a
check that could have your name on it. (If we
select your program, that is.)
But remember.
We pick our winners carefully.

Because the software we publish for
the IBM Personal Computer has to be
good enough to complement
IBM Personal Computer hardware.
(See the box at right.)

Like our hardware, this software
should be simple to use. Friendly.
Fast. And written to help satisfy the
needs of the individual.

Our Personal Editor is a perfect
example. A versatile text file editor,
it not only helps the user save time,
but lets him easily self-tailor a task
with definable function keys. And
it sets a standard of excellence.

Of course, every person will use the
IBM Personal Computer differently.
That's why we plan on publishing
many different programs.

Entertainment programs.
And educational programs. And
business programs. And
personal productivity

programs. And graphics. And games.

And more.

We'll also consider software written by
programmers for programmers. For example,
the BASIC Program Development System,
Professional Editor and Diskette Librarian
I 1

IBM PERSONAL COMPUTER SPECIFICATIONS

User Memory

64K-640K bytes
Microprocessor

l6-bit,8088
Auxiliary Memory

2 optional internal
diskette drives, ^A"
160KB/ 180KB or
320KB/360KD
per diskette

Keyboard

83 ke>-s, 6 ft. cord
utuiches to
system unit

10 function keys

10-key numeric pad

Diagnostics

Pmver-on self testing

Parky checking

DlspIayScreens

Color or monochrome

Nigh-resolution
80 characters x 25 lines
Upper and lower case
Operating Systems
DOS. UCSD p-Svstem,

CP^ -86t
Languages
BASIC, Pascal. FORTRAN,

MACRO Assembler,

COBOL
Printer
All-points-addressable

graphics capability
Bidirectional
8 characters/second
18 character styles
9x9 character matrix

Permanent Memory

(ROM) 40K bytes

Color/Graphics

7e,xt mode:

16 colors

256 characters and

symbols in ROM
Graphics mode:
4-color resolution:

320h x 200v
Black & white resolution:

640h x 200v
Simultaneous graphics &

text capability

Communications

RS-232C interface
SDLC, Asynchronous,

Bisynchronous protocols
Up to 9600 bits per second

are high-quality, full-function tools that
were submitted by authors like you and
subsequently published by us.

Now you might have the chance to win.

Who knows? \bu could open the mailbox
and find one of the envelopes shown here.

For information on how to submit your
program, if completed and running, write:
IBM Personal Computer External Submissions,
Dept. 765 PC, Armonk,
New York 10504. === =.

The IBM Personal Computer
A tool for modern times

Circle 218 on inquiry card.

For more information on where to buy the IBM Personal Computer, call 800-447-4700. In Alaska or Hawaii, 800-447-0890.

System Review

The Corona PC

An IBM PC-compatible desktop machine that features a
high-quality display and the Multimate word-processing program

by Rich Malloy

308 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

One thing that continues to amaze me in this indus-
try is the number and variety of microcomputers claim-
ing compatibility with the IBM Personal Computer
(PC). Like siblings, these machines share a common
theme yet retain an individual character and per-
sonality.

The Columbia MPC (Multipersonal Computer) could
be the older brother, content to copy his father exactly.
The Compaq becomes the proper and dependable sister
with a weakness for travel. And, of course, the Eagle PC
is the younger brother who has a penchant for tidiness-
he keeps the keyboard under his bed.

Then comes Corona (photo 1): the younger sister who
reveals tremendous artistic ability and perfect penman-
ship. While family members settle for simple stick-figure
drawings, she spends hours producing intricate and
precise drawings. And her free spirit makes her more
at home in Fortune 1000 companies than in the Fortune
100, although she would be useful in any office.

The Corona PC is a cream-colored desktop personal
computer that is about 90 percent compatible with the
IBM PC. In fact, its major incompatibility is also one of
its best features— a high-density, high-contrast graphics
screen. Its other departure from the IBM PC is its price,
$2995 for a system with two floppy-disk drives (320K
bytes each), 128K bytes of memory, serial and parallel
interfaces, and a medium-size software bundle (MS-
DOS, a BASIC interpreter, PC-Tutor, and a word pro-
cessor). (See At a Glance box for more information.) The
equivalent configuration from IBM costs about $1000
more.

The Corona should work fairly well in any office where
an IBM PC might be found, especially for word-process-
ing applications. When new applications software takes
advantage of the Corona's high-quality graphics, this

machine's capabilities will really stand out. Like any new
computer, it has a few knots and rough edges, but
nothing the experienced computer user cannot adjust to.

Hardware

Physically, the Corona resembles the IBM PC. It takes
up about the same space on your desk and is just as
heavy when you try moving it to another office. Its disk
drives remain true to IBM's, horizontal and on the right
side of the unit.

One obvious difference is the position of the Corona's
on/off switch. Corona subscribes to a common yet
curious school of thought that holds that this important
switch should be in the most inaccessible place pos-
sible—the back panel. Thus, turning the Corona on re-
quires a prerequisite minute or so while your fingers
fumble around for the switch.

While fumbling, however, you discover something
handy— a reset switch. The IBM PC and most of its
clones use a combination of the Alternate, Control, and
Delete keys to trigger a reset that can be deactivated by
software. The result is that when certain software pack-
ages "hang up," you have to turn the machine off, wait
10 seconds, turn it on, and wait a minute while the com-
puter checks its memory. On the Corona, you simply
hit the Reset button on the back panel. This button is
not easy to find, and it has a light touch. I usually just
flap my fingers around the back for a second or so until
I hear the disk drives start up.

The Display

The Corona's major attraction is its display. This dis-
play has good resolution (640 by 325 pixels) and extreme-
ly good contrast: it reminds me of the Victor 9000. (By
the way, the display arrived here in a box from the

At a Glance

Name

Corona PC

Manufacturer

Corona Data Systems
31324 Via Colinas. Suite 110
Westlake Village. CA 91362

Components

Size: 19 by 17 by 18 inches (including monitor). Processor: 8088.
16 bit. 5 MHz. Memory: 128K bytes (expandable to 512K bytes).
Display: green-phosphor. 80 by 25 characters. IBM PC-style
character set. Characters can be underlined, reverse video, high
intensity, or blinking. Graphics format: 640 by 325 pixels, two
colors (black and green). Keyboard: 83 keys, modified IBM PC-style
key layout. 10 function keys, numeric keypad. Mass storage: one
320K-byte floppy-disk drive. Optional second floppy-disk drive or
10-megabyte hard-disk drive. Interfaces: parallel-printer port and
RS-232C serial port. Expansion: four IBM PC-style expansion slots.

Software

MS-DOS version 1.25 operating system. GW BASIC interpreter.
Multimate word-processing program. PC-Tutor

Options

Second floppy-disk drive: S450; extra memory modules. 128K
bytes each: S295; 10-megabyte hard-disk drive: S2295

Documentation

Four loose-leaf binders, approximately 150 pages each. 5/2- by
8/2 -inch pages

Price

With one floppy-disk drive:
With two floppy-disk drives:
With one floppy-disk drive and
one 10-megabyte hard-disk drive:

S2595
S2995

S4495

November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. 309

Photo 2: The display screen of the Corona (left) compared with that of the IBM PC (right). Both photos were taken under the same condi-
tions. Note the Corona's increased contrast and the IBM's well-formed characters.

Amdek company.) Photo 2 compares the display with
that of the IBM PC.

The people at Corona claim that the true resolution
of their display is a whopping 1280 by 325 pixels (pic-
ture elements). You can't access these 1280 pixels direct-
ly (i.e., through BASIC), but the Corona's character
generator seems to use them, with the result that the
Corona's character set is smooth and practically free of
"jaggies."

In character mode, the Corona PC varies in only one
way from the IBM PC. It features the same 80-line by
25-character layout, the same attributes for each character
(reverse video, underline, high intensity), and the same
variety of characters (see photo 3). The one exception
involves formation of the individual characters. Each
character occupies a matrix that is 16 pixels wide by 13
pixels high. Yes, that's 16 pixels wide. At first I thought
this was inaccurate, but I took out my magnifying loupe,
which I use for software warranties and license agree-
ments, and sure enough they were right. Each pixel is
about half as wide as it is high. The lowercase "y" is
made up of at least 11 pixels from left to right (see photo
4). Add some pixels for the spaces between characters
and you get 16.

The Corona PC Character Set

'■$*»* I > *+ , -. /6123456789: j <->?eABCDEFG

I I L H II t Q R S t U V N X Y Z t \ ] A . ' a b c d e f q h 1 J k J I n o

'atuvwxyzUl* £ H !l U f ee e 1 t 1 li U U 38 HO

ll T L_+Hl f 4 T > T $ii T

;m:m

You might think that with that many pixels to play
with, the Corona would have a superb design for each
character. But the Corona's characters do not seem to take
full advantage of their high-density pixel grid. I think
that the character font used by the IBM PC monochrome
monitor is more readable than the one Corona uses. The
Corona font looks like the IBM font would look after be-
ing on a diet for a few weeks.

One of the nice things about the IBM font is that it
is richly decorated with serifs, little pen marks that have
been helping us distinguish characters for hundreds of
years. Corona probably chose to use a thin, sans-serif
style to be modern, and I can live with it if I have to.
On the Corona's high-contrast screen, any font is OK.
But if the company ever came out with a plug-in chip
that would generate a font similar to the IBM's, I'd be
first in line to buy it.

While the character mode of the Corona's display is
functionally (if not visually) compatible with the IBM,
in graphics mode the display takes a sharply divergent
path. The IBM Color Graphics Adapter card gives the
IBM PC three graphics modes; the highest resolution is
640 by 200. The Corona, however, offers only one graph-
ics mode, in black and white, with about 50 percent more

Photo 3: The character set of the Corona PC. The Corona has the
same variety of characters as the IBM PC.

Photo 4: A close-up view of the characters on the Corona's display
Note the large number of pixels that form each letter.

310 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

Introducing the Most Powerful
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Photo 5: An example of the graphics capabilities of the Corona, this picture was produced by a BASIC program called Etch. The resolution
of the screen here is 640 by 325 pixels.

pixels (640 by 325) than the IBM has (see photo 5). The
Corona has better resolution, but it pays for this by not
being compatible with the graphics software for the IBM.

Fortunately, this incompatibility problem with IBM's
graphics can be solved in any of three ways. First, you
can install an IBM Color Graphics Adapter card into the
Corona (just as you would have to with the IBM PC) and
purchase a color monitor, and your machine will be com-
pletely compatible with any graphics program for the
IBM. Second, you can wait until the popular software
houses modify their programs so that they can run
directly on the Corona. Or third, you can wait until the
GSX graphics interpreter for the CP/M-86 operating
systems becomes readily available. This interpreter is in-
tended to eliminate all graphics incompatibility from one
computer to another or from one peripheral to another.
Admittedly, the last two alternatives are a bit chancy. The
important thing to remember is that if there is any prob-
lem, you can install the IBM graphics board.

I should note that on the Corona's display, graphics and
characters can by intermixed anywhere on the screen.
Also, graphics information can be stored in several places
in memory. An advanced programmer can quickly
switch from place to place in memory and set up some
fast-moving images.

In BASIC, you can individually address any pixel in
a 640 by 325 pixel grid, but only two colors are sup-
ported: black and white (actually green). As mentioned

previously, the real resolution of the screen is 1280 by
325, so each addressable pixel is actually made up of two
smaller pixels. Advanced programmers may be able to
individually address each of the these smaller pixels.

The Keyboard

The Corona, like many of the IBM compatibles, uses
a keyboard produced by Key Tronic in Washington.
Visually, it is almost an exact duplicate of the IBM key-
board (see photo 6). It has the same 83 keys, including
10 function keys, a combination cursor-control/numeric
keypad, and keys such as Num Lock, Scroll Lock, and
PrtSc. Functionally, it has a similar keyboard processor
and type-ahead buffer, but it is lighter, quieter, and has
its own indicator lights for the Caps Lock and Num Lock
keys.

Key Tronic offers two key layouts for this keyboard.
One is an exact duplicate of the controversial key layout
used by the IBM PC. The other is a more traditional (i.e.,
sensible) layout with the left Shift key and the Return
key in their usual positions. Corona was originally go-
ing to use the exact IBM key layout, but it received so
many requests for the traditional layout that it has now
switched to that keyboard.

In "The Corona Portable PC" (September 1983 BYTE,
page 226), I mentioned that the keyboard on the Cor-
ona Portable was one of the best I had seen. It was. But
that keyboard had the Shift keys and Return keys in the

312 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

Circle 153 on inquiry card, ■

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right places. Unfortunately, the keyboard we received
with the desktop Corona had the exact IBM key layout,
and it was a bit harder to use. Not only were the keys
in nonstandard places, but some of the keys had very
light touches. For example, I must have a tendency to
rest my index finger on the J key because "j" kept ap-
pearing in strange places.

No doubt you can grow accustomed to this keyboard,
but after three weeks of heavy use, my error rate was
still about twice what it was with my old IBM Selectric.

Of course, it's difficult to be objective about keyboards.
Everyone has preferences. In fact, some people really like
the IBM PC key layout. I prefer the Corona with the more
traditional keyboard. And I'd prefer a slightly heavier
touch.

The Processor

Like the IBM PC, the Corona is built around the 16-bit
8088 microprocessor with a clock speed of 5 MHz. Hav-
ing this processor, of course, doesn't guarantee com-
patibility with the IBM PC, but it's a good start. Also,
the slightly higher clock speed of this processor means
that the Corona will be about 5 percent faster than the
IBM PC.

Memory

The most significant thing about the Corona's memory
is that you can put up to 512K bytes of RAM (random-
access read/write memory) chips directly on the main
board; you don't need to tie up any of the expansion
slots. Also, the Corona comes with software that enables
you to partition part of this memory as a RAM disk.

The standard Corona comes with 128K bytes of mem-
ory, a reasonable amount. The unit I used had 256K
bytes with 128K bytes of this configured as a RAM disk.
I didn't run out of memory, but I didn't run any huge
spreadsheets, either.

One nice thing about the Corona is that it doesn't
spend a minute checking all of the memory each time
you turn on the machine. This should save about 10
hours of time over the life of the machine. The rationale
for this is that even if the machine were to find a bad
memory chip, it is better to have a machine that works
partially than a machine that won't let you work at all*.
Just in case, Corona provides a nice memory-test pro-
gram that graphically tells you which chip is bad.

Power Supply

The Corona power supply provides 110 watts (W) com-
pared to the 64 W supplied by the IBM PC. The addi-
tional supply in the Corona enables you to add internal
peripherals such as a hard disk without fear of overload-
ing the machine.

Floppy-Disk Drives

The standard unit comes with one 320K-byte floppy-
disk drive. There is room for another floppy or for a hard
disk. The floppy disks use a standard configuration for
double-sided double-density disks under MS-DOS ver-

314 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

Circle 65 on inquiry card.

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Photo 6: The Corona's keyboard, which was produced by Key Tronic.
Again, note the similarity to that of the IBM. Also note that future
editions of the Corona will have some keys repositioned, specifically
the left Shift key and the Return key.

sion 1.25. When MS-DOS 2.00 becomes available for the
Corona, you should be able to put 360K bytes on each
disk.

The only difference I've noticed between the Corona
floppy-disk drives and those of the IBM is that the Cor-
ona drives are quieter, though not as quiet as those of
the Compaq.

Interfaces

It's been about a year since I've heard of a new com-
puter that does not come standard with both a Cen-

tronics parallel-printer port and a serial RS-232C port.
Progressive thinking such as this is much welcomed.

The Corona is no exception to this forward trend. The
circuitry for both of these interfaces is right on the main
circuit board. The connectors for these interfaces are on
the back panel (see photo 7). I've used the parallel port
with an Epson MX-80 printer and had no problem with
it. The serial RS-232C port, however, is more difficult.

Part of the problem is that the RS-232C standard is
itself difficult. According to the standard, the whole
world is divided into two parts: data-terminal equipment
(DTE) and data-communications equipment (DCE). The
important thing to remember is that DTEs can talk only
with DCEs, and vice versa. Almost all modems are
naturally configured as DCEs, and most microcomputers
are configured as terminals or DTEs. Serial printers, how-
ever, can't seem to make up their minds. Some are DTEs,
some are DCEs.

The Corona is one of the few computers that enable
you to configure it as either a DTE or a DCE. Theoretical-
ly, you could set up the machine as a DTE to have an
easy connection with a modem (DCE), or you could set
it up as a DCE to connect with any other computer
(DTE), or as either of the above to connect with a serial
printer (DTE or DCE). The problem in doing this is that
to change the configuration you must remove the top
cover of the system unit, pull out a jumper (which looks
like a memory chip and is very hard to reach), and in-
sert it into another socket.

With this jumper in the modem socket, I could easily
connect a Hayes Smartmodem to the Corona. And with

Qcorona

<*

mat : ". f** ; i; ; ;i-.

o 41

Photo 7: The back panel of the Corona. Note the Reset switch on the left, the parallel-printer port, the serial port, the video-display port,
and the openings for the expansion cards.

316 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

Circle 105 on inquiry card.

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the jumper in the printer socket, I could easily connect
a Diablo 1640 daisy-wheel printer.

But while these hardware connections were satisfac-
tory, the software for them seemed a bit hard to use. For
example, I had a hard time trying to access the modem
port from BASIC. A popular communications program
in BASIC called PC-Talk also had trouble using the
modem port. When I connected a serial printer, I was
able to access it through BASIC, but I had a little trou-
ble using it with a word processor. These seem to be
minor bugs, which I hope will be fixed soon.

Peripherals

The unit we received from Corona included a pleasant
surprise: a 10-megabyte hard-disk drive. This disk drive,
which up until recently was Corona's major product, is
impressive. Its list price is $2295, and I've seen ads
offering the drive at a much lower price.

The hard disk can be subdivided into one, two, three,
or four parts. You can easily designate the size of each
part. The instructions for formatting and loading the
disk, however, are a bit less than ideal; you have to ex-
ecute a series of four programs. (A simple batch file that
would execute these four programs automatically would
have been helpful.) But once you have the procedure
ironed out, it is fairly straightforward. The actual for-
matting of the disk takes only about 6 minutes.

Overall, the hard disk was a pleasure to use. Disk-
access times for the hard disk were usually fairly fast
(although some individual accesses can be as slow as
that of a floppy disk), and the storage capacity is huge.
In fact, a few weeks with a hard disk can spoil you for
systems that have only floppy disks. But the hard disk's
seemingly bottomless pit of storage capacity has a price.
You must be sure that everything on that disk is backed
up on floppy disks. Hard-disk errors are not rare. And
a 10-megabyte hard-disk drive will require at least 30
floppy disks to back it up.

Expansion Slots

The Corona comes with four expansion slots that
should accommodate any board built for the IBM (see
photo 8). The IBM Color Graphics Adapter board works
fine, but I had some trouble with QuadRAM's Quad-
board because it is incompatible with the Corona's hard
disk.

Note that the IBM PC with capabilities similar to that
of the standard Corona may have only one slot left open.

Software

Some personal computers, such as the Columbia
MPC, come with a complete assortment of software.
Some, such as the IBM PC itself, come with the bare
minimum— a BASIC interpreter. The Corona lies some-
where in the middle.

Like the IBM, the Corona has a BASIC interpreter (GW
BASIC from Microsoft). It also features the MS-DOS
operating system (version 1.25), a word-processing pro-
gram patterned after Wang's dedicated word processors,

318 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

Circle 371 on inquiry card.

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Photo 8: Inside the Corona. A Seagate hard-disk drive is on the lower right and the expansion slots are on the left. One of the slots is
taken up by the hard-disk controller. The power supply is on the upper right.

and a teaching program to guide you through the in-
tricacies of MS-DOS.

MS-DOS

Despite assertions to the contrary, PC-DOS and MS-
DOS are not the same thing, although they are extremely
close. Moreover, MS-DOS seems to vary from machine
to machine. It is true that all MS-DOS machines can read
each other's disks, and they can use most of the same
MS-DOS utility programs. But there are some dif-
ferences.

For example, in PC-DOS you can create batch files by
using the COPY command to "copy" a file from the key-
board (which is referred to as "CON:") to a batch file.
On the Corona, you call the keyboard "CON," without
the color.

As I mentioned before, the Corona's version of MS-
DOS also seems to have trouble handling the serial port
with the Mode utility program. But perhaps this will be
only a temporary problem.

Multimate

This relatively new word processor from Sof tword Sys-
tems of East Hartford, Connecticut, was designed as a
"professional" word processor for the IBM PC. The word
"professional" here means that it is supposed to be
similiar to the Wang word processors. When, I wonder,
will things come full circle and someone design a word-
processing program for the IBM PC based on the IBM
Displaywriter?

Multimate for the Corona does not seem to be too dif-
ferent from Multimate for any other MS-DOS machine.
But because some impressive claims have been made for
it and it is a rather impressive package, I will take some
time to describe it here.

Multimate is a fairly powerful and fast system. Among
its noteworthy features are the abilities to merge letter
files with address files, to spool your printing jobs into
a queue that can be printed in the background, to do
decimal tabs, to perform column arithmetic, and to move
columns. In addition, you can save your preferred tab

320 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

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BYTE November 1983 321

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Open 7 Days A IVeefc

| Mon.-Fri. 7 am to 8 pm I Sat.-Sun. 8 am to 6pm |

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322 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. Circle 107 On inquiry card.

BASIC Benchmark

5000 loops

5000 divisions

5000 GOSUBs

5000 MID$s

Sieve program (1 iteration)

Disk write* (64K bytes)

Floppy

Winchester
Disk read (64K bytes)

Floppy

Winchester

Time (seconds)
Corona IBM PC IBM XT

6

19

11

23

185

30

14

22
7

7

24

13

24

192

31

22

7

24

13

24

192

29

23

Table 1: A comparison of the Corona PC with the IBM PC and
PC XT using BASIC. Note the slight advantage of the Corona,
but the relatively slow speed of its Winchester disk-write routine.
The Corona used GW BASIC running under MS-DOS version
1.25 on a 5-MHz 8088 microprocessor. The IBM PC used BASIC A
(version 1.1) under PC-DOS version 1.1 on a standard 4.77-MHz
processor. The IBM PC XT was running under PC-DOS version
2.00. For a listing of the programs, see January 1982 BYTE, page
54.

stops, right margin, and printer instructions in default
files, which will automatically be inserted into all of your
subsequent documents.

Multimate is also fairly easy to use, but it does have
some problems. It has so many capabilities that you may
have a hard time remembering which keys do what.
Some keys have four separate functions. You have to
keep a key chart handy at all times.

Also, the program has some minor inconsistencies. In
some parts of the program you execute a task by press-
ing the Return key; in others you must press the F10 key
(which attempts to act as Wang's Execute key). In some
parts you can delete a character by pressing the Delete
key or the Minus key; in others you have to press the
Backspace key. And though you can delete characters
to the right, you can't delete characters to the left.

A problem that is not minor is a utility program called
Fileconv. This is supposed to convert Multimate text files
to regular ASCII (American National Standard Code for
Information Interchange) format and vice versa. It's nec-
essary because Multimate uses some non- ASCII char-
acters (i.e., characters with codes greater than the
decimal number 127; see photo 9). Multimate also re-
quires space for a screen of file information (e.g., author,
title, comments, and date created) and format lines,
which indicate tab stops and right margins. This con-
version program, however, works only 50 percent of the
time. The rest of the time it crashes the system.

Here at BYTE, with our mosaic of computer and type-
setting systems, such a program is very important. A
given document may pass through three different com-
puters. If a document cannot be reliably passed to or re-
trieved from a given word processor, then that word pro-
cessor has limited use. Multimate's Fileconv program as
it now stands seems to have been an afterthought. I hope
Softword will have a better program out soon.

The road to success is not through the woods.

ALanier Thought Processor
can move you ahead at the
speed of sound.

Pastthose who continue
to plod along one thought at
a time.

Pastthose who still write
out every single word.

Right to the top with tech-
nology that lets you get your
thoughts and ideas off your
mind and into action.
Instantly No lost time. No
lost thoughts.

It lets you zip out letters
and memos. And get instruc-
tions and messages to
people in your office fast.

You work at the speed it
takes to get ahead in this
highly competitive business
world.

Lanier Thought Proces-
sors range from pocket-size
portables to complete office
systems.

See how fast they can
move you ahead.

I I I'd like more information on

Lanier Thought Processing.

Name
Title

Company
Phone

Business Address
City

County

State Zip

Mail to:

Lanier Business Products, Inc.

1700 Chantilly Drive, N.E.

Atlanta, GA 30324

Or call Lanier toll-free at

(800) 241-1706. In Georgia,

(404) 321 -1244, collect.

MOVE AHEAD AT THE SPEED OF SOUND

eANIER THOUGHT PROCESSING."

TO LEARN HOW TO MOVE AHEAD WITH THE SPEED OF SOUND WITH LANIER THOUGHT PROCESSING M , CIRCLE

260

Photo 9: An example of a document being edited by the Multimate
word processor. Note the format line at the top of the screen and ,the
non-ASCII characters to indicate tab stops, carriage returns, and in-
dents. Also note the highlighted area that is to be deleted.

cessed the IBM PCs monochrome display memory
directly. If the IBM Color Graphics Adapter had been
installed, even this program would probably have
worked.

Of course, if your application depends on a specific
IBM software package, be sure to test it on the Corona
before you buy either.

Documentation

Once again, Corona emulates the IBM. Four books,
with pages approximately the same size as those in IBM
manuals, are included: one for GW BASIC, one for MS-
DOS, one for Multimate, and one for operating
instructions.

The documentation is fairly comprehensive, but it has
a few minor errors. It is, however, undergoing con-
tinuous evolution.

The Multimate manual and the operating instructions
are fairly straightforward. The manuals for GW BASIC
and MS-DOS are more difficult. I wouldn't hand these
to a new user.

GW BASIC

The Corona's BASIC interpreter is similar to that of the
IBM PC. The major difference is the graphics commands,
which are geared to the Corona's unique graphics
format.

Almost all of the features I tried worked satisfactorily,
but I did find two problems. First, when I was editing
a BASIC program using the full-screen editor, the system
would on occasion mysteriously hang up.

Second, as mentioned earlier, I had trouble getting the
BASIC interpreter to access the serial port. In the GW
BASIC manual, Corona supplies a 50-line BASIC pro-
gram to allow you to use the Corona as a communica-
tions terminal. This program looks good, except that it
contains a few mistakes. And even when the mistakes
are corrected, the program does not work. A mysterious
"Device I/O Error" message occurs at certain places. The
only way to get the program to work was to trap these
errors with an ON ERROR . . . RESUME sequence.

As for performance, some standard BYTE benchmarks
(see table 1) indicated that the Corona was slightly faster
than the IBM PC and XT, faster in fact than the difference
in processor speeds might suggest.

PC TUTOR

This program is designed to lead you through MS-
DOS in a painless but tedious manner. This is an inter-
esting program, but beware: you may learn more than
you ever wanted to know about things like MS-DO S's
"kludgey" line editor called Edlin.

Compatibility

I ran a number of IBM PC programs on the Corona.
Almost all of them (including Visicalc, Wordstar, and
1-2-3 from Lotus Development Corporation) worked
without any problems. The only one that didn't was a
telecommunications program (PC/Intercom) that ac~

The Manufacturer

Corona was founded approximately two years ago by
Robert Harp, who was one of the founders of Vector
Graphic, an early microcomputer manufacturer. Vector
Graphic historically has leaned toward larger personal
computers, and Corona, with its emphasis on hard disks
and husky power supplies, seems to follow that trend.

Corona has just recently begun shipping its portable
computer, which is almost identical to its PC (see "The
Corona Portable PC," September BYTE, page 226). Re-
lease of this machine was held up because of problems
with its plastic case.

Corona has told us that in the near future it will offer
a "professional" computer with a bit more power than
the PC Corona will also be offering another graphics
format, 640 by 400 pixels, which will be compatible with
the IBM's format of 640 by 200 pixels.

Summary

The Corona PC is a good, reasonably priced IBM PC-
compatible computer. As a new machine from a relative-
ly new company, it has a number of inevitable bugs and
inconsistencies. If you have the expertise to iron out
these bugs or the patience to wait for fixes to come out,
then the Corona may be a good way to save some money.
For offices that already have an IBM PC, the Corona rep-
resents a good way to add extra computing power at a
minimal cost. Also, if a high-contrast, high-resolution
display screen is important to you, then give the Cor-
ona some thought— but wait until some good software
for this display arrives. Fortunately, this machine's
graphics are so good that it should readily attract
graphics programmers. The wait should not be too long
at all. ■

Rich Malloy is a senior technical editor at BYTE. He can be reached at POB
372, Hancock, NH 03449.

324 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

Zeps 4 because...

If you're buying a small busi-
ness computer, there are a few
things you ought to know. A
lot of things.

You can spend several
thousand dollars and still have
a system that won't expand
with your business growth. So
we took this ad to point #
out the facts about
Ze//s4...

. . . because multi-user is
better than multiple single
users.

Once you grow
beyond your own
personal computing
needs for business, it no
longer makes sense to buy
a single user computer.

The cost alone— aside from
the inefficiency of not being
able to share data and to com
pute interdependently
in an office environ-
ment— makes this
option obsolete.

The Ze/Lts 4 allows up to
eight users to work from one
system at the same time. Each
can have his own terminal,
CPU, and active memory. Each
shares ample file storage in-
cluding floppy backup. And
each has a second port for his
own printer or telephone
modem.

...because multi-processor
is better than single
processor.

With the ZejLiS 4 multi-
processor there is no loss in
power or speed of operation
when several users compute

at the same time. Single
processors bog down with
simultaneous use. Plus, the
Zejus 4 gives you total flexibility
in computing with true shar-
ing of data (not just passing
from one to the next) in a
complete multi-user environ-
ment. The operating features

available to Ze/.*s 4 users. Write
us for a free software directory.

. . . because you can buy
the Zejis 4 for less than
$1,300 per user including
Winchester.

•

and speed of the Ze/is 4 leave
single-processor units in the
dust. (We have documented
benchmark data to support
this— write us and we'll send it
to you.)

. . . because standard
programs are better than
non-standard programs.

You can use your Ze^s 4
right away because OSM pro-
vides you with industry stan-
dard word processing software,
electronic spread sheet, and
a powerful data base manage-
ment system. In fact, there
are over 5,000 standard
CP/M W and MP/M™ programs

Circle 345 on inquiry card.

When you think of
what you'd have to
put out for eight per-
sonal computers, the
Zejits 4 Computer looks
pretty good. Even when you
add the cost of terminals and
other peripherals, you can't

beat the Ze/xs 4's cost
effectiveness. Plus
ifyourZejus4ever
needs maintenance,
OSM covers you on its
Limited Warranty and Replace-
ment Plan through nearly
200 nationwide locations of
RCA Service Corporation.
If these reasons
sound compelling to
you, act now to see
a Ze/is 4 in action at your
local OSM dealer. To find the
dealer nearest you please call
1-800-538-5120 or in Cali-
fornia, 415-961-8680. Or write
to OSM at the address below.
We want you to learn more
about Ze/iS 4. Because.
asm Your power to expand.

QS M Computer Corp. , 665 Clyde Ave., Mountain View,
CA 94043 USA

Ze/.is 4 is a trademark of OSM Computer Corporation. CP/M is
a registered trademark and MP/M is a trademark of Digital
Research. Incorporated. © 1983 OSM Computer Corp.S&H

Yes, I want to know more about the Ze/us 4 because . . .

Name

Company-
Address

fr?

City/State/Zip

Circle one: Dealer Distributor OEM Retailer End-user

Send To: OSM Computer Corp., 665 Clyde Ave
Mountain View, CA 94043 USA

Data management
software jakes off

,: '^ rr — ~^^ It's not just a data base.
, r" ^f^^^^t's data management.
^5"^ ^^ It's a big idea,

and once you

see how
/ powerful it
can make your
personal computer
you 'II know why Condor
Data Management
software is the right idea at the right time.

Condor Data Management software. All the power
and flexibility of a fully relational database, plus a
Report Writer to generate reports. At no extra charge.

And it 's simple to use. You can set ^
up data fields quickly without the need rlBjl g*m fm ytf^f^W *
for a programmer, or programming v9L/ %*v^Jm m^m^Jt

2%b\^^ South Stale St. Ann Atbor. Ml '18104 313/769-3988
326 BYTE November 1983

experience, because Condor I and Condor 3 were
written for business people with business needs.

begin with Condor I, the advanced file manager.
And upgrade later as your business and your data grows
to Condor 3, the fully relational data management sys-
tem. It's the same system that major hardware manu-
facturers like DEC, Sony Zenith, and Hewlett-Packard
have selected to market with their personal computers.

To find out how -Condor Data Management software
can make your business take off, see your personal com-
puter dealer, or call 1-800-854-7100x165 (in California,
1-800-422-4241 xl65) for the dealer nearest you.

because, while others are experimenting, we're
quietly proving our point. That Condor is the data man-
agement software that's powerful
enough to be useful to business, yet
simple enough for business to use.

Circle 113 on inquiry card.

Photo 1: The HP Series 200 Model 16, or, as it is sometimes called,
the HP 9816.

Photo 2: The rear panel of the Model 16. Note the HP-IB connector
at the center of the bottom part of the panel and the serial connector
in the lower-left comer.

Photo 3: The Model 16, shown here with a dual 3V2-inch floppy-
disk drive, takes up a small amount of desk space. Note the "knob','
a one- dimensional track ball, on the upper-left corner of the keyboard.

A Look at the

This 68000-based microcomputer
offers quite a bit of power in a
small package

by Berry Kercheval

After reading an article in the June BYTE about
Hewlett-Packard's new 16-bit computer, Til admit I was
a bit skeptical about some of the claims made (see refer-
ence 4). After all, the article was written by an HP de-
signer. However, I was recently given the chance to test
this machine myself in my office at Zehntel Inc.

The Hewlett-Packard Series 200 Model 16, or the HP
9816, is one of three versions of Hewlett-Packard Series
200 computers (see photo 1). These computers have a
common feature, the powerful 16-bit 68000 micropro-
cessor chip. The other two members of this group, the
9826 and the 9836, are aimed at HP's traditional market—
the technical laboratory. The desktop size of the Model
16 seems to indicate that this model is geared for the
business or engineering office.

The Model 16 costs $3985 and consists of only a key-
board and a monitor. The unit that I tested was also
equipped with an HP 9121 dual-disk drive (3V2-inch Sony
format, $1775), an HP 2672G thermal printer ($1240), an
HP 7470A plotter ($1575), a BASIC interpreter (Pro-
BASIC, $355), and a Pascal program-development sys-
tem (HP Standard Pascal, $1515). As you can see, HP
is not a discount house.

Because I picked this system up at BYTE's San Fran-
cisco office, I don't know how it was originally packed,
but, as products I've ordered from HP in the past have
always been efficiently and carefully wrapped, I assume
the Model 16 was given HP's traditional care.

Setting up the system was easy. Interconnection of the
various units— a difficult task on many systems— was
facilitated by the use of the Hewlett-Packard interface bus
(HP-IB), also known as the IEEE-488 bus (see photo 2).
All of the system's components have identical stacking
connectors and can be connected in any configuration
(usually a star or daisy-chain layout is used).

After everything was connected and plugged in, I
turned the power on and the system came up without
a problem. Since then, I have moved the hardware be-
tween my office and home several times, and the equip-
ment has survived with very few problems.

The Computer

The Model 16's main box is only 1-foot square and con-
tains the monitor, 512K bytes of memory, an HP-IB in-
terface and an RS-232C interface, and a 68000 micro-
processor.

328 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

HP Series 200 Model 16

The detachable keyboard has its own microprocessor
(an 8041) to scan keys, set timers, and beep.

A round "knob" on the keyboard is a one-dimensional
trackball (see photo 3). As it rotates, it generates pulses
that are detected by the keyboard microprocessor. This
feature can be used to scroll text in both the Pascal and
BASIC editors or it can adjust the parameters of, for in-
stance, instruments attached to the interface bus.

I found nothing especially offensive about the Model
16's keyboard layout. However, much of the software
supplied by HP was designed for the 9826, which has
a different keyboard. Several keys on the 9826's keyboard
are not on the Model 16's.

Absent, for instance, are the Alpha and Graphics keys,
which toggle the display of the alphanumeric and graph-
ics memory. On the 9826, these keys suppress the display
of graphics while commands are being typed. On the
Model 16, BASIC commands can be typed in to execute
the same functions, but this is not as convenient as using
a single keystroke. When using the Pascal system, several
keys are mapped by the software to perform these func-
tions, but they only work at the command-line level. It
took me four days to find this out because the informa-
tion was buried in the documentation. Systems that run

Pascal now come with a keyboard sticker to indicate
which keys have been mapped for Alpha and Graphics
functions. Unfortunately, the sticker doesn't fit where
the manufacturer tells you to put it.

Absence of a keyboard tilde ( ~ ) is also frustrating.
Tildes are used in many of the Unix programs, including
the C-shell and Berkeley Mail. In my opinion, the lack
of this key seriously compromises the system's ability
to act as a remote terminal.

The keyboard also has a beeper with software-con-
trolled pitch and duration. The pitch is 81.36 times the
value stored in a 6-bit latch set by the keyboard micro-
processor. It would have been nice if the designers had
taken the time to make the pitches form an equal-
tempered musical scale so that tunes could be played
on it (as in the HP-85).

The Model 16's main box has two card slots in the back.
In my machine one of these slots held a memory card.
The no-frills version of the system comes with 256K bytes
of RAM (random-access read/write memory) on its main
board; 256K bytes of additional RAM cost $1060. In this
configuration, however, the system cannot boot the RAM
BASIC, and an attempt to do so results in the message
"not enough memory." The limitation of two expansion

Photo 4: The HP 7470A two-pen plotter. This plotter comes with either an HP-IB connector for use with the Series 200 Model 16, or an
RS-232C connector. It uses 8V2- by 11-inch paper, and more than two colors can be plotted by manually changing the pens. The list price
for this plotter has been recently reduced to $1095.

November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. 329

At a Glance

Name

The HP Series 200 Model 16, or HP 9816

Manufacturer

Hewlett-Packard
1820 Embarcadero Rd.
Palo Alto, CA 94303
(800) 367-4772

Components

Size: 12.4 by 19.2 by 11.1 inches

Processor: 16-bit, Motorola 68000, 8 megahertz

Memory: RAM— 128K bytes to 256K bytes on main board, 256K

bytes additional on optional board (S1060); ROM— 16K bytes or

48K bytes of bootstrap code
Display: 9-inch white phosphor (P4), 80 characters by 25 lines,

400 by 300 graphics format (25 pixels per centimeter)
Keyboard: detachable typewriter-style keyboard. 10 function keys

plus a "knob" (one-dimensional track ball)
Mass Storage: variety of floppy- and hard-disk drives available;

most compatible with the HP 9121 D dual 3/2 -inch floppy-disk

drive (S1775)
Expansion: HP-IB and RS-232C interfaces; two expansion slots for

extra memory and interfaces

Options (partial list)

Hardware: HP 912ID dual 3/2-inch floppy-disk drive (S1775), HP
82901M dual 5 K -inch floppy-disk drive (S2230). HP 9134A
4.6-megabyte Winchester drive (S3500), HP 2671G serial-
thermal graphics printer (S1540), HP 7470A two-pen plotter
(S1095)

Software: Pro-BASIC (S355). HP Standard Pascal program-develop-
ment system (S1515). HPL (APL) (S355), Context MBA (S795)

Documentation

Hardware: operating manual, 150 pages, 8/2- by 9-inch; BASIC:
four volumes; Pascal: two volumes

Price

With 128K bytes of RAM, less disk drives and software: S3985;
with 256K bytes, less disk drives and software: S4450; with
512K bytes plus Pro-BASIC: S5550; with 256K bytes, Pro-BASIC,
and dual 3/2 -floppy disks: S6580

cards thus restricts some applications. Although an ex-
pansion chassis is available, this solution sacrifices many
of the advantages gained from the Model 16's compact-
ness.

The Disk Drive

The HP 9121 floppy-disk drive is a real gem. Built by
Sony, these drives use 3V2-inch hard-shell floppy disks,
or "stiffies" as one of my coworkers christened them.
Each disk holds about 270K bytes of usable data, under
the formatting scheme used by HP. The hard case pro-
vides better protection from damage than ordinary
floppy-disk casings. Additional protection is afforded by
a metal flap covering the access hole in the case and a
metal bushing reinforcing the center hole.

The disk spins at a high rate (for a floppy), enabling
high data-transfer rates. The built-in controller performs
bad-block substitution, making these disks reliable. I
used more than 20 disks and experienced no trouble.

The Printer and Plotter

The 2671G printer that comes with the system prints
on special thermal paper and has graphics capabilities.
(The G in 2671G indicates that the printer has these capa-
bilities.) The first printer I tried mysteriously expired
soon after I got it to my office, but Hewlett-Packard re-
placed it with little delay.

The printer was designed to sit on top of a 9826, but
it does not fit on the Model 16. Because some Pascal util-
ities require an online printer, the advantages of the
Model 16's small size are lost here.

The replacement printer worked well. Its only dis-
advantage is that it requires expensive thermal paper.
Special holes in the paper enable the printer to detect
the end of a page. (Use of paper other than that sup-
plied by HP voids the warranty.)

The plotter was the system's star attraction when I set
up the unit at my office (see photo 4). A novel mecha-
nism pinches the paper between a wheel coated with
a fine grit and a polyurethane pinch roller to provide
the plotter's x-axis motion. This motion moves only the
paper back and forth, greatly reducing the mass that
must be accelerated. This means smaller motors can be
used, lowering the manufacturing costs.

Sliding the pen-holder along a precision stainless-steel
rod enables the y-axis motion. Twin pen stalls at either
end of the rod can be used to make multicolored plots.

Clever engineering of the DC servo motors and op-
tical encoders used for position feedback also help keep
the unit's cost down. At $1095 (list price) this plotter is
a real bargain.

Figure 1 shows the first six of a set of recursive figures
known as Sierpinski curves (see reference 5) and pro-
vides an example of the plotter's resolution and accuracy.

System Software

Even the greatest computer hardware is useless with
outdated software; the quality of the software is critical
to the computer's utility.

The first piece of software a user encounters with the
Model 16 is the code in the boot ROMs. Version 3.0,
which is installed in the computer, initializes everything
it can find, tests memory, polls the interface cards to see
what is attached to them, and searches all online mass
storage to find bootable programs. If it finds more than
one, the user is offered a choice of which to load.

HP BASIC

The manufacturer provides two varieties of HP BASIC
with the Model 16: RAM-based and ROM-based. The
RAM-based BASIC is loaded by the boot ROMs off a
disk, while the ROM-based software resides in a set of
ROMs on a plug-in card. This card takes up one of the
two card slots on the main box.

The BASIC is good, for BASIC. (I should mention here
that BASIC is not my favorite language, however, this
BASIC system is almost pleasant to use.) The manual
is clear and complete, and the language includes con-
structs to make structured programming (and evenrecur-

330 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

Which is a better buy,
a shovel or a bulldozer?

am

Obviously, the answer depends on what
you want to build. The same principle
applies to the purchase of computers.
For some users and for some applica-
tions so-called "home" or "personal"
computers are efficient. But before you
decide whether an 8- or 1 6-bit single-
user system is right for you, be sure to
consider the MegaMicro-the 32-bit
multi-user virtual memory microcom-
puter made by LMC. The MegaMicro
is a "big" computer in a small box. It

allows one or up to 32 users to run big
applications programs (ones so big
they can't even be compiled by smaller
8- or 1 6-bit machines] simultaneously
Because the MegaMicro is a multi-user
system, it allows easy sharing of data
bases and peripherals - obstacles that
soon haunt business and scientific
users of "personals" who find a need to
"network" or to add devices such as
laser-printers, multi-color plotters and
the like.

LMC's MegaMicro is built around the
newest state-of-the-art VLSI logic-the
1 6000 family developed by National
Semiconductor. Each MegaMicro is
supplied with UNITY- HCR's full Bell-
licensed UNIX operating system -as
well as FORTRAN and C. Also standard
are hardware virtual memory and hard-
ware floating point, a half Meg. of RAM
and a very fast 20 Meg. Winchester
hard disk. The result is a computer
with the performance of a large mini,
at a "micro" price. For example, the
MegaMicro does 1 61 ,000 double-
precision (64-bit} floating point multi-
plications per second. All this costs

$15,000, and even less with OEM and
quantity discounts (about the same as
a single IBM XT or Apple LISA}. The
result is a cost per "work-station" far
lower than similarly configured (and
less powerful} "personals."

Because the MegaMicro is powerful,
inexpensive and designed around the
Multibus CIEE 796} (which means it has
a completely "open" architecture}, it is
an ideal choiceforthe OEM wishing to
supply powerful applications software
solutions on a microcomputer.

So which do you want, the shovel or
the bulldozer?

TM

Circle 268 on inquiry card.

LMC MegaMicros The Logical Alternative 11

The Logical Microcomputer Company

140 South Dearborn, Chicago, I L 60603, (312) 580.0250, Telex 270384

BYTE November 1983

331

The Professional Small
Business Computer

The Persona is a professional business computer at an affordable price.
This versatile computer possesses all the features of more expensive
personal computers but at a significantly lower price. Handsomely
designed and easily expanded, the Persona offers a broad range of
capabilities to meet today's business, education and entertainment
requirements.

Standard Hardware

•Z80A Processor •Printer Interface

•64K Ram Memory (Parallel)

•2- 180K Disk Drives "Serial Communications

•12 Inch Green Interface

Monitor »4 Expansion Slots

Optional Hardware

•360K Disk Drives
•10MB Winchester
•8086 (IBM Compatible)
ProcessorwithMS/DOS

•Additional 64K or

128K Ram
•High Resolution/

Colour Graphics

Standard Software

•CP/M Operating •CflkStar Electronic

, System Spreadsheet

•WordStar Word •Persons Communications

Processing Package

•MBASIC Programmin

Language
•InfoStar - Data Base

Management
• MailMerge - Creates

Mailing Labels

Optional Software

•SpcllStar - English
Spelling Checker

•Persona Professional
Accounting

•Many More

Manufacturer's Suggested List Price - Only $2,195.00

Sold At Participating Computet lOftd*

Stores

OEM And Dealer Enquiries Welcome
For Further Information Contact: Mr. Ken Thomas,
FROM* V. P., Marketing

NELMA DATA CORPORATION

5170A Timberlea Blvd.

Mississauga, Ontario,

Canada L4W 2S5 . A ^..r*.-*, ,oo

Tel: (416) 624-0334 See us at COMDEX '83

Telex: 06-960121 Booth #7052.

CP M is a registered trademark of Digital Research Inc

WordStar CalcSlar InfoStar SpellStar MailMerge are registered trademarks of MicroPro Corp

MBASIC - is a registered trademark of Microsoft Inc

332 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

Circle 328 on inquiry card.

Figure 1: The Sierpinski curves illustrate the 7470A plotter's resolu-
tion and accuracy.

sion) easy. This machine was designed to run this BASIC
and it runs it fairly well, but a bit slowly.

The famous Eratosthenes Sieve prime-number bench-
mark (see reference 3) ran in HP BASIC in 265 seconds.
In comparison, Apple Integer BASIC ran the program
in 1850 seconds, and a DEC VAX-11/780 ran the equiva-
lent C program in 1.42 seconds. The Model 16 demon-
strates respectable capabilities for a desktop computer.

A rather primitive game I wrote in BASIC (see listing
1) slowed markedly on the Model 16 whenever several
objects had to be moved at once. Unfortunately, time
constraints and an omission in the Pascal system routine
to access the knob prevented me from coding the game
in Pascal for comparison. A Centipede-like game ran well
on the system in Pascal, but the BASIC version was
sluggish.

An optional set of extensions to the RAM BASIC en-
hances program entry, editing, and debugging and adds
string utilities, real-time features, I/O enhancements, and
other features. However, the Model 16 has insufficient
memory to run the prime-number benchmark program
with extensions.

HP Pascal

A license to use HP's version of Pascal, which began
as a version of UCSD Pascal, costs $250. Its implementers
chose to compile to 68000 machine code instead of p-
codes, which accounts for its impressive benchmark per-
formance. Overall, the Pascal system looks much like the
UCSD p-System. The filer, editor, linker, and compiler
have substantially the same user interface that the UCSD
system does. Details of operation are different, however.

For instance, the file system has been changed from
that used with the UCSD system. HP uses its proprietary

Text continued on page 340

The almost perfect
stocking sniffer.

It may not fit perfectly into a stocking, but
it's perfect for everyone who has, or is
about to get, a computer.

It's the Datalife® Holiday Pack: ten
Datalife 5 l k" minidisks in a plastic storage
case and a/ree Head Cleaning
Kit, too.

High-quality Datalife Disks
are certified 100% err or- free
and warranteed 5 years.
The free Head
Cleaning Kit

also ensures trouble-free computing by
keeping disk drive heads free from dirt
and debris.

For the name of your nearest Verbatim
retailer, call toll-free _^» 800-538-1793.

While it may
not fit a stocking
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Holiday Pack will
ensure years of perfect
computing for every
computer person on
your list.

The Datalife

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10 minidisks and a free

Head Cleaning Kit.

Circle 494 on inquiry card.

€ 1983 Verbatim Corp.

Listing 1: A simple game, written in HP BASIC, was played on the Model 16. It slowed considerably when several objects had to be moved
simultaneously.

ALPHA OFF

10 UEG

20 KillS=0

30 Prob=.08

40 Ssize=10

bO DIM S(10) !d1mension must match Ssize

60 DIM DirCl 0) ! here too

70 FOK 1=1 TO Ssize

80 S(I)=0

9'J NEXT I

100 Tsi ze=10

110 DIM Tx(10)f Ty(10) tTdlr(lO)

120 FOK 1=1 TO Tsize

150 Tx(I>=0

140 NEXT I

ISO DIM Sin(360)

160 DIM Cos(360)

170 FOK 1=0 TO 360

180 S1n(I)=SIN( I)

190 CosCI)=COS(I>

200 NEXT I

210 RANDOMIZE

220 Score=0

270 LORG 5

280 Len=150

290 WINDOW -250»250 f -200 t200

300 X = 90

310 MOVE 0f0

320 !ON KBD GOSUB Keyaction

530 ON KN03 .1 GOSUB Knob_action

340 ON KEY 5 LABEL "Fire!" GOSUB Keyaction

350 ON KEY 6 LABEL "score" GOSUB Key_score

360 ON KEY 7 LABEL "bogies" GOSUB Key_bcg1es

56 1 ON KEY 8 LABEL "Destruct" GOSUB Key_destruct

370 Loop: !

380 PEN 1

390 MOVE 0*0

400 PLOT 0*0

410 PLOT Len*Sin(X)»Len*Cos(X)

420 FOR 1=1 TO Ssize

430 Stmp=S(I)

440 IF StflipOO THEN

45 Sindi r=Stmp*Sin<Dir<I>)

46 Cosdir=Stmp*Cos(Dir(I>)
470 DISABLE

480 MOVE Sindir, Cosdir

490 PEN -1

500 LABEL w O"

510 Stmp=Stmp+5

b2 Sindi r = S t mp*S i n t 1 r ( I ) )

530 Cosdir=Stmp*Cos(Dir(I))

54 PEN 1

550 MOVE S1ndir»Cosdi r

560 LABEL "O"

570 ENABLE

580 FOR J=l TO Tsize

590 IF (Tx(J)OO) THEN

600 IF (ABSCTxC J) -Sindi r) )<5 THEN

610 IF ( ABSC Ty< J)-Cosdir> ><5 THEN !collision!

620 Stmp=0

630 SCI)=0

640 DISABLE

650 MOVE Sindi rtCosdi r

660 PEN -1

670 LABEL w O M

Listing 1 continued on page 336

334 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

Instant one -button color printing.

Press here.

It's just that easy! Any time you want to print what's on your
Apple's screen just hit the copy button on your Transtar 315
color printer with our PICS card installed, and it's done! No
special programming, no lengthy code sequences, no need to
exit your program! Just press the button and it prints!

By adding the optional PICS card to your $599 Transtar 315
color printer, you've opened up a whole new world of easy color
printing. For the first time ever, our PICS parallel interface card
enables you to screendump virtually any program -- graphics,
charts, games - even copy-protected software! Specially design-
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Transtar 31 5 PICS card does the work of a parallel card and a
lot more and costs only $1 19.95.

At the push of a button, Transtar's innovative new 4-color dia-
gonal ribbon will print up to 7 colors and more than 30 shades
in a single pass.

The 315 is precision-built to exacting standards by Seikosha,
the most experienced company of the famous Seiko group-
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one of the nicest things about Transtar's 6-month warranty
on parts and labor is that you'll probably never use it!

Innovative, inexpensive, dependable, easy:
Color printing has never looked so good!

Only $599.

the Transtar 315.

*PICS cards are currently available for Apples and Franklins.
PICS cards for other computers will be available in the future.

Circle 481 on inquiry card.

Transtar

A Vivitan Computer Product

P.O. Box C-96975, Bellevue, WA 98009

BYTE November 1983

335

Listing 1 continued:

680 MOVE Tx( J) »Ty( J)

690 LABEL "x M

700 PEN 1

710 MOVE Tx( J ) tTy (J)

720 LABEL n * "

730 ENABLE

740 BEEP 80t.l

750 Score=Score+10

760 K1lls=Kills+l

770 Prob=Prob+.02

771 DISP
780 Tx(J)=0
790 GOTO 840
800 END IF
810 END IF

820 END IF

830 NEXT J

840 IF Strop>Len THEN ! bullet at max range. destroy 1t

850 "MOVE 0*0

860 !PEN -1

870 ."PLOT 0t0

880 !PLOT Len*S1 ndi rtLen*Cosdi r

890 PEN -1

900 MOVE SindlrtCosdi r

910 LABEL M 0"

92 S(I)=0

930 ELSE

940 S(I)=Stmp

950 END IF

960 PEN 1

970 END IF

980 NEXT I

990 IF KNDC.01 THEN ! Create new target

1000 FOR J=l TO Tslze

1010 IF Tx(J> = 0* THEN

102U TxC J)=100*RNU-50

1030 Ty< J>=100*RND-50

1040 Td1 r( J)=RND*360

1050 DISABLE

1060 MOVE TxC J) tTy (J)

1070 PEN 1

1080 LABEL " x "

1090 ENABLE

1091 DISP
1100 BEEP
1110 GOTO 1170
1120 END IF
1130 NEXT J

1160 END IF

1170 FOR 1=1 TO Tslze ! Move targets

1180 IF TxCDOO THEN

1190 IF ABSCTx(I) ) >2b0 THEN

1200 Tx ( I)=0

1210 BEEP 800 t .1

12 11 Escapes=Escaoes+l

1213 GOTO 1370

1220 END IF

1221 IF ABSC Ty( I) )>200 THEN

1222 Tx(I)=0

1223 BEEP 800t.l

122 4 Escape s = Es cap es + 1

1?25 P rob=P rob*. 02

1227 GOTO 1370

1228 END IF
1230 DISABLE

12*0 MOVE TxCI)fTy(I)

12 5 PEN-1 Listing 1 continued on page 338

336 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. Circle 473 on inquiry card. »

Now from"fimex...a powerful new computer

TIM EX SINCLAIR 2068

Listing 1 continued:

1260 LABEL ■ X "

1270 ENABLE

1280 Tx(I>=Tx(I)*2*S1n(Td1r(I))

1290 Ty(I)=TyCI)+2*Cos-CTd1r(l>)

1300 DISABLE

1310 MOVE Tx(I)tTyCI)

1320 PEN 1

1330 LABtL n x M

1340 ENABLE

1350 IF RNDC.05 THEN T d 1 r ( I ) =3 60 * RND 'change course to make It Interesting

1360 END IF

1370 NEXT I

1371 IF EscapesMO THEN

1372 GOSUB Key_score

1373 GRAPHICS OFF

1375 STOP

1376 END IF
1380 GOTO Loop
1390 !

1400 ! Knob Interupt handler

H10 !

1420 Knob_ action: !

1430 PEN"-1

1440 Dx=KN08X

1450 MOVE 0t0

1460 PLOT 0»Q

1470 PLOT Len*S1n(X) ,Len*Cos( X)

1480 MOVE 0t0

1490 X=X+Dx

1500 IF X<0 THEN X=X+360

1510 IF X>360 THEN X=X-360

1520 !DISP SIN(X) * COS ( X ) t X t S i n ( X) ,Cos( X)

1530 PEN 1

1540 RETURN

155.0 !

1560 I Keyboard Interrupt handler

1570 !

1580 Keyactlon: !

1590 FOR K=l TO Ssize

1600 IF S(K)=0 THEN

1610 S(K)=1

1620 D1r(K)=X

1630 Score =$core-l

1640 GOTO 1670

1650 END IF

1660 NEXT K

1670 RETURN

1680 !

1690 Key_score: !

1700 dIsp "Your score 1s " t Scor e » "You ha\/e " t K 1 1 1 St " ki 1 1 s and " tE scapest " escapes'

1710 RETURN

1720 I

1730 Key_bog1es: I

1740 B~cnt=0

175U FOR B_lp=l TO Tslze

1760 IF Tx(B_lp)O0 THEN

1770 B_cnt=B_cnt+l

1780 END IF

1790 NEXT B_lp

1800 DISP "There are "tB_cnt«" Bogles out"

1810 RETURN

1811 !

1812 !

1814 Key_destruct : !

1815 FOR D_lp=l TO Ssize

1816 IF S(U.lp)OG THEN

181 ? MOVE"s <D_lp) *5in(Dir(D_lp))tS(D_lp)*Cos(D1 r< D_lp> > Listing 1 continued on page 340

338 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

WINNING ON

v^

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TREET

COMPUTER SOFTWARE FOR
STOCK MARKET INVESTORS AND TRADERS

Predicting the winds of Wall Street can be an emotion-
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No one can guarantee you success on Wall Street.
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If you are serious about investing or trading,
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Software

Circle 444 on inquiry card.

'Summa Software/

Winning on Wall Street,™ Trader's Data Manager/Trader's Forecaster,™ Trader's Accountant™ are trademarks of Summa Software Corporation.
Apple® is a registered trademark of Apple Computer, Inc. Copyright © 1983, Summa Software Corporation. All rights reserved.

Listing 1 continued:

1818 PEN -1

1819 LABEL "0"
1320 S(D_lp)=0

1821 END IF

1822 NEXT 0_Lp

1823 Score=Score-5

1824 RETURN

1825 END

Text continued from page 332:

LIF (Logical Interchange Format) directory structure on
its disks, so users can move files between BASIC and
Pascal systems.

Memory is managed as a large "heap" into which pro-
grams are loaded and executed. Commonly used pro-
grams can be permanently loaded or "p-loaded" into
memory to avoid delay caused by loading them from a
floppy disk. Since the compiler uses more than 200K
bytes, this feature can save a lot of time. Unfortunately,
the implementation of the heap prevents programs from
being un-p-loaded except by rebooting. This is frustrating
when you are waiting for your latest program to com-
pile only to be told there's not enough memory.

HP Pascal supports separate compilation with what
the company calls modules. The user can specify exact-
ly which variables and procedures are to be visible to
another module. A generous set of system-level modules
is supplied with Pascal.

Unfortunately, HP did not adhere to a consistent nam-
ing scheme for the various procedures in the modules.
If, for example, you wish to use the keyboard beeper,
you must import the module KBD. It would be natural
to then name a procedure to do the beeping "beep," but
it is the system-level routine that actually commands the
keyboard microprocessor to beep, and this routine is
called "beep." It would have been more logical for HP
to have given system-level procedures names that start
with "sys" or "HP" Then users would be relatively safe
from confusion.

Both BASIC and Pascal can produce beeps. The BASIC
BEEP statement has optional parameters to specify the
beep's frequency in hertz and duration in seconds. Pascal
has the beep procedure mentioned previously, but its
parameters fall between and 63. That value goes into
the hardware latch on the keyboard, producing a fre-
quency 81.36 times the value stored in the latch. The pro-
cedure is declared to accept a parameter of type "byte."
Byte is declared in IO_DECLARATIONS (another
module that you have to include) to be an integer sub-
range from to 255. Declaring a similar subrange is not
sufficient; beep must have a byte, and the user must in-
clude IO_DECLARATIONS as well as KBD; conse-
quently, the system will link in all sorts of modules the
user may not want. The duration must be specified in
tens of milliseconds.

Also unlike BASIC, where

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340 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

Circle 74 on inquiry card.

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Who can blame you if you've
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garage door, has been complex,
troublesome and expensive.

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The Rydex IC (Intelligent Con-
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For more information on how Rydex ICs can
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COMPANY NAME

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Rydex ICs require no special
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And here's the final word on
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Circle 398 on inquiry card.

BYTE November 1983

341

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10 BEEP 400,0.5
20 BEEP 800,0.5

produces two V2 -second tones of different pitches, the
Pascal statements

beep(400, 50);
beep(800, 50);

(which would seem to do the same thing) produce only
the latter tone. Beep sets up a tone and a timer and
returns immediately. It does not check to detect a tone-
in-progress when next called.

The beep procedure is documented in neither the
Pascal Language Reference Manual or the Pascal Procedure
Library User's Manual. I had to disassemble the interface
text of the KBD module to figure out how the procedure
works.

The Pascal system is riddled with similar inconsisten-
cies. When Zehntel decided to replace the HP Command
Interpreter with its own software so that Zehntel's cus-
tomers would only have to learn to use one kind of soft-
ware, problems arose. The Pascal Language Reference
Manual clearly states that a user can write a command
interpreter to replace the one that comes with the sys-
tem.

It's not that simple. The new command interpreter
must be fully linked.

Normally, the Pascal system resolves calls to system
procedures at load time, but because a new command
interpreter is loaded before the loader is, this procedure
won't work.

Moreover, a command interpreter must call the un-
documented procedure CISWITCH early in its initializa-
tion code, so that it uses the kernel stack instead of the
user stack. If the procedure is not labeled CISWITCH,
strange things happen when the command interpreter
tries to run another program. We found this out when
Zehntel was a beta test site for the Pascal system, and
we badgered HP's development staff for a copy of the
system designers guide and a system source listing. (In-
cidentally, the Pascal system won't compile with the HP-
Pascal compiler, but that's another story.)

An average user faced with these problems would
probably give up in disgust.

There are other problems. The Pascal Language Reference
Manual says that certain characters: #,[,], $, and the
comma (,), etc. are not permitted in filenames. The filer,
though, blithely allows a user to create files named
#$%[@. When using the filer's make-a-file feature, you
can specify the file's size in blocks by placing the desired
size in square brackets after the filename. Unfortunate-
ly, size must be stated in 512K-byte blocks, while the filer
displays the count of 256K-byte blocks when a directory
listing is requested. If the trailing square bracket is left
off (i.e., the user requests a file named FOO[20), then
the filer interprets the [20 and creates the file 20 (512K-
byte) blocks long, naming it FOO[20.

342 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

Circle 230 on inquiry card.

The IBM Personal Computer Wovk Station.
It's optional. (But essential.)

Now, we could hard-sell you on its features. Or
we could soft-sell you on its virtues. Instead,
we're going to level with you.

You don't have to buy it.

But we have a hunch that the more you know
about the IBM Synergetix® PC
Work Station the more you'll
wonder how your business ever
managed without it.

Necessity was
surely the p
mother of
this inven-
tion.

For as
more and more%

businesses come to rely on the personal com-
puter, new and extraordinary demands are being
placed on the work environment itself.

The IBM PC Work Station was specifically
developed to meet the challenges of today's tech-
nology. And scientifically designed to satisfy the
various needs of the people who use it.

It's not just another pretty desk.

First and foremost, the IBM PC Work Station
provides a convenient and compact work space
that instantly opens up to expand your work
area.

In addition, the IBM PC Work Station offers
added mobility for your personal computer. So
you get more mileage out of your invest-
ment as it moves from office
office, person to person, sol
ing problem after problem.

And since your personal
computers are as vulner-
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the IBM PC Work Sta-
tion also functions as a
security device.

It deters pilferage by
providing a self-con-
tained lockable storage
compartment for your
CPU, software, key-
board, printer, pro-
gram books and diskettesT

It also protects valuable information, prohibit-
ing unauthorized access to confidential computer
data by keeping it all secure under lock and key.

Circle 219 on inquiry card.

Last but not least, the IBM
PC Work Station is
human-factor engi-
neered to meet IBM's
strict ergonomic
standards for

operator

comfort.

For as you

know, the

more com-
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people are, the more productive they can be.
There's one more important feature to our PC

Work Station. It comes equipped with the added

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If all this hasn't convinced you that our PC

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NAME.

_TITLE_

COMPANY.
ADDRESS_
CITY

.TELEPHONE.

_STATE_

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BYTE November 1983 343

(2b)

R Title

Foo

Bar

\ /

6V////X

XP7

A

A

y
/

1 1

V

w

6.6*

13*

20*

Frobozz
Dood a

33*

Figure 2: Two pie charts; (a) is a representation of the one produced on the system's 2671G printer, and (b) was produced on the 7470A plotter.

The output of the linker's disassemble option can be
redirected into a file but is then incorrectly formatted for
use with the system's assembler.

The Sieve benchmark, by the way, showed a 31-fold
gain in performance in Pascal over its run in BASIC. For
production of graphics, however, which requires much
code in the boot ROMs, the gain was significantly less-
only 2.5-fold. Figure 1 was plotted on the cathode-ray

tube in 39.6 seconds by a Pascal program and in 97.5 sec-
onds by a similar BASIC program. When the plotter was
used, the differences were less striking: plotting times
for Pascal and BASIC were 448 and 523 seconds, respec-
tively.

An Electronic Spreadsheet

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84S $1065

92 $419

93 $699

TALLY

MT 160L w/tractors $AVE

MT 1 80 L w/tractors. $AVE

Spirit 80 $AVE

TOSHIBA

1350 Serial or Parallel $1450

TRANSTAR

130P $675

120P $450

T315 $450

TERMINALS
TELEVIDEO

910+ $555

925 $705

950 $905

970 $980

COMPUTERS

HYPERION

Single Drive System $2325

Dual Drive System $2665

PIED PIPER

Communication I $975

TELEVIDEO

803 $1799

SANYO

MBC550 $715

MBC555 $1025

MODEMS
HAYES

1200 $490 4^

1200B $435 J£r

300 $205 X>^

**>

Prices reflect 3% to 5% cosh discount.

Product shipped in factory cartons

with manufacturer's warranty.

Free shipping is on UPS ground ^^J *<\

only. Prices & availability *"& rO

subject to change with- %«k vC V~-

out notice. Send cosh- ^^V 4** A C^ *

ier's check or money #^r \S|^

order.. .all other A.^t^ lV^

checks will ^^^ 2>

deloy ship- ^*^T f\^ »-

ping two * V Aff

weeks. ^

0^V

o^ 5

Vmfif*

344 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

One of Japan's leaders
would like to go to work for you.

Fujitsu, Japans largest computer company, sends
you their best. The new Micro 16s personal
business computer. A combination of thoughtful
planning, innovative thinking and quality
craftsmanship. Just what you'd expect from a
Japanese company that's been making computers
for three decades.

The Micro 16s is a complete computer
system. The options of other computers are our
standards. For example, its price includes
the CP/M-86 @ operating system, SuperCalc 2 ™ elec-
tronic spreadsheet, WordStar® word processing,
a high resolution color graphics monitor, and two
microprocessors, the Z8(TA 8-bit and 8086 16-bit.

The Micro 16s will run any of the more
than 3,000 CP/M @ sof tware programs on
the market today. Optional operating systems
for the Micro 16s include MS-DOS and the

multi-tasking Concurrent CP/M-86 T . M

The Micro 16s also comes with a detachable
keyboard, dual built-in 5 l A" floppy disk drives,
128 kilobytes of internal memory expandable
to over one megabyte, and expansion slots for
future growth.

The unique and flexible design of the
Micro 16s makes it easy to add advanced micro-
processors of tomorrow, hard disks, mainframe
communications or local area networking when
the time is right.

Put a Japanese leader to work for you.
Fujitsu's Micro 16s. For more information or the
name of your nearest dealer call toll free 1-800-
MICRO 16. Or write Fujitsu Microelectronics, Inc.,
Professional Microsystems ^^^^^^^H
Division, 3320 Scott Blvd., FUJITSU
Santa Clara, C A 95051.

Fujitsu's Micro 16s:

SuperCatc 2 "' is a trademark^ Sotcim Corp WordStar'" is a trademark of MicroPro International. CP/M-86' and Concurrent CP/M-86'" are trademarks ot Digital Research, Inc. MS 1 " is a trademark ot Microsolt" Z80" is a trademark of Zilo|, Inc

Circle 195 on inquiry card. byte November 1983 345

(3a)

(3b)

350-
300
250-
200-
ISO-
100-
50

•

l

TOO BAR DOODR GORP FROBOZZ
DUMBER LINE GRRPH

Figure 3: A representation of a line graph done on a printer (a) and the same graph produced on a plotter (b).

ceived with the Model 16 is useful and deserves a re-
view of its own. Not just another Visicalc clone, it in-
cludes a database-management system, a word pro-
cessor, and presentation graphics. It was fairly simple
to use, and, with its help, I managed to do my federal
income-tax return.
An outstanding feature of the spreadsheet package is

its ability to produce various types of graphs directly
from data in the spreadsheet cells. For an example of a
pie chart done on the 2671G printer and the 7470A plot-
ter, see figure 2. Figure 3 shows a line graph done on
the same printer and plotter.

A minor flaw in the MBA package is a bug in the shad-
ing subroutine that draws graphs. If the region to be

Graphic

GRAPHICS-PLUS is a field installable enhancement board for
the popular Zenith 1 Z19 video terminal adding many power-
ful features found only on terminals costing much more.
GRAPHICS-PLUS provides Tektronix 2 4010 compatible vector
drawing graphics, VT100 3 compatible 80 and 132 column
display formats, off-screen scrolling memory, program-
mable function keys, "Plain English" menu-driven Set-up
mode, and a host of other enhancements. Installation can be
accomplished within 15 minutes using only a screwdriver.

GRAPHICS-PLUS

an enhancement

For Z19 Terminals

from

Northwest Digital Systems

• Tektronix 2 4010 Compatible Graphics
512 Horiz by 250 Vert Resolution

- 80/132 Col and 24/49 Line Text Displays
Seven Page Off -Screen Text Memory

- Menu-driven "Plain English" Set-up Mode
16 Programmable Keys- 128 Chars Each

- Optional Hardcopy Port

• Simple Field Installation 1 ™ Zenlth

GP-19 Upgrade for Z19Termlnal
Z1 9 Terminal With GP-19 Installed

1 TM Zenith

2 TM Tektronix
3TMDEC

S 849
$ 1495

Northwest Digital Systems
P.O. Box 15288, Seattle, WA 98 11 5 (206) 362-6937

346 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

Circle 331 on inquiry card.

WE'RE
A FEW i

! LOOKING FOR
GOOD DEALERS.

It's a software jungle out there. You're
fighting amidst a deluge of product claims
and counterclaims.

That's why you should join forces with the
Champion. A superior software accounting
system, written in dBASE II* on one small
disk, that requires very little dealer support.
In fact, Champion performs so well in the
trenches that profits are no longer an
uphill battle.

The system has received excellent reviews:

"...users wilt find this to be a very compre-
hensive software package with several
features that make it superior to its
competition." -Car! Heinz. CPA,

INTERFACE AGE, 8/83

Other software dealers will tell you what
they think their product will do. Only
Champion dealers will show you how the
software performs, feature by feature:

• If you have a question, you can ask the
Champion for help.

• The system has built-in safeguards, so it
will not crash.

• You get timely, professional-looking
reports.

• The entire system is updated whenever any
information is entered.

CHAMPION IS EASY TO

DEMONSTRATE,

SO IT'S EASY TO SELL.

The Champion system is very dealer-
friendly. You don't have to be an account-
ant to demonstrate it. And the system will
not crash. Champion gives you total confi-
dence in being able to demonstrate any
function to a prospective customer.

After the demonstration, customers can use
Champion for a trial period. This allows
them to examine the package on their own
computers, risk-free for 30 days, or 200
transactions.

See what this system can do for your
operations. Be among the few, the proud,
The Champion Dealers.

*dBASE II is a registered trademark of
Ashton-Tate.

NOTHING PERFORMS
LIKE A CHAMPION.

Data Base Research Corporation
I ~2 66 South Van Gordon,

jM& Suite 155

U5BSESZA Lakewood, CO 80228

aWMPI0M (303) 987-2588

Circle 132 on inquiry card.

AIL US ABOUT HOW TO RECEIVE A COMPLETE CHAMPION SYSTEM, FREE.

shaded is to be dark with light crosshatches, the pro-
gram first completely colors the region and then draws
the white lines hatching the region. This works fine on
the cathode-ray tube, but on the plotter it tries to draw
the white lines with the null pen. (In figure 3, for exam-
ple, the DOODA region was intended to be hatched this
way.)

Originally written for the IBM PC, the MBA package
has been successfully moved to the Model 16 by Con-
text Management Systems. The accompanying manual
is not perfect, but a little digging always turned up the
answer to my questions within a short time.

Miscellaneous Software

The Model 16 also runs a great deal of engineering soft-
ware. HP provides tools for tasks such as electronic and
mechanical design, circuit analysis, statistics, circuit-
board layout, circuit simulation, and presentation graph-
ics, as well as support for them. A program called HP-
Plus makes software written by other firms, including
Visicalc, available.

An asynchronous terminal emulator enables the sys-
tem to act as a terminal when it is connected to a remote
computer. Files can then be transferred between the
Model 16 and the remote host.

Several games are available for the system. Versions
of Startrek, Tailgunner, Pac-Man, and Centipede are
some I tried. Most were written in Pascal for speed, and
they worked well.

Summary

The Hewlett-Packard Series 200 Model 16 is an excel-
lent engineering computer with many diverse periph-
erals available to it. Support of other manufacturers'
peripherals, however, either in actual drivers or system-
level interface documentation (for those who "roll their
own" drivers), is nonexistent. The BASIC system is ex-
cellent, but the Pascal system, although fast, has some
serious consistency and documentation problems. ■

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not
necessarily represent the official position of Zeh ntel Inc.

Special thanks to Dennis Vetter of Hewlett-Packard for his support in the
preparation of this article and to Mark Wittenberg and Stephen leiois ofZehntel
for helping me ferret out the dark secrets of the Model 16.

Beny Kercheval holds a B.S. in applied science from the University of Califor-
nia at Riverside. He can be reached at Zehntel Inc., 2625 Shadelands Dr.,
Walnut Creek, CA 94598.

References

1. Azmoon, Majid. "Development of a Low-Cost, High-Quality Graphics
Plotter." Hewlett-Packard Journal, December 1982.

2. Gilbreath, Jim. "A High-Level Language Benchmark." September
1981 BYTE, page 180.

3. Gilbreath, Jim and Gary. ' 'Eratosthenes Revisited: Once More Through
the Sieve." January 1983 BYTE, page 283.

4. Monahan, John. 'Tight Squeeze: The HP Series 200 Model 16." June
1983 BYTE, page 110.

5. Wirth, N. Algorithms + Data = Programs. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Pren-
tice Hall, 1976.

ALF COPY SERVICE

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We can copy virtually any soft-sectored mini format Standard
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Our "no frills" pricing means you don't have to buy extras you don't
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side. (See blank disk prices at right. Minimum: 50 copies.) Quantity dis-
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Of course, we have the frills too: label application, 3-hole vinyl pages,
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ALF is one of the oldest and most trusted names in the duplication
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We're eager to solve your duplication and packaging problems—
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BLANK DISKS

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you. If you're buying hundreds of
disks, ALF is your ideal source for
top quality disks at a reasonable
price. We buy our disks in bulk
packages, avoiding the expense of
fancy printing and labeling.

The disks listed below are 5 1/4",
single sided, double density (except
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3M

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Without sleeves: add $2.50
shipping per 100.

With tyvek sleeves: add $7 plus
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Packed in boxes of 10 with tyvek
sleeves: add $15 plus $3.00
shipping per 100.

348 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

Today, you're doing

more than ever.
So should your phone

AT&T introduces GENESIS Telesystem.

■v

Genesis telesystem is designed
to help organize and streamline
your life in so many ways.

The Genesis telesystem remem-
bers all your important numbers,
including emergency numbers. And
it dials with just a touch. It times
your calls and even has a
built-in speaker.

But the really terrific thing about
the Genesis telesystem is that you
can customize it to fit your own

needs. Add an optional cartridge,
and you've got one-touch access
to call forwarding, call waiting, and
three-way calling. Or add another
cartridge, and you have the conve-
nience of automatic re-dial of busy
or unanswered numbers. And
that's only half of it.

Soon, you'll be able to add a
module with an electronic directory
that memorizes names and
numbers in alphabetical order.

Or the reminder cartridge, to
remind you of special occasions
and appointments.

Genesis telesystem. The more
you do, the more it will help you do it.

We set the standards.

AT&T

© at&t. 1983 See it at your AT&T Phone Center, now at thousands of leading retail stores.

/

Circle 39 on inquiry card.

BYTE November 1983 349

SIEMENS

The silent PT-88 jet printer
from Siemens.

In the highly competitive race
for advanced matrix printing
technology, one company has
moved ahead of the pack.

Siemens all new PT-88 matrix printer offers the
fast, dependable performance you require... at
a very affordable price. Gliding along at 150
cps bi-directionally, the PT-88 provides
exceptional print quality in 8 resident user-
selectable character sets on low costj margin-
perforated fanfold, single-sheet, or roll paper.

This compact, precision-engineered printer
also features our ultra-silent 'tlrop-on-
demand" jet printing system that ensures
consistent, high quality character formation—
at a quiet, ear-pleasing operating sound
level of less than 50 dBA. Its outstanding
reliability is reflected in the printing head,
which is rated in excess of 10 billion
characters. The PT-88 also offers full
graphics, downloadable character sets,
selectable character sizes, a minimum of
movin g parts, and self -test capability.

oil, why settle for one of the industry's
o rans" when you can choose a
company that is leading the way. For
complete information contact:
Siemens Communication Systems, Inc.
Anaheim, CA - (714) 991-9700
Boca Raton, FL - (305) 994-8100
Atlanta, GA - (404) 441-0882
Chicago, iL- (312) 671-2810
Boston, MA - (617) 935-2234
Iselin, NJ - (201) 321-3940
New York, NY - (516) 752-1323

Circle 418 on inquiry card,

CC3020-022 S1Q829

Software Review

Three Generations of Charts
for the IBM PC

Design philosophies and operational reviews
of three graphics packages

by Jack Bishop

The three graphics packages for the IBM Personal Com-
puter (PC) reviewed in this article illustrate three phases
or philosophies of graphics software design. As I became
familiar with the packages, I felt I was seeing three gen-
erations of programs, ranging from the utilitarian first
generation to the menu-driven, easy-to-use third genera-
tion. Side by side, these three packages showed me how
quickly a product can be surpassed by a product that's
more powerful and easier to use. All three have their
advantages and disadvantages, of course, and the best
choice is largely a matter of personal taste.

What I expect of a graphics package is the same today
as when I first threw away my ruler and charting tapes.
The only difference that I recognize is a decline in the
"new toy" factor. With the first packages I used, I was
so grateful to be rid of the annoying drudgery of chart-
ing that I was willing to put up with anything the chart-
ing program threw my way. As I have gained more ex-
perience, however, I am less tolerant of a program's
idiosyncrasies. A program that is promoted for use in
business should not flinch when confronted with a nor-
mal user, and vice versa.

The goal I set for these packages is that they produce
charts that work. If you can understand the economic
message of each chart in this article, the chart is a suc-
cess. The photos that illustrate this article were taken
from a screen (IBM Color Monitor, Princeton Graphics
Monitor, or Amdek Color I), and the figures were pro-
duced on a Hewlett-Packard two-pen plotter and an IBM
dot-matrix printer.

First-generation programs, as I define them, provide
few if any cosmetics; the information is the focal point.
These programs may not work under certain circum-
stances. Such programs are most appropriate for expe-
rienced computer users who might want or need to "go
into" the program and customize the code for their par-

ticular needs. The typical user is an engineer or social
scientist.

Second-generation programs have been cleaned of the
"bugs," have more options, and are powerful and fairly
simple to use. In general, they require some computer
expertise because the program does its work through
commands (EDIT, DRAW BAR, etc.) that require the user
to learn a new vocabulary. If you use such programs
regularly and memorize the codes, you may not believe
that any improvements are either necessary or desirable.

Third-generation graphing programs are characterized
by menu operation. Because a menu relieves the user
of the burden of remembering another language, these
programs are ideal if you have an occasional need to
make charts (or if you have limited computer experience,
time, and patience). Third-generation programs may also
add some cosmetic amenities to make the product more
visually pleasing and professional looking.

Graphics Generator

Graphics Generator (GG) from the Robert]. Brady Co.
requires that you select the type of chart you want to
make before you enter data. This is fine if you know in
advance what type of chart you want, but I usually have
the data in hand and want to first get it into the pro-
gram (either from another file or from my tired old
fingers). If after seeing the result you decide to try bars
in place of lines, go directly to jail.

GG relies on the PC's function keys to develop a chart.
Each function key has two uses (or levels): the first level
selects the type of chart, and the second level controls
the chart parameters and input. At the second level,
some function keys have different meanings in different
types of charts and thus send the user scurrying to the
manual or reference card to ferret out the current mean-
ing of each key. The on-screen menu, which should

352 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

Dow Jones Investment Evaluator

I ste^is^-*****^

* 7*-

^JwgPfflE

fi^r.

u^-j^.^mzm

se&*e& &sm*&&**mi&*i&£ **

"Your Portfolio, Sir."

DOW JONES INVESTMENT EV ALU ATOR™-

the computer software that serves your personal
investment needs at home, accurately and
efficiently.

A Personalized System

With the INVESTMENT EVALUATOR, your
home computer and a telephone modem, you
have a personalized system for managing your
portfolio. A system that automatically updates
and tracks only those stocks you want to follow —
allowing you to evaluate your position at a glance.

Easy Access to News /Retrieval®

This software automatically dials and connects
you with Dow Jones News/Retrieval®, the
world's leading supplier of computerized infor-
mation on demand. It allows you and your family
access to current quotes, financial and business
news, general news, movie reviews, sports,
weather and even the Academic American
Encyclopedia.

The Right Amount of Software

for the Job

The INVESTMENT EVALUATOR gives you
the capabilities you need without making you
pay for a lot of complex functionsjou may
never use. Menu screens lead you to what you
want with one-touch commands. The program
is completely reliable, comes with an easy-to-
follow manual and is fully supported by the
Dow Jones Customer Service hotline.

From Dow Jones, Publishers of
The Wall Street Journal

Dow Jones has been
serving the business and
financial communities for
over 100 years. Now
Dow Jones Software™
serves you at home.

For a free brochure call:
1-800-345-8500 ext. 262

(Alaska, Hawaii and foreign
call 1-215-789-7008 cxi. 262)

Dow Jones Software

Dow Jones Investment Evaluator"

...Bank on it.

Available for Apple II, Apple He,
IBM PC and TI Professional.
Compatibility with Atari and
Commodore to follow.

Copyright © 1983 Dow Jones & Co., Inc. All rights reserved.

Circle 159 on inquiry card.

BYTE November 1983 353

At a Glance

Name

Name

Name

Graphics Generator

BPS Business Graphics

Chartmaster

Type

Type

Type

Chart maker

Chart maker

Chart maker

Manufacturer

Manufacturer

Manufacturer

Robert J. Brady Co.

Business & Professional Software Inc.

Decision Resources

Bowie, MD 20715

143 Binney St.

25 Sylvan Rd. South

(301) 262-6300

Cambridge, MA 02142

Westport, CT 06880

(617) 491-3377

(203) 222-1974

Language

(800) 342-5277

Advanced BASIC

Language

Language

Compiled BASIC

Price

Pascal

$195

Price

Price

$375

Documentation

$350

150-page manual, reference card

Documentation

Documentation

100-page manual

Equipment required

410-page manual

IBM PC (64K or more), color graphics

Equipment required

board, one disk storage device; for hard

Equipment required

IBM PC XT [J28K or more), two disk

copy, dot-matrix printer and Hewlett-

IBM PC (UCSD p-System) or PC XT

storage devices, asynchronous com-

Packard 7470A or Houston Instrument

(MS/DOS); two disk storage devices

munications adapter, DOS 1.1 and BASICA

DMP3-7 plotter

1.1; or. with somewhat restricted

Audience

capabilities, an Apple II Plus (64K). one

Audience

Anyone who wants to plot data

disk drive, DOS 3.3, IEEE 488 interface

Anyone who wants to plot data

Audience

Anyone who wants to plot data

serve this function, is in many instances too cryptic to
be of much use. Graphics Generator gives the illusion,
but not the ease, of a menu-driven program.

The process of entering data into the program was an
experience. Why wasn't I born knowing that the term
"X-calibrations" would mean the number of "tic marks"
for the horizontal (x) axis? This illustrates a consistent
problem with Graphics Generator: the terms used to de-
scribe the program, both in the manual and in prompts
on the screen, are potentially confusing to anyone who
does not use it often. For example, when prompted for
the "length" of a chart, you are expected to respond with
the width of the x-axis. Searching the manual and in-
dulging in trial and error, you will eventually create a
chart; if you use the program often, you will no doubt
become fluent. For the occasional user, however, this can
lead to frustration.

Musical accompaniment would help pass the time
during the laborious data entry sequence of < function
key > < observation number > (that's x-axis, for the un-
initiated) < data point > , < enter > , but make the tempo
r-e-a-1 s-l-o-w. The entry sequence requires the manual
dexterity of a concert pianist.

As each data point is entered, it is immediately plotted
on the monitor. Ponder this sentence from the program
manual to understand the concept of "user-friendly":
"Unfortunately there is no simple way to correct errors
in the coordinate system and labels of a chart." In other
words, get it right the first time or start over. I have mixed
emotions about this kind of message. If the authors

realized what they were doing to us, why didn't they
go a step further and fix the thing?

Each axis is labeled at the end, making for short axis
labels. The title of the chart appears at the bottom; don't
ask me why. I didn't run into any errors or bugs, so either
the program was well developed or I simply did not
chance upon any problems. The manual, however, has
a decidedly "first-generation" cast. The pie chart com-
mands include:

1. Begin. Start a new chart.

2. Alter. Start a new chart. Same as Begin.

How's that again?

I called R.J. Brady, the manufacturer, to find out what
sort of support I could expect if I had trouble with the
program. The company referred me to the program de-
veloper rather than to a customer-service organization.

BPS Business Graphics

Business Graphics from Business and Professional
Software Inc. (BPS) is a more free-form package that uses
computer commands in a fairly flexible sequence to
develop a chart. An extensive index, reference cards, and
many examples in the manual provide the help most
people need to attack the task of chartmaking. An inex-
perienced user can choose an example from the text that
fits the case at hand and follow the example. Given the
small number of standard charts you are likely to use,
this is a reasonable approach. If anything, there are too

354 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

cnn)

scrttn.Atn

YOU'VE GOT TO
SEE IT TO BELIEVE

Consolidate^J^rof it and Loss Projection (Dollars i

i Thousands)

te"14

fc~15

fc==17
Total84 *=:=18

Jan84

Fet84

Har84

AprM

Hay84

Jun84

Jul84

Aug84

Sep34

0ct84

Nov84 '

fec84

Revenue:

fc;=19

fc"20

*===21

4620 fc==22

3345 fc==22

1888 *r~24

Components Div
Hicro Systens 5iv
Industrial Sys. Div

108
10
25

115
28
25

135
48
50

150
88
75

215
128
188

260
165
138

325
240
160

430
325
190

■ 548
430
225

645
535
250

750

, 638
I 388

955
750
358

Total Revenue

135

169

225

385

435

555

725

945

1195

1430

1680

2855

fc-25

9845 fc-26
fc"27
*::=28
*r-=29

Cost of Sales:

Components Div
Micro Systems &iv
Industrial Sys, l\v

88
15
25

. 98
15
35

186

. 20

35

lie

48

58

135
55
75

165

75 .
188

218

100

125

245
148
158

358
185
175

485
238
288

525
300
225

685

. 335

275

3188 fc"30
1510 fc:=31

1470 *="32
- *=::33

Iotal COS

120

148

155

288

265

348

435

535

710

915

1850

1295

6160 fc"34
*r==35

fc-:36

fc::37

2135 *="38

1255 *="39

1105 *="4fl

*z:;41

Operating txpenses:

Components Div
Micro Systems fcv
Industrial Sgs. My

m

75
58

125

85
65

158
95
75

170
188
98

190
185
185

208
105
100

288
110
180

208
118
185

205

115
110

298
115
105

205
120
108

190
120
180

Utal 0?. Ixp.

225

275

320

369

488

485

410

415

438

.420

425

410

44?5 t ;r42

Introducing IBM

PC-Compatible

Hardware

It should be a simple thing,
really, to see a full 132 column
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AN ERROR,, CODE NO. 53 HAS OCCURRED

FILE NOT FOUND

DON'T GET EXCITED.

i. WRITE DOWN THE ERROR CODE & LINE NO.

2. HIT v RETURN' TO TRV AGAIN
VOUR CHART SHOULD BE INTACT.

3. IF VOU STILL ENCOUNTER PROBLEMS.
REFER TO THE • ERROR MESSAGES' sfeCTION
OF VOUR CHART-MASTER MANUAL.

4 ' JE 7MI S°l s N0T HELP. REFER

12 ¥°" R . DOS OR IBM BASIC MANUALS.

OR ASK VOUR DEALER FOR SUGGESTIONS.

IF ALL ELSE FAILS. CALL CUSTOMER

HIT ^RETURN' TO TRV AGAIN

Photo 1: An error message from Chartmaster that should help but
not offend a wary user.

Photo 2: Graphics Generator's screen version of a two-segment pie
chart.

many examples; finding your case among them can be
bewildering.

The BPS package requires you to be familiar with
"computerese." You must learn the program's vocabulary
and use it properly to get the expected result. You are
in charge here— the program sits back to let you work.
Such a user base is most represented by engineers and
experienced users, but after business people lose their
fear of computers, there is no reason for the approach
to be so limited.

BPS Business Graphics provides an editor to get the
data from a sheet of paper into the program. Each line
on the chart is assigned a number. The editor then pro-
vides each line number and a question mark as a
prompt. The user responds with the x value, a space and
the y value, and the editor moves on to the next line.
This form of data entry is neither difficult nor particularly
helpful. I expected transportation for a cross-state
journey and I got a pair of shoes— adequate, but some-
how I expected a bit more help.

Because the operation is free-form, data can be added
any time in the process without making the program
fret. After I have filed away the data, a command like
DRAW LINE causes the command screen to be instant-
ly replaced by the chart. After looking over the quality
of the chart and determining if I want to make any
changes, say to vary the range of the horizontal axis,
touching any key brings the command file bouncing
back.

The program will save commands for a chart as a "take
file," enabling an experienced user to hassle through the
charting commands and save them as a file separate from
the data. This leaves the simple data entry/updating and
chart preparation to someone of a more modest skill
level.

My first encounter with BPS Business Graphics con-
sisted of starting the demonstrations. The program blew
with a display of random cursor moves and sound ef-
fects. The BPS hotline (800-DIAL-BPS) provided a re-
placement copy, and, because I knew I could call some-

one about problems, a level of comfort. A backup disk
is available in exchange for a completed registration
agreement and answering the vendor's market research
questionnaire.

The BPS documentation is so extensive that crucial
parts end up buried or forgotten. For example, the
reference card commands assume a default disk drive
has been set. As I went "by the numbers" through an
example (with the help of an experienced beta-test user),
I tried a number of alternative SAVE commands, without
success. In retrospect, the error message "File name
missing volume name" provided the clue to the problem,
but error messages that require retrospect transfer the
burden of work from the system designer and manual
writer to the users. I finally corrected the error by mak-
ing a page-by-page search of the manual, a task that
should not have been necessary.

Chartmaster

Decision Resources' Chartmaster replaces computerese
with "computerease." The menu operation and common-
sense way the program is structured make it a cinch for
a novice who needs power. A series of menus takes you
through the process of creating a graph. The path for
the first chart is smooth indeed. The designers of the
program assumed several standard charts, then provided
the capability to select alternative options. The typical
drawback to a menu lurks behind the scenes (if it's not
on the menu, you can't do it), but few users will ever
need to go beyond the choices provided.

The menu that is standard issue with Chartmaster
makes data entry a breeze. If you put numerical data
(years, for example) on the horizontal axis, the program
assumes the data is in sequence and provides the obser-
vation number and x-axis label for each point as the
prompt. This makes it much easier to keep track of your
place in a list of data points, and the carriage return is
the only key outside the number pad that you need to
touch. The display would be easier to use if the data were
lined up evenly, but compared to other forms of data en-

356 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

try I have used, this display is head and shoulders above
the rest.

If you enter too many labels for a plot, Chartmaster
warns you (rather than overprinting labels) and gives the
option of specifying labels at larger intervals, say every
five years. Although the program provides the capabil-
ity of verifying data, it assumes that all is well and scrolls
off into the sunset rather than stopping at the end of a
screen.

The test of any program is the way errors are handled.
I ran into one with Chartmaster, and the result was
charming (see photo 1). I remained unperturbed. I liked
the "just keep calm" approach because I have seen too
many experienced people react with primordial violence
to abusive or uninformative "error messages." I don't
want to be told I made a "probable programmer error'— I
just want to know how to get the thing to run.

Output

Each of these packages provides screen output and an
alternative means of hard-copy output. Graphics Gen-
erator's screen output is illustrated in photo 2. A presen-
tation mode provides the capability to run through a set
of predeveloped charts just like a slide show.

GG surprised me as I sat dumbfounded while the
dump to the dot-matrix printer developed a kindergarten
version of a chart (see figure 1). Not only was the quali-
ty of the chart abysmal— the process was excruciatingly
slow. Imagine, if you will, sitting for 8 minutes and 47
seconds while a chart of this quality is wrung from the
system. Few users have the patience for the process, and
none should tolerate the result. I did not try the "high-
speed print utility," which can be called from DOS (disk
operating system), and perhaps the picture would be ac-
ceptable from a plotter. But if you expect reasonable

quality graphs from your dot-matrix printer, forget about
Graphics Generator.

A useful feature of BPS Business Graphics is its capa-
bility to use the regular monochrome IBM-type moni-
tor for commands and a color monitor (TV, regular, or
high-resolution red-green-blue) for charts. Seeing the
commands and their results side by side is a great
advantage.

Chartmaster provides the option of several outputs:
high-resolution black and white, medium-resolution
green-red-brown, and medium-resolution cyan-
magenta-white on the screen, or hard copy can be made
on a plotter. The screen color sets can be customized,
with a choice of 16 colors. I found the cyan-magenta com-
bination hard to read, but there was no discernible dif-
ference in readability between the high-resolution black
and white and the medium-resolution green-red-brown.
The latter is used to illustrate most of the Chartmaster
capabilities in this article.

The operation of the program driving the plotter was
smooth and trouble-free. Also, data can be dumped to
the printer to provide a hard-copy verification of the
numbers, then the resultant chart can be produced on
the plotter. Line and bar charts are both enhanced by
the capability to plot one set of data against the left axis
and another set against the right axis. Another conve-
nient option is the capability to print the y value adja-
cent to each point. This is useful if only a few data points
are present because the numbers get very small as the
number of points to be plotted increases.

A final basic charting option that is very welcome is
the capability to develop an "area" chart, shading the
space between the line and the x-axis (see photo 3).

To create the text of a chart, you can use Chartmaster's
16 sizes of type; six fonts; center, right, or left position-

;;;:u

!:i

H:L-!3

-Ei

J ]F' m n M J'.jr ft :S; <> IM ]) .jr ]? m ft IN J J' ft <S O HI I)

lis; monkv s;lippl.u Gitonirn ■ <:mss)«

Figure 1: This bar chart was produced using Graphics Generator and a dot-matrix printer.

November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. 357

ing; and standard or italic script, with or without under-
lining. This is more flexibility than most packages for
microcomputers can muster.

A second disk provides the Signmaster program,
which uses all of Chartmaster's character and size op-
tions to develop transparencies or signs. The menu-
driven operation makes the development simple. This
is a valuable addition; it's probably worth the price of
the package if you plan to make many presentations.

Statistics

A danger lurks in the ease with which you can fiddle
with a graph using these packages. Even without chang-
ing the data, you can change your perspective on the
data and create a misleading impression. The ability to
develop a chart in less than five minutes can seduce you
into pushing and shoving the ends of the chart until the
picture looks the way you think the world should be,
but isn't. For example, the government-spending chart
(photo 4) would show unprecedented increases in the
last decade if you chopped off the earlier years (the for-
ties), which do not support that conclusion.

Another possible pitfall lies in the fact that these

graphics packages can perform certain basic statistical
calculations, such as means, variances, standard devia-
tions, and regressions. If the software provides the com-
putational tools but no suggestions as to how they may
best be used or when they are appropriate, it is easy to
fall into a trap. Worse, the program may provide options
that in some combinations make graphs that are visual-
ly interesting but statistically meaningless. From both a
purist and a practical standpoint, I question the sanity
of anyone using simple regressions from these packages.
It's almost like getting the keys to a pharmacy and prac-
ticing self-medication.

Graphics Generator provides the capability to easily
develop basic characteristics of the data, such as mean,
regression lines, standard deviation, and variance (photo
5). Niceties for the latter two, such as the distinction be-
tween population and sample, are beyond the scope of
the manual. Because the program will cheerfully figure
a standard deviation or variance to seven decimal places,
a user gets an exercise in precision, not accuracy.

GG supports "function graphing," provided you enter
the equation in "proper computer syntax." Just what that
syntax is, however, is not clearly explained.

BPS Business Graphics measures the characteristics of
data by calculating minimum, maximum, sum, mean,
variance, and standard deviation. Like Graphics Gen-
erator, the BPS system does not confuse you by asking
whether the common assumption of a normal distribu-
tion is appropriate or whether you are dealing with a
population or a sample of a population. For charting
stock prices, orders, shipments, or whatever, Business
Graphics provides a modestly powerful set of analytical
features: smoothing (moving average, one-parameter ex-
ponential smoothing) and regression (line, parabola, log,
sine).

Chartmaster offers some interesting options. First,
regression is available and, like the options in GG and
Business Graphics, subject to all of the nasty things I

Photo 3: This chart of the unemployment rate illustmtes the area
shading capability of Chartmaster.

Photo 4: Federal spending as a simple bar chart produced by the BPS Photo 5: A bar chart designed using Graphics Generator.
Business Graphics package.

358 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

said about the lack of proper background. Regression
performed with the log-scale option, for example, creates
an incorrect regression line (see photo 6), so don't com-
bine these two options. Let the buyer beware of the need
for individual education in the use and misuse of these
programs. The plotting of stock prices is enhanced by
the capability of a high/low/close option. Similarly, the
Chartmaster folks provide the capability to plot floating
bars.

Simple Plots: Line and Bar Graphs

The simplest plot of data is a series of points. The
points may be connected to form a line graph or may
be charted with bars. Fourteen years of the inflation rate
in the US provides a satisfactory example of a line graph.
Any of the three programs reviewed here would produce
a decent line or bar chart without much trouble.

The chart that GG produces on the screen is not too
bad. Putting the title at the bottom is odd, and the short
axis labels could be inconvenient. Otherwise, there's
nothing unusual here.

BPS's package did a good job without frills (see photo
7). The data goes through 1983, but Business Graphics
would not allow me to set the horizontal axis any closer
than 1985, and the program insists that the years be
divisible by 5 when there are too many to be listed in-
dividually. (Why shouldn't you be able to specify in-
crements anywhere you like?) This chart can be trans-
formed from a line graph into an area graph by a single
command: DRAW AREA instead of DRAW LINE.

With my first stab at a simple bar chart, Business
Graphics fell into a common trap and sliced the first bar
in half (see photo 8). I usually circumvent this problem
by setting the horizontal axis for one extra year at the
beginning and end of the series. However, Business
Graphics exhibits strong opinions in this regard; the pro-
gram likes charts to begin and end with numbers divisi-
ble by 5 or 10 most of the time. If I thought such pre-

sumption was to my benefit I would be more charitably
inclined. I react to the package's semiautomatic scaling
in the same way I reacted to my mother's assertion that
a hunk of fried liver was good for me.

Now for a more difficult task: a similar bar graph, but
with a lot more data. I used federal purchases of goods
and services in constant dollars, 19404983. Business
Graphics took care of the data entry satisfactorily. The
resultant chart (photo 4) is utilitarian, but the vertical
spaces between the bars would drive a fastidious user
nuts.

The default value for the size of the graphs is handy,
but there is no simple way to override it. An easier way
to specify the size of the type on the main title involves
leaving the main title blank and placing a floating legend
(the size of which can be specified) in the place of the
main title.

Photo 9 illustrates the difference a generation makes.
Chartmaster gives outlining and balance, which provides
a more appealing product. Data entry with Chartmaster
is faster and easier, allowing both the time and the im-
petus to add some extra touches to the chart. When this
kind of a chart can be developed easily to give a decent

Photo 7: A simple line chart produced by Business Graphics.

Photo 6: Performing regression with Chartmaster 's logarithmic scale
results in an error in the regression line.

Photo 8: The inflation rate as a Business Graphics bar chart.

November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. 359

FEDERAL PURCHASES — G^ods &.

194-0- S3

Service a I

•300

| 200;
1 8 130-

-ft I

LEGEND

lli'fillil

ii

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111

II

40 SCI t)D 70 SO

4fi BE AS 7fi

ECcSflSElC REPORT OF THE PRESIDENT..

Photo 9: A two-line chart drawn with Chartmaster.

Photo 10: Graphics Generator produced this first- generation bar
chart.

result in less than 15 minutes, I am impressed.

Now let's get down to the kind of nit-picking that sep-
arates a good chart from a very good one. The easy place-
ment of a footnote is a nice touch, but things can get
too crowded at the bottom of the chart. The two-level
main title, with type size and font set by the user, adds
to the professional character of the chart. However, edit-
ing a line of the title to change the font meant I had to
retype the title each time. Surely there is a way around
this problem. The bars are all designated as open, but
many appear closed because of the limits of the resolu-
tion of the screen. The legend could be moved to the
bottom (so says the manual), and doing so could alleviate
crowding problems. Overall, this is a graph I would be
pleased to use.

Side-by-Side and Stacking Bar Charts

Let us move to side-by-side charts and add the unem-
ployment rate to the inflation rate.

The chart Graphics Generator produces on the screen
(photo 10) is exactly what I expected. Like the line chart,
it is simple and unadorned. Nonetheless, it is a first-gen-

eration chart an engineer could love, with minimal
cosmetics and plenty of space for data.

Chartmaster produces a chart from the same data in
less than half the time GG requires. Photo 11 illustrates
the other extreme: many cosmetics and the area devoted
to the data is substantially reduced. Although I could
use the Chartmaster options to approach the data area
provided by GG (in this case by reducing the size of the
legend), the converse was not true.

I switched to money-supply growth figures and used
the Chartmaster options to play around with labeling
(photo 12). I increased the size of the main title, added
two lines of subtitles at larger-than-default size, and
threw in an italicized fourth line, which is really pushing
the capabilities of Chartmaster and is well beyond the
capabilities of many packages for mainframes or micro-
computers. Long labels and open bars are a real test of
the program. The package failed in only that some of
the open bars become closed as they get narrower. The
monthly labels are very close together, but I managed
to get away with 24 of them without triggering Chart-
master's "too many labels" message.

Text continued on page 364

MONEY SUPPLY GP

YEAR/YEAR % CHANGE

MONTH/MONTH 7S

Annual Rate

I 1 ^TM/LM-

■ Annual Rcto

ICS1 - S2

Photo 11: A side-by-side bar chart produced with Chartmaster.

Photo 12: This side-by-side bar chart illustrates Chartmaster's titling
capabilities.

360 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

Change your face with one finger.

Now there's a printer that lets you express yourself.

It's the Letterprinter 100, from Digital.

When you're feeling very professional and business-like,

then it looks just like this.

In fact, this is an actual printout. It's great for word processing.

You can send a nice polite letter to your most important client.

But there may be times when you want to put on a different face.

You can program your host computer to do it for you.

Or you can do it yourself.

Simply by pushing a button.

YOU CAN SHOUT AT THE TOP OF YOUR LUNGS.

Tell them they'd better pay their bills

OR ELSE. THEY'LL GET THE MESSAGE. Or you can

be elegant. Impress people with your sophisticated style.

But back to business. The Letterprinter 100 gives

you all of the typefaces on this page. If you don't

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The Letterprinter 100 also gives you full graphics

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Circle 144 on inquiry card.

fttiftWlBN

Graphics

Business

Generator

Graphics

Chartmaster

Chart complexity

charts/page

manual

manual

automatic

graphs/chart

10 lines

many lines

9 lines

3 bars

4 pies

data points/graph

50 points or 25 bars

4000 plus

600 points or 52 bars

segments/pie graph

12

many

20

Storage

charts/disk

varies (14-17)

varies

varies

Titles

main lines

1

1

4

characters

14

many

many

horizontal

lines

1

1

2

characters

4

many

many

vertical

lines

1

1

2

characters

3

many

many

legends

location

none

manual

manual or automatic

lines

none

many

many

characters

none

many

many (boxes optional)

Scaling

horizontal

alphabetic

yes

yes

yes

hours

manual

manual

automatic

days

manual

manual

automatic

months

automatic

manual

automatic

years

automatic

manual

automatic

vertical

linear

yes

yes

yes

log or In

no

no

yes

user control of

minimum

yes

yes

yes

maximum

yes

yes

yes

increment

yes

yes

yes

grid (horizontal/vertical)

both

both

both

Plot characters

points

1

9

4

lines

3

5

4

bars

3

5

9

Labels

characters

no

many

8

length

no

manual

manual

location

no

manual

automatic

Other data files

Visicalc

yes

yes

yes

Lotus 1-2-3

yes

others

yes

Curve fitting

least squares

yes

yes

yes

moving average

no

yes

no

exponential smoothing

no

yes

no

parabola

no

yes

yes

exponential

yes

yes

yes

power curves

yes

yes

yes

log or In

yes

yes

no

sine

no

yes

no

Table 1: Specifications of three

plotting packages.

362 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

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Photo 13: A combined bar and line chart produced with the Business
Graphics package.

Photo 14: A Chartmaster scatter chart.

Text continued from page 360:

To provide an example of the hard copy available with
the Hewlett-Packard two-pen plotter in comparison to
the screen image, I took figures from the federal pur-
chases of goods and services in constant dollars (1940-83)
and added state and local purchases. A large number
of data points is a trial for many packages, but Chart-
master handled the assignment well. The data preview
scrolled this amount of data off the screen, but other-
wise I could find no fault with the program in the de-
velopment of this chart.

Chartmaster enables changing from side-by-side to
stacking bars with a short tour through the menus. I can
use the inflation and unemployment levels charted
earlier to provide a third piece of information: the sum
of two, a "discomf ort index." Few packages provide this
ease of operation, going from side-by-side bars to stack-
ing bars in less than two minutes.

Bar and Line Charts

A purist will contend that a bar chart should be used
to represent discrete events and a line chart should repre-

sent continuous events. A fine esoteric argument can be
made for or against such a position. In practice, the selec-
tion of the type of chart should be based on whatever
will communicate the message most honestly and with-
out distortion. With such a criterion, a combined bar and
line chart is acceptable.

BPS Business Graphics provides a reasonable bar and
line chart (see photo 13). The 40 or more points of data
are too trying for many microcomputer-based products,
but the BPS program takes the chart in stride. Much fid-
dling can create a better chart, but the basic options of
Business Graphics develop an acceptable product. There
are some flaws: the title runs into the y-axis, and bars
have gaps every so often that detract from the quality
of the chart. The legends are manually placed using the
cursor, a feature that can vary the placement of the main
title, subtitle lines, footnotes, and so forth. On the whole,
the product is good but not great.

My admiration for Chartmaster comes to a roaring halt
at this point. Combining different types of graphs on
the same chart is not possible. Combined bar and line
charts are outside the bounds of the menu-driven
program.

Scatter Plots and Pie Charts

Scatter plots are used mainly by the scientific commu-
nity. They appear much less frequently in a business
context.

Chartmaster enables a user to develop a quick and
easy scatter plot (photo 14). Once again the x-axis labels
are scrunched together, but the overall chart should
prove acceptable to all but the most demanding.

A pie chart is a common way to show the relative com-
position of something. In this case, I will use the federal
purchases of goods and services, split between military
and nonmilitary.

The Graphics Generator chart in photo 2 is an accurate
reflection of what I consider first-generation graphics:
spare and unelegant. The title of the pie chart, like those
of the other GG charts, is at the bottom, restricted to
about 15 characters. The percentages are calculated auto-
matically and printed as a default. You want a pie chart,
you got a pie chart.

BPS Business Graphics took the same data and in less
than five minutes produced a more satisfactory second-
generation product. The labels for the slices are restricted
to 11 characters. If there are so many labels that read-
ability suffers, Business Graphics automatically deletes
some of them. This is a nice feature as long as the deleted
labels are not the focus of a presentation.

For more flexibility and ease of development, I would
choose the Chartmaster version of the same chart (see
figure 2). The four-level title, using the ''underline/ 7
"boldface," and "standard" options, makes a clear pre-
sentation. The labels for the slices are put inside the slice
whenever possible, with the option of including the per-
centages and/or cross-hatching, both of which I used
here. Menus that simplify the development of a chart
are available for all Chartmaster operations, and relieve

364 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

Repeat it once more*.* "No manual
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MICRO-TAX* MICROCOMPUTER TAXSYSTEMS, INC.

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Dept 1B Phone (213) 704-7800

BYTE November 1983 365

FEDERAL PURCHASES

Goods & Services

Calendar Year

1982

non-MIIItary

Figure 2: A Chartmaster two-segment pie chart, printed on a two-
pen plotter

1SS4- PROPOSED U.S. BUDGET
Reagan Administration

commerce: 11 &X

HEALTH 1Q.5&

SOCIAL SECURITY

GOVERNMENT I.SS
INCOME 5ECUR0Y 11,23

Fiscal Year

Photo 15: A Chartmaster seven-segment pie chart.

Photo 16: An 11-segment pie chart produced using Chartmaster.

366 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

users of the burden of memorizing commands. Look-
ing at the eight options for a Chartmaster pie is like tak-
ing a quick tour of the possibilities. I then duck back to
put the results on the screen and repeat as necessary.
The proportional pie selection allows up to four pies per
page, each pie proportional to the value of the sum of
the elements of the appropriate pie.

Now let's make it harder and use seven slices to illus-
trate the president's proposed 1984 budget. Once again,
Chartmaster provides a good example of the versatility
I expect from a third-generation product (photo 15). Each
slice has a different cross-hatching, which can be varied
by returning to the menu and overriding the default
results shown here.

Chartmaster automatically balances the size of the pie
with the space required for the labels. Percentages are
included and appear either in the slice or next to the
label, as space in the slices permits. The largest slice, the
military, is exploded for emphasis, and the separation
could be extended to any or all slices. The package's flex-
ibility in handling titles permits a clean, accurate pre-
sentation.

Because the president was kind enough to provide
even more detail, let's push the readability beyond the
limits of common sense to develop an 11-segment chart.
In this case, the readability is reduced by the length of
the titles and segment labeling. Chartmaster uses all of
the labels and handles the task with better results than
I expected (photo 16). I could develop a more acceptable
chart from this data by reordering the slices. My con-
cept of the fourth generation features the machine help-
ing me by allowing me to specify the reordering of the
segments.

The Fourth Generation

A fourth generation of business graphics packages
would begin with the best features of these programs
and add enhancements. Such a package might use a
mouse, so that a user could make changes simply by
pointing to the element on the screen that needs to be
modified. Other features might include having the data
listing and the chart visible at the same time, either on
the same screen or on separate screens. A fourth-
generation program should certainly be capable of get-
ting information (such as stock quotes, government
economic figures, and company sales reports) directly
and easily from outside sources.

If a package is to be used for forecasts, it must include
scaling that allows a graph to extend beyond where the
data currently exists. A program should also accommo-
date data that begins in the middle of a scale. Naturally,
statistical calculations included in a fourth-generation
graphics package should feature some checks to insure
that they are used appropriately. ■

jack Bishop is a management consultant specializing in mergers and acquisi-
tions, planning, and economic issues. He has a BS in chemical engineering
and a PhD in business and economics. He can be reached at 916 Maple Ave.,
Evanston, IL 60202.

Circle 264 on inquiry card. »

LIFEBOAT

Associates

1651 Third Avenue
New York, NY 10028
212-860-0300

Please send me free information on: Name

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dUTIL $ 69

dNAMES $109

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368 BYTE November 1983

Circle 430 on inquiry card.

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BYTE November 1983 369

Photo 1: Superwriter is one of many word-processing programs now available for the IBM Personal Computer and Personal Computer XT.
Superwriter provides many functions useful in a business environment. (All photos by Ed Crabtree.)

A Versatile IBM PC Word Tool:
Sorcim's Superwriter

This word-processing program combines
surprising power with ease of use

by Richard S. Shuford

You've just bought an IBM Personal Computer for your
office, and you're looking around for software to do word
processing. You especially want a program you can use
for writing letters, and you'll sometimes need to write
memos and short reports. But you've heard that word-
processing programs are hard to use, and you're too busy
to spend time reading a fat notebook of documentation.
Sorcim Corporation's Superwriter could be the word-
processing program you need.

Last spring, just as I was completing my evaluation
of four word-processing programs for the IBM Personal
Computer (see reference 3), I received a preliminary copy
of Superwriter (see photo 1). Although I used Super-
writer to write most of that review article, the product
had arrived too late and was not mature enough to be
included in the project.

Since then I've had several months to use Superwriter,
and Sorcim has also had time to revise and improve it.

370 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

Superwriter

Minimum practical hardware configuration: 96K bytes of RAM, 80-
character display (preferably monochrome display adapter), two
5 1 /4-inch floppy-disk drives

Maximum number of characters directly manipulable: 32,175

Editing universe: window into buffer in RAM

Command structure: program modules invoked through nested
menus; in editing, single-control characters (most editing commands
also assigned to function keys) augmented by two sets of extended
multiple-keystroke commands plus command assignments to IBM PC
special keys

Tutorial course for beginners? 16-page booklet 10 Minutes to Super-
writer with example requiring user to type a short letter

Online help during editing? full-screen, context-sensitive displays of
help information invoked by typing the F1 key

Longest line length that can be set: 250 characters (with automatic
horizontal scrolling)

On-screen status information shown during text entry and editing:

file name, current line and column in buffer; insert-mode status, buffer-
modification flag, Escape-command and print-control prompting

Screen location of status information: bottom line, inverse dim or
colored video

Use of IBM PC function keys: all Fn keys used, with and without Shift
key, cursor-pad keys used; some assignments disagree with IBM's
recommendations

Action of Del key: deletes character to the left of cursor

Action of backarrow key: nondestructive backspace

Decimal tab stops? implemented through print-time formatting with
numbers automatically aligned at decimal point

Column-move capability during editing: no

Possible insertion of nonprinting ASCII control characters: yes, both
by embedding in file and through print-time OUT command.
Characters with values above decimal ASCI1 128 may be inserted with
editor; but print and spelling modules cannot handle them.

Formatting scheme: on-screen or with extensive print-time formatting
commands embedded in text

Transition time from edit mode to printing start (includes answer-
ing queries as fast as reasonably possible): 40 seconds for 26,376-
character file

Print while editing? yes, after formatting

Obtain file directory without leaving program? yes, also shows docu-
ment history if it exists

Table 1: Technical characteristics of the Superwriter word-processing program. This table has been arranged for easy cross-referencing
with the comparison table in the article "Word Tools for the IBM Personal Computer" (May 1983 BYTE, page 176), in which Easy writer
II, Volkswriter, Wordstar, and The Final Word were compared. See "At a Glance" box on page 376 for additional information.

Can user change default parameters? yes, both editing and printing

Document assembly during editing: can include entire files or marked
sections of files

Document assembly during printing: extensive capabilities for docu-
ment assembly, file access, and interactive input

Accept operator input for immediate inclusion in printed output? yes

Automatic formatting capabilities (other than defaults)? extensive
and complex

Default text-justification style: flush-left (can be changed)

Can documents be printed without being saved to disk? no

Difficulty of changing from single spacing to double spacing: easy,
with formatting command

Can text be searched for printing attributes? not in all cases

Printers supported: NEC Spinwriter 3510, 3550, 5510, 5520, 5530 (also
with Sellum modification); Diablo 630, 1650, 1750; Xerox; Qume Sprint
5, 9, 11; (with proportional spacing— others without full capability)

Special features of disk-file format: program can write files in three
different output formats. The normal format uses only Linefeed
characters to mark ends of lines within paragraphs, with Return
characters at paragraph ends; normal-format files may be saved with
or without document history embedded. The other two formats are
intended for saving files to be used as input for other programs— the
document format is frozen into the screen format existing at the time
the document was saved. One format places only Return characters
at the ends of all lines, the other puts in Return/Linefeed pairs. Both
formats delete document history and special characters

Checking of spelling integrated into program? yes, Super Spellguard
is provided and can be called from the main menu

Most annoying characteristics: limited buffer space for editing, in-
ability to search for printing attributes, small size of spelling dictionary

Most pleasing characteristics: ease of use for beginners, including
online availability of full-screen help information at every phase of the
program's operation; consistency of user menus and command struc-
tures; powerful built-in formatting and form-letter capabilities; execute-file
batch editing; user setting of most default parameters; provision of
Maintain program module to ensure program-code integrity.

Miscellaneous comments: Superwriter can read files created by Word-
star and automatically translate them to its own format. The Super-
calc spreadsheet program may be called from the Superwriter menu.
The program can operate under both versions 1.10 and 2.00 of PC-
DOS and on the IBM PC XT Model 5160 as well as the PC (5150),

We'll look at some of the characteristics of this product
after we consider some background information.

Broad Categories of Use

Most people who have personal computers use their
machines at least part of the time for writing documents
to be read by other people. There are as many possible
writing tasks as there are people, but most of these tasks
fall into one of four broad categories: composing long
continuous documents (a novel, for instance), typing
short personalized letters for individual recipients, pre-
paring form letters for mass mailings, or merging and
formatting text for exact reproduction, possibly including

illustrative materials (as in a newsletter).

Most word-processing programs are suited to one or
two of these categories. A newsletter editor trying to
wrap a news article around a photograph had best use
a program with extensive on-screen formatting capabil-
ities; an author needing to enumerate and delineate the
subsections of a complicated long document could most
easily do it with a program containing a sophisticated
print-time formatter. No single program is best for all
four uses.

Coaxing the Timid User

A word-processing program is a tool. So is a hammer.
But because most folks have a clearer idea of how to

November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. 371

pound nails than how to use a piece of computer soft-
ware in the process of putting words on paper, it takes
time to learn how to use the software.

Because time is money, people naturally want to spend
as little of it as possible learning to use a word-processing
tool. This creates a problem for the software designer.
The tool should be flexible, with enough power for it to
tackle whatever writing task its user sets it to. Yet it must
not be so complex that it frightens away potential users,
leaving its power and flexibility to lie forever undis-
covered.

As you might expect, different software designers have
offered different solutions to this problem. The author
of Lif etree's Volkswriter chose to limit the number of fea-
tures and flexibility of his program, and he produced
a streamlined word processor that is easy to learn for
writing uncomplicated documents. The designers of

Wordstar decided to offer the user more of a Swiss-army-
knife approach (with some blades optional) and devoted
as much as one-third of the video screen to giving the
user hints about what command options are available.
The designers of The Final Word evidently decided to
offer a lot of raw power for a certain set of operations,
assuming that some experienced users would need that
power and would therefore take time to read the lengthy
documentation to learn to use it.

The most striking characteristic of Superwriter is its
approach to making a relatively large amount of
word-processing power easy to learn and use.

Superwriter will probably find its most favorable
reception in business offices. It is particularly suited for
secretarial letter and contract writing and for producing
form letters. Its context-sensitive online help facility will
give aid and comfort to uneasy first-time users of micro-

da)

— R replace siring —

character
word right
line right
entire line

marked Block

block markers
spelling markers
- ESC return to Edit

1 — ES

marked block
write block to new file —
ESC return lo Edit

I — ch acc<
4- A all
— Sp skip
I — ESC Quit

£

-ESC quit
display

-§

upper-case word
lower-case word
— C capitalize character
• — A capitalize line
■ — CR lower-case line
*■ — ESC return lo Edit

■ — Line width-
— Tab stops —

"t T '
1 — c

— Program mode

— Text mode
Custom options—

-/ insert block marker

— e:

Save document
Rename end save
Change Output Form—

Wordwrap

■ — Visible Returns

— Visible Blanks

— Visible Lina Breaks

— Visible Print Controls
' — Visible Hyphens

ETabs replace blanks
Save history/globals
Change Output format

-Z zap: discard workspace —
-Cr Main Menu

T2

1-0 -J — I

I — P

auto-insert mode
insert mode
page insertion

— B boldface

Y — C canterfine

— H hanging Indent
►— P new page

R right justify

U underline
Sp hard space

» — - hyphen

< superscript

> subscript

1 — A

formfeed mark
spelling mark
block marker
control character

; formfeed mark

' page marker

> spelling mark

block marker

1 — A control character

(lb)

— Formal and print

■ — Format on screen

— Change format settings
— - Change control settings
■ — Print without formatting

— Format to disk

• — Return to System

— ESC return to Edit or Menu

- Review mismatches

— M mark

■ — A add to dictionary

— I ignore

— R review previous word
■ — S quick review

' — E Exit-no further changes

' — Mark remaining words

— Add remaining words to dictionary
i — Ignore remaining words

— List remaining words

— Return to review

' — Return lo Edit- no further changes

nismatched words

1 — ESC return to Edit or Menu

-E

List documents

List specified files

Show document history (y/n)

-Library lite access

— filename

r — specify file
— | — next section
— restart file
1 — keyed section
-filename

"E

-Initial history

-Operator name
-Modification date
-Comment
-Document number

-List words
-Combine dictionaries
-Subtract dictionaries
-Reorganize dictionary
-Copy dictionary
-Deiete words
-Create new dictionary

— as filename
r — start

— — stop
— specify - lilename
' — reset printer

Author

Creation date
Revision #

1 — SuperCaic

Figure 1: These menu maps show how the control functions in Superwriter are nested in several levels of menus. These maps have been
reproduced from the documentation, courtesy of Sorcim Corporation.

372 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

ANOTHER TECHNOLOGICAL BREAKTHROUGH FROM SHARP.

THE HAND-HELD COMPUTER
WITH POWERFUL CONNECTIONS,

SHARP

EXPANSION
MODULE

Now you can take 24K with you wherever
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It's the 8K hand-held computer that expands
to a powerful portable 24K computer system
when the optional 16K memory module is
added. And because it's programmable in
Basic, the most popular
computer language, it

24K

(8K + loK) gj ves y 0U t h e p 0wer anc [

capabilities to handle most scientific,
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ThePC-1500A
also has a com-
plete library of
plug-in software
programs includ-
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Circuit Analysis, Business Graphics,
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Interface not only
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COME SHARP PRODUCTS

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Circle 416 on inquiry card.

BYTE November 1983

373

t: UOTJBMw SntiHrittP 1.08 UM7

Workspace contains:

484 fords

2194 Characters

52 Lines

1 Pases

(31293 Free)

Rain Menu:

I EDIT document

_ gflll return to Sys ten

_ PRINT document

.UTILITIES

Doctments Edited

ftlSPETESLtsy

Photo 2: The main menu of Superwriter, reached after you invoke
the program from the operating system (in this case, PC-DOS 1.10).

feporVHUr 1.11

AaswsrScroaa. IfcVfC 14 it loyo:

cmsoi mvmar:

i innion:

■p Ctrl-f or ip ir row

1 character

Ctrl-C or PS

Jaw* Ctrl-X or cows arrow 1 root off Mora"

Ctrl-V or PSs

loft Ctr!-S or loft arrow 1 root of 11 m

Ctrl-tt or lot

riibt Ctrl-I or right arrowl ckaractor loft

in

ooxt worJ Ctrl-r or Pll

I MTk

F2t

loci wort Ctrl-o or Pita

1 HBUTION:

takrlitt

TM

I coasts aoiit

Ctrl-0

ta loft

MCITA1

I Has

n

loft stroll

Ctrl-* or H01I 1 *ark

n

•■4 of 11m

Ctrl-U
T:

1 taa

1 rilDVIIPLMi:

KSCTAB

Lim/sam no/rax

top of iocoooat

Ctrl-T or PBc

1 text sark

n

Oftl Of iDCBOnt

Ctrl-I or PJs

1 ooxt spoil «*»k

P3s

provlota serosa

Ctrl-I or P8

1 ropoat Mai

P4

ssst serosa

Ctrl-C or 17

1 ropoat roplaco

P4s

11m forwars

Ctrl-Z or n

1 HOP

PI or Pis

Um laekwara

CtrHI or P9t

I ALT FUNCTION HYS

Ctrl-*

PI1WT BlttCTlVB

Ctrl-P

i escape options

ESC

1 &M or ZAP iocasoat ESC S or ESC Z

— — <

nm

Photo 3: The help display ("Answerscreen") for the main editing mode
in Superwriter. By pressing the Fl key at any point in the operation
of the program, you can call up a help display explaining the exact
command options available at that point.

computer word processing; its flexible document-
merging, formatting, and data-file capabilities will please
experienced users; and its built-in spelling-check func-
tion will satisfy both. Certain details of its characteristics
are shown in table 1.

Structural Overview

Superwriter's control functions are divided into several
groups: editing, printing and formatting, checking spell-
ing, displaying disk directories, and general utility func-
tions, as shown in the "menu maps" from the documen-
tation (reproduced in figure 1). The principal working
parts of the program are physically divided into seven

disk files: two for the most-used utility functions and
editing routines, one for printing and formatting, one
for the text of help-screen displays, and three for the
spelling checker and its large dictionary. In addition to
these, you can prepare an eighth file containing your
own preferred set of default editing and printing
parameters that is automatically read by Superwriter
when the program is started up.

When you activate the Superwriter program, you are
presented with a screen containing the main menu (see
photo 2). You select the desired function group by mov-
ing the cursor (with the space bar or a cursor key) to the
proper item and then hitting the Enter (Return) key. Most
of the main-menu selections lead to submenus; some
functions are three levels down from the top. But the
Escape key will consistently get you out of a lower menu
into a higher one, up to the main menu. The menu and
function-transition routines were thoughtfully designed
to remember the name of the document you are work-
ing on, so you never have to type the filename more
than once.

At any point during the execution of Superwriter, you
can hit the help key, the assignable function key Fl. (Sor-
cim calls it the "Answerkey'— for compatibility with non-
IBM-PC versions, Control-backslash also works.) Press-
ing Fl causes the program to search a file on the system
disk and display information pin-pointed to help you,
no matter what mode or submenu you happen to be in.
The help display for the main-editing mode is shown
in photo 3.

Editing Functions

When you select the edit mode from the main menu,
you are queried for the name of the disk file you wish
to edit, and then the program brings up the main editing
screen. The bottom line of the display is taken up by
some minimal status information. As shown in photo

4, the rest of the screen shows the text being entered or
edited in bright characters. Line endings at the ends of
paragraphs are termed "hard" Return characters and are
indicated by dim house-shaped symbols; lines ending
where words have been automatically wrapped to fit the
assigned line width are called "soft" Return characters
and are shown as dim plus signs.

When execution is begun, Superwriter assumes one
of two sets of global display settings deemed suitable
for either human-language text or program editing,
based on the extension of the filename. If you want to
change these settings, you use one of the extended com-
mands. When you hit the Escape key, the bottom-of-
screen status line is replaced by a line containing a series
of letters that hint at the possible extended command
functions now available.

If you hit the G key after Escape, you can see a menu
for the global edit settings, such as that shown in photo

5. If you then proceed to hit the help key (Fl), an ex-
planation of the normal global settings of the display will
appear: word-wrap on, make hard and soft line endings
visible, show soft hyphens, and do not show blanks as

374 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

dim underscores. You can change these settings to suit
your task and temperament; an editing display with
everything shown (including blanks shown as under-
scores) appears in photo 6. After you have adjusted the
global settings, you hit Escape to jump back to the main
editing screen.

Some aspects of Super writer mimic functions found
in other programs (see the text box "Historical Roots").
You can move the blinking-block cursor character by
character or line by line around the editing screen in
three ways: with the special IBM PC cursor-movement
keys, with a set of control keys the same as those used
by Wordstar (the "magic diamond": Control-S, -E, -D,
and -X), and with another set of four keys as used by
the old Magic Wand (Control-H, -K, -L, and -J). The cur-
sor can be moved through areas on the screen that con-
tain no text. Wordstar's influence also shows up in the
assignment of control characters for deleting the char-
acter at the cursor (Control-G), moving of the cursor by
word forward and back (Control-A and -F), moving by
screen (Control-C and -R), and single-line scrolling
(Control-Z and -W).

Many of the other functions appear on the assignable
function keys (see table 2). My complaints about the key
assignments are that some of them— the Del key, for
instance— ignore IBM's recommendations for keyboard
use (see pages 3-17 and 2-16 of the IBM PC Technical
Reference Manual), and no fewer than four keys or key
combinations have the function of moving the cursor one
column left.

If you've used other word processors that have on-
screen formatting, you'll be surprised to find that Super-
writer does not have or need a reform-paragraph com-
mand: the Sorcim program automatically reforms each
paragraph after text has been entered or changed. The
drawback of this feature, however, is that a fast typist
can get several words ahead of the screen while the pro-
gram is trying to figure out where to break the lines.
However, I have never lost any characters; they always
show up eventually.

You can select from four character-entry modes: type-
over, insert, page insert (for long insertions), or auto-
insert. This last mode is unusual in its behavior. A com-
bination typeover/insert mode, auto-insert is most bene-
ficial when you want to substitute a longer word for a
shorter one: you put the cursor on the first letter of the
old shorter word and begin typing the letters of the new
longer word. As you type, the new letters replace the
old until you reach the space at the end of the old word;
then the remaining new characters are inserted in front
of the space. These modes are toggled by two-character
control sequences, with the active mode shown in the
status line.

The Escape-activated extended commands include
some versatile options for finding and replacing char-
acter strings: some, all, or a specified number of strings
may be found or replaced. The search functions can look
past soft line endings to match a character string, and
you can search for a hard Return character. Letters are

$Exfa mw *

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Dear sir or nianlA

Consider visiting Vellc* tooe Katiooal Park toil* tie t all **
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Photo 4: The main edit screen that you see when you are typing
or editing some text in Superwriter. On a monochrome display, the
text is shown in bright characters and everything else on the screen
is dim. On a color monitor, the text is shown in bright white
characters, while formatting or control information is displayed in
bright blue and the status line and transient prompting lines are dis-
played in reverse-video green or brown.

t: i:mum.ts« SoperHriter l.W 11:25

rd-Rrap: Irs
Visible fietnrns: Yes
Visible Blanks: No

Width: 63

. Visible Use Breaks: Yes
Visible Friot Controls: !es
Visible Soft Hyphens: ¥es
Tab Coluons:

^8 U2M5S78y 23456789j ai56?t9jiM5i7«^66?S5m

Change docawnt layout:
_ Change line width
)_ Change tab stops
_ Set ProgNA node options
_ Set Text node options
_ Select taste* options

Photo 5: By issuing the Escape G extended command, you can get
to a menu for changing the global document settings. Two major
groups of settings are available, one mode for editing text (used in
these examples) and another for editing program code. You can mix
and match the settings to your taste.

always matched exactly (searching for "the" will not find
'The"). Spelling-check marker characters, formfeeds,
page marks, and block marks may be searched by a com-
mand associated with the F3 key.

Searching and replacing print-attribute marker char-
acters (the directives you type to underline a word, for
instance) is a difficult puzzle in many word-processing
programs. Superwriter is somewhat susceptible to this
problem, although not totally. It is not possible to search
for or replace the special printing-attribute markers that
you embed in the text through the embedded-print-con-
trol extended command, but Superwriter allows you to
assign seldom-used regular printing characters as

November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

375

At a Glance

Name

Superwriter

Type

Word-processing program

Manufacturer

Sorcim Corporation
2310 Lundy Ave.
San Jose, CA 95131
(408) 942-1727

Price

$295

Format

Two 5 ] A -inch single-sided 8-sector floppy disks

Language

Translation from 8080 assembly code supplemented by Pascal/M

Computer

IBM Personal Computer and XT running PC-DOS 1. 10 or 2.00 (as
tested)

Documentation

Loose-leaf binder. 170 typeset pages, 4-page index; folded pocket
reference card; 16-page spiral-bound beginner's booklet; function-
key stickers

Audience

Business users of microcomputer word processing

markers for underlining, boldfacing, superscripting, sub-
scripting, soft ("ghost") hyphens, and hard spaces. If you
anticipate needing to search for attribute markers, you
can use these, which are later interpreted by the print-
ing routine to produce the desired results in the hard
copy.

Blocks of characters may be marked for moving, for
deletion, or for copying (either within the same docu-
ment or into a separate disk file). Block markers are
special characters inserted using an extended Escape
command and symbolized by dim slashes; there is little
possibility of confusing them with ordinary slash char-
acters present in the document. A block marker may be
placed at any point in the text.

Superwriter has been provided with a versatile "nor-
malize" mode of operation. Invoked by an Escape com-
mand, this mode allows you to adjust the capitalization
style of words or entire lines. The cursor can be moved
in normalize mode, but none of the other usual editing
commands work. A similar delete mode allows sys-
tematic removal of marked blocks, words or portions of
words, lines or portions of lines, block markers, and
spelling-check markers.

Sections of external text may be merged with the cur-
rent document during editing by use of the include com-
mand, which is invoked as an extended Escape com-
mand.

When you want to stop editing your document, you
give the Escape S command to save the contents of the

Key

Normal Function

Shifted Function

F1

help key

help key

F2

insert mark (special character)

delete mark

F3

find next mark

find next spelling mark

F4

repeat last find operation

repeat last replace

F5

delete character at cursor

delete to word end

F6

insert new line

delete to line end

F7

next screen (forward)

go to bottom of document

F8

previous screen (backward)

go to top of document

F9

scroll down

scroll up

F10

go to next word

go to previous word

Del

delete character to left of curso

- period

Ins

insert one space at cursor

zero

Alt

not used*

* If you wish to use Superwriter to create files for viewing on the IBM

PC's screen, you can use the Alt key in

conjunction with the numeric

keypad to insert any character by its decimal numeric value. Super-

writer can display and edit even the graphics characters, although

the spelling-check and print routines are not set up to handle them.

Table 2: Uses given by Supenvriter

to the IBM PCs assignable

function keys.

I

Historical Roots

Although Micropro's Wordstar has for some time been the most
commonly used word-processing program for 8-bit microcomputers,
a significant minority of users have found an effective tool in a
program that began under the name of Magic Wand but later
became known as Peachtext when Peachtree Software bought its
rights. When I began to use Supenvriter, I was struck by its
resemblance to Magic Wand, which I had long used on an 8-bit
Z80-based computer running the CP/M operating system. The
resemblance is no coincidence, as I later found out.

When the managers ofSorvim Corporation decided to add a word-
processing program to the company's line of software, they decided
not to build a program from scratch. They looked around for an
existing suitable software product, and at length Sorcim struck
a deal for a program exchange with Peachtree Software. The code
of Super calc was traded for the code of Peachtext (by the way, now
you know why Peachcalc seems similar to Super calc).

Peachtree eventually made Peachtext available for the IBM Per-
sonal Computer, but Sorcim was not content to merely repackage
the program. After gathering data on how users responded to the
virtues and defects of various existing word-processing packages,
Sorcim added the Super Spellguard spelling-checker program (that
S.orcim had acquired by buying the company that had invented
it, Innovative Software Applications Inc.) and devised a set of
menus and command structures to link all the routines together
in a consistent way. After these pieces had been adapted to the
Intel 8088 processor, Supenvriter was sent out to seek its niche
in the IBM PC word-processing market.

text buffer into a disk file. You are given a chance to
change the name and output format of the file, if needed,
but in the normal case, you won't do that. A sign of the
thought given to the menu structures of Superwriter is
that the most commonly invoked command in the save
menu is the one the cursor falls into when the menu

376 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

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appears. This easily reached menu item saves the docu-
ment under its old name while renaming the existing
disk file with the extension of .BAK, providing an auto-
matic backup. Then, after the document has been stored,
you just have to hit the Enter key twice more, and Super-
writer, remembering the filename of the document,
reads the disk file and puts you back into the edit mode
(although at the top of the text and not exactly at the
point where you left off, as The Final Word does).

Superwriter was optimized for use on an IBM PC
equipped with the monochrome display adapter. On
such a system, the scrolling of text is smooth, and scroll-
ing backward is just as fast as scrolling forward. Using
the IBM color/graphics display adapter, however, is not
as pleasant. True, on a color monitor the line-ending
symbols, print attributes, and other special embedded
characters are displayed in an appealing shade of light
blue, and the status lines appear in green or brown. But

the scrolling suffers. In both directions, scrolling pro-
ceeds from the edge of the screen away from the edge
where the fresh text is to appear, so what you just
scrolled to see is the last thing on the screen that settles
down.

If you don't have a color monitor attached to your
color/graphics display adapter, that is, if you are using
the color card to drive a non-IBM monochrome com-
posite-video monitor, you need to invoke the program
by typing "SW/BW" from the PC-DOS "A > " command
prompt. This undocumented option stops the display
from trying to produce color. Otherwise, if you invoke
Superwriter from the operating system normally, the
status line and command prompts become unreadable
as the monochrome CRT (cathode-ray tube) tries hope-
lessly to produce the different colors, and the special
characters seem to change shape or disappear.

The size of the editing buffer is the worst deficiency

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will ikow tke history for tkoae fllii tkat kave U, aa ekoue la
photo 12.

Otter Utllltle*

tepetwrlter coatilta otker gUllty faactloM, iecleJtef a f
aaleaiei f or creatlee aed eodlftjlaf tke aforeaeat toeed JoaeMat'
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xm itcket yoe krlefly to t ka^do ca e ei t-k iatory . acreea for yoe to
type tke m of tke author: yoe ara fat directly kack lato tke
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it creation aad eodlflcatloa are picked op free PC »0S, and
liloi eaekera ara eatoaaticeUy aealfaed... i Tke doeeeeat-Uetory
part of tke f 11a h»a apaca reserved for tke operator' • aeae, a*-
doceawot aaaker yoe atalf*, aed yoer krlef coaawata, kat yoe fcave
to 10 taroeik tke klatory eakaeee to fill In tkeae Matka.

Tkera ara a set of 1 Ikrary-f t lo-aceeaa faactloee. Tke
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yoe ara werklei o«. Yoe eta delete or reaaee iny disk file oa>
Ilea, Mkareat *»otker coaauiU allows yoo to cH.bjb • like dariaf

ties of taparwlter Mitkoat eaafulaa tke director lea. Two

t: Aisramr.ns

EvIBUFEUlK i.n u-.x

Actions fop Hort Esview:

N a Hark wpd in docuaent

ft r Ui word to dictionarg

I 5 Ignore this kp4

1 = Review previous wrd

% = Start Snick Rmev

E : Exit to EDITOR - Kate no cbanjes

Recap for Mop Hord Cmwot M fw i?«e«M

Hopd (fiction Chosen) tkakr tart -) (sour Response)

ftLL-WAHLER (I)

145 U»MCITIQI->

Photo 6: The main editing screen after a global-settings command
has been issued to make blank characters be shown as dim (or blue)
underscores. This setting is most useful for editing programs.

of Superwriter. In the final version I tested (version 1.01),
the editing buffer is contained entirely in the RAM
(random-access read/write memory) of the computer,
and there aren't even any commands for explicitly
reading and writing parts of the buffer to the active disk
file so you could edit a document larger than fits in the
buffer. Worse yet, the buffer space still reflects the old
memory-address limitations of 8-bit software— my IBM
PC has half a megabyte of user memory in it, and still
the buffer size is only slightly over 32,000 bytes. (I
bumped my head on this buffer size while writing the
May article, so I switched to The Final Word.) And as
the text grows to nearly fill the buffer, the program's
response to keyboard insertions (other than page-mode
insertions) becomes sluggish. As we'll see shortly, you
can use print commands to splice many short files
together into one long printed document, but often it
is desirable to keep a document in one contiguous file.
A representative of Sorcim told me that the company
plans to deal with this restriction eventually, but for now
it limits the usefulness of the program.

Execute-File Editing

One unusual feature Sorcim has built into Superwriter
(after successfully using a similar idea in Supercalc) is
the ability to read editing commands from a disk file,
called the execute file, which can contain both printing
text characters and control characters. When this feature
is being used, Superwriter reads each character of the
specified file as if it were being typed at the keyboard.
With practice, you can set up an execute file to read in
a document, perform editing operations on it, save the
document, and print it, all without touching the key-
board during the process.

This essentially batch-oriented process, used in con-
junction with Superwriter's print-time document-com-
poser capabilities, has potential for automating many
repetitive tasks of document revision that might be re-
quired for tasks such as contract drafting.

Photo 7: After the spelling-check routine has searched the document
file for words not in its vocabulary, you must review the words it
does not know and weed out the ones that are invalid spellings from
wrongly flagged mismatches. You need only strike a single key to seal
the fate of a word— to ignore it, mark it in the document for correc-
tion, or add it to the dictionary file. You can also change your mind
about the previous word, give up and go back to the editor', or decide
to treat all mismatched words the same.

Spelling Checking

Sorcim has been separately selling the spelling-checker
routine used in Superwriter under the name Super
Spellguard. The program was previously sold by Inno-
vative Software Applications Inc. and was tested by Phil
Lemmons (see reference 2). The functions of this relative-
ly mature product have been integrated into Superwriter
in a logical and pleasant way.

The words it knows to be correct (its vocabulary) are
kept in the "dictionary" a 56,000-byte disk file contain-
ing some 20,000 words. The spelling checker does not
follow any rules for creating plurals and possessives from
word roots, so any word form not in the file is flagged
as a possible misspelling. During the first few weeks of
use, most people will find many valid words flagged
until they have put most of their working vocabulary into
the program's dictionary file. However, the f lagged-word
review routine makes it as painless as possible to add
words.

Once the proofreading routine has compiled a suspect-
word list, you have three possible courses of action: to
mark all mismatched words in the document, to review
mismatched words individually, or to "quick-review" all
words (treat them all alike, by marking them, ignoring
them, adding all of them to the dictionary, or listing them
on the screen or printer). The recommended method is
individual review, and the program allows you to dispose
of each word with a single keystroke— to mark it, add
it, or ignore it, or to reconsider the previous word, as
shown in photo 7. Once all the words have been marked,
you are returned to the editor, where you can use a
special search command to locate all the marked words
for correction.

380 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

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Circle 135 on inquiry card.

SuF^ritcr 1 l.ti ftnuwScrwi. Ilctlewry Cations:

orriofi:

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llctlmtfl

Lift* ill tJw wirit fa i ifcMoMi? or a r**se of writ in a
Ifetieatry.

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mn coorlata lictlowry.

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Altftrett hh.

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Photo 8: If you need to change the dictionary file (list of known words)
used by the spelling-check routine, you can use the utility menu for
dictionary maintenance. As for any other menu in Superwriter, if you
become confused, you need only hit the Fl key and this display will
appear to give details on the action caused by each menu item.

Misspelled words in file:
Words found suspect:
Words wrongly found suspect:
True misspellings found:
Misspelled words missed:
Time to proofread file:
Time until ready to correct file:
Time until corrections done:

7

47

40

7

0:40

1:25

2:30

Table 3: Results of spelling-checker benchmark, based on check-
ing the spelling of the 400-word document shown in figure 2 by
Superwriter's built-in spelling-check routine. Timings include the
user's responding with keyboard input as fast as reasonably possible
at the appropriate points. The individual-word-review procedure
was used. It would take longer to correct a document if you have
to look up the correct spellings of any words. This same test docu-
ment was used by Phil Lemmons in his article "Five Spelling-Cor-
rection Programs for CP/M-Based Systems" (November 1981
BYTE, page 434), and the results are presented in the same format.

But the spelling checker has some limitations and idio-
syncrasies. One of these is that hyphenated and other-
wise punctuated word compounds are treated as possi-
ble misspellings and are flagged for your inspection.
(Observe that "All-Mahler" shows up in photo 7.) This
is nice if you are trying to produce a fully justified print-
out with words at line ends divided and hyphenated to
maintain good character spacing. However, if you are
merely writing a technical document, the constant atten-
tion to hyphens is tiring. (Technical documents, especial-
ly BYTE articles, are replete with punctuated terms like
''random-access read/write memory.") You can add
words and hyphenated terms to the dictionary file, but
it would be nice if you could just tell the spelling checker
to ignore certain marks of punctuation. Furthermore, the

I'd had the joint stakea out for two years and nine
months. I'd been waiting for a break in the investigation all
that time. This looked like the break I'd been waltzing for.

The tall stranger walked up to the bar, ears akimbo. I
knew ne meant trouDle from the moment I saw the insignia on the
back of his black leather jacket: "Hell's Twirps." That was
tne same gang that peddled into the all-Mahler Philharmonic
concert last year and hummed the collected works of John Cage
in unison. Not that John Cage has ever been in unison. tuite
tne canary.

Why was this par-
ticular Hell's Twirp Darg-
ing into the only Austro-
Mongolian fife and drum
factorial east of the Roc-
kies? Wny wasn't he rid-
ing his unicycle? And what was the meaning of the gold
mandalas hanging from the tips of his handlebore mustache?
Then I saw his baton. The sight of its sleek crome length
turned my bblood to issicles. When I glimpsed the white
plastic knobs at the ends of the baton, I saw my whole life
rusn before my eggs.

iuaaenly the Twirp slammed his fist down on the bar. His
ears swayed gently in the breeze as he demanded, "Give me four
nundred snare drums to go! Give me the five longest fifes in
your inventary! Give me the old college try! Give me liberty
or feive tne grief! "

I knew better than to let this build to a crisis before
interseeding. I swizzled up behind the big Twirp and said,
clam ana easy liKe, "Shove off, Twirp. Vamoose. Leave well
enougn aloft.

He wniried, ears slashing, baton twirling. I thought of
the health-insurance premiums I hadn't paid. I realized how
happy I would have made my dear old father if I'd only
gurgitated from college. I thought of the thousand times I'd
wanted to De where I wasn't, and knew this was the thousand and
first. If I had'nt been in a cunnubial mood, I wouldn't have
been auie to stand up to the singing shroud, the short shrift
and the five and dime. But I had no time for all that now.
Before it was too late, I reached into my vest pocket and
pulled out my well-thumbed copy of Milton's Areopagitica .

"That'll be seven ninety-eight!" the bartender suddenly
screamed .

I'd Deen counting on him.

Figure 2: A 400-word text sample devised to tax the limits of the
spelling-check routine and serve as data for a benchmark test.

spelling-check routine cannot tell the difference between
a definitely-going-to-be-there hard hyphen and one of
the merely-maybe soft hyphens that you can insert with
the Superwriter editor for possible line divisions by the
print routine.

On the other hand, the attention to punctuation is not
all bad. It can keep you from publishing a boner like
"had'nt."

One of Superwriter's many submenus is a
dictionary-maintenance menu, which gives access to
functions for listing the words in the dictionary, com-
bining two dictionary files, deleting all the words in one
dictionary file from another or deleting individual words,
copying and reorganizing dictionary files, or creating
empty dictionary files. The help screen for this menu
is shown in photo 8. You can use an entry in the default-
parameter file (read when Superwriter starts up) to name
your own dictionary file (other than the supplied
SW.DIC) for normal use.

I tested the spelling checker on a document devised
by Phil Lemmons as a difficult test case (see reference
1); the document is shown in figure 2, while the results
are shown in table 3.

Print Functions

For experienced users of word-processing software,
especially in business applications, the flexibility of

382 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

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Circle 364 on inquiry card.

BYTE November 1983 383

Text Positioning

Special-Character Control

IN n

indent n characters

CMDc

set c as command marker (default is backslash)

PI n

indent n characters at paragraph beginning

UNB

use broken underscoring

1 PI -n

negative indent n characters

UNS

use solid underscoring

TAB n

move to column n

BFn

use n overstrikes for boldface intensity

TAB "c" n

fill blanks with specified character up to column n

HYc

set c as soft (ghost) hyphen character

LINE n

move down to line n on page

UNc

set c as underscore delimiter (toggle)

LINE -n

move back up to line n

BFc

set c as boldface delimiter (toggle)

SPn

insert n-1 blank lines between printed lines

SSAc

turn superscripting (negative half linefeed) on at c

SP +n

insert n- V2 blank lines between lines

or end subscripting

LEFT

print in flush-left format

SSBc

turn subscripting (positive half linefeed) on at c

RIGHT

print in flush-right format

or end superscripting

RF

print only current line flush-right

HSc

set c as hard (nonadjustable) space

JUST

fully justify by inserting blanks between words

IGNOREc

set c as character to be ignored for formatted

JUSTC

fully justify by character-spacing

output

CENTER

center all lines on page

CTR

center current line only

.

LIT

print line literally as it stands

Specialty (Letter-Quality) Printer Commands

DRAFT

deactivate special print attributes for draft printing

FORMFEED ON

turn mechanical formfeed on

Margin-Setting Commands

LWn set line width at n characters

FORMFEED OFF
OUT m, n, ...
CPI n

turn mechanical formfeed off

send arbitrary decimal ASCII characters to output

set pitch of n characters per inch

LM n

set left margin at nth column

H n

use horizontal movement of n increments per

PL n

set page length at n lines

character

TM n

set top margin at n lines

Kn

kern (add or subtract n increments to next

BM n

set bottom margin at n lines

character)

LPI n

print n lines per inch vertically

Vn

vertical movement: n increments per line

Control Settings

PROP ON

turn proportional-spaced printing on

COPYn
FORM C
FORM S

print n copies of document file
assume continuous-form paper
assume single-sheet paper

PROP OFF
Bl ON
Bl OFF

turn proportional spacing off
turn bidirectional printing on
turn bidirectional printing off

DISK ON

start saving output to disk

DISK OFF

stop saving output to disk

•

DISK "filename"

format document into named disk file

Print-Time File Merging

PRINT ON

begin output to printer (or spool file)

INSERT "filename

insert the specified document at this point in text

PRINT OFF

stop output to printer

Variables

Headers and Footers

war

print value of variable in character-string format

AP

automatically number pages

$var

print value of variable in dollar format

HEADER

start heading specification

#var

print numeric value of values (from through

HE

end heading specification

32767)

FOOTER

starting footing specification

&s/ar

print string length of variable's value (truncated)

FE

end footing specification

- var

print nontruncated variable

SPO

output no linefeeds until further notice

%PAGE

contains number of current page

o/oPAGE

current page number (also °/oP)

%DATE

contains current date obtained from system

PGn

set current page number to n

0/0LINES

number of lines on page, including current line

CCH

clear current header

0/0LINE

current line number

CCF

clear current footer

%COL

current column number

HSIZE n

reserve n characters in memory for heading

%PASS

number of times document processed this printing

FSIZE n

reserve n characters for footing

%REC

current record number processed

PH

print header on first page

%EOF

variable equals 1 if end of file reached, if not

Table 4: Fortnatting and document-content-control commands that can be embedded in text for interpretation by Superwriter's print module.

Some formatting

results can be achieved only by use of embedded

commands, but most

types of simple formatting can also be done on

the screen using

the edit routine.

Superwriter's print formatting will be the program's
strongest selling point. Superwriter not only provides
straightforward on-screen formatting ideal for whipping
out a quick letter, but it also provides, at no extra cost,
a set of powerful print commands you can use to man-
ipulate the form and content of a document even as the
print head buzzes across the paper.

The on-screen formatting allows you to center and
right-justify lines; adjust line widths; create hanging in-

dentations; insert page breaks; mark points where words
may be hyphenated; and specify the printing attributes
of underlining, boldface, hard (nonadjustable-width)
spacing, superscripting, and subscripting. The special
command characters for these functions are inserted into
the text through an extended-command mode that you
invoke by typing Control-R Left- justification, centering,
and right-justification may be mixed on a single line.
When you are formatting on the screen, you can set

384 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

Variable Commands

GET var

allow entry of value for variable from keyboard

GET var= "prompt" allow appropriate prompting for keyboard value

entry

GET var(len)

enter value for variable with limit on length

SET var = "string"

set value of variable to character string

SET #var = n

set numeric value of variable to n

DECIMAL P

use period as radix point (American usage)

DECIMAL C

use comma as radix point (international usage)

VSIZE n

set n as maximum number of variables

Data Files

FILE Tn, filename

prepare to read text file, n elements per record .

DATA vl, v2, ...

assign successive record elements to variables

FILE Fn, filename

3 prepare to read file with fixed-length records

DATA v1{n)

assign n characters from record to variable

Conditional Commands

IF

beginning keyword of conditional statement

IF NOT

complementary conditional keyword

Processing Commands

SKIP

skip one line of text file during output

SKIP n

skip n lines of text file

SKIP TO c

skip to next occurrence of character c

START n

start or resume processing at nth record

STOPn

stop processing at nth record

ENDPASS

end current processing of document

QUIT

return to editor

FF

issue mechanical formfeed to printer

NP

force printing on new page

CNP n

force new page at beginning of paragraph if fewer

than n lines remain on page (effective globally)

CPB n

force new page if fewer than n lines remain

(one page)

NL

new line

Operator Aids

*

internal note, not displayed or printed

NOTE

comment displayed on screen during output

WAIT

pause during printing

SHOW W, v2

display values of named variables on screen

DV

display values of all variables on screen

DF

display values of file variables

DB

display size of buffers

CLS

clear screen

Format Templates

SETUP

beginning of the document's formatting directives

TEXT

end of the initial formatting directives

global parameters (margin size, line spacing, line width)
from the editing global-settings menu, or you can change
them from the print menu (which Sorcim calls the
"Document Composer" menu).

On-screen formatting is nice for short letters and
memos. But for more complex documents, Superwriter
provides more than 80 different commands (not includ-
ing variants) that can be embedded anywhere in the text
and combined into program-like constructions for con-

ditional branching and insertion of text based on string
and numeric comparisons. Also, the print routine keeps
track of eight numeric variables (such as current page
number, line number, and file-record number) that may
be accessed by the embedded commands.

The print commands, most of which are identical in
form to those used in Peachtext/Magic Wand, fall into
13 groups, as shown in table 4.

You can use the embedded commands to set up the
ordinary printing parameters— the margins, line widths,
and character attributes— but they are capable of much
more: multiple-line headers and footers, inclusion of ex-
ternal boilerplate files into the printout, accepting input
from the keyboard during printing, and prompting the
computer operator to take needed actions. You can even
use the conditional statements and up to 128 of your own
variables to literally write printout programs that read
external data files and take different actions according
to the file contents. (However, you do need a certain level
of programming skill to do this.)

These capabilities make Superwriter a powerful tool
for writing form letters and generating customized ver-
sions of contracts and standard documents. You could
set up a contract document file in such a way that it
asked you for the exact terms of the agreement and
printed out only paragraphs specifically applicable to the
agreed conditions.

An example of a form letter is shown in figure 3, while
the document source file is shown in figure 4a and a part
of the mailing-list data file appears as figure 4b. In this
example, the print commands in the document source
file are set up to use a mailing list that contains two in-
termixed kinds of entries (personal friends and business-
only contacts). At the beginning of print processing, the
commands cause Superwriter to ask for certain infor-
mation needed in the letters; after this data has been
typed in, printing proceeds without intervention until
the end of the mailing-list file has been read.

When you select the print routine from the main
menu, Superwriter saves the current version of the docu-
ment (while maintaining the backup file) and loads the
program overlay that contains the print routine from the
system disk. (This takes a few seconds.) If you have no
document in the editing buffer, Superwriter asks you
which document to print.

The print menu, shown in photo 9, displays informa-
tion on the printing status, format and control settings,
and a choice of several printing options. You can im-
mediately format and print the document, or you can
view the formatting on the display screen first, as shown
in photo 10. Other options allow you to change the set-
tings or invoke a secondary print menu; the secondary
options include printing without interpreting the
embedded commands (they show up in the output) and
writing the formatted output to a disk file instead of
directly to the printer. This last option allows Superwriter
to perform its own print spooling, although the operat-
ing-system-level print-spooling programs (such as Quad-
ram's QSPOOL) that have become popular among users

November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. 385

23 October 1983

Brook Stone

1 Vose Farm Rd .

Pet-eroorougn, NH 0'mb6

Dear Brook ,

The long-awaited event has come to pass. A baby boy was born to us
yesterday at 9:52 a.m. in Monadnock Community Hospital.

His name is Isaac Steven, and he weighs 7 pounds, 5 ounces.

Mother and child are healthy and doing fine.

Sincerely,

Sue and Richard Shuford

Figure 3: An example of a form letter that can be produced by Super -
writer's print routine from a letter template, a data file, and print-
time user input. The data in the letter is for demonstration only.

Printer: IrtM T

list: t

Format Settl»f»:

Left Hartls <** »> '«

ftscorfi: 8

LiM 1

Start locors t: 8

Stop lecora t: Lost

Format Setting *>»*«*1 Ssttisfs:

Left Mania (8- 99) Is 8 Copies (1-999) is 1

LiM WUtk (1-258) is 66 twm (C,*) it C

S P acin CI- 65) is 1 -> 2| Isl Paf« I (1-999) is 999

Piffs Si» (1- 99) Is 66 1st is Pais I (1-999) is 1

Top rtiffls (8- 65) is 6

lottos ttonii (»~ 65) is f

fristiM Option:

_ Format ami PIUTT it*

_ Format Ol SCfSSS
>_ CMSfS Format ssttlsfs
_ Csssfs Costrol ssttisf s
_ Secoalar^ Frist fssctless
_ letir a to Syttem

pace !>ar=nove Carsor, CR= Select, ESC- Cancel ?a Answer Ketj|

Photo 9: The main menu of the print routine. If you have not used
embedded commands to override the default page-arrangement set-
tings (margins and such), you can change them using these menu
options. However, it is not possible to type in any fonnatting com-
mand other than the ones available as menu choices— for instance,
you cannot change from Diablo-printer formatting to draft-printer
formatting by an interactive command.

of IBM Personal Computers usually print faster.

The programmers have assumed that most uses of a
program that excels in printing letters will require a letter-
quality printer, so all of the printers supported by Super-
writer at this writing are daisy-wheel units. Less-
expensive dot-matrix printers can be used in the pro-
gram's draft mode, but some of the printing character
attributes (such as superscripting) are not available in
this mode. Again, assuming the use of a daisy-wheel
printer, Superwriter does not explicitly support an italic
font. Superwriter does make use of almost any character-
sequence-activated printer function in two ways: most
ASCII (American National Standard Code for Informa-

tion Interchange) nonprinting control characters (includ-
ing Escape) can be embedded in the text using the insert-
mark function, and the print routine can emit any char-
acter value by means of the OUT embedded command.
As with other microcomputer word-processing pro-
grams, Superwriter is susceptible to printer-interface
incompatibilities; see the text box Printers: Word Pro-
cessing's Chronic Headache" on page 388.

Disk Directories

Sorcim has built into Superwriter a mechanism for
finding out what files reside on what disks. In a sub-
menu called from the main menu, there are three funda-
mental disk-directory functions: list all documents, list
specified documents, and toggle on or off the condition
of showing the complete document history for each file,
if it exists.

These commands are fairly flexible. They default to list-
ing files (giving name, extension, and size) on the disk
that contains your current edit file that seem to be of a
type that you could edit with Superwriter, as inferred
from the file extension (filenames ending in extensions
such as .TXT or .LTR). But you can specify any existing
disk drive and use either a single- or multiple-character
wildcard specification to see the files you want to see.
If you give the complete wildcard spec, "* . *" Super-
writer will even show you the hidden system files that
the PC-DOS directory commands don't reveal (see photo
11).

If you have turned on the mode of showing document
history, the directory routine will read every specified
file in an attempt to find history information in it; the
directory display will show the history for those files that
have it, as shown in photo 12.

Other Utilities

Superwriter contains other utility functions, including
a submenu for creating and modifying the aforemen-
tioned document history. When you initially create a
document, the program switches you briefly to the docu-
ment-history screen for you to type the name of the
author; you are put directly back into the editor when
you have completed this. The dates and times of docu-
ment creation and modification are picked up from PC-
DOS, and revision numbers are automatically assigned.
The document-history part of the file has space reserved
for the operator's name, a document number you assign,
and your brief comments, but you have to go through
the history submenu to fill in these blanks.

There are a set of library-file-access functions. The dis-
play function lets you look at a document other than the
one you are working on. You can delete or rename any
disk file on line, whereas another command allows you
to change disks during execution of Superwriter without
confusing the directories. Two sub-submenus allow you
to include all or portions of another document into the
current edit buffer and control the background printing
of spooled document files.

You can also begin execution of the Supercalc spread-

386 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

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Screenwriter II $85.00

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Word Handler $130.00

List Handler $ 67.00

VisiCorp:

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Visifiles $180.00

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accepted — add 4% to total. Shipping: We calculate exact freight— for mail-in orders add 3% UPS GRD, 4% UPS BLUE - Monitors minimum $8.00. Delivery:
ASAP with 2-4 weeks on average. Price List: Features all of our up-to-date pricing. General: We replace or repair faulty goods at our discretion — refunds only at
our discretion-no returns on software. circ|e 1(J0 Qn |nquiry ^

UNIX

SPOKEN

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and MS-DOS , and VMS too!

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We have a line of software for a range of hardware,
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Source code, as well as binary.
Quantity and OEM terms.
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Inquire regarding other hardware.

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Priced
from
UNIX SOFTWARE

■ Full UniPlus + UNIX for Apple LISA $ 495

■ EMACS— Multi-window text editor

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■ /RDB— Relational database tools 250

■ MENU SYSTEM— Menu generation 495

■ UniCalc — Powerful spreadsheet 350

■ MIMIX— CP/M emulator 495

■ C cross compiler— to 8086 and 68000

(includes assembler, linker, etc.) 5000

MS-DOS SOFTWARE

■ Software tools — Unix-like facilities add power to

MS-DOS: includes ed, grep, sort, diff, uniq, etc. . . .200

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■ C compiler — Full C language 395

VMS SOFTWARE

■ EMACS — Multi-window text editor

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Call or write for more information.

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Mastercard and Visa

Unix is a trademark of Bell Laboratories.

VMS is a trademark of Digital Equipment Corp.

MS-DOS is a trademark of Microsoft.

UniCalc is a trademark of Lattice, Inc.

Printers: Word Processing's Chronic Headache

Has your printer given you a headache? The odds are that you've
had some kind of printer difficulty, especially if you've tried to
run a word-processing program on your computer. According to
Nick Vergis, vice-president of marketing for Perfect Software, 60
to 70 percent of the people who call that company's telephone sup-
port line complain of trouble in getting a printer to work with the
rest of the computer system. It's probably a safe bet that users of
other brands of software experience printer problems with similar
frequency.

Today's computer printers are electromechanical engineering
marvels that put marks on paper in wonderfully complex ways
with a level of precision and economy once only dreamed of But
perhaps they are too complex. The multiplication of printer features
has also multiplied the number of potential problems.

The first problem that usually arises is connecting the printer
to the rest of the computer system. This sort of difficult can usual-
ly be solved by combining some knowledge of the three most com-
mon ways of connecting printers (RS-232C serial and IEEE-488
and Centronics-style, parallel connections) with a good bit of trial
and error in wiring the connection.

It's only after you have successfully solved the hardware con-
nection problems that you discover the more subtle software prob-
lems. You may find that your word-processing software has printed
the text of your letters over the logotype on your letterhead sta-
tionery. You may discover that words you wanted underlined are
not, while the underscore characters intended for that purpose have
wandered over into the right margin of the paper. Or you may
find completely correct lines of text alternating with lines of gib-
berish. These are the kinds of problems you get when your soft-
ware does not knoiu how to properly control your printer. (I've
had these problems myself.)

Lack of standardization is surely the cause of this headache. There
seem to be no uniformly applied protocols used to control the func-
tions of printers, and every manufacturer of printers seems to have
unique ideas of how printer features should be used.

Trying to make a given program work with all the various kinds
of printers can drive a programmer to distraction. Jason Linhart,
president of Mark of the Unicorn Inc., says "It's amazing how
different [printers] are. They differ in such fundamental ways there
is no way to describe [their functions] without writing code. Each
company that invents a new feature invents a new way of specify-
ing it." He notes that supporting a new kind of printer requires
his company to modify 35 different program routines in The Final
Word.

But what about the so-called "code-compatible" printers an-
nounced by some manufacturers? Some new printer models are
claimed to respond to the same commands as certain familiar old
printers. Here again, Jason Linhart sounds a discouraging note,
saying, "No two manufacturers ever make completely compatible
printers. Dot-matrix printers are the biggest current problem.
Epson-compatibility [has been negated] because Epson keeps chang-
ing what its printers do. The FX series differs from the MX series,
and the RX series from both, and various versions of Graftrax
are also different. Recently, there has been a slight trend in daisy-
wheel printers toward Diablo-compatibility, but the fine detail is
different, so if you have a program that takes advantage of every
feature, it messes up" He adds that sometimes even two units of
the same-model printer do not work the same.

Because of these variances in printer behavior, you can avoid
headache pains only by taking other pains to make sure that the
word-processing package you buy works properly with your printer.

388 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

Circle 488 on inquiry card.

The most comprehensive
statistics and graphics
ever developed for

and sophisticated
I database workstation
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 the personal computing
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
capabilities allow these functions to
be performed on all your data or a
user defined subset of your data.

Statistics Modules Menu

A) DESCRIPTION

B) REGRESSION

C) ANOVA

D\ TIME SERIES
E) MULTIVAR

(ESC)) Exit to Master Menu
Choice ->[ ]

Transformations and over 400
conversions 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 multiply forecasting.
Multivariate: Principal components,
factor, orthogonal factor, oblique
factor, pair-weighted cluster, dis-
criminant function, multiple con-
tingency, and canonical correlation
analysis.

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; pie-

charts, histograms, and dendo-
grams. Further, with STATPRO you
can custom edit with any of four
character sets from the keyboard.
You can also edit using paddles,
joystick or special graphics com-
mands. 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 a walk-through
Introductory Tutorial, a Menu
Chart, and a comprehensive
User's Guide for each STATPRO
component.

STATPRO currently runs on all
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IBM fe PC in September.

To find out more about Stat pro:
The Statistics and Graphics Data-
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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 502 on inquiry card.

BYTE November 1983

389

\SETUP

\IGNORE *

\GET UATE="Toaay's date? "

\GET FILN="Name of address file: "

\GET BABYSEX="Is it a boy or a girl? "

\GET BABYNAME= M What is the baby's name? "

\GET BABYrtEIGHT= n How much does the baby weigh? "

\(jET TIME="What time of day was the child born? "

\FILE T11 , :FILN

\DATA NAME , TITLE , COMPAN Y , ADDR 1 , ADDR 2 , CITY , STATE , ZI P, SALUT , CODE

\TEXT

UF NUT C0DE="P" , IF NOT CODE="p" , SKIP 46

\CLS

\SHOW "Hecord Number " ,JREC

\SHOrt NAME

\IF NOT TITLEs"", SHOW TITLE

\IF NOT COMPANY^"", SHOW COMPANY

UF NUT ADDRU"", SHOW ADDR 1

UF NOT ADDR2 = "\ SHOW ADDR2

\SHUrf CITY," ".STATE," " ,ZIP

\rtIGHT, :DATE\
\LEFT

Jonn Jones

Manager

nun tiectronics,

12 j<* Main St.
Ptiteroorougn

Nrt

John

Duncan Mackenzie
Engineering Consultant
Urpnanoae Hops, Inc.
Grapnics Department

PUB 40j

Peteroorough
HH

Duncan

trie Artnur Biair

\:NAME\

UF NOT TITLE="", :TITLE,NL

\IF NOT COMPANY^"", :COMPANY,NL

UF NOT ADDH1 = "", :ADDR1,NL

VLF NOT ADDR2 = ,n, , :ADDR2,NL

\:CiTY\, \:STATE\ \:ZIP\

Dear \:SALUT\,

Tne lontj-awaited event has come to pass. A baby \:BABYSEX\ was
born to us yesterday at \:TIME\ in Monadnock Community Hospital.

UF bABYS^^'boy" , SKIP 2

Her name is \:BABYNAME\, and she weighs \ : BABYWEIGHTX .

\S«.IP 1

His ndine is \:BABYNAME\, and he weighs \ :BABYWEIGHT\ .

Mother and child are healthy and doing fine.

Sincerely,

iya4 wigan Pier

HancocK

Nri

George

BrooK suone

i Vose Farm Hd .

Peterooroujih

Nri

Uj4bo

BrOOK

P

cJueven a. Ciarcia
Consulting Editor
BITE Puoiications

PUB Dti^

Giastonuury

CT

uoujj

Steve

Sue and Richard Shuford

Figure 4a: The form-letter source template interpreted by Superwriter
and merged with address information from the file and with interac-
tive input to produce the finished series of letters.

Figure 4b: A section of the data file used to produce the form letter.

sheet program from the utilities menu, but that takes
you out of Superwriter and therefore out of the scope
of this review.

Documentation

Many who learned word processing using Magic
Wand have fond memories of acting the part of Abraham
Lincoln's private secretary, which the excellent lessons
in Magic Wand's user's manual bade you to do. Well, the
Superwriter User's Guide and Reference Manual does not
contain the Gettysburg Address, but it is nevertheless
serviceable, attractively typeset and containing many line
drawings that help beginners become oriented to the
concepts of word processing. The notebook contains an
appendix with elaborations on the meanings of most of
the error messages that could possibly occur, another
feature likely to be appreciated by inexperienced
operators.

Experienced users might wish the manual had a quick-
reference section that outlines the precise rules for using
the print-formatting commands better than the terse ap-
pendix currently charged with that duty. (With all the

online help available in Superwriter, experienced users
may seldom need to read the documentation for any-
thing other than for formatting commands.)

Sorcim also furnishes several auxiliary devices to help
you learn the program: a 16-page quick-start booklet
called 10 Minutes to Superwriter, a pocket-size reference
card (the "Answercard"), and a set of small adhesive
labels intended to be placed on the appropriate func-
tion keys.

Installation

Appendix 5 of the documentation contains instructions
to get Superwriter running from the two single-sided
8-sector distribution disks, including advice on format-
ting a floppy disk. Even so, if you are a novice to com-
puters, it's risky for you to attempt to install any piece
of software.

One of the distribution disks contains an installation
program called INSW.COM. Because you need not
specify terminal parameters in the IBM PC version of
the program, this utility routine is used only to select
the variety of printer you will be using for formatted out-

390 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

f ham I rcmld law Hade, m feu «U fatlw if I'i oak

44 »fitaWi fiwt collwe. I ttowtt tf the thousand tines l'|

45 rate* to he where I WBB't,.aod knew this was the thousand ail

46 first.. If I teiPBt teen in a connahial iiooi, IuouUn'tteve

47 ten ditto staaa.op «■ ^ siniH dml, tte Oat sfcift
<3 ana the .five and dine. Bat I had no tine fep all that no«,
49 More it was too late, I reached into m vest pocket and pulled
59 out m weU-thmhed cops of Milton's Awojasitica.

51
51

52 -That'll he seven ninetg-eight!" the totenfer soddenlg

53 scpeaned.

I'd heen counting oa Mr.

Photo 10: You can preview what the formatted, printed document
will look like by issuing a command from the print menu. Each line
on the printed page is assigned a number, and sections of the pages
are displayed sequentially on the screen. An overprinted line is shown
twice. The printed paper may look slightly different from the preview
because of the difficulty of reproducing all printer functions on a video
screen.

Sepeitfrlter

1.81 i

v 11 rectory for drive: A

Trw «ptc«

7168

Totil files:
leu File

31

MBS

leu menu

io

lei FileMBO

56 MirOMC.het

16768 BASIC*

.«■

1728GHDS1 .cob

4959 amffl .com

1298 1

.«■

5999 IOU6 .cob

3816 tomtit .«■

1928-1N10

.COB

6489-IMIOS .cob

16768 1HSU

.«■

4488 INSU

• hip

16888 INSU .ovl

512 II

.«■

2S99 na»

.COB

1378 rVWCU.coB

2816 01

.exe

846 WOOL

.COB

2S6 8C80LU .cob

1488 SCIOLOCI.Joc

167 8Dimr.h«t

2S68 SnLTKST.tsw

32648 SM

.CfB

128 SU

.dof

56576 9i .die

35584 SW

.«F

128 SW-

.lef

512 ar-awir.hte

13184 8U1

.owl

33288 SU2

.ovl

4688 W3 .ovl

*e"w» «dui

.ovl

QBB3BDB8

WBWHI

^Q|

o

Photo 11: Superwriter provides a function for inspecting the direc-
tory of a disk. If you do not elect to view the document history, the
files are listed in three columns in alphabetical order by name (in ASCII
collating sequence). One surprise is that the hidden operating-system
files IBMBIO.COM and IBMDOS.COM show up when you demand
to see all files— normally only files that Superwriter can edit are
shown.

tmfttolUr 1.11 Hc^ctor* for irlv: C

ft— (Nca 983M

Total Mm: 21

30568 CCOICW.tfn

34770 CCOMtt3.tfn

12M1 .MB

1 7184 IMIFLTl.tfM

1536 mmB.tt.im UcUri Sm/oH

83t8/31 15:34

83/88/31 16:84

2560 IIOtL .tw llckari S. SWfori 88885

83/18/88 89:46

Um|H« tor » rwlw BS

83/18/31 83:47

2968 Smrat.tm Fill Lara

88/81/81 85:31

swMUrcfed tni doc BS

63/8B/31 14:22

2848 W-mU.tm llcWi-4 S. SUfori 8U1

B3/BB/22 81:82

rowlM of SoyoMritar BSS

83/BV26 11:28

26752 BHBM.tw llckari 8. SWford Ail

83/BV22 81:82

nwIoh of Urmrltor BS

83/88/31 88:23

6656 M-H»-2.Mk llcfert 8. SMeri 2

03/18/29 13:58

2m Hti trwrtr nwlw HcUM 8. SUfori

83/19/89 11:31

6656 MhWhllm HcmH 8. Skafori 2

03/88/29 13:58

2ol Hf\ Spvrtr mvIm Blcfttrd 8. SWfori

83/99/89 11:32

Photo 12: J/i/oi/ e/ecf to see document history in the disk-directory
function, Superwriter reads every disk file in the listing and looks
for document history, which is kept at the end of the file after the
text. Not every file in this display had such history stored.

put. The disk also contains a utility called MAIN-
TAIN.COM, which allows you to verify that each of the
program's main code and overlay files are intact and
functional and can also allow you to apply any bug fixes
supplied by Sorcim.

After you have established your work habits using
Superwriter, you may want to set up a personalized
parameter-default file on the disk containing the pro-
gram. Whenever you run Superwriter, it reads the con-
tents of the file SW.DEF (if it exists) to establish initial
values for such constants as global text settings, tab set-
tings, the document-storage disk, margins, author's and

operator's names, insert-mode status, and whether
continuous-form or single-sheet paper is used in the
printer.

Closing Thoughts

Superwriter is a versatile word-processing program
with features that make it especially suitable for certain
writing tasks common in the business world. Although
it has a large amount of editing and processing power,
the program contains well-planned command structures
and help facilities that will help first-time users adapt
to the concepts and procedures of writing with a com-
puter. Its most constrictive limitation is its small editing
workspace— it forces you to break up any large writing
task into pieces small enough to fit in the buffer.

If you plan to purchase Superwriter, be sure to get ver-
sion 1.01 or a later revision; the first release, version 1.00,
didn't have all the kinks ironed out. (I've had no trouble
yet with 1.01.) If you are a registered owner of version
1.00, you should have received a free update from
Sorcim. ■

References

Hart, Glenn A. "Magic Wand Word Processor." Creative Computing,

August 1980, page 38.

Lemmons, Phil. "Five Spelling-Correction Programs for CP/M-Based

Systems." November 1981 BYTE, page 434.

Shuford, Richard S. "Word Tools for the IBM Personal Computer." May

1983 BYTE, page 176.

Waite, Mitchell and Julie Area. Word-Processing Primer Peterborough,

NH: BYTE Books/McGraw-Hill, 1982.

Richard Shuford is special projects editor for BYTE. He can be reached at
POB 372, Hancock, NH 03449.

November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. 391

"ADD UP TO 512K RAM, ASYNC AND
SYNC COMMUNICATIONS, A CLOCK
AND PRINTER SUPPORT- UP TO FOUR
I/O PORTS IN JUST ONE SLOT?"

1

i

"YOU CAN WITH PERSYST."

The Persyst Time Spectrum.
It's the most powerful and
expandable multi-function
PC board you can buy.

A Persyst Time Spectrum™
multi-function board can make
any personal computer work
better.

Whether you own an IBM PC or
XT. Or the IBM compatible
Compaq or Columbia.

There's even a Time Spectrum
board for the Texas Instruments
PC.

With Time Spectrum, you can
combine up to six powerful
functions— plus two advanced
software programs— on just one
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features like nothing else.

Forthe IBM PC, Compaq and
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in minimum space.

For example, Time Spectrum is
the only multi-function board that
lets you expand your IBM PC from
64Kupto512KRAM.Adda
calendar clock. Add as many as
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port. Plus print spooling and as
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memory.

Up to four I/O ports— in just
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How did we do it?

With the CliffhangerJ M A unique,
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that solves the problem of
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And only Persyst has it.

The Time Spectrum Cliffhanger.™
So ingenious, it's patented.

What's more, expansion
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Or added with Versapak™
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Extra flexible expansion for the
IBM XT.

For the IBM XT, Time Spectrum
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First, we designed Time
Spectrum so you can add the
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fill the memory rows on the XT
mother board.

And with Time Spectrum plug-
in expandability, you can continue
to add functions as you add
requirements.

Start with basic memory and a
calendar clock. Then add another
asynchronous communications
port. Parallel printer port.
Additional memory. Or any
combination of functions.

With Persyst, the choice is
yours.

And now, one-slot capability for
your Texas Instruments PC.

Now there's even a Time
Spectrum multi-function board for
your Tl PC. With it, you can add
up to 512K RAM, two serial ports,
calendar clock and light pen
port— capability to handle even
the most complex and difficult
computing functions.

And still only consume one slot.

The Persyst Time Spectrum
board.

Maximum expandability now.
And quality and versatility so you
can keep on expanding later.

See your IBM or Tl PC dealer
and insist on Persyst.

Persyst Products, Personal
Systems Technology, Inc.,
15801 Rockfield Blvd., Suite A,
Irvine, CA 92714. Telephone:
(714) 859-8871. TWX: 467864.

Circle 362 on inquiry card.

Expandability from 64K
upk)512K RAM enables
your PC lo handle (he
most complex tasks.

RAM and communications
expansion modules are
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Time Spectrum.

Optional features are Double-face wipe sockets

socketed on the board, for with beryllium copper

maximum flexibility in contacts hold component

expansion. leads firmly in place.

See us at Comdex
booth 820 main hall.

Calendar clock. It comes
with a five year,
rechargeable battery.

Connect a modem
through a serial
communications port
and you can link your
PC to the world of
telecommunications.

THE TIME SPECTRUM BY PERSYST.

Japan and the Fifth
Generation

Japan's efforts to develop artificial intelligence are intended to
make computers easy for ordinary people to use

Efforts to develop artificial intelli-
gence in Japan cause some Ameri-
cans to lose all reason. Consider
these two examples: according to
Science News (June 18, 1983, page 390),
William Shaffer of the Microelec-
tronics and Computer Technology
Corporation says that Japan's plans
for a "fifth-generation" project
"amount to a kind of Mein Kampf in
electronics terms— a clear-cut state-
ment of intentions that U.S. compan-
ies can only ignore at their peril/'
Mein Kampf is, of course, a racist,
militarist plan written by a madman,
and its implementation is the out-
standing example of evil in the twen-
tieth century.

Are Japan's research plans really
worthy of comparison with Hitler's
plans for conquest and persecution?
BYTE reprints here Japan's plans for
fifth-generation computers, the "Out-
line of Research and Development
Plans for Fifth-Generation Computer
Systems," published by the Institute
of New Generation Computer Tech-
nology (ICOT) in April 1983 (see page
396). In brief, ICOT plans to develop
"knowledge information processing
based on innovative inference func-
tions and technologies that meet the
needs anticipated in the 1990's, in-
cluding intelligent interaction be-

by Phil Lemmons

tween man and machine and in-
ference using knowledge bases." The
implementation of ICOT's plans
would seem to pose no threat of
military conquest or racial extermina-
tion. Indeed, if ICOT's plans are a
"Mein Kampf," then the instructions
on Burpee's seed envelopes are the
"Mein Kampf" of sweet peas and
marigolds, and Dr. Benjamin Spock's
books on child rearing are the "Mein
Kampf" of millions of American
parents.

Newsweek 's characterization of ICOT
rivals Shaffer's in unfairness and bad
taste. In its July 4, 1983 issue (page
58), Newsweek wrote, "Even though

Kazuhiro Fuchi.

American universities had produced
the basic research the Japanese
would rely on, American companies
were as serenely unaware of danger
as the battleships that swung at
anchor in Pearl Harbor more than 40
years ago." This irresponsible use of
metaphor defies some obvious dif-
ferences between ICOT's activities
and the attack on Pearl Harbor. For
one thing, the Japanese didn't
publish their plans for Pearl Harbor
before the attack, whereas ICOT has
published its plans. For another, the
Japanese militarists of 1941 were plan-
ning to kill Americans and destroy
the Sixth Fleet, whereas the Japanese
computer scientists of today are plan-
ning to improve man/machine in-
teraction. For a third, the Japanese
strike force in 1941 included no
Westerners, while five Western re-
searchers worked as visitors at ICOT
during 1982, including Dr. D.H.D.
Warren of SRI International in Menlo
Park, California, and Professor J. A.
Robinson of Syracuse University.

I visited Kazuhiro Fuchi, director of
the ICOT Research Center in Tokyo,
in May 1983. Dr. Fuchi talked quietly
about ICOT's plans and then handed
me the English translation of the
outline reprinted here. Fuchi seemed
not the least bit sinister. The research

394 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

center proved to be a large open
office, as pictured behind Dr. Fuchi
in the photo on page 394, and there
was no sign of security measures.

When asked about American reac-
tions to ICOTs plans, Fuchi ex-
pressed some amazement. "Our
main goal is to have computers that
are very easy to use and can handle
natural language. It may turn out that
the big, powerful computer at the
center of a network does not have to
have such functions, that the per-
sonal computers in the network can
perform those functions." Fuchi con-
tinued, 'We expect that personal
computers will benefit from the
research that we are doing."

In the first English-language issue
of the 1COT Journal (June 1983), Pro-
fessor Tohru Moto-oka of the elec-
trical engineering department of the
University of Tokyo, who is credited
with a leading role in the MITI
(Ministry of International Trade and
Industry) research and studies com-
mittee that recommended establish-
ing ICOT, explained the background
of ICOT's plans: "As for the society
of the 1990s, we envisioned an ideal
society. . .Then we discussed what
information systems and computers
would be required to work toward
realizing that ideal society. . .We
identified the need to develop com-
puters that could be used in areas of
productivity such as agriculture,
fishery, and service. And we dis-
cussed what contributions computers
could make toward solving energy or
resource shortages that would be a
global problem from now to the
twenty-first century.

"We predicted that Japan would be
developing high technologies such as
those represented by computers and
would be contributing to the growth
of the world economy by so doing.
Foreign people view Japan as a closed
society. It is true that the language
barrier prevents our thinking from
being well understood by other na-
tions. Computers capable of helping
to remove the language barrier are
necessary.

"In addition, there is the possibil-
ity that our society will undergo a
substantial change from now to the
1990s. One indication is an abrupt in-

creasing of the aging population,
though Japan is not alone in this
respect. In this light, some commit-
tee members proposed developing
computers that would allow the aged
to work in society and help the
physically handicapped and other
people. On these lines, the task force
on basic theory pointed out as a very
important challenge the need to pur-
sue research and development of ar-
tificial intelligence and to develop
computers suited for that purpose.

There is no question

that Japan's national

economic plans rely on

progress in computers.

Potential uses and applications in-
clude translation and interpretation
as a solution to the language barrier
and robots as an aid to human ac-
tivities in an aging society."

There is no question that Japan's
national economic plans rely on
progress in computers. Osamu Seki,
director of the Electronics Policy Divi-
sion of the Machinery and Informa-
tion Industries Bureau of MITI, put
it this way: "As a resource-poor coun-
try, we have no alternative but to base
our prosperity on technology as
recommended by the council at the
MITI. It is our desire to keep the
status of an advanced nation."

Japan will compete with the United
States and other Western nations in
information processing technology
over the next decade. As for the pros-
pect of Japan dominating the field
based on the $800 million, 10-year
ICOT project, that seems unlikely.
Several United States projects and
firms can bring comparable resources
to bear. The Microelectronics and
Computer Technology Corporation,
headed by former Admiral Bobby In-
man and backed by 12 American cor-
porations (including Control Data,
Honeywell, RCA, and Motorola) has
an annual budget of $75 million. The
Semiconductor Research Corporation
has the backing of Control Data,
IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Digital Equip-
ment Corporation, and Motorola and
will sponsor $30 million in research
at American universities next year.

And according to Newsweek (July 4,
1983), the Defense Advanced Re-
search Projects Agency (DARPA) is
ready to spend $1 billion on research
into artificial intelligence (AI) and
supercomputers. Science News reports
that Lynn Conway has left Xerox
PARC (Palo Alto Research Center) to
join DARPA and head a program that
DARPA says will "develop computers
capable of symbolic reasoning with
effective computational speeds 1000
times greater than those used in
military systems today." In addition,
the Lawrence Livermore and Los
Alamos national laboratories will join
SRI International in an effort to
develop a network of supercom-
puters. It is also worth remembering
that IBM's annual research budget ex-
ceeds ICOTs and that IBM's research
division has 2000 people (not count-
ing those in product research and
development) to ICOT's 40.

While the goal of winning greater
private and public funding for AI
research in the United States will
help in international competition and
is commendable, that does not justify
sensational journalism that insults an
ally. Furthermore, there is little hope
that true artificial "intelligence" can
be built in the United States or any-
where else on a scaffolding of
groundless rhetoric about Pearl Har-
bor and Mein Kampf. Stupidity breeds
stupidity.

The Japanese find themselves in a
no-win situation. If they fail to make
research breakthroughs, they will
have to endure another generation of
remarks about their lack of original-
ity. If the Japanese do make research
breakthroughs, they will be accused
of posing a threat to American na-
tional security and therefore risk los-
ing their most important ally. The
threat is all the more mysterious
because the Japanese would un-
doubtedly sell 80 percent of their
future supercomputers and AI prod-
ucts to the United States. Otherwise,
Japan's plan to base its prosperity on
high technology would make no

sense. I

Phil Lemmons is BYTE's West Coast Bureau
Chief. He can be reached at McGraw-Hill, 425 Bat-
tery St., San Francisco, CA 94111.

November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. 395

Outline of Research and Development Plans
for Fifth-Generation Computer Systems

1. Background and Introduction

As computerization advances, infor-
mation technology with computers as
its core has been applied to various
areas of society and become an in-
dispensable tool in modern society.

To provide for the conditions and in-
formation demands of the society in the
1990s, more advanced and higher-level
functions and performance will be re-
quired of information technology; these
include utilization of more varied
media, easy-to-use computers, higher
software productivity, and application
of information technology to those areas
in which existing information technol-
ogy has not been applied.

In order to meet these needs, the
design philosophy itself of the current
computer technology should be studied
and evaluated.

Conventional computers, following
the von Neumann computer architec-
ture, are now realized by the simplest
hardware because the hardware was ex-
pensive and bulky when the first com-
puters were invented. Most of the func-
tions required are then realized by soft-
ware in order to provide an efficient pro-
cessing system. Therefore, the conven-
tional computers have become numeri-
cal-processing oriented, stored-program
sequential processing systems. High
speed and large memory capacity have
been pursued from the economic stand-
point, producing the present enormous-
ly big computer systems.

However, the situation has evolved as
follows:

(1) VLSIs [very large-scale integrations]
have substantially reduced hardware
costs, so computer systems can use
as much hardware as required.

(2) A new architecture for parallel pro-
cessing is now required because
device speed has approached the
limit for sequential processing.

(3) Parallel processing should be realized
in order to utilize effective mass pro-
duction of VLSIs.

(4) The current computer technology
lacks the basic functions for non-
numeric processing of speech, text,
graphics and patterns, and for ar-
tificial intelligence fields such as in-
ference, association, and learning.

For these reasons, the Fifth-Genera-
tion Computer Systems (FGCS), which

provide knowledge information pro-
cessing systems, should be developed.
FGCS should thus employ the latest
research results in VLSI technology, as
well as technology of distributed pro-
cessing, software engineering,
knowledge engineering, artificial in-
telligence, and pattern information
processing.

Thus we have concluded that it is
meaningful to pursue research and
development of the FGCS as innovative
information technology. We hope not
only to conduct creative research in this
field, but also to contribute thereby to
the benefit of all humankind.

2. Research and Development
Themes

The Fifth-Generation Computer Sys-
tems aim at knowledge information pro-
cessing based on innovative inference
functions and technologies that meet
the needs anticipated in the 1990s, in-
cluding intelligent interaction between
man and machine and inference using
knowledge bases.

The functions required of such a sys-
tem can be broadly divided into four
types:

(1) Problem solving and inference
function

This function is intended to enable the
system to find solutions to problems by
carrying on logical reasoning using data
and knowledge stored in the system as
well as information given to it from out-
side. This capability covers deductive in-
ference, inductive inference including
guessing based on incomplete knowl-
edge, and cooperative problem solving
by mutual complementation of several
bodies of knowledge.

(2) Knowledge base function

This function is aimed at providing
systematic storage and retrieval of not
only so-called data but also reasonable
judgments and test results organized in-
to a knowledge. Besides knowledge ac-
cumulation, it includes knowledge
representation tailored to problem solv-
ing, knowledge acquisition and up-
dating, and simultaneous utilization of
distributed knowledge sources.

(3) Intelligent interface function

This function is intended to enable
computers to handle speech, graphics,

and images so that the computers can
interact with humans flexibly and
smoothly. It might be regarded as giv-
ing computers the equivalents of human
eyes, mouth, and ears, but its primary
objective is to provide computers with
a linguistic ability close to that of man.

(4) Intelligent programming function

This function is intended to enhance
the intelligence of computers so that
they can take over the burden of pro-
gramming from humans. While its ul-
timate goal is to achieve an ability to
automatically convert problems into ef-
ficient computer programs, it is aimed
preliminarily at achieving a modular
programming system and a program
verification system and at establishing
a specification description language.

To achieve these four functions re-
quires the development of innovative
technologies encompassing the diverse
fields of architecture, hardware, and
software. The major research and
development themes are listed below.

(1) Hardware architecture and software
to achieve inference function. This will
include:

1. An inference mechanism based
on a distributed control-based ar-
chitecture which is oriented to
parallel processing instead of se-
quential processing.

2 . Basic software to manage and ex-
ecute parallel inference.

(2) Hardware architecture and software
to achieve knowledge base function.
This will include:

1 . A knowledge base mechanism
based on structured memory in-
stead of one-dimensional mem-
ory.

2 . Basic software to manage knowl-
edge bases for high-speed retriev-
al and relational storage of knowl-
edge data.

(3) Hardware architecture and software
to achieve intelligent interface function.
This will include:

1 . An intelligent interface mechan-
ism composed of a voice or signal
processor and other devices.

2 . Basic software for natural lan-
guage processing and graphics
and image understanding to en-
sure flexible man-machine inter-
action.

396 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

(4) Software to achieve intelligent pro-
gramming. This will include:

1 . Basic software for automatic crea-
tion of optimum programs.

New Application Fields

The knowledge information process-
ing systems realized by the Fifth-Gen-
eration Computers are expected to ex-
pand extensively the fields where com-
puters are applied, such as manufactur-
ing, service, engineering, and office and
business management.

VLSI CAD, machine translation, and
consultation systems are chosen to
develop as the model systems to apply
the basic Fifth-Generation software to as
well as to prove and assess the basic

Initial stage: Development of basic computer technology

1 1

1 Modules of individual functional mechanisms for I

I parallel inference machine J

I i , |

Parallel-type inference basic mechanism |

I ' I

' \ Data flow mechanism |

I

software system. The development of
these application systems is planned in
the intermediate and later stages.

3. Research and Development

Plans

3.1 Overall Plans

The research and development goals
of the Fifth-Generation Computer
Systems are such core functions for the
knowledge information processing as
problem-solving and inference systems
and knowledge base systems, which
cannot be handled within the
framework of conventional computer
systems.

We are obliged to move toward the
target systems through a lengthy pro-
intermediate stage: Development of subsystems
(Experimental small-scale subsystems)

(Inference subsystem)

cess of trial and error, producing many
original ideas along the way.

In Japan, little effort has been made
in research on the key technologies, par-
ticularly software and basic theories.
The research in this field should be pro-
moted because it has a great influence
on development of hardware technol-
ogy, including computer architectures
and VLSIs.

Since this project aims at computer
technology for the 1990s, plans encom-
pass as wide an extension of basic
technology as possible. And this project
is planned to span about 10 years, divid-
ed, as shown in figure 1 [which appears
below] into initial, intermediate, and
final stages.

Final stage: Development of total system

| Abstract data-type mechanism |
Simulators for experimental operation

(

i Techniques for integration in VLSIs

I Modules for individual functional mechanisms for
I knowledge base machine

[Basic knowledge base mechanism

Parallel-type relational and knowledge
operation mechanism

I

[Relational database mechanism [

I Simulators for experimental operation

\

Techniques for integration in V LSIs

Intelligent interface software

Problem-solving and
inference software

Inference mechanism

i

Intelligent programming software

n

Basic software syttem

| Problem-solving and inference software modules]

I _ _

| [Knowledge base m anagement software modules

I [intelligent interface software modules |

' [intelligent programming software module*|

Sequential Inference Machine;
pilot models for software development

Intelligent

interface

hardware

=>

Intelligent interface software

Knowledge base management
software

Knowledge base mechanism

I

Intelligent programming software

Intelligent

interface

hardware

(Knowledge base subsystem)

! E

j | Software J

Figure 1: The stages of fifth-generation computer research and development.

Inference and knowledge
base mechanism
(realized in VLSIs)

Basic software

Basic applications system software

November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. 397

The emphasis in the research and
development of the initial stage is on ac-
cumulating the research achievements
of the past in the field of knowledge in-
formation processing and evaluating
and restructuring them. In addition,
candidates for each research subject

have to be screened and basic tech-
nology is developed for the intermediate
stage.

The research and development of the
intermediate stage is focused on
establishing computation models as the
basis for software and hardware as well

Basic application systems

i i

Machine translation I I

I I

I I

(Expert system)

Consultation system

!!

VLSI CAD

I

Hi

3E

3

as algorithms and basic architecture
based on the evaluations of the initial
stage. Small- to medium-scale subsys-
tems are then built.

The final stage puts an emphasis on
appropriate functions of both software
and hardware systems, interfaces to
maximize these functions, and the ar-
chitecture for the total system.

Concerning the overall flow of re-
search and development efforts, the in-
itial stage is envisioned that software
and hardware modules are built and
also some experimental systems con-
figured by integrating these modules.
These systems include hardware and
software simulators, prototypes for lan-
guage processing, and experimental
natural language processing systems.

The intermediate stage is mainly
devoted to improving and extending the
results of the initial stage and integrating

Intelligent interface software module
Semantic analysis system pilot model
Dictionary system pilot model

High-level parsing
program

Intelligent programming software module
Program verification management program

Modular programming
software module

rr

7Y

-v~

Problem solving and inference software
module

Basic software for problem solving

Baste software for
parallel inference

Knowledge base management software
module

Knowledge representation system

Large-scale relational database
management program software

Version 1

Kernel language

Version

Basic software system

iz

Parallel Inference Machine (PIM)

Modules for individual functional
mechanisms for PIM

• Parallel-type inference basic mechanism

• Data flow mechanism

• Abstract data-type mechanism

Simulators for experimental operation
Techniques for integration in VLSIs

±±

Knowledge Base Machine (KBM)

Modules for individual functional
mechanisms forKtfM

• Baste knowledge base mechanism

• Parallel-type relation and knowledge
operation mechanism

• Relational data base mechanism

Simulators for experimental operation
Techniques for integration in VLSIs

Figure 2: An overview of research and development in the. initial stage.

Software

Q.
O

T3
O

E

c

Hardware

398 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

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them into inference and knowledge-
base subsystems.

In the early part of the final stage, the
configurations of these software and
hardware systems developed in the in-
termediate stage are reviewed and
evaluated. The total system is devel-
oped, integrating the subsystems in
order to define the ultimate goals
clearly.

3.2 Research and Development
Plans in the Initial Stage

Research in the initial stage of the

Fifth-Generation Computer Systems
Project is based on the new program-
ming language the Version Kernel Lan-
guage, which is extended on Prolog.
The specification of the Version Kernel
Language was completed in 1982.
The Version serves as the machine
language for Sequential Inference
Machine, a pilot model for software
development, as well as it is tentatively
used for program description in soft-
ware development. While the Version
was developed for sequential process-
ing, the Version 1 Kernel Language is

parallel processing oriented. The Ver-
sion 1 is a logic programming language
based on accumulation of experiences
on the Version with new functions
added.

As shown in figure 2 on page 398, the
Parallel Inference Machine (PIM) is a
high-level parallel processor to directly
execute the Version 1 Kernel Language.
The Knowledge Base Machine (KBM) is
responsible for high-speed execution of
knowledge operations derived from the
study on knowledge representation and
relational database operations.

Research and Development Theme Details

Parallel Inference Machine (PIM)

Modules for individual functional
mechanisms for PIM

Simulators for experimental
operation

Techniques for integration in VLSIs

Knowledge Base Machine (KBM)

Modules for individual functional
mechanisms for KBM

Simulators for experimental
operation

Techniques for integration in VLSIs

The parallel inference machine, together with the knowledge base machine, forms the nucleus of
the Fifth-Generation Computer hardware. At the initial stage, an evaluation and study will be made
on the basic inference module configuration composed of the following:

(1) A parallel-type inference basic mechanism to manage the parallel execution of inference
operations.

(2) A data flow mechanism to execute inference operations and rapidly determine solutions.
(3)An abstract data-type mechanism to consolidate detailed inference operations into several groups

and control them by group.

The parallel-type inference basic mechanism, data flow mechanism, and abstract data-type
mechanism individually consists of functional sub-modules. Initially, prototypes of these sub-modules
will be constructed. Then these prototype sub-modules will be combined to construct a prototype
module for each of the three functional mechanisms.

Prototype simulators for experimental operation will be built to simulate module configurations, using
different numbers and combination of sub-modules. They will also be used to determine the op-
timum configuration of the modules for three functional mechanisms and also of the inference basic
module which these sub-modules will comprise.

Prototype software will be developed for evaluation and examination of the VLSI convertibility of
the circuit composition of each sub-module designed. It will be used to data gathering and evalua-
tion for integration in VLSIs.

The knowledge base machine, together with the parallel inference machine, forms the nucleus of
the Fifth-Generation Computer hardware. At the initial stage, an evaluative study will be made on
the configuration of the basic knowledge base module composed of the following:

(1) A basic knowledge base mechanism to provide overall management of the execution of basic
knowledge base operations.

(2) A parallel-type relation and knowledge operation mechanism to provide speedy knowledge ac-
cumulation, retrieval and updating, data conversion, etc.

(3) A relational database mechanism to provide large-capacity knowledge accumulation, storage
and management,

The basic knowledge base mechanism, parallel-type relation and knowledge operation
mechanism, and relational database mechanism individually consist of functional sub-modules. Pro-
totypes of these sub-modules will be constructed at the initial stage. These prototype sub-modules
will be subsequently combined to produce a prototype module for each of the three functional
mechanisms.

Prototype simulators for operation tests will be built to simulate module configuration using different
numbers and combinations of sub-modules. They will also be used to determine the optimum con-
figuration of the modules for three functional mechanisms and also of the basic knowledge base
modules which these sub-modules will comprise.

Prototype software will be developed for evaluation and examination of the VLSI convertibility of
the circuit composition of each sub-module designed. It will be used to data gathering and evalua-
tion for integration in VLSIs.

Table 1: Research and development plans in the initial stage.

400 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

The Fifth-Generation software com-
prises two software modules: a problem
solving and inference software module
for the purpose of problem processing
and a knowledge base management
software module for knowledge accum-
ulation and management. The two soft-
ware modules have two hierarchical
levels. On the lower level are the
description or execution supporting
systems to provide various functions on
the upper level. For the intelligent inter-
face system whose main purpose is to
realize natural language processing, and

the intelligent programming system for
realizing automatic programming,
though, it remains in a preliminary form
for the initial stage. These two software
modules could be also regarded as hav-
ing two levels, but rather complemen-
tary than hierarchical.

The elementary application systems in
the top of the figure are half experimen-
tal, half practical systems which are
planned to develop in the intermediate
stage based on the research results of
the basic software systems.

Among these, the consultation system

has rather well established technology.
So, it is purposely chosen to prove and
assess the basic software system and its
preliminary version called Experimen-
tal Knowledge-Based System is planned
to develop in the initial stage. This
development is understood as an addi-
tional subject to table 1 on page 400. ■

"Outline of Research and Development
Plans for Fifth-Generation Computer Sys-
tems," published by the Institute of New
Generation Computer Technology, April,
1983.

Research and Development Theme

Details

Basic software system

Problem solving and inference
software module

Knowledge base management
software module

Intelligent interface software
module

The basic software system forms the nucleus of the Fifth-Generation Computer software and is com-
posed of the following four software modules for knowledge information processing:
(1) Problem solving and inference software module
(2)Knowledge base management software module
( 3 ^Intelligent interface software module
( 4) Intelligent programming software module

An extended Fifth-Generation kernel language needed for the intermediate state will be developed
by organizing the knowledge obtained through designing and breadboarding the basic software
system.

Furthermore, a prototype software system will be produced to test the correctness of specifications
and validate their accuracy.

The problem solving and inference software module has the capabilities of deductive inference,
inductive inference including conjecture proposing based on incomplete knowledge, and inference
by mutual complementation of knowledge. The development of a prototype of basic software for
parallel inference is planned for the initial stage for use in high-speed execution of deductive in-
ference and basic software for problem solving to determine efficient solutions to problems.

The knowledge base management software module has the capabilities of knowledge accumula-
tion, distributed-knowledge source utilization, and knowledge acquisition. The development of a
prototype of a knowledge representation system is planned for the initial stage in order to define
knowledge data representation methods. A large-scale relational database management program
is also planned to accumulate and manage a large volume of data represented as knowledge.

The intelligent interface software module is for flexible interaction between human and computer.
The development of a prototype of a high-level parsing program is planned for the initial stage and
is aimed at achieving high-speed parsing and simplified algorithms for natural language understan-
ding, which is critical to the man-machine interaction. Basic technologies for semantic analysis and
a pilot model of a support dictionary system will also be developed.

Intelligent programming software
module

Sequential Inference Machines (SIM)
pilot models for software development

The intelligent programming software module has the capability of automatic conversion of an
input problem into an efficient computer program (a kernel language level). A program module
management system with extraction capability of component modules and verification facility of a
program is planned to develop at the initial stage with the objectives to establish modular program-
ming, which is basic to intelligent programming, extraction of the necessary program, and program
verification prepared thereby.

A pilot model (a prototype sequential inference machine) for efficient development of software for
the Fifth-Generation Computer Systems will be developed. This model will be developed by im-
proving a selected language suitable for inference and by partly modifying the existing von Neumann-
type architecture.

November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. 401

Speech Images on the IBM PC

The PC can plot the sounds of vowels with an experimental

speech-input card

Steve Ciarcia described a means of
portraying a sound spectrogram in
"Use Voiceprints to Analyze Speech,"
(Circuit Cellar, March 1982 BYTE,
page 50). The approach was de-
scribed as a tool for exploring some
of the factors involved in the design
of a speech-recognition system.

I've arrived at a different portrait of
speech by pursuing similar interests
in my spare time for a number of
years. Its purpose is to directly reveal
the presence of more meaningful
sounds, which are the specific
phonemes in an utterance.

Figure 1 is an example of such an
image. It was plotted using an IBM
Personal Computer (PC) equipped
with an experimental speech-input
card. Vowel sounds were extracted
from three utterances, each of five
words. Each point on the plot was
generated by software that first
isolated the vowel portion of the
word, then transformed the data
from the card in such a manner as to
produce a point within the triangle
at a location that can be used to iden-
tify the vowel.

If such displays could be made to
portray the other phonemes as well,

by A. J. Cote Jr.

they could prove useful as speech
training aids for the deaf. Specialized
preprocessors exploiting the ap-
proach might have applications rang-
ing from auditory prostheses to con-
tinuous speech-recognition subsys-
tems for fifth-generation computers.
In this article I'll describe the ra-
tionale behind the approach I took,
explain the display of sounds
through such images, and then offer
a functional description of the
speech-interface card and the acquisi-
tion/transformation software. Finally,
I'll examine issues for the future.

The Strategy

The triangle in figure 1 demon-
strates an attempt at acoustic-
phonetic decoding, a task that has
been characterized as "one of the ma-
jor unsolved problems" in the
speech-recognition field (reference 4).
Some researchers have also argued
that it is unrealistic to anticipate very
accurate phoneme recognition in the
near future because accuracies to date
range from 50 to 80 percent (reference
7). Yet human listeners achieve about
90 percent accuracy (reference 5).

They also demonstrate continuous
speech-recognition capabilities un-
matched by any of today's machines.

It may be appropriate, therefore, to
adopt an emulation strategy that
speculates on the probable neural
processes involved and creates imple-
mentations based on those specula-
tions. That is the approach I've taken.

The foundation of my strategy is
the contention that the nervous sys-
tem is a qualitative analog computer.
Its decisions are based on the relative
strength of transient signals at vari-
ous points within the system. To
describe the events that triggered the
signals, it's necessary to consider the
strongest signals and where they
materialize.

With respect to the phoneme-rec-
ognition problem, it becomes prag-
matically appropriate to focus on two
questions:

• Because relative analyses of com-
peting signals appear to be the cen-
tral function of neural processes,
what sort of instrumentation tech-
nique would effectively portray
relative relationships?

• On the premise that neural pro-

402 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

cesses employed in one sensory
channel are likely to be used in
others, is it possible that speech
signals are perceived in a way
analogous to that used to recognize
colors?

The remainder of this article
describes the application of this
strategy.

Cochlea Images

Sound entering the ear is coupled
to a long coiled structure called the
cochlea. The auditory nerve is linked
to this structure and senses the
cochlea's internal vibrations. Result-
ing signals are then routed into the
brain, having undergone appropriate
processing along the way.

It is convenient to view the array of
signals along the cochlea as a time-
varying "image" of the incoming
sound. Thus, in making an analogy
to the operation of the eye, the rela-
tive placement and intensity of "fea-
tures" that are evident across this im-
age should offer a means of identify-
ing the sound responsible for them.
To gain insight into the character of
such sound images, I created an ex-
perimental speech data-acquisition
card. It contains filters that serve as
a very crude model of the cochlea.
The filters extract the sound energy
from four broad regions of the speech
spectrum. Each region is sampled
every millisecond, then data is con-
verted to digital form for acquisition
by an IBM PC, which transforms it
for display.

The Speech-Interface Card

A block diagram of this speech port
is shown in figure 2. Containing 21
integrated-circuit chips mounted on
a prototyping board, it performs five
major functions: amplification, filter-
ing, rectification, clock generation,
and bus interfacing.

A cardioid electret condenser
microphone drives a two-stage pre-
amplifier whose high-frequency roll-
off starts at about 6 kHz and serves
an antialiasing role for the card's
switched-capacitor filters.

All filtering is accomplished using
EG&G Reticon switched-capacitor
filters that are pin- and clock-pro-

WTL = 1.9
WTM = 4.7
WTH = 6.3
SMPLS=300
THRSHDslO

Figure 1: A portrait of speech vowels. WTL, WTM, and WTH are the weights applied to
the low- , mid- , and high-band data, respectively. SMPLS refers to the number of samples
taken within each vowel utterance, and THRSHD represents the voicing-channel threshold.

MIKE-

AMPLIFIER

1 — »

VOICING
BAND
(BELOW 235 Hz)

RMS

TO

DC

DAS CLOCK
REFERENCE
AND ADDRESS
SELECT LOGIC

' — fr-

(

f

\

SHAPE
FILTER

LOW

BAND

(235 -940 Hz)

RMS

TO

DC

1

<

DATA-
ACQUISITION
SYSTEM

1

■

MID

BAND

(940-1537 Hz)

RMS

TO

DC

1

FILTER
CLOCKS

C
1

c

HIGH
BAND
(1537-4108 Hz)

RMS

TO

DC

:0MPUTER

/O

:hannel

Figure 2: An overview of an experimental speech-input card for the IBM PC.

•DASHED LINES ARE LOCI
FOR EQUAL RANK FOR
TWO ELEMENTS

• SOLID LINES RANK ONLY
TWO ELEMENTS

• INTERIOR CONTAINS THREE
ELEMENT RANKINGS

• CENTRAL INTERSECTION
IS EQUAL RANK FOR THREE
ELEMENTS

RANKING DIAGRAM

Figure 3: This figure is a ranking diagram, a convenient means of conveying the relative
level of three variables. You can thus look at figure 1 and determine that the i vowel has its
strongest component in the high band and its weakest in the mid band.

November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. 403

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grammable. Functions (bandpass,
lowpass, highpass), Q (a measure of
filter sharpness), and frequencies are
established by pin connections. The
shape filter shapes the overall spec-
trum presented to the others to create
a response similar to that of a more
elaborate cochlea model employed in
earlier experiments. A lowpass filter
with a 235-Hz corner serves as a voic-
ing channel. Three bandpass filters
yield low-, mid-, and high-frequency
channels whose corners are 235, 940,
1537, and 4108 Hz.

To translate the AC spectral signals
to DC levels, the card uses Analog
Devices true RMS-to-DC converters.
Although not exploited in this de-
sign, these chips can be connected to
obtain the logarithm of the RMS in-
put, providing a conversion with a
useful dynamic range of 60 db
(decibels).

Outputs from the four converters
are fed to an Analog Devices mono-
lithic 8-bit, 8-channel, memory-buf-
fered data-acquisition system (ref-
erence 1). The system sequentially
converts each of its eight inputs into
a digital byte, storing the results in an
8- by 8-bit dual-port RAM (ran-
dom-access read/write memory). The
scan period of the clock employed
here is about 670 microseconds. Data
readout from the chip is independent
of the scanning/conversion, and in-
terleaving of the memory updates
and readout is automatically
managed by on-chip logic.

The compiled BASIC software
monitors the voicing channel until its
level exceeds a threshold. Passing the
threshold level signals the presence
of speech (reference 8) and initiates
acquisition of data on the low, mid,
and high channels. The purpose is to
capture vowel-sound data; trailing
consonants should not be captured
unless the buffer is too long. Each set
of three-channel data represents the
components of a vector in three-di-
mensional space and only one sam-
ple of the cochlea's dynamic image.
The collection of samples is com-
bined to create a single vector, which
is then transformed for plotting.

Plotting Transformation

This vector reflects the relative level

404 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

Circle 491 on inquiry card.

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of the energy in the three filter chan-
nels. Colors are often described with
diagrams that result from the relative
levels of the underlying components
that cause the perception of a par-
ticular color sensation. A similar ap-
proach is applicable to the charac-
terization of speech in relative terms.
Figure 3 illustrates the concept of
a ranking diagram, a means of ex-
pressing the relative levels of three
variables as one point in a planar im-
age. The three variables are normal-
ized with respect to the peak and

treated as the components of a vec-
tor extending out from the origin.
Given a plane that intercepts the
three axes at unity, the vector will
pierce the plane at a point that
reflects the relative intensities of the
variables. The triangle is a view of the
plane and its intersections with the
planes of the coordinate axes, as seen
from a perpendicular to the pierced
plane that passes through the origin
of the coordinate system. This is the
transformation carried out by the
software to produce the points in the

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triangle plot of figure 1.

Vowel-Position Variations

Several annotations in figure 1 re-
quire explanation. The first three are
weights applied to the low-, mid-,
and high-band data. Their dominant
impact is on the position of the re-
sponse grouping within the triangle
rather than on the separation be-
tween the vowel clusters. Item 4 is
the number of collected samples of
each utterance, and 5 is the voicing-
channel threshold.

A couple of different sets of cross-
over frequencies between the three
main bands have also been con-
sidered. If a corner coincided with
the range of values for either the first
or second formant frequencies, you'd
expect that the relative strength of the
adjacent channels might change sig-
nificantly with a change of speakers.
This is because the formant (a char-
acteristic component of a sound) of
a vowel might fall on a different side
of the corner for specific speakers.

The results of a few casual multi-
ple-speaker experiments have been
mixed. They reveal, however, that the
vowel that exhibits the greatest
tendency to wander is the i, as in
feet, while the most stable seems to
be the a in mob.

It should be noted that other
vowels will appear in the spaces be-
tween those shown in figure 1.
Similar vowel loops have been re-
ported in the past (references 6 and
9). In one investigation, frequencies
of the first two formants were used
as the axes of a two-dimensional
coordinate system. Another ap-
proach was more akin to the one
described here. It was advanced as
part of a theory of speech perception
motivated by color-perception con-
siderations. Plotting instrumentation
based on that approach is described
in reference 3.

Other Phonemes

Plotting vowels does not seem dif-
ficult to accomplish. Limited vocab-
ularies with insignificant vowel
overlap also yield good performance
in isolated speech-recognition ma-
chines. But discrimination that
depends on accurate recognition of

406 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

Circle 468 on inquiry card.

WTV = 7.0
WTM = 7.0
WTH =4.0
CBUF=75
THRSHD - 10

Figure 4: An example of consonant plots based
on the use of voice, mid, and high bands.
Sounds were consonant-vowel pairs with a
common vowel (the dark cluster at the left).
CBUF refers to the number of consonant
samples taken within each utterance.

consonants presents a more signifi-
cant challenge (reference 2).

Figure 4 was obtained using dif-
ferent acquisition software. Data was
continually collected in a circular buf-
fer until voicing was detected. That
point was marked as the start of the
vowel, and a segment ahead of it was
considered as the consonant portion.
Collection was terminated after some
vowel data was gathered. Thus, the
software can handle consonant-vowel
sequences, treating the two com-
ponents separately and plotting them
with different symbols.

Consonant energy is concentrated
in the high band, but for some of
these phonemes, voicing is present.
Figure 4 was based on the use of the
voice, mid, and high channels (with
appropriate weight changes). Of
course, with that combination, the
vowel position also shifted because of
the different channels and weights.
But a software change would permit
acquisition of vowel data from the
three original channels and combina-
tion of that data with consonant data
from these channels. Interpretation
of such a display would then be
based on symbol differences as well
as positions. Color could also be used
to distinguish data.

Another way to improve the sepa-
ration is to split the combined mid
and high bands into three subbands,
with the plot displayed in a sub-
triangle of the original. Experiments
conducted earlier using a cochlea
model driven by a speech synthesizer

confirmed that that, too, is a feasible
option.

Future Directions

The most effective techniques are
likely to be those based on change
because response to change is a
dominant characteristic of the ner-
vous system, and the consonants are
the dynamic segments of the speech
sound. Perhaps, instead of plotting
the relative energy levels in the band,
we should consider the relative
changes in level, or even movement
among bands. There are many pos-
sibilities; unfortunately, none can be
readily evaluated with the current
card. Therefore, it's back to the draw-
ing board to design a new interface
card.B

References

1. Ciarcia, S. "Analog Interfacing in the Real
World." BYTE, January 1982, pages 72-98.

2. Cole, R. A., et al. "Feature-Based Speaker-
Independent Recognition of Isolated English
Letters." Proc ICASSP 83, IEEE, April 1983,
pages 731-733.

3. Ferber, L. A. "Three-Parameter Speech

Display." 1972 Conference on Speech Com-
munications & Processing, IEEE, April 1972.

4. Hayton, J. P. "Speech Recognition and
Understanding." 6th International Conference
on Pattern Recognition, IEEE, October 1982,
pages 570-581.

5. Klatt, D. H. "Overview of the ARPA Speech
Understanding Project." Trends in Speech
Recognition, W. A. Lea, editor. Englewood
Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1980, pages
249-271.

6. Pederson, G. L. and H. L. Barney "Control.
Methods Used in the Study of Vowels."
Speech Analysis, IEEE Press, 1979, pages
45-54.

7. Schwartz, R. M. 'Acoustic Phonetic Recogni-
tion." 6th International Conference on Pattern
Recognition, IEEE, October 1982, pages
952-965.

8. Stewart, J. L. and B. C. Stewart. "Principal
Cues in Speech" Santa Maria, CA: Covox
Company, October 1981.

9. Yilmaz, H. "A Theory of Speech Perception."
Bulletin of Mathematical Biophysics, vol. 29,
1967, pages 793-825; vol. 30, 1968, pages
455-479.

A. ]. Cote Jr (12937 Kentbury Dr., Clarksville,
MD 21029) works as an engineer at the Applied
Physics Laboratory at Johns Hopkins University.
He is interested in the formulation of a biologically
inspired approach to pattern analysis and machine-
intelligence systems.

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November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

407

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BYTE November 1983

409

Lmodem: A Small Remote
Communication Program

A no-frills, smart-terminal program for CP/M systems

written in BDS C

In the past few years, there has
been a tremendous increase in the
number of remote computing facili-
ties available to microcomputer users.
These include online databases, large
timesharing operations, The Source,
CompuServe, computer bulletin
boards (CBBs), and C nodes. In order
to use such facilities, you need a ter-
minal program. This article describes
one such program, Lmodem, a "lit-
tle modem" program written in BDS
C for CP/M-based systems.

The most basic form of telecomput-
ing consists of connecting a local ter-
minal to a remote computer over a
telephone line. In its simplest case,
a terminal program makes your com-
puter emulate a dumb terminal to the
remote system. This arrangement is
fine if you don't have to transmit lots
of information or don't need to keep
a record of responses from the
remote system.

The next step up in sophistication
is to include text capture capabilities
in the terminal-emulator program.
Text capture consists of holding text
in a buffer for later storage on disk.
With this capability, you can obtain
a program listing by commanding the
remote system to list the program to
your terminal. (The program from
which Lmodem is derived— Cmodem
13.c— was obtained in just this man-
ner.) Finally, a file-transmission pro-
tocol can be added to the program.
Several protocols are in common use,
but all transmit chunks of data with
some type of error checking. By
using a file-transfer protocol, you can

by David D. Clark

transmit binary-code files and data
files; you are not limited to text files.
The Lmodem program employs
what is known as the Ward Christen-
sen (or XMODEM) protocol for file
transfer. (Ward Christensen has writ-
ten so much good public-domain
software that he deserves an award
of some kind.) This transfer protocol
is used by C nodes. Originally writ-
ten in assembly language, the algo-
rithm has since been translated into
high-level languages like C.

The Program

Lmodem is written in the BDS ver-
sion of the C programming language.
It provides terminal emulation, text
capture, and transfer of files using
the Ward Christensen protocol.
Lmodem is about as simple as such
programs come. The hardware-
dependent information and opera-
tions have been isolated in a small
number of functions and constants.
The program is modular enough that
it can be implemented in simple
stages if necessary.

Hardware-dependent Routines:
You will need to be familiar with your
hardware to implement this part of
the program. In the Lmodem pro-
gram (listing 4), the last eight
routines comprise the functions that
you may have to change for your
computer system. The routines in the
listing were written for a Teletek FDC-
I single-board computer, using the
second serial port as the modem
port. I attached a Novation Cat, a

300-bps (bits per second) answer/
originate, acoustic modem.

A brief description of each of these
routines follows:

1. initializemodem(): performs any hard-
ware-dependent initialization. The
version in the listing simply calls
purgeline() to clear the communica-
tions line.

2. purgeline(): clears the communica-
tions line of any characters that
may be present.

3. mcharinpO: for modem character in-
put. Reads a single character from
the modem port and returns it to
the calling function.

4. mcharout(): for modem character
output. Sends the character passed
as an argument out through the
modem port.

5. moutrdy(): for modem output ready.
Returns a result of True if the
modem can accept a character for
transmission; otherwise, False.

6. minprdy(): for modem input ready.
Returns a result of True if the
modem has a character available to
be read; otherwise, False.

7. ctsready(): for clear-to-send ready.
Clear-to-send (CTS) is an RS-232C
interface line. If your modem can
detect the state of this interface
line, ctsready() should return a
result of True while the CTS line
is active. In listing 4 this function
is set to always return a result of
True.

8. hangupQ: before the program
finishes, this routine should be

410 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

called to perform the termination
procedures, if any. In listing 4 this
function is set to always return a
result of True.

If you have an auto-dial/auto-
answer modem, you should expand
some of these routines to take advan-
tage of those features. If you have a
basic 300-bps modem like mine, sim-
ple routines similar to those in listing
4 will be sufficient. For more informa-
tion on adapting this program to your
hardware, see the section on modifi-
cations.

The value of SPS, defined near the
beginning of the program, is also
hardware dependent, but its value is
not critical. SPS is explained more
fully in the section on file transfer.

Terminal Emulation: The part of
the program that makes your com-
puter look like a terminal is contained
in a small portion of code making up
the main() function. The loop starting
with the statement

while (ctsready() && (KbData != QUIT))

first looks for input from the key-
board by making a call to the bdos()
function with the arguments
DIRCTIO (defined to have a value of
6) and INPUT (defined to a value of
Oxff). Bdos() is a BDS C library func-
tion that calls the CP/M BDOS (basic
disk operating system) function with
the same number as its first argu-
ment and puts the second argument
in the DE register pair. Thus, the
expression

(KbData = bdos (DIRCTIO, INPUT))

calls the BDOS direct-console I/O
(input/output) routine. If a character
is available at the console, its value
is assigned to the variable KbData.
Any character found is checked
against various special-command
characters, described later. For now,
let's just say you type a character you
want to be transmitted to the remote
system. In this instance, the default
section of the switch statement is
selected, and the character is sent by
means of the mcharout() function.

If no character is pending at the
keyboard, the entire switch statement

Listing 1: A pseudocode representation of the terminal-emulation algorithm used in Lmodem.

while (the communication line is open) and

(the quit command has not been issued) {

if (there is a character at the keyboard) {
get it;

send it out over the modem;
}

if (there is a character at the modem) {
get it;

display it on the console;
}
}

Listing 2: The file-transmission process, using Christensen's XMODEM protocol written
in pseudocode.

open the file to be sent;
initialize the modem;

while (there are still sectors to send) {
repeat {

send an SOH;

send the sector number;

send the sector number complemented;

send the data and compute a checksum;

send the checksum;

wait for a response;
} until (the response is an ACK) ;
}

send an EOT character;
wait for an acknowledgement;
close the file;

is skipped. In either case, the modem
is then checked for a character await-
ing input ( if (minprdy()) ). If so, it is
retrieved and printed on the console.

That's all there is to terminal
emulation. The logic of the process
can be represented more succinctly
by the pseudocode fragment in
listing 1.

In order to end the program, you
type the QUIT command character,

the value of which is declared in a #
define statement near the beginning of
the program. If you have a sophisti-
cated modem and an appropriate
ctsreadyO function, the program can be
made to end if the telephone is hung
up.

Text Capture: Keeping a record of
an entire session with the remote sys-
tem is not much harder. A few more
variables, two commands, and a lit-

November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. 411

Listing 3: The file-reception algorithm, using the XMODEM protocol written in pseudocode.

create the new file in the directory;
initialize the modem;
repeat {

wait for an initial SOH, EOT or TIMEOUT;
if (the character is an SOH) {

get the sector number;

get the sector number complemented;

get the data and compute a checksum;

get the checksum;

if (checksum = computed checksum)

send an ACK;
else

send an NAK;
}

if (the character is an EOT) {
close the new file;
send an ACK;
}
} until (the initial character was an EOT) ;

tie code are all you'll need. The CAP-
TURE command character toggles
the state of the variable BFlag, which
is False when the program starts. In
the listing, the character for this com-
mand is Control-C. If your BIOS
(basic input/output system) detects
this character and warm-boots CP/M,
change the character for the com-
mand. When BFlag is True, characters
received from the remote system are
stored as received in a buffer of BUF-
SIZ characters, using the TxtPtr
variable as an index to the buffer. By
typing the CAPTURE command
character during the session, you can
save those parts of the session that
you want a record of. You can also
use the CAPTURE command to keep
track of the free space remaining in
the capture buffer.

The Lmodem program does not
directly save the characters that you
type. If you are in full-duplex opera-

412 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

tion, the remote system will echo all
the characters that you type, so they
will be in the text buffer. If your con-
nection is half -duplex, the characters
you type will not be echoed back to
your system. In this case, if you want
to keep your input, add a statement
to the default switch to store those
characters in the buffer.

When the session is over or the
capture buffer is nearly full, type the
KEEP command character to save the
contents of the buffer in a disk file.
You will be asked to supply a file
name. The file will then be created
and the buffer contents written to it.
After the buffer has been saved, text
capture is turned off and the buffer
index is reset.

File Transfer: The majority of the
Lmodem program consists of code to
perform file transfers. Lmodem uses
the Ward Christensen file-transfer
protocol used by C nodes. Before

delving deeper into the program, see
listing 2 for the transmission
algorithm in pseudocode.

The SOH (start of header), ACK
(acknowledge), and EOT (end of
transmission) characters are ASCII
(American National Standard Code
for Information Interchange) control
characters used by the protocol for
synchronization and communication
between the host and the remote
computer. The NAK (negative
acknowledge) character is used in
place of ACK if an error is detected.

The receiving algorithm is comple-
mentary (see listing 3).

The Protocol

The two terminal programs first
synchronize with each other. An
SOH is transmitted to signify that a
sector of data will be transmitted.
Next comes the sector number and its
one's complement followed by the
128 bytes of data that make up the
sector. As the data is transmitted, a
checksum is calculated at both ends
of the transfer (the checksum is the
sum of the numerical value of all the
characters sent). After the data has
been sent, the checksum is also sent.
The receiving program compares the
checksum it receives with the one it
calculated during transmission.

If the checksums agree, the receiv-
ing program returns an ACK char-
acter to the sending program to
notify it to proceed to the next sec-
tor. If the checksums do not match,
the receiving program returns a NAK
character to the sending program and
the sector will be retransmitted. This
retransmission can be repeated for a
predetermined number of attempts.
Upon reaching the end of the file, the
sending program transmits an EOT
character instead of an SOH. If
everything is okay with the receiving
program, it returns an ACK character
to the sending program and they
both close up the files.

Send and Receive

The functions sendfile() and readfile()
handle the operations of sending and
receiving files by means of the
Christensen protocol. If you compare
Lmodem's source code (listing 4) with
the pseudocode (listings 2 and 3),
Text continued on page 424

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BYTE November 1983 413

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414 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

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416 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

DISCOVER THE DYSAN DIFFERENCE

Four Reasons
Why The
Dysan

isWxth
Paying For

1

100% Surface
Tested

2

Advanced
Burnishing
• Techniques

3.

£)Y 10 ™

Lubricant

4

Only Dysan provides fully
usable diskette surfaces that
are truly 100% error-free
across the entire face of the
diskette. An exclusive on-
and-between the track test-
ing procedure guarantees
error-free performance
regardless of temperature
and humidity distortions or
slight head misalignments.

Dysan's advanced polishing
methods create a smoother,
more uniform diskette sur-
face. This results in better
signal quality on each track,
less wear on drive heads and
reliable access to data after
millions of head passes.

Dysan's proprietary DY 10
lubricant complements the
advanced burnishing pro-
cess. Both maximize error-
free performance while
minimizing headwear.
Optimal signal presence is
maintained between the
head and diskette surface
during millions of write/
read interfaces.

DY 10 is a trademark of Dysan Corporation

Select from a complete line of premium 8" and 5 1 // diskettes,
in single or double densities, certified on one or both sides.

Circle 164 on inquiry card.

Auto-Load
• Certification

Dysan's unique quality
control methods reflect
technological leadership in
designing, producing and
testing precision magnetic
media. Each diskette is un-
erringly certified by Dysan -
built, automated and
microprocessor controlled
certifiers. Your system and
data base will benefit from
Dysan's diskette reliability
and unsurpassed quality.

O Dysan,

•/CORPORATION

Corporate Headquarters:

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

BYTE November 1983

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418 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

AN ACCOMPLISHED PERFORMER
AT AN ENTRY LEVEL PRICE.

BMC now offers you a dot matrix printer that delivers sophisticated features margin to
margin. The BX-80 prints bi-directional in 40, 80, 71, or 142 columns in normal, double
width or compressed text. And you can mix these in any line or print. You can also do
superscript as well as superb graphics in character or bit image. And the BX-80 does all this
with a changeable print head that delivers up to 30 million characters, with true
descenders. The BX-80 gives you an integrated friction feed with built in sprocket tractor
that adjusts to fit any size paper up to 10 inches in width.

Other features such as programmable line spacing, strobe pulse synchronization and TTL
level technology are part of the BMC tradition of performance and reliability at an
affordable price.

See us at Comdex Booth 242

Circle 53 for dealer inquiries. Circle 54 for end-user inquiries.

^^Jr usa

Setting the Standard in Performance and Price

CALIFORNIA

16830 S. Avalon Blvd., Carson, CA 90746
Telex: 664258 BMC GDNA
Phone: (213) 515-6005

NEW YORK

450 Barell Ave., Carlstadt, NJ 07074
Phone: (201) 939-7079

TOLL FREE: 1 (800) 752-5002

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BYTE November 1983

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422 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

tsraur

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Circle 402 on inquiry card.

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Texf continued from page 412:
you will see that they are quite
similar. The basic algorithm is ap-
parent in the code. The main dif-
ferences are in the more extensive
error-checking code that is present in
listing 4. In addition to the checksum,
the synchronization, sector number-
ing, and timing are all monitored for
accuracy.

The sectors are not read from and
written to disk one at a time. The
sendfile() and readfile() functions buffer
the files being transferred. The same
buffer used for text capture is used
for file buffering. Any text in the buf-
fer when file transfer begins will be
lost. If you use the same value for
BUFSECS as that in the listing, you
will be able to buffer 16K bytes or 128
sectors at a time. On most CP/M sys-
tems this corresponds to one CP/M
directory extent. It is possible to buf-
fer additional sectors, but the process
of allocating an additional directory
extent is usually slow enough that it
causes a timeout error in the sending
program while the receiving program
is writing out the buffer. I rarely need
to transfer files larger than 16K bytes,
but the routines are constructed so
that any size file can be transferred.
At 300 bps, the rate of transfer is ap-
proximately 15 sectors per minute. I
have used the program only at 300
bps, but I believe it is fast enough to
keep up with a 1200-bps modem, if
you have one.

The byte-by-byte send and receive
operations are performed by the
complementary routines sendchar()
and readcharQ. Basically, all these
functions do is transfer the character
and display it in the appropriate for-
mat, if needed. The readcharO function
has one other duty: it is passed an
argument that corresponds to the
number of seconds it is to wait for a
character to be ready at the modem.
If nothing has been received within
this period of time, readcharQ will
return a timeout character as its
value. The timing function is based
on the value of the constant SPS. It
corresponds to the number of loops
per second executed by the statement

while (!minprdy() && seconds)
--seconds;

424 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

Circle 121 on inquiry card.

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THE COMPUTER |~5
WITH THE STORY! I_T

Information based on national advertisements of competitors products - correct at time of going to press.

Reiiecl SoltWitft 1 irr.

Circle 441 on inquiry card.

On my computer (the Teletek FDC-I
with a 4-MHz Z80A), I set the value
of SPS to 9500. You should adjust this
constant for your hardware con-
figuration.

The VIEW command allows the
transfer to be monitored at the con-
sole, and you are given the option of
viewing transmitted characters as
ASCII characters or as hexadecimal
values. If the ASCII mode is selected,
unprintable characters will be dis-
played as hexadecimal numbers. If
the hexadecimal option is selected, all

transmitted characters will be dis-
played as such. If the viewing feature
is not active during the transfer, a
period (.) will be displayed on the
console for each sector sent or
received.

Miscellaneous Features: When the
program is started, the instructO func-
tion displays the command charac-
ters and gives a short description of
each.

A LITERAL command is provided
that sends the next character typed
through the modem without any in-

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If you are serious about dBASE II,™
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functions on dBASE II™data files:

•Sort

• Compress/Decompress

• Transform

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terpretation. This is useful in the
event that you wish to send a com-
mand character to the remote system
without it being interpreted as a com-
mand by Lmodem.

Running Lmodem

To run the program after it has
been compiled and linked, just type
lmodem and a <cr>. It prints the
command menu and then enters the
terminal-emulation mode. From this
mode, any of the commands can be
invoked at any time.

Next, make the connection with
the remote system. If you are using
an acoustically coupled modem, set
your modem to originate mode with
full-duplex, dial the remote system,
wait for the tone, and put the hand-
set in the coupler collars on the
modem. If nothing happens, try tap-
ping the Return key a couple of
times. The remote system should re-
spond with some sort of sign-on
message and provide you with fur-
ther instructions to log onto the
system.

Elect to Receive

To receive a file from the remote
system, send the appropriate com-
mands to cause the remote system to
set up a file for transfer. When the
remote system notifies you that the
file is ready for transmission, type
the RECEIVE command character.
After you supply a name for the new
file, the transfer should proceed
automatically. If everything proceeds
normally, a message will be printed
at the end of the transfer and you will
be back in the terminal-emulation
mode. If uncorrectable errors occur,
Lmodem will display the error mes-
sage and the transfer will cease. The
procedure for sending a file is com-
pletely analogous— type the TRANS-
MIT command and specify the file
name.

A final note on file transfer. The
error checking in the program seems
to be adequate; however, that aspect
has not been thoroughly tested
because I cannot seem to generate
any errors. In all the time that I have
used the program, the only errors I
have been able to cause are time-
outs—generated while attempting to

426 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

Circle 215 on inquiry card.

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Listing 5: Specific 1/0 functions defined using BDS C macroinstructions.

moutrdy ()
{

return ((inp(MSTAT) & MOMASK) == MAHI) ;
}

minprdy ()
{

return ((inp(MSTAT) & MIMASK) == MAHI);
}

moutchar (c)
char c;
{

while ( Imoutrdy ( ) ) ;

outp (MDATA, c) ;
}

minpchar
{

while ( lminprdy () ) ;

return ( inp (MDATA) ) ;
}

receive a file without being connected
to a remote system.

Modifications

The FDC-I has an interrupt-driven
serial port; therefore, if the modem
receives a character, it generates an
interrupt and control is transferred to
an interrupt handler in the CP/M
BIOS. The interrupt handler gets the
character and stores it at memory
location DATAB. It then sets a status
byte at STATB to 1 and returns from
the interrupt condition. Determining
whether or not a character is available
involves simply examining memory
location STATB, which is what the
minprdyQ function does. Reading a

character consists of waiting until
STATB equals 1, retrieving the
character from memory location
DATAB, and resetting the status byte
to 0.

In the more probable event that
your modem port is not interrupt
driven, you will have to write your
own minprdy() function to read the
status port and mask off the ap-
propriate status bits in a manner
analogous to the moutrdy() routine.
Your mcharinp() routine will be similar
to the mcharoutQ routine too: wait for
a character to appear, then read the
appropriate data port.

If you have BDS C, the standard
I/O header file, bdscio.h, defines

several macros that you can set for
your modem characteristics. MSTAT
and MDATA define the status and
data ports respectively. MIMASK and
MOMASK define the input data
ready and output port ready masks.
MAHI should be set to True if the
status returns high for ready. If you
have these values set up for your
hardware, the routines in listing 5
should work for your system.

If you are not sure about your hard-
ware, use my routines for ini-
tializemodem(), purgeline(), ctsreadyf), and
hangup(). Then get some help with
minprdyQ, moutrdyQ, mcharinp(), and
mcharout(). These routines must work
before the rest of the program will
operate correctly.

If you want to implement Lmodem
in another version of C, some cau-
tions apply. The BDS version does
not implement the file I/O functions
in the standard C library. The creatQ
function in BDS C takes only one
argument, the filename. No permis-
sion-mode argument is expected as in
the standard I/O library. The BDS
versions of read() and writeQ return the
number of sectors read or written,
not the number of characters. If you
use a version of C in which these
routines are implemented in a stan-
dard fashion, some modifications in
the program will be needed.

Summary

The Lmodem program (listing 4)
written in BDS C is a bare-bones
communication program that pro-
vides terminal emulation, text cap-
ture, and file transfer using Ward
Christensen's XMODEM protocol.
These capabilities are based on a
small number of very simple
machine-dependent functions and a
few more complex portable
functions.

Once you have this small base pro-
gram implemented, it can easily be
extended for other file-transfer pro-
tocols, automatic log-on sequences,
database scanning, and any other
functions you want.B

Dr. David D. Clark (246 South Fraser St., #2,
State College, PA 16801) is a postdoctoral research
scholar in enzymology at Penn State University.

428 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

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BYTE November 1983 429

The Software Tools

Unix Capabilities on Non-Unix Systems

This package includes utility programs, a command
interpreter, and a large programming library

by Deborah K. Scherrer, Philip H. Scherrer, Thomas H. Strong, and Samuel J. Penny

The Software Tools package is a set
of programs and subroutines that
provides the power and elegance of
Bell Laboratories' Unix on non-Unix
computer systems. The tools offer
Unix-like program development fea-
tures that complement systems rang-
ing from microcomputers to main-
frames.

Available in various forms from
several sources, the Software Tools
package includes more than 60 utili-
ty programs, a command interpreter
{shell), and a large programming
library.

Code sharing, coupled with early
feedback from users, has allowed
developers to build on each other's
work and has produced a dynamic
environment in which new ideas are
rapidly tried and proven. The natural
selection process that results pro-
duces high-quality, useful utilities
that have been tried, improved,
tested, and accepted by many users
with varying needs and a variety of
systems.

The Tools

The Software Tools utilities provide
a framework for executing most com-
mon computing tasks. Each tool is a
powerful but general software
module designed to do one thing
well.

The tools are easy to learn and use.
They perform functions such as or-
ganizing and manipulating files,

430 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

creating, editing, and rearranging
text, examining files, preparing docu-
ments, and transforming language
and data. Frequently used tools are:

diff determines the differences

between two files
Is lists the file names in a

directory
ar maintains multiple small

files nested inside a larger

one
sort sorts lines of a text file in

several ways
find locates text patterns in a

file using a flexible expres-
sion syntax
field rearranges data columns in

a file
sedit performs serial editing

functions on a file
format formats a document for

publication or distribution

The complete set of Software Tools
provides most of the functional capa-
bilities of the Unix tools. Table 1 is a
list of the tools and their Unix
equivalents.

The Shell

The Software Tools shell is a com-
mand interpreter that reads lines
from the user terminal or a file and
interprets them as requests to execute
programs. The shell includes mech-
anisms to redirect the input and out-
put of the tools to the user terminal,

files, or other programs. It also
enables the user to group commands
together to make up new commands.
The ease of generating and executing
complex user-tailored commands
from simple ones distinguishes Unix
and the Software Tools from other
systems in which utilities are often
clumsy. The text box "Software Tools
Shell" describes the shell in greater
detail.

The Library

The Software Tools library provides
a framework for accessing system ser-
vices by both the tools and user pro-
grams. The library includes basic sys-
tem operations as well as groups of
functions satisfying common pro-
gramming needs. These include:

• Unix-type I/O (input/output)
functions

•file and directory manipulation

• dynamic memory allocation

• string manipulation
•linked-list handling

• symbol-table creation

• text-pattern matching
•data-type conversion and manip-
ulation

• date and time formatting

• command-line argument handling
•process control

Table 2 describes the library functions
in detail.

Text continued on page 436

Text Manipulation
Software Tool Unix Utility Description

Managing Files and Directories
Software Tool Unix Utility Description

e, edin

ed

editor

Is

Is

list files

sedit

sed

stream editor

cd

cd

change directory

ch

gres

change text patterns

pwd

pwd

print working directory name

tr

tr

transliterate characters

mv

mv

move/rename file

find

grep

locate text patterns

rm

rm

remove files

fb

find text patterns in blocks of
lines

ar

ar

archive files

isam

build index sequential access

n.a.

chown, chgrp

change owner/group of files

list

n.a.

chmod

change mode of file

xref

cross reference of symbols

find

search for files

field

manipulate fields of data

In

link files

mcol

pr -n

produce multicolumn output

mkdir

make a directory

sort

sort

sort lines

rmdir

remove a directory

lam

laminate lines of files together

sum

validate a file (checksum)

uniq

uniq

strip duplicate lines

tar, tp

tape archiver

rev

rev

reverse order of characters

touch

update last-change-date

number

number lines

file

determine file type

detab

convert tabs to spaces

entab

convert spaces to tabs

Document Preparation

crypt

crypt

crypt and decrypt files

format

roff, nroff

text formatter

cpress

compress files

troff

text formatter for typesetter

expand

expand compressed files

form

form letter generator

OS

convert backspaces for printing

spell

spell

spelling checker

col

convert reverse line feeds for

lookup

look

look up words in dictionary

printing

kwic, unrot ptx

generate permuted index

pl

print specific lines in file

deroff

remove nroff commands

awk

pattern scanning and process-
ing language

eqn

generate equations for nroff

join

join lines with identical fields

tbl

generate tables for nroff

refer

find and insert literature

prep

put words on single lines

pubindex

references
make index for "refer"

Manipulating Files

tc

translate troff output for

cat

cat

concatenate/copy files

Tektronix 4015

crt

paginate files to terminal

cp

cp

copy files

Process Control

pr

pr

paginate files for printing

sh

sh

command-line interpreter (shell)

show

show all characters (control too)

run

run a tool (without shell)

tail

tail

print last lines of files

which

print full pathname of command

tee

tee

copy input to output and
named files

reset

reset system after media
change

includ

include files within files

logout

logout

log out of shell

split

split

split up file

n.a.

at

run process at specific time

cmp

cmp

simple file compare

n.a.

login

log into system

diff

diff

differential file compare

n.a.

kill

kill (background) process

diff3

three-way differential file

n.a.

nice

run process at low priority

compare

n.a.

ps

process status

comm

comm

print lines common to two files

n.a.

sleep

suspend termination for

II

print longest, shortest line

specified period

lengths

n.a.

wait

wait for completion of a process

wc

wc

count words, characters, lines

time

time a process

dd

convert and copy a file

prof

display profile data

Table 1:

The Software Tools and their Unix equivalents.

Table 1 continued on page 432

November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. 431

Table 1 continued:

User

Support/Information Retrieval

Software Tool Unix Utility

Description

Software Tool

Unix Utility

Description

dc

dc

desk calculator

F77

FORTRAN compile

date

date

print/set time and date

struct

convert FORTRAN-66 to RATFOR

echo

echo

print command-line arguments

lorder

find ordering relation for library

man

man

print manual entry

nm

print name list of object files

n.a.

passwd

set/change password

od

octal dump

n.a.

tty

get terminal name

size

print size of object file

n.a.

who
true, false

basename

cal

calendar

list users on system

commands which return true or
false

print basename of file

print calendar

remind user of appointments

strip
ranlib

Miscellaneous

remove symbols and relocation
bits

convert archives to random
libraries

expr

evaluate arguments as an
expression

graph
plot

draw a graph
graphics filter

factor

factor a number

test

condition command

spline
tk

interpolate smooth curve
paginate for the Tektronix 4014

units

quantity conversions

n.a.
n.a.

write
mesg

send message to another user
permit or deny messages

Language Translation/Program Development

tcs

sees

test maintenance system

macro

m4

macro processor

msg

mail

send/receive mail

ratfor

ratfor

RATFOR preprocessor

learn

computer-aided instruction

ahm it I Jnix

fsort

sort FORTRAN declarations

Ipr

ai*j\JKJ i \ji iia

print spooler

re

re

RATFOR, FORTRAN, link, load

make

maintain program groups

fc

fc

FORTRAN, link, load

cu

call another Unix machine

Id

Id

load

uucp

Unix-to-Unix copy

tsort

tsort

topological sort

uux

Unix-to-Unix command

yacc

yacc

compiler-compiler

execution

lex

lex

lexical analyzer

stty

set terminal options

adb

debugger

tabs

set terminal tabs

as

assembler

bas

basic interpreter

Key:

be

arbitrary-precision arithmetic

n.a;— not applicable to single

user/single process systems like

language

CP/M.

cc, pec

C compile

The capabilities of a Software Tool and a Unix utility may not

lint

C syntax check

always be

exactly the same.

Software Tools Shell
(Carousel Microtool's CP/M Implementation)

The shell is a command-line interpreter;
it reads lines from the terminal or a file and
interprets them as requests to execute other
programs.

Commands

In its simplest form, a command is the
file name of a program to be run, followed
by arguments given to the program. The

command name may specify any file in the
system. CP/M enables a user number to
be part of the command (file) name. The
command may be a Software Tool or any
other program. The shell searches for the
named file in a series of directories specified
by the user in an environment file. When
the command is located, it is loaded into
memory and executed. When the command

is finished, the shell resumes its own ex-
ecution. For example, giving the command

sort filel f ile2

causes the shell to locate and execute the
command sort. Sort in turn merges and
sorts the contents of the two named files
and puts the output on the user's terminal.

432 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

I/O Redirection

Software Tools programs have three files
automatically available to the user:

standard input
standard output
standard error output

All three are assigned to the user's terminal
unless specifically redirected to disk files or
other devices. Redirection is specified by
preceding the desired device or file name
with a special character:

<file read standard input from

"file"
> file send standard output to

"file"
?ffte send standard error output

to "file"
» file append standard output to

"file"
??file append standard error output

to "file"

In the above example the sorted out-
put could be saved on a file:

sort f ilel f ile2 > sorted

or sent to the printer:

sort f ilel f ile2 > /1st

(/lst is the tools form of the name for
the printer).

I/O redirection is actually performed
by each tool individually, rather than
by the shell.

Pipes

A sequence of commands separated by
vertical bars (\) causes the shell to execute
each command in sequence and arranges
to have the standard output of each com-
mand delivered as the standard input to
the next command in the sequence. The
sequence

sort list | uniq | crt

sorts the contents of file list. The sorted
output passes to uniq, which removes
extra copies of duplicated lines. This out-
put then goes to crt, which paginates out-
put for viewing on a terminal.

Command Separators

Commands need not be on different
lines; instead they may be separated by
semicolons:

ar -x program rtn ; e rtn

extracts the member rtn from the archive
file program and then enters the editor.

Background Processes

Unix shells enable processes to be started
and have control returned immediately to
the shell. The new process continues run-
ning in the background, sharing resources
with the shell process. This mechanism is
impossible to implement on single-process
systems such as those using CP/M. How-
ever, to simulate the mechanism in some
reasonable way, the Carousel shell saves
any commands indicated as background
processes and executes them at the end of
the session, when the user logs out of the
shell For example,

format doc > /lst &

formats the file doc and sends it to the
printer at the end of the session (the amper-
sand indicates a background process).

Script Files

The real power of the Unix and Software
Tools shells comes from the ability to gen-
erate new commands by combining exist-
ing commands. This feature is possible
because the shell not only executes pro-
grams, but also treats script files (text files
containing yet more commands) as com-
mands^ These scripts may participate in
pipelines, have their I/O redirected, and
appear in any context that a regular com-
mand may. Scripts may be nested by ref-
erencing scripts that may, in turn,
reference other scripts.

Scripts are useful for creating nezo com-
mands and for grouping commands to-
gether for multiple reexecution. For exam-
ple, you could create a standard procedure
by editing file fix to fill it with the follow-
ing commands for the shell:

ar -x book chapl
e chapl

format chapl | crt
ar -u book chapl

Then by typing fix the system would ex-
tract chapl from the archived file book;
edit chapl; send chapl to the formatter
and display it page by page on the terminal;
and finally update it in the archive file
book.

Arguments can also be passed to script
files. Character sequences of the form $n,
where n is between 1 and 9, are replaced
by the nth argument to the invocation of
the script. If book has more than one sec-

tion, the script could be written:

ar -x book $1
e$l

format $1 | crt
ar -u book $1

Then you could type:

fix chapl
or fix chap7
or fix intro

to edit, view, and update the respective sec-
tions of book.

Script files can include inline explicit
data that the tools can read as their stan-
dard input. The special input redirection
notation « is used to achieve this effect.
For example, the editor takes its commands
from standard input, normally the ter-
minal. However, within a shell script,
commands may also be embedded this way:

e file «!
(editing requests)

(The ! is arbitrary; any character can be
used.) The lines between «! and ! are
called, in Unix terminology, a "here docu-
ment"; they are read by the shell and made
available to the command as its standard
input.

Finally, as an indication of the power of
script files, listing 1 shows an example of
a script file to show changes that have been
made to command files ofdBASE II, a data-
base-management program.

Environments

Like Unix, The Carousel shell maintains
an environment file. This file contains in-
formation about the user's system and
needs, such as the date, tab settings, and
the directories in which to search for user
programs or tools. The environment file is
available to all tools and is modified by a
few. In addition, users are free to adjust
the information for their own needs.

Control Structures

Constructs of the nature:

if ... then ... else ...
while ... do ...
for ... in ... do ...

aid in reiteration and conditional execution
within scripts. The Software Tools Users
Group is currently standardizing the syn-
tax for these shell control structures.

November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. 433

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Listing 1: The alterations to dBASE II com-
mand files.

# Shell command file to show work done to

# dBASE II command files.

# usage: dbdiff dir

# (where dir is a backup directory)

# "dir" should be specified in tools form,
t e.g. 72/B"

# dbdiff will print all new dBASE command

# files and will print existing dBASE

# command files with any changes

# marked with a "\" in the right margin.

# Collect names of .cmd files in both

# directories.

Is .cmd > 1 .tmp
Is $1 .cmd >2.tmp

§ Find and print new dBASE commands.

# Here comm reports lines in Ltmp

# which are not present in 2. tmp;

# field changes that report into a series

# of print commands;

# and sh then executes those print

# commands.

# The-"@" signs suppress the following

# newline, effectively continuing the

# shell command across several lines,
comm - 1 1 .tmp 2.tmp | @

field "pr >/lst $1" | @
sh

# Find existing dBASE commands and show

# changes.

# Here comm reports files listed in both

# l.tmp and 2.tmp;

# e (the editor) changes each file name

# reported by comm into a series of

# commands to:

§ print the file name;

# print the current date & time;

# print the differences between the

# versions in this directory

# and in the other directory;

# and cat puts a few formatter commands

# into 4. tmp, to be called upon

# by each line of 3.tmp.
comm -3 l.tmp 2.tmp >3.tmp
e 3.tmp < < !

l,$s~?*~echo & >/lst ; date >/lst ;

diff -r $l/& & | format 4.tmp - >/lst~
w

cat >4.tmp <<!

.nf

.in 5

.rm 70

!

# Finally the shell runs the commands

# that e just prepared and

#, rm removes all three scratch files.

sh 3.tmp $1

rm l.tmp 2.tmp 3.tmp

434 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

Circle 363 on inquiry card.

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Before Avocet introduced its family of
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BYTE November 1983 435

Symbol Definitions (ratdef)

definitions standard RATFOR definitions

File Manipulation

*amove move (rename) a file

*close close (detach) a file

*create rcreate a new file (or overwrite an existing one)

*gettyp get type of file (character or binary)

*isatty determine if a file is a terminal

*mkuniq generate unique file name

*open open an existing file for reading, writing, or both

* remove remove a file from the file system

I/O

fcopy copy one file to another

*flush flush output buffer for file

getc read character from standard input

*getch read character from file

*getlin read next line from file

*note determine current file position

'prompt prompt user for input

putc write character to standard output

*putch write character to file

putdec write integer in field

putint write integer in field on file

*putlin output a line onto file

putstr write string in field on file

*readf binary read from a file

'remark print single-line message

*seek move read/write pointer

*setmod set character device mode

*writef binary write to a file

Table 2: The functions of the Software Tools library.

Process Control

*endst. . .close all open files and terminate program execution

*exec execute task

*initst initialize all standard files and common variables

Directory Manipulation

*closdr close directory

*cwdir change working directory

*gdraux. get auxiliary directory information

*gdrprm get next directory entry

*gwdir get name of current working directory

*opendr open directory for reading

String Manipulation

addset add character to array if it fits, increment pointer

addstr add string to array if it fits, increment pointer

concat concatenate two strings together

ctoc copy string-to-string

equal compare strl to str2

gettok parse tokens

getwrd ..... get nonblank word from array, increment pointer

index find character in string

length compute length of string

scopy copy string from one array to another

sdrop drop characters from a string

skipbl skip blanks and tabs in array

sktok skip over tokens

slstr slice (take) a substring from a string

stake take characters from a string

stcopy copy string, increment pointer

stncmp compare first n characters of strings

stncpy ........ copy n characters from one array to another

strcmp compare two strings

Text continued from page 430:

The Tools or Unix?

Although the Software Tools pro-
vide many of the features of Unix,
they are not an exact copy of Unix.
They exist alongside the local oper-
ating system and provide many of the
desirable aspects of Unix in situations
where using Unix is impossible or in-
appropriate. For instance, if you don't
want to pay Unix's high price, if you
want to use software packages that
aren't available in Unix versions, or
if a Unix implementation is not avail-
able for your hardware, the Software
Tools can provide the power and
elegance of the Unix interface.

Let's look at the Software tools
movement and considerations that
have made the tools successful.

The Software Tools Movement

In 1976 Kernighan and Plauger
wrote Software Tools (see reference 3).
Their goal was to teach good pro-
gramming style based on their exper-
iences with Unix at Bell Laboratories.

They used pared-down versions of
Unix utilities rewritten in RATFOR
(Rational FORTRAN), a C-like pre-
processor language (see text box,
"What Is RATFOR?"). The programs
and the RATFOR preprocessor were
made available on magnetic tape. The
book and tape were the seeds from
which the tools movement devel-
oped. The movement arose inde-
pendently at several major research
laboratories and universities.

The tools were of immediate inter-
est to researchers and users, and the
programs were implemented on
numerous computers. As users
began to experiment with and en-
hance the programs, they began to
realize that the tools offered more
than a useful set of utility programs.
Researchers, primarily at Lawrence
Berkeley Laboratory (LBL), expanded
the original package to include a
powerful subroutine library, a Unix-
like shell, and many more of the Unix
utilities. By providing all three levels

(shell, utilities, and library) the tools
now offered a portable, uniform in-
terface with the functionality of Unix.
The package was implemented on
the diverse assortment of LBL ma-
chines and on many machines to
which the researchers had network
access. The result was Unix func-
tionality on non-Unix systems and a
consistent user interface across many
different systems (see reference 1).

One reason the Software Tools
have been so widely accepted is their
portability. The tools can be imple-
mented on virtually any machine.
This portability was achieved by
using a programming language that
was available on all machines and by
isolating system dependencies into
"primitive" function calls that must
be implemented separately for each
different system.

With certain data-type manipula-
tion conventions and other program-
ming details, this portability has
enabled the package to be imple-

436 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

strim trim trailing blanks and tabs from a string

type determine type of character

Character Conversion

clower convert character to lower case

ctoi convert string to integer, increment pointer

ctomn translate ASCII control character to mnemonic

cupper convert character to upper case

esc check for escaped character

fold convert string to lower case

gctoi generalized character-to-integer conversion

gitoc generalized integer-to-character conversion

itoc convert integer to character string

lower convert string to lower case

mntoc convert ASCII mnemonic to character

upper convert string to upper case

Pattern Matching

amatch look for pattern matching regular expression

getpat encode regular expression for pattern matching

makpat encode regular expression for pattern matching

match match pattern anywhere on line

Command Line Handling

*delarg delete a command-line argument

*getarg get command-line arguments

gfnarg get next filename argument

query print command usage information

Dynamic Storage Allocation

*dsfree free a block of dynamic storage

*dsget obtain a block of dynamic storage

*dsinit ■ . . initialize dynamic storage

Symbol Table Manipulation

delete remove a symbol from symbol table

enter place symbol in symbol table

lookup .... get string associated with symbol from hash table

mktabl make a symbol table

rmtabl remove a symbol table

sctabl scan all symbols in a symbol table

Linked List / Stack Handling

maklst create and initialize linked list

frelst remove a linked list and free allocated memory

push push an item onto the top of the list/stack

pop pop an item from the top of the list/stack

inject inject a new item into a linked list

xtract read an item from a linked list

prvnod get previous node pointer

nxtnod get next node pointer

remod remove a node from a linked list

Date Manipulation

atodat convert ASCII characters to integer date

fmtdat convert date to character string

*getnow get current date and time

wkday. . . .get day-of-week corresponding to month-day-year

Error Handling

cant print "name: can't open" and terminate execution

error print single-line message and terminate execution

* indicates that the routine is system dependent and has been im-
plemented by Carousel Microtools for CP/M and MS-DOS.

merited on more than 50 operating
systems. Table 3 provides a partial list
of manufacturers offering computers
on which the tools have been imple-
mented.

Which Language Is Best?

Computer languages are judged on
their ability to solve specific prob-
lems; therefore, the best language for
the Software Tools package was the
one that could most adequately fill
the following requirements:

• availability— the language had to be
available on almost every machine
•suitability— the language had to be
appropriate for textual (as opposed to
numerical) applications; it had to be
powerful enough to handle the sup-
port libraries that provide the neces-
sary file access, I/O, process control,
and other system-support services
•quality— the language had to be
high-level, easy to read and under-
stand, easy to learn, and powerful

enough to solve applications prob-
lems

FORTRAN filled the first require-
ment, fell down a bit on the second,
and provided little of the third. C met
the second and third requirements
but was not usually available on both
microcomputers and larger ma-
chines. Pascal met the third require-
ment but was no more commonly
available than C and was not appro-
priate to the support of large libraries
and moderately complex bodies of
code (see reference 2). Several other
state-of-the-art languages were ap-
pealing but not generally available.
Thus, no single language met all the
requirements, and a compromise was
necessary. The RATFOR language
preprocessor was chosen because it
provided the control structures, read-
ability, and elegance of C and was
translatable into FORTRAN (the lan-
guage available on most systems). A
C-like support library was developed

to supplant FORTRAN'S incomplete
textual, file manipulation, and I/O
capabilities. Even though FORTRAN
is used at the RAITOR base level, the
user is insulated from FORTRAN just
as the user of any high-level language
is insulated from the machine lan-
guage.

The choice of language was not
critical to the approach. In fact, for
the person using the tools the im-
plementation language is unimpor-
tant. Only the tools implementer and
people developing new tools with the
library ever need to use the language.
Had the tools been designed solely
for the microcomputer environment,
C might have been a more appropri-
ate choice. With the computer in-
dustry rapidly developing new
machines and more elegant lan-
guages, the Software Tools commu-
nity is now reevaluating the original
choice of language and considering
mechanisms for making the tools
available in other languages as well.

November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. 437

What is RATFOR?

DRIVER

}

RATFOR (Rational FORTRAN) is the

character line(MAXLINE)

fprintf (stdout, "%5d\n", size);

implementation language for the Software

integer getlin, length, len, size

}

Tools. It is closely patterned after C in its

size =

control structures, but it is compiled into

while (getlin(line, STDIN) ! - EOF)

The similarity between the RATFOR

FORTRAN by the RATFOR preprocessor.

{

and C versions is obvious. Notice that the

The availability of FORTRAN allows RAT-

len = length (line)

RATFOR example consists almost entire-

FOR to be easily installed on a wide variety

if (len > size)

ly of standard FORTRAN statements,

of systems. In addition to being a portable

size = len

especially assignment statements and

language suitable for implementing the

}

subroutine calls. The RATFOR compiler

Software Tools, RATFOR is a convenient

call putint (size, 5, STDOUT)

passes these statements through to the

language for program development. The

call putch (NEWLINE, STDOUT)

FORTRAN version almost unchanged.

control constructs of RATFOR are those of

DRETURN

What RATFOR adds to FORTRAN are file

C, and the data structures are those of

end

inclusion, token substitution, macros for

FORTRAN.

text replacement, and the following con-

RATFORs nature can most easily be de-

trol constructs:

scribed with examples of some actual code.

The macros DRIVER and DRETURN are

A file of standard definitions is automati-

also defined in the standard definition file

if-else for conditional execution,

cally processed by the RATFOR compiler

and are used to start and end all RATFOR

while, for, and repeat-until for

to define new symbolic constants. A sec-

programs.

looping,

tion of this file is:

The following code is the same program

break and next for controlling loop

written in C:

exits,

switch-case-default for selection of

define (EOF, -1)

#include <stdio.h>

alternatives,

define (EOS, 0)

#define(MAXLINE,128)

braces ({ }) for statement grouping.

define (MAXLINE, 128)

define (STDIN, 1)

mainQ

RATFOR's syntax was intended to

define (STDOUT, 2)

r

liberalize FORTRAN'S syntax restrictions

define (character, integer)

char line[MAXLINE];

as much as possible. As a result, RATFOR

int fgets(), strlen(), size = 0, len;

source code is naturally concise and

while (fgets(line, MAXLINE, stdin))

reasonably pleasing to the eye. RATFOR

Using these definitions, the following code

{

features are as follows:

is an example of a program in RATFOR

len = strlen(line);

that finds the length of the longest line read

if (len > size)

•free-form page layout

from standard input:

size = len;

• unobtrusive comments

Primitives Isolate
Machine Dependencies

In the Software Tools package, sys-
tem dependencies are isolated in the
primitives, a set of routines that make
up the tools' interface to the operat-
ing system. The primitives provide
standardized system services such as
file manipulation, I/O, process con-
trol, and dynamic memory alloca-
tion. The tools and their subroutines
access system services through these
primitives. Tool source code can be
moved from system to system with-
out change. When the tools package
is moved to a new system, only the
primitives must be changed or re-
written.

The original implementers of the
tools issued two prime directives to
assure compatibility among a wide
variety of operating systems. First,

they decided to use the file types of
the operating system. Internal file for-
mats specific to the machine are hid-
den from the user by the primitive
functions, allowing both local utilities
and Software Tools programs to read
and write the same files and provid-
ing a standardized way to access files
on all systems. Second, changes to
the local system, or interference with
it to implement the package, are dis-
couraged. Such changes, combined
with the local system's idiosyncrasies,
would make the package unstable in
new system releases.

The primitives address the issue of
machine efficiency; they minimize
the demands of the software upon
scarce system resources like memory
or central processor time. For exam-
ple, the utilities of the Software Tools
package are oriented toward text pro-

cessing and program development
(writing source code, documentation,
data preparation, etc.). These utilities
a;e characteristically limited by I/O
rates. Because the I/O capabilities are
isolated in the primitives, the effect
of this problem can be reduced
through efficient implementation of
the I/O primitives. Because all utili-
ties access resources through the
primitives, they automatically benefit
from such optimization.

The Software Tools Users Group

The need for cooperation among
implementers and users of the tools
led to the formation of the Software
Tools Users Group at Menlo Park,
California. It originated at the
Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory and
was initially funded by the Depart-

438 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

Circle 233 on inquiry card.

•use of <, <=, >, >=, ==, !=, etc.

for comparison expressions

•string data type

•quoted character strings and character

constants

•define statement for symbolic constants

•include statement for source-file

inclusion

• macro preprocessor for textual

manipulation

RATFOR code is often easier to read and
understand than the corresponding section
of code as normally written in G For ex-
ample, the two following fragments of code
each copy a string from one buffer to
another:

# RATFOR version

for (i=l; from(i) ! =

to(i) = from(i)
top) = EOS

/* C version 7

char *t=to, *f=from;
while (*t++ = *f++);

EOS; i=i+l)

One could argue that a good C compiler
sometimes produces faster code, but in large
programs the readability of the RATFOR
style is often an advantage over the more
terse C style.

ment of Energy. Since its inception in
1978, the group has become an inter-
national body performing the follow-
ing functions:

•establishing and publishing stan-
dards for the primitives and tools
and supporting an ongoing stan-
dards committee

•collecting and distributing infor-
mation on current developments to
avoid duplication of effort
•collecting and evaluating new
utilities, extensions, and variants
•holding semiannual meetings in
conjunction with the Usenix Unix
users group

•publishing a newsletter and soft-
ware catalog

•distributing tapes containing col-
lections of utilities from different
organizations

ACOS

Amdahl

Apollo

AN/UYK

Burroughs

CDC

Cray

Data General

DEC

FACOM

GEC

HP

HITAC

Honeywell

IBM

Intel

Interdata

Modcomp

Multics

NCR

Perkin-Elmer

Prime

Rolm

SEL

Tandem

Univac

Wang

Xerox

Machines running CP/M

Machines running MS-DOS

Machines running Unix

Table 3: A partial list of manufacturers
on whose machines the Software Tools
package has been implemented to varying
degrees of sophistication.

Much of the tools' source code is
now in the public domain and freely
distributed. The primitives, however,
are generally developed, licensed,
and maintained by vendors.

The standardization procedure
used by the tools group is unusual.
New utilities are collected and distrib-
uted early in their development
phase, allowing users to experiment
with new ideas and reject those that
prove unportable or functionally un-
desirable. Code sharing also allows
users and developers to glean ideas
from new offerings and incorporate
them into their own developments.
As ideas are distilled and utilities en-
hanced or extended, the utilities are
redistributed, and those receiving
popular support are eventually re-
turned to the tools group. There they
pass to the Implementers Committee,

MAINFRAME

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• Name of the program or of another menu to
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To access a protected menu option the user has
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A password maintenance program included, let
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Define screen format specifications
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• Use all of your CRT video attributes

• Define up to 24 function keys

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• Draw figures using vertical field displays.

• Save memory using format overlays and
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• Cut your program code by as much as 50%.
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Define report format specifications
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• Handles automatically printing of heading,
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• Edits numeric fields (commas, zero suppress,
date, sign, CR/DB, etc.).

• Automatic print of report page number.

• Uses ALL fancy printer controls your printer
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• Optionally redirects printer output to disk (like
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_ ReportWiz Tester to print $49

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which makes final decisions on ac-
ceptance and standardization. Thus,
standards are always based on ideas
or utilities tested and proven by the
community rather than on newly de-
signed products or untested ideas.
The snaring of code and feedback
from users enables developers of new
tools to build on each other's work,
creating an environment in which
new ideas can be quickly and
thoroughly tested. The sharing
results in natural selection of useful
tools that have been tried and ac-
cepted by a large number of users
with varying needs on many dif-
ferent systems.

The Present and the Future

Development of the Software Tools
is proceeding on two fronts: the basic
package is being implemented on
new systems, and user interfaces are
being extended. The original package
provided an environment for effec-
tive development of programs and
manipulation of textual data and
materials. However, the tools ap-
proach is applicable to most software

projects, including those involving
networks, database management,
graphics, and word processing.
Among the portable packages being
developed are experimental shells,
statistical analysis systems, electronic-
mail systems, screen editors, data-
management packages, data-analysis
packages, and source-code-mainte-
nance systems. The tools group is ac-
tively evaluating suggested enhance-
ments and extending the primitive
set to provide as dynamic and
creative an environment as possible.
Some hardware manufacturers
avoid the Software Tools package
because easy portability to a com-
petitor's hardware is obviously bad
for business. Increasingly, however,
independent companies are market-
ing specific system implementations
of the tools. These firms typically im-
plement the primitives and provide
maintenance and upgrade support.
The high-level source code (utilities
and portable sections of the library)
is left unlicensed, so the Software
Tools Users Group handles varia-
tions, extensions, and standards (a

compromise between the need for
vendor support and the desire for
user control).

The Software Tools package is
already running on most minicom-
puter and mainframe systems, and
extensions into the microcomputer
world have begun.

Implementing the Tools

Writing programs in a language
that is available on many systems is
insufficient; you must also define an
interface layer that isolates an appli-
cation program from the details of
any particular system. The primitives
form the tools' interface layer and are
the key to their success. They are the
only allowed connection between the
tools and the underlying operating
system. Porting, or adapting, the
tools to a new operating system in-
volves writing the code for the
primitives for that new system.

The primitives are more than just
a collection of subroutines; they pro-
vide a complete environment for the
tools. In a sense, they coordinate the
"world view" of the tools with the

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440 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

Circle 56 on inquiry card.

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bility and computing opportunities to the serious
PC user,

Long life design features.

The FD-PC8 utilizes Shugart drives; the standard for
quality and reliability in the computer industry.
Unlike most disk drives, the motor runs only when
selected, greatly increasing the life expectancy
oftheFD-PC8.

FLOPPY

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SERVICES, INC.
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Circle 190 on inquiry card.

IBM PC is a registered trademark of International Business Machines Corporation.
Maynard Controller is a registered trademark of Maynard Electronics.
JFormat is a registered trademark of Tall Tree Systems.

SPECIFICATIONS

• Full one year warranty on materials and workmanship.

• Two fully assembled and tested Shugart double-
sided 8" drives also available in one drive
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• Direct drive DC motor

• Exactly Yi the height of standard 8" drives.

• IBM PC styled and painted cabinet.

• All cabling included.

• IBM 3740 format compatible.

• No-mar rubber feet.

• Sturdy construction easily supports PC or monitor.

• Power supply designed for long life, trouble-free
operation.

PRICING

FD-PC8 . . . dual system/$ 1495.00 . . . single system/$ -1095.00
* Maynard Controller/$245.00. . .JFormat/S50.00

* Use of the B" system requires the Maynard 8" controller and Tall Tree Systems®
JFormat™ software, allowing the use of two internal 5 1 /4" drives and the two
outboard 8" drives.

Plug into the perfect IBM PC add-on!

For more information about the FD-PC*, call (609)799-4440.
Or call our toll free order line at (800) 223-0306.

Dealer Inquiries Invited.

Circle 321 on Inquiry card.

Texas Instruments Model 850...
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Buy 9 lease or rent the new
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MTI is an authorized distributor of Texas Instruments' full line of

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• PC/FORTH™ Cross Compilers available
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Phone credit card orders to (213) 306-7412

HIERARCHY OF PRIMITIVES

SHELL

PORTABLE SOFTWARE TOO
UTILITY PROGRAMS

PORTABLE UTILITY
LIBRARY I

I

PRIMITIVE LIBRARY

LS

NONTOOL

APPLICATION

PROGRAMS

BDOS

BIOS

HARDWARE

I/O

Figure 1: The hierarchical dependence of in-
terfaces in the CP/M-80 version of the tools.
At the CP/M level only the BIOS (basic in-
put/output system) knows how to do direct
hardware input and output, and only the
BDOS (basic disk operating system) knows
how to talk to the BIOS. These clean divisions
were the key to the early success in moving
CP/M to many different types of hardware.
The Software Tools are built in isolated layers
in the same way. Note that only the primitive
functions know how to talk to the BDOS. The
primitives are the communication channel be-
tween the portable tools and a specific operat-
ing system, such as CP/M or MS-DOS. The
tools themselves can use the primitives or the
library of utility routines that are also part of
the tools package. The clean boundaries be-
tween the various interface layers in a system
such as this are very important for maintain-
ing clean portable programs. Any time these
separations are violated, the resulting program
may prove expensive to maintain and difficult
to move to new machines.

world view of the host operating sys-
tem. The task is simple if the tools
and the new system have similar
views of the programmer's environ-
ment; the task is difficult if the new
system has a different view. For ex-
ample, it took less than a week to
write and test the tools' primitives for
Unix because Unix's view of the pro-
grammer's environment is similar to
that of the tools. But implementing
the tools' primitives on CP/M and
MS-DOS (which are based on very
different views) took more than a
year.

When implementing the primi-
tives, it is essential to keep in mind
the two prime directives: maintain
correspondence of file types and

442 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

Circle 259 on Inquiry card.

There's a side
to the Wang PC
that IBM would

like you to
ignore.

Maybe whatputs the Wang
Professional Computer ahead of
the IBM PC is what's behind it.
Becauseatthebackofthe
Wa ng PC is a series of system
interfaces that can tie you into total office
automation now. Integral links that let you
access notonlyotherWang equipment, but
even most popular databases and main-
frames, including IBM.

The Wang Professional Computer also
offers a variety of telecom m u n ications options
that can access everything from the Dow
Jones News/Retrieval® service to electronic
mail. And bysimplyaddingword processing
software, the Wang PC turns into the easiest-
to-use word processor on the market.

Face to face, the #1
Wang PC is superior f
to the IBM PC in
speed, compatibility
andease-of-use.

Backtoback,there's
no comparison.

For a demonstration of the Wang Professional Computer, call
1-800-225-9264. Orsend this coupontO:Wang Laboratories,
Inc., Business Executive Center, One Industrial Avenue, Lowell,
MA01851.

Hame

Title

Company

Address

City

State

Zip

)

Telephone

WANG

The Office Automation
Computer People.

©1983Wang Laboratories, Inc.

Circle 97 on inquiry card.

TOP OF
THE

When it comes to computer
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How did we get there? By
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(213)327-7710

See us at Comdex booth 517.

avoid interfering with or changing
the host system. An example of the
relationship between the tools and
the host system is illustrated in the
implementation of the Carousel Tool-
kits on CP/M (see figure 1).

File and Directory Names

The Software Tools view all I/O
operations as actions on named files.
As in Unix, use of files from within
programs must be as device indepen-
dent as possible because the program
does not know whether the I/O is be-
ing done with a terminal, file, or an-
other program. The file to be used is
specified when the program is run
instead of when it is compiled. When
the host provides some sort of direc-
tory structure, it should appear to the
user as the Unix model of a hierar-
chical directory structure does. These
requirements have effects at both the
RATFOR library level and at the tools
execution level. For example, some
allowed file names with the tools on
CP/M are:

data the file "data" on the

current directory
/b/data the file "data" on drive

B in the current user

area
/2/a/data the file "data" in user

area 2 on drive A
/tty the programmer's

terminal
/nul the "bit bucket," a place

for unwanted output
/lst the printer

File names of these forms can be
used anywhere a file name is
needed. For example, in the tools
open primitive, the statement

fd = open

("/O/c/foobar.dat", READWRITE)

results in the file /O/c/foobar.dat be-
ing opened in a mode allowing ran-
dom reads and writes. The command

diff /1/b/prog.bas prog.bas

displays the differences between the
version of prog.bas on drive B in user
area 1 and the version in the current
directory. By putting CP/M's user-

area number at the higher level in the
hierarchy, a programmer can operate
within a given area on several drives
without specifying the user area. In
accordance with the prime directive,
a CP/M style of directory naming is
also recognized (e.g., lb:prog.bas). In
addition, the temptation to further
follow the Unix style and allow user-
named subdirectories, as opposed to
the hard-wired CP/M user/disk
names, was tempered by the prime
directive's requirement that all tools
files be available on the host system
with recognizably similar names.

Memory Allocation and Disk

The tools package includes primi-
tives to dynamically allocate memory
areas for temporary use within a pro-
gram. This feature has proven easy
to provide on single-user systems
such as CP/M and MS-DOS, where
the programmer has access to all
memory not occupied by the pro-
gram or operating system. However,
bulk-storage I/O devices, usually
floppy disks, are so slow that it is
desirable to use as much high-speed
memory as possible for a cache of
recently used or soon-to-be-used
data. These two requirements force
the dynamic-storage primitives for
CP/M to share the memory with the
I/O primitives. This provides the
tools with dynamically available
storage while using all remaining
memory to speed up disk operations.

The Software Tools package also
enables a user to quickly access the
large collection of the tools' utilities
on a small system. Sixty nontrivial
tools could easily occupy a large
amount of disk space. Unlike inte-
grated programs in which all func-
tions are available to the user within
one large complex program, the tools
are a collection of single-purpose pro-
grams, each of which must be loaded
into memory when needed. To pro-
vide both fast program load times
and small disk-space usage on CP/M,
the tools were stored on disk as over-
lays of each other. Because they all
share the common primitives, the
primitives need be loaded into mem-
ory only once. When a tool program
is run, only the part of the program
that is different from one tool to

444 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

..; •' ■

v

k S £L

3M introduces the
Purrrrrrrsonal Printers.

Quiet, high-quality printers at prices that won't
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for the 40/80-column model.
Price is about the only way
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Printers draw attention to
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printers. Result: Less
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Our Silent PC Printers differ
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Maintenance is kept to a
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Printers have only two moving
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Either serial or parallel
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III!

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Hi

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40/80-column Silent PC Printer

of a dealer who can give
you a demonstration, call
800-538-8157 Ext. 928 toll-
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r 1

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3M Center-Building 216-2N

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□ Please send literature on the
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□ I'd like a demonstration soon.

Name .
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3M hears you . . .

3M

Circle 2 on inquiry card.

another need be loaded. This has
proved effective in reducing disk
usage and program load time.

Process Control

The most difficult primitives to im-
plement on single-user microcom-
puter operating systems are for pro-
cess control. Unix views the world as
process-rich— a place in which pro-
cesses are created for each command.
The single-user CP/M system, on the
other hand, supports only one pro-
cess. To provide a Unix-like environ-
ment in this case, the primitives must
emulate multiple processes. The only
practical way to simulate several
parallel processes on a small-mem-
ory, floppy-disk-based system is by a
sequence of programs that are not ex-
ecuted simultaneously.

Unix enables process creation and
program execution by the function
pair fork and exec (see reference 4).
Fork creates a clone process and exec
overlays the current process with a
new program. The most common se-
quence in Unix is

fork - wait - continue

(in the parent process)
fork - exec - die

(in the child process)

The standard tools package pro-
vides a model of this sequence in the
spawn primitive. Spawn executes a
program by creating a child process
and allowing the parent to wait for its
completion. Because of the relative-
ly slow, low-capacity disk storage
available on the CP/M and MS-DOS
systems, the spawn primitive has
been simulated with a Unix-like exec.
Therefore, the portable shell could
not be used, and a new shell was
written that uses only exec and
creates a chain of programs that
always end with a new invocation of
itself. This new shell can also be used
on other systems where process gen-
eration is allowed but is restricted or
slow.

The spawn mechanism is different
from those used by other command-
interpreter replacements for CP/M
that always expect to reside in mem-

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ncicu uaustuaina ^^

ory. The Software Tools utilities are
loaded quickly because they use the
overlay technique.

Conclusion

The Software Tools package pro-
vides the features of Unix when Unix
is not desirable, available, or appro-
priate. The tools incorporate many of
the features of Unix: elegance
achieved through simplicity of style,
consistency of use, modularity, and
a common-sense approach to pro-
gramming tasks. A large and active
Software Tools Users Group has
brought these tools to most operating
systems.

Software Tools packages are avail-
able from several sources. A source
code for the utilities and specifica-
tions for the primitives is available
from the Software Tools Users Group
for a nominal charge. If you choose
to purchase this code, you must write
your own primitives, which may be
difficult.

You may be able to obtain a com-
plete tools implementation for your
system from someone who has
already done it for a similar system.
The tools group distributes versions
for a few minicomputers and main-
frame systems. These are provided
without support.

You may also purchase specific im-
plementations of the Software Tools
from a vendor. If you do so, you
should expect a version of the primi-
tives optimized for your system, with
continuing support and contact with
the Software Tools Users Group. ■

References

1. Hall, Dennis, Deborah Scherrer, and Joe
Sventek. "A Virtual Operating System," Com-
munication of the Association of Computing
Machinery, volume 23, number 9, pages
495-502.

2. Kernighan, Brian W. "Why Pascal Is Not My
Favorite Language," Bell Laboratories Tech-
nical Note #100, Murray Hill, NJ.

3. Kernighan, Brian W, and P. J. Plauger, Soft-
ware Tools. North Heading, MA: Addison-
Wesley, 1976.

4. The Bell System Technical Journal, volume
57, number 6, part 2 (July-August 1978).

Deborah K. Scherrer, Philip H. Scherrer, Thomas
H. Strong, and Samuel ]. Penny can be reached at
Carousel Microtools, Inc., 609 Kearney St., El Cer-
rito, CA 94530.

446 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

Circle 165 on inquiry card.

HOW DOES 1

With SUPER STAR ... The First S-100 Computer
To Use a 5 MB Removable Cartridge.

9

Advanced Digital's new SUPER
STAR™ is the first of a family of
S-100-based computer systems to be
equipped with a 5-1/4" 5-MB Fixed/
5-MB Removable Cartridge Win-
chester disk drive (10 MB on-line
storage capacity) as standard. Now
you can have the capacity of up to
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and convenience of 100% backup
using the industry-standard Dysan
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SUPER STAR is the ideal system
for business, professional, and educa-
tional applications. Its CP/M*
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available software programs. The six-
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And as your business grows,
SUPER STAR can grow with you. If
you need more memory, just plug it
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users, simply add Advanced Digital's
SUPER SLAVE™ processor boards

and TurboDOS* operating system.
Now you've got an extremely power-
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processing SUPER STAR computer
system for up to four users.

SUPER STAR is truely a Super
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• New Slim-Line Profile

• 5-1/4", 10-MB Winchester Disk
Drive, 5-MB Fixed, 5-MB
Removable Cartridge

• 5-1/4", Half-High, 48TPI Floppy
Disk Drive (Osborne Format
Compatable)

• Six Slot Motherboard

• Switch-selectable 11 0/220 V Power

• Up to 4 Users With SUPER
SLAVES And TurboDOS

• CP/M Operating System Standard

• One Year Warranty

SUPER STAR is the perfect sys-
tem for applications requiring large
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at a suggested retail price of $5,000,
SUPER STAR is a SUPER VALUE.

See the entire Advanced Digital
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SUPER STAR, at your local, quality
computer dealer or contact:

ggry

ITAL

corporation)

*CPIM is a trademark of Digital Research Corp.
TurboDOS is a trademark of Software 2000 Inc.

SUPER STAR, SUPER SIX, SUPER SLAVE are
trademarks of Advanced Digital Corp.

5432 Production Dr.,
Huntington Beach, CA 92649
Phone: (714) 891-4004
Telex: 4722065 ITTSCSMA

For European Distributor, contact: (724) 891-4004

See us at Comdex booth #378 and #481. See us at Compec '83, in Sitron Computer booth #9137.

A Most
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The New Epson QX-10
and the QuCeS Hard
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riage

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Convenience is what
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M- ■ - ■ '" '•' •- : '- : - ,: ' : .":v. :- : " ■■■ :: " - "■'"■ ■'■"■■'

Specifications

1 2 Megabyte 20 Megabyte

Storage Capacity —

Unformatted Per Drive

1 2,749, 1 84

Storage Capacity —

Formatted Per Drive

1 0.0 MBytes

Formatted Per Cylinder

32,768

Bytes 32,768 Bytes

Platters

2

2

Recording Heads

4

4

Cylinders

306

480

Data Tracks

1 224

I 920

Rotational Rate

3600 rpm ± \%

Data Transfer Rate

5.0 Mbits per second ± l%

Access Time

Average Latency

8.33 milliseconds ± \%

Seek Time

Track-to-Track

3m

lliseconds 3 milliseconds

Average

85 m

lliseconds 1 20 milliseconds

Maximum

205 m

lliseconds 3I0 milliseconds

Settling Time

1 5 milliseconds

Height

5.3"

5.3"

Width

111"

I2LI"

Depth

1 6.5"

1 6.5"

Environmental Specifications -

Operating Temperature

40°F to 95°F / 4.4°C to 35°C

Non-Operating Temperature

32°F to I 35°F / 0°C to 57.2°C

Humidity (Non-Condensing)

8 to 80%

Voltage

II5VAC

Power

75 Watts

Q„C.S reserves the right to change specifications without notice or obligation.

V3Cu^*e *J\nc

Quality Computer Services

Circle 545 on inquiry card.

3 Quces Drive, Metuehen, New Jersey 08840, (201) 548-2135, Toli free: (800) 631-5944
In Canada: ASAP Computer Products (416) 738-0500

See us at COMDEX/ Fall '83, Las Vegas Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada, BOOTH #3255

Double the Apple II's
Color Choices

By understanding how the Apple II generates
the number of colors available in high- and

by Robert H. Sturges Jr.

color, you can extend
low-resolution modes

"That's a great Pac-Man program!"
Mark said, finally ready to call it quits
after his fifth game page, as I sat
amazed at the skill he demonstrated
using my new joystick. "But it's too
bad it doesn't have all the computer's
original colors."

"That's true; four colors is all you
get in the Apple's hi-res mode," I
replied. Then we began musing over
how we could solve the problem.

A software "painting" package, we
knew, could provide a wide selection
of colors but at the expense of resolu-
tion. Such a program would alternate
the four Apple colors (green, violet,
blue, and orange) plus white or
black, yet reduce the number of pix-
els (individual colored dots or picture
elements) by a factor of 2, 4, or more.
This approach would provide graph-
ics resolution somewhere between
Apple's low- and high-resolution
modes.

Color selection can also be im-
proved through hardware; peripheral
cards provide a wide range of color,
graphics, and animation capabilities
(see "High-Resolution Sprite-
Oriented Color Graphics," by Steve
Ciarcia, August 1982 BYTE, page 57).
The hardware approach to solving
the problem, however, requires
machine- or assembly-language pro-
gramming and does not employ the
usual Applesoft BASIC instructions.

"I can see the advantage of all these
methods," Mark said, settling back
on the couch, "but none of them pro-

vides full high-resolution color or
allows me to write HCOLOR = 13 in
a BASIC program."

Our discussion led me to think
about how the Apple produces col-
or and the way color monitors (or
televisions) work. Theories on both
have been covered many times (see
"More Colors for Your Apple," by
Allen Watson III, June 1979 BYTE,
page 60), so I'll only mention the key
points to understanding how I
doubled the size of the Apple palette.

Phase Shift = Position = Color

To understand how the Apple II
uses color, consult figure 1, which
represents the spectrum of a color
monitor. Only the more basic colors
(the primaries and a few close
derivatives) are shown for several

135 v

BLUE

4 5

CYAN

INDIGO

180 •

YELLOW

RED

225

ORAN

GE

315

1

270

Figure 1: The

responds to the
subcarrier.

Apple
phase

ITs

shifi

color

? of

monitor
the color

reasons. The saturation of the colors
and their intensity is normally deter-
mined by a signal not present in the
Apple video output: the color sub-
carrier. By sending out a string of
sharply rising pulses and the
3.58-MHz color references, the mon-
itor reacts as if a constant-amplitude
subcarrier were present. Thus, in
low-res mode, many colors can be
created.

The basic colors themselves, how-
ever, are determined in a more sub-,
tie way: the relationship between the
position of a dot and the 3.58-MHz
reference that is a part of every
horizontal scan determines the hue.
The reference signal can be pictured
as a sine wave stretching from the left
to the right edge of the usable screen
area (see figure 2), with 140 cycles.
Each cycle (a peak and a valley) cor-
responds to 360 degrees of the color
wheel, and the tint setting on the
monitor controls the wheel's rotation.

To illustrate, let's say that degrees
corresponds to violet and 180 degrees
to green. If we start from the left edge
and place a dot there, that dot would
appear violet. If we instead place the
dot one-half cycle to the right of that
point (at 180 degrees), it would ap-
pear green. Similarly, a dot located
one-quarter cycle away from the
green dot's position would appear
blue at 90 degrees and orange at 270
degrees.

Because the saturation or intensity
of the color signal in the hi-res mode

November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

449

cannot be controlled, only these four
colors are usable. White is just a pair
of dots side by side that cover half of
the 360-degree cycle. Most monitors
do not discriminate this signal as any
color.

What HCOLOR Does

When Applesoft encounters an
HPLOT statement, which places a
dot or draws a line of color on the hi-
res graphics screen, it determines
which horizontal position should be
used based on the current
HCOLOR = value. (The HCOLOR
statement is used to select a color.)
For example, HCOLOR = 1 forces all
dots making up a line to go to odd-
numbered x-coordinates, and the line
appears green. Note that any colored
line must alternate on and off dots
because adjacent dots appear white.
HCOLOR = 2 causes the dots of the
same line to plot in even-numbered
positions, producing violet. On revi-
sion 1 and more recently released
Apple II boards, an additional
90-degree phase shift is possible, cor-
responding to the HCOLOR = 4
through HCOLOR = 7 values. When
these values are encountered, the dot
pattern is shifted to the right by half
a dot position. This shift is ac-
complished automatically in hard-
ware whenever the high-order bit of
a color byte is set (see figure 3).

As the Apple II Reference Manual
(Cupertino, CA: Apple Computer
Inc., 1979) explains, each color byte
(7 bits in a row) can be either green,
violet, orange, or blue, with white or
black mixed in. This choice restriction
is based on the way color data is con-
verted into a video signal.

From Data to Video Signal

A byte of data from either hi-res
screen area appears on the Apple's
data bus during the low-transition of
the phase-0 clock (see figure 4). Dur-
ing this time, the computer's 6502
microprocessor is performing inter-
nal housekeeping chores, and a sec-
tion of logic is busy refreshing the
memory and ensuring that the data
appears on the bus at the right time.
The data is l atche d by the row ad-
dress select (RAS) line and loaded
into a pair of shift registers at board

A DOT HERE
WOULD APPEAR
VIOLET

A DOT HERE
WOULD APPEAR
GREEN

PHASE SHIFT, DEGREES

Figure 2: A representation of the phase relationship of a pixel

X-VALUE OF "HPLOT" | ,
COLOR REFERENCE

r. zo|". z o *- z w £j zo£ ZO

X_ia:[E__ia:a:2_ja:(rE:_i(r(r°_iir(r
>a)oo>cnoo >cd oo > m e> o > m e> o

HCOLOR = 2

A VIOLET LINE

J^Ljl

1 >

1 • 1 >

-LJT-

1 «

1 >

1 °

1

HCOLOR = 1
A GREEN LINE

| 1

1 °

1 , 1 «

J » !_•_

1 >

1 > 1

HCOLOR = 3
2 WHITE DOTS

J ' >

1 °

| ,

, |_^

HCOLOR =3

1 •

HPLOT O.Y TO 7.Y
( A WHITE LINE)

J > •

1

1 ]

i i

l

HCOLOR = 6

1

8TH BIT SHIFTS 90°
( A BLUE LINE)

_J ■ 1

° 1

1 1 •

~r\^j

1 1

• 1

' 1 •

HCOLOR = 5

8TH BIT SHIFTS 90°
AN ORANGE LINE

' 1

o | ,

.jL_m_

' 1

| ,

1 = BIT OF COLOR BYTE SET

Figure 3: The hi-res bit patterns for various HCOLOR= values.

locations B4 and B9. The signal used
to load the data byte is labeled LD194;
it originates in the timing chain. The
data bits are shifted out one by one
on every 7-MHz clock pulse into the
multiplexer at A9 and finally through
the latch at BIO. This latch uses the
14-MHz clock to "trim up" the tim-
ing of the data bits. At the base of Q3,
the video stream is mixed with a hor-

izontal synchronization pulse and the
3.58-MHz color reference.

The high-order bit of each color
byte is treated somewhat differently
from the other bits in order to effect
the phase shift of the data byte. In hi-
res mode, this bit controls the ap-
pearance of data at the output of the
multiplexer at A9 and delays the bit
stream by one cycle of the 14-MHz

450 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

MICROPRO-SOFTWARE GUIDE FOR SYSTEM BUILDING

How to teach your business procedures
without all the fancy footwork.

#.

-. '. J* %> „

i

If you're like most people who run
offices, you've spent a lot of time
developing procedures for routine
office jobs.

But until now, teaching people
to follow those routines meant
constant explanations. And re-
explanations. Especially for offices
with high turn-over.

INTRODUCING STARBURST

A software system building tool that
lets you create your
own manage-
ment system
tailored to your
own office routines.
StarBurst inte-
grates all MicroPro
programs, as well as
most other leading soft-
ware programs.

CUSTOM-DESIGNED EFFICIENCY.

With StarBurst, you can design your own
custom menus that prompt even the
most inexperienced staff member through
an assigned task. Step by step. In your
own words.

So anyone in your department can get
to work immediately. And quickly. For in-
stance with a single keystroke, data gener-
ated in Inf oStaf can be incorporated into a
letter written in WordStar! All automatically.

Which means the people in your office
save hours preparing reports, entering data or
performing just about any other routine
procedure.

Circle 544 on inquiry card.

StarBurst is also available in InfoStar+, the data
base management system for non-programmers.

TAKING THE
WORK OUT OF
ORGANIZING
YOUR OFFICE.

WeVe made system
set-up easy too. Just put
together a basic model,
then change it easily
using StarBurst's 24
menu- prompted action
commands.

You can display cus-
tomized help messages. Re-
peat sequences as often as
necessary. Even set up systems
that vary the sequence of what
a user should do next.

And StarBurst assists you
each step of the way with an
onscreen tutorial and companion
workbook.
* So set an example in produc-

* tivity for the entire office. Walk on
over to your computer dealer, and ask
about StarBurst. For the dealer nearest
you, call (800) 443-0100 ext. 948.

Hi 'ft

MicroPro.

When you start with MicroPro,
there's no stopping you.

For name of the dealer nearest you, phone (800)
443-0100 ext. 948. For more information write
MicroPro, 33 San Pablo Avenue, San Rafael, CA
94903. (415) 499-1200.

Circle 202 on inquiry card.

EMPLOYMENT
OPPORTUNITIES

ROBOTICS INSTRUCTOR

I Teach new program in Robotics a t a Minneso- >

ta Technical Institute. Salary open. Send re- I

I sume to: Director, Area VoTech Institute, I

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I EOEM/F I

New

EMPLOYMENT

OPPORTUNITIES

Section

BYTE will feature a special
section for recruitment
advertising in all future
issues.

BYTE is the perfect place
to look for those High
Technology professionals
you need— over 400,000
paid subscribers.

Or, if you're looking for a
new position, this is the
place to feature a Position
Wanted ad.

The cost for any display ad
in this new EMPLOYMENT
OPPORTUNITIES section
is only $356 per inch. For
quotes on all
EMPLOYMENT
OPPORTUNITIES ads, or
any additional information
on recruitment
advertising, call our
special recruitment
telephone sales at
212/997-2556.

Or send in your order to:

BYTE

Recruitment Advertising

Center

P.O. Box 900

New York, NY 10020

— H H«-70ns

$0

RAS

LD194

500 ns -

|* — 300ns— » ^-70n

MEMORY REFRESH
AND VIDEO STORE
TIME "WINDOW"

PROCESSOR DATA
ON BUS

MICROPROCESSOR
ACCESS "WINDOW"

VIDEO DATA
ON BUS

VIDEO DATA IN
SHIFT REGfSTERS

Figure 4: Timing signals used by the Apple 11 to interleave video data and processor data.

RW
ANO

AN1

o

74LS32

74LS74

r^v^

> 3

RW DO

U T

D Q

R
D Q

7
\

)

1

±^y

C

C

41
(O

16*
/ER CK

)

/

74LS86

L>

RAS

LD194 _T

14MHz

74S74
(AT B10)

EXISTING
SOCKET

4116 (OVER D10)

OPTIONAL FOR HIRES PAGE 2

*ALL CONNECTIONS TO THIS 4116 ARE IN PARALLEL WITH
THE EXISTING 4116 AT C10 EXCEPT FOR RW AND DO.

Figure 5: Logic for introducing a programmable 45-degree phase shift.

clock. Thus, a pattern of dots that
would ordinarily appear green is
shifted 90 degrees (about 70
nanoseconds or ns) and instead ap-
pears orange.

Note that all video data is clocked
through the latch at BIO: hi-res, low-
res, and text-bit streams. Also, in the
black-and-white hi-res mode, you can
place a single dot in any of 560
horizontal positions by choosing the
HCOLOR= that either shifts or
passes the byte in which the bit
appears.

More Phase Shifts, More Colors

One way to attain the color be-
tween green and orange, for exam-
ple, is to introduce a 45-degree phase
shift into the Apple's video circuit
and provide a means to store this ex-
tra data bit (to shift 45 degrees or not)

with the corresponding hi-res byte.
The circuit shown in figure 5 ac-
complishes this shift and adds four
more colors to the hi-res palette: red,
yellow, cyan, and indigo. Also,
because low-res data passes through
the same circuit, 12 distinct new col-
ors are added for use in low-res
mode.

Here's how it works: the phase of
the 14-MHz clock normally present at
pin 3 of the 74LS74 at BIO is now con-
trolled by an exclusive-OR gate. If the
clock appears inverted at this point,
all signals will be clocked through 35
ns early (45 degrees). Because of
variations in the propagation delay of
the 74LS194 shift registers, it is
necessary to replace the 74LS74 at BIO
with the faster 74S74.

The data bits that control the inver-
sion of the 14-MHz clock are stored

452 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

Circle 341 on inquiry card.

Decimal

-16293
-16294
-16295
-16296

Hexadecimal

C05B
C05A
C059
C058

Function

enable phase shifting
disable phase shifting
disable ninth-bit access
enable ninth-bit access

Table 1: The address references used to control the Color II board.

in the 4116 device of figure 5. This
16K- by 1-bit RAM (random-access
read/write memory) is wired in
parallel with the existing 4116 in loca-
tion CIO, except for the RW line
and the DO line. To the programmer,
it appears that a ninth bit has been
added to all locations in the lower
16K bytes of the Apple II. The ANO
line is used to control access to the
bit through the 74LS32. The output
of the RAM is latched by the RAS
line during memory refresh and
stored when the data bits of a
graphics byte are being shifted out.
The storage time is controlled by the
LD194 line and can be inhibited by
AN1, effectively turning off the phase
shift. Because there is no other access
to the data bits by the microprocessor,
the 4116 is used as a write-only
memory.

Extending the circuit of figure 5 to
include hi-res page 2 is easy: another

4116 wired in parallel with the ex-
isting one at D10 does the trick. The
RW and DO lines of both new 4116s
are also paralleled; Apple's built-in
refresh logic feeds the bit streams to
the new phase-shift circuit.

Using the Colors from Applesoft

The screen shown in photo 1 il-
lustrates that all eight colors can be
used with no loss of resolution. The
tint control is adjusted to put the cyan
midway between green and blue.
The actual colors that appear depend
on your monitor or TV and its
brightness and contrast settings.

The four memory locations that
refer to the ANO and AN1 switches
are shown in table 1. A reference to
location -16293 allows the phase
shift of the 14-MHz clock to be con-
trolled by data in the added memory.
A POKE or PEEK to -16294 restores
normal four-color operation,

Photo 1: The Apple Computer Inc. logo displayed with the colors of the expanded hi-res palette.

THE
CHURCH

Information Management
System

Your Software Guardian ™

n

MODULES

fi~| Membership
L — ' Module

[2l Stewardship
•— ' Module

Communications
and Cataloging
Module

|~4~1 Spiritual Growth
Module

[5] Outreach Module

[s\ Church Discovery
Module

Demo Packages

available for
Modules 1 , 2, 3

written in...

dBASE II™

TM-

8 and 16 BIT.CP/M compatible

DEALER INQUIRIES
WELCOME

1-800-ADAM222

^^ (1-800-232-6222)

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(404) 329-0091

Your Software Guardian, ADAM II &

User Lovin' Software are trademarks of

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User Lovin'
Software ™

November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. 453

Desired Color

Enabled Color

Disabled Color

HCOLOUR=

Name

HCOLOR =

Name

HCOLOR =

Name

blackl

blackl

blackl

1
2

green
violet

1
2

green
violet

1
2

green
violet

3

whitel

3

whitel

3

whitel

4

black2

blackl

4

black2

5
6

orange
blue

1
2

green
violet

5

6

orange
blue

7

white2

3

whitel

7

white2

8

black3

4

black2

blackl

9
10

cyan
red

5
6

orange
blue

1
2

green
violet

11

white3

7

white2

3

whitel

12

black4

4

black2

4

black2

13

14
15

yellow
indigo

white4

5
6
7

orange

blue

white2

5

6
7

orange

blue

white2

Table 2: The h

'-res key color

sequence table.

Listing 1: This program was used to produce the lower half of photo 1.

10 HOME

20 POKE - 16293,0: POKE - 16296,0: HGR : POKE - 16295,0

30 Y = 138:L = 28:H = 20 + Y

40 FOR X = 1 TO L - 2

50 HCOLOR= 3

60 HPLOT X,Y TO X,H

70 POKE - 16296,0

80 HCQLOR= 4

90 HPLOT X + 2 * L,Y TO X + 2 * L,H

100 POKE - 16295,0

110 HCOLOR= 2

120 HPLOT X + 2 * L,Y TO X + 2 * L,H

130 HCOLOR= 5

140 HPLOT X + 3 * L,Y TO X + 3 * L,H

150 POKE - 16296,0

160 HPLOT X + 4 * L,Y TO X + 4 * L,H

170 HCOLOR= 1

180 HPLOT X + 5 * L,Y TO X + 5 * L,H

190 POKE - 16296,0

200 HCOLOR= 4

210 HPLOT X + 6*L,YTOX + 6* L,H

220 HCOLOR= 1

230 POKE - 16295,0

240 HPLOT X + 6*L,YTOX+6* L,H

250 HOOLOR= 6

260 HPLOT X + 7 * L,Y TO X + 7 * L,H

270 POKE - 16296,0

280 HPLOT X + 8 * L,Y TO X + 8 * L,H

290 HCOLOR= 2

300 HPLOT X + 9 * L,Y TO X + 9 * L,H

310 POKE - 16295,0

320 NEXT

330 VTAB (21) : PRINT "WHITE RED YELLCJV CYAN INDIGO"

340 VEAB (22) : PRINT " BLACK ORANGE GREEN BLUE VIOLET"

350 VTAB (1): END

regardless of the data stored in the
new ninth-bit locations. Access to the
new bit is possible after a reference
to -16296: all data written to the
eighth bit of a byte will be copied in-
to the ninth bit. If the eighth and
ninth bits are to be different, a POKE
or PEEK to -16295 is needed to
disable access to the new bit. Then

the eighth bit can be set as desired.
Listing 1 provides the segment of
program used to create the lower half
of photo 1. The colors red and cyan
require each HPLOT to be executed
twice: once to set the ninth bit to 1,
and again to set the eighth bit to 0.
Table 2 shows a useful set of key col-
ors that, when used in sequence,

create the extended hi-res color set
from Applesoft. To plot in a particular
color, plot the "enabled" color first,
then the "disabled" color in the same
location. To prepare a screen image
for BSAVE command (saving a binary
image on disk), plot all the enabled
colors on one hi-res screen and all the
"disabled" colors on the other. The
screens can then be combined to
yield the full-color image through the
following procedure:

1. Disable the extended color fea-
tures with the statements POKE
-16294,0 and POKE -16295,0
(which place the value to hexa-
decimal memory locations C05A
and C059, respectively).

2. Plot your data, substituting the
enabled colors for the desired
colors. Plotting can be done with
Applesoft, the Programmer's Aid
in Integer BASIC, or any commer-
cial software graphics package.

3. Use the BSAVE command to save
the image, calling it IMAGE1.

4. Clear the screen and plot your
data again, using the disabled
colors in place of the desired
colors.

5. Use BSAVE to save this image
under another name; for example,
IMAGE2.

6. Combine the images by using the
statements POKE -16293,0 and
POKE -16296,0 and then retriev-
ing IMAGE1 with the BLOAD
command. Then use POKE
-16295,0 and the BLOAD com-
mand to load IMAGE2 into the
same space.

Implementing HCOLOR = 13

To make the use of table 2 more
transparent and simplify the BSAVE
process, a preprocessor can be used
to interpret otherwise innocuous Ap-
plesoft statements as special func-
tions. Listing 2 was prepared to pro-
duce the same results after prepro-
cessing as listing 1 does. When run
as is, it causes all the colored squares
to appear white. Note that in listing
2 HCOLOR= is spelled differently-
HCOLOUR = — except for its first ap-
pearance. Applesoft will ignore
HCOLOUR= as a keyword and
recognize it as the variable HC The

454 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

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preprocessor uses the variable HC to
set the HCOLOR= values needed to
satisfy table 2's color sequence. All
statements involving HPLOT, DRAW,
and XDRAW are duplicated, POKE
statements are added to enable and
disable the phase shifts, and the cor-
rect HCOLOR = values are inserted.
Because these keywords are recog-
nized by the preprocessor anywhere
in the source program, conditional
plotting in an IF statement is sup-
ported, but a remark statement that
carries a keyword can produce
strange results.

After preprocessing, the new pro-
gram can be run, listed, and other-
wise used as desired. It can even be
compiled to improve its running
time. For long programs, be careful
to avoid overwriting the hi-res
memory areas. Listing 3 shows the
results of preprocessing the program
of listing 2.

Preparing a screen for a BSAVE
command is also supported by the
preprocessor. To invoke this feature,
a digit from 1 to 5 is appended to the
name of the source program. The
enabled colors are stored in memory
according to table 3 and the disabled
colors are on the hi-res screen (1 or
2) specified by the source program.
After running the preprocessed pro-
gram and storing the images with
BSAVE, the full-color screen can be
recreated as outlined in step 6 above.

Listing 2: Listing code ready for preprocessing.

10

HOME

20

POKE

- 16293,0: POKE

-

16296,0:

HGR

30 Y = 13E

:L = 28:H =

20 +

Y;

HCOLOR=

3

40

FOR X

= 1 TO L - 2

50

READ HCOLOOR

60

HPLOT

X,Y TO X,H

70

FORK

= 2 TO 9

80

READ HCOLOUR

90

HPLOT

X + K * L,Y

TO X

+

K * L,H

100

NEXT

110

RESTORE

120

NEXT

130

VTAB

(21) : PRINT

"WHITE

RED

YEL1

140

VTAB

(22) : PRINT

ii

BLACK ORANGE

150

VTAB

(1) : END

160

DATA

3,10,5,13,1,9,6

,14

,2

POKE - 16295,0

0W CYAN INDIGO"
GREEN BLUE VIOLET"

Listing 3: The results of preprocessing on listing 2.

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

110

120

130

140

150

160

63001

63002

63003

63004

63005

63006

HOME

POKE - 16293,0: POKE - 16296,0:
Y = 138:L = 28:H = 20 + Y
FOR X = 1 TO L - 2
READ HCOLOUR

HGR : POKE - 16295,0

GQSUB 63004
FOR K = 2 TO
READ HCOIOUR
GQSUB 63006

NEXT

RESTORE

NEXT

(21) : PRINT
(22) : PRINT
(1): END
3,10,5,13,1,9,6,14,2

WHITE RED YEILOW CYAN INDIGO"

BLACK ORANGE GREEN BLUE VIOLET"

VTAB
VTAB
VTAB
DATA

END

POKE - 16296,0: HCOLOR= 4 * (HC > 7) : RETURN

POKE - 16295,0: HCOLOR= HC - 8 * (HC > 7) : RETURN

GOSUB 63002: HPLOT X,Y TO X f H: GQSUB 63003: HPLOT X,Y TO X,H

RETURN

GOSUB 63002: HPLOT X + K * L,Y TO X + K * L,H: GOSUB 63003: HPLOT X +
L,H

L,Y TO X + K
63007 RETURN

a message to our subscribers

From time to time we make the BYTE subscriber list available to other companies who wish to send our sub-
scribers 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 informa-
tion of interest to them in the mail. Used are our subscribers' names and addresses only (no other informa-
tion 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

456 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

Free Genius In Every Box,

At CompuPro, we put a little genius into each of our systems. Maybe it's our dual processor that handles both
8-bit and 16-bit software concurrently. Or another CompuPro first, M-Drive/H™ the board that does the work of a
disk drive— only faster.

In every case you can get model-to-model expandability, six processors to choose from, 12- to 36-month product
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For performance, quality and reliability at a cost-effective price, try CompuPro's System 816 family of high-
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Model A. Single-user, expandable to multi-user. Includes dual
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dual processor, 256 Kbytes of static RAM, nine serial ports,
same software as Model A, plus MP/M™ 8-16™

Model C. Our top-of-the-line multi-user microcomputer.
Supports as many as seven user workstations as well as a
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of static RAM, nine serial ports, same software as Model B.
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Model 86/87. For high-speed multi-user applications. Uses
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1.5 Mbytes of solid state disk memory give as many as five
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CP/M-86f MP/M-86j M SuperCaic-86 and SuperWriter-867 M
plus Xerox service.

Model 68K. A single-user computer that optimizes the powerful
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All basic System 816 configurations provide as much as 4.8 Mbytes of floppy disk storage, and are expandable to 1 Mbyte or
more of RAM and as much as 4 Mbytes of M-Driye/H. They ail have convenience features such as clock/calendar, interrupt
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BASIC, Pascal, PL/1 and COBOL, as well as the new ANSI FORTRAN 77™ from Digital Research.

SYSTEM 8//16

lllllllllllllllllll

For your business, industrial and scientific computing
solutions, call (415) 786-0909, ext. 206 today for the location of
the Full Service CompuPro System Center nearest you.

CP/M and CP/M-86 are registered trademarks and CP/M-68K, MP/M -86 and
FORTRAN 77 are trademarks of Digital Research. Xerox is a registered trademark
of the Xerox Corporation. CP/M 8-16 and MP/M 8-16 are compound trademarks of
Digital Research and CompuPro. SuperCalc-86 and SuperWriter-86 are trademarks
of Sorcim. dBASE II is a trademark of Ashton-Tate. Hyper-Typer Is a trademark of
Summit Software Corp. Field Companion is a trademark of Gensoft Corp. M-Drive s
and M-Drive/H are trademarks of CompuPro.

Dealer inquiries invited

Circle 91 on inquiry card.

omouPro

A GODBOUT COMPANY

3506 Breakwater Court, Hayward, CA 94545

Last Character
of Name

1
2
3

4
5

Hexadecimal Address
of Picture

2000 - 3FFF
4000 - 5FFF
6000 - 7FFF
8000 - 9FFF
A000 - BFFF

Table 3: Preprocessor BSAVE locations.
(Note: Specify 4 or 5 with caution; this
will overwrite the DOS.)

Listing 4: Pass 1 of the preprocesor

The preprocessor is written in
Applesoft and consists of three
passes. Listing 4 shows Pass 1, which
requests from the user the name of
the Applesoft source program, which
is then captured in a text file. Pass 1
invokes Pass 2 (listing 5), which
creates a modified version of the
source program and appends ".PP"
to the name. Pass 3 is then invoked
to delete the temporary files needed
for the processing (listing 6). The text
screen displays each function of the
preprocessor as it occurs. The hi-res
pages can be written over during pro-
cessing, but DOS and memory errors
are not trapped. A single disk-drive
environment is assumed.

Conclusion

Doubling the available low-res col-
ors, involves the same POKE
statements listed in table 1, and the
two-step plotting process is similar.
To select a new phase-shifted color,
use the statement POKE -16296,0 to
enable the color hardware, then plot
any color from 8 to 15 (high-bit set).
Next, disable the color hardware with
POKE - 16295,0 and plot the color ac-
cording to table 4. Because the low-
res mode treats a single byte as two
color nibbles (half-bytes) and only
one "extra" bit exists per byte, both
nibbles are either shifted or unshif ted
in color. Photo 2 shows the 32 ad-
dressable low-res colors.

Another use for hi-res phase shift-
ing is to double the number of
horizontal dot locations in black-and-
white plots. A total of 1120 horizontal
positions become addressable, sub-
ject to the restriction that any phase
shift applies to a full byte. The left
half of photo 3 was plotted by invok-

Text continued on page 463

COLOR " + CHR$ (93) + CHR$ (91) + " PRE-PROCESS

10 REM PASS1

20 D$ = CHR$ (4)

30 HOME : INVERSE : PRINT

OR READY "

40 NORMAL

50 INPUT "PLEASE ENTER PROGRAM NAME ";A$

60 VTAB (2): PRINT "CAPTURING FILE ";A$; SPC( 25)

70 PRINT : PRINT : POKE 34,3

80 REM CREATE A TEXT FILE (PASSl.EXEC) WHICH WILL CAPTURE THE

90 REM NAMED FILE FROM BASIC INTO A TEXT FIIE

100 PRINT D$"OPEN PASS 1. EXEC"

110 PRINT D$" WRITE PASSl.EXEC"

120 PRINT "LOAD "A$: REM GET IT INTO MEMORY

130 PRINT "LIST": REM PU IT ON THE SCREEN

140 REM ADD THE ' CAPTURING' STATEMENTS

150 PRINT "1 PRINr-CHR$(4)" + CHR$ (34) + "OPEN" + A$ +

160 PRINT "2 PRINT CHR$(4)" + CHR$ (34) + "DELETE" + A$

TEXT" + CHR$ (34)
".TEXT" + CHR$ (34)

170 PRINT "3 PRINT CHR$(4)" + CHR$ (34) + "OPEN" + A$ + ".TEXT" + CHR$ (34)

180 PRINT "4 PRIN CHR$(4)" + CHR$ (34) + "WRITE" + A$ + ".TEXT" + CHR$ (34)

190 PRIN "5 POKE33,30"

200 PRINT "6 LIST 10,"

210 PRINT "7 PRINT CHR$(4)" + CHR$ (34) + "CLOSE" + A$ + ".TEXT" + CHR$ (34)

220 PRINT "8 POKE 33,39:END"

230 PRINT "63999 REM LAST STATEMENT": REM JUST IN CASE IT WASN'T INCLUDED

240 PRINT "RUN": REM START THE CAPTURING PROCESS

250 PRINT "RUN PASS 2" : REM LINK TO THE NEXT PASS

260 PRINT A$: REM PASS THE PROGRAM NAME

270 PRINT D$"CLOSE PASSl.EXEC"

280 PRINT D$"EXEC PASSl.EXEC": REM NOW GO DO IT, ALREADY

Listing 5: Pass 2 of the preprocessor.

10 REM PASS2 - PRE-PPOCESSOR

20 DIM ST$(100): REM ALLOW UP TO 100 'HPLOT' STATEMENTS

30 01$ = "GOSUB63002:"

4 02$ = ":GOSUB63003:"

50 D$ = CHR$ (4) :T$ = CHR$ (1) :EN$ = "63999":R$ = CHR$ (13) :PT$ = ":RETURN"

60 INPUT "IOAD FIIE ";A$: REM MAGIC TRICK - PASS1 EXEC SUPPLIES THIS DATA

70 REM CHECK FOR BSAVE PAGE#

80 SW$ = RIGHT$ (A$,l) : REM GET IAST CHAR OF NAME

90 SW = 0: REM RESET THE SWITCH

100 IF SW$ > "0" AND SW$ < "6" THEN SW = 1: REM SET THE SWITCH

POKE 34,0: VTAB (2): PRINT "SCANNING FIIE ";A$;".TEXT"

PRINT : PRINT : POKE 34,3

PRINT D$"OPEN"A$".TEXT"

PRINT D$"READ"A$".TEXT"
150 S$ = "": REM START OF GET-LOOP
160 GET B$: IF B$ < > R$ THEN S$ = S$ + B$: GOTO 160

PRINT T$S$: IF LEN (S$) = THEN 150

IF LEFT$ (S$,5) = EN$ THEN 320: REM ALL DONE WITH INPUT

REM SCAN FOR "H" - A PRELIMINARY LOOK
UN = LEN (S$) - 5:1 = 2: REM MAX SCAN RANGE
210 MS$ = MID$ (S$,I,1)
220 IF MS$ = "H" OR MS$ = "X" OR MC$ =
230 I = I + 1: IF I = LN THEN 150
240 GOTO 210

250 REM GOT ONE; IS IT "HPLOT"
260 MS$ = MID$ (S$,I,5)

110
120
130
140

170
180
190
200

"D" THEN 250

270
280
290
300
310
320
330
340
350
360
370
380

"HPLOr" OR MC$ = "XDRAW" OR MC$ = "DRAW " THEN 290

IF MS$

GOTO 150

REM ves, IT'S AN HPLOT
K = K + 1:ST$(K) = S$

IF K < 100 THEN 150

PRINT D$"CLOSE"A$".TEXT"

POKE 34,0: VTAB (2): PRINT "ANALYZING FIIE ";A$;".TEXT

PRINT : PRINT : POKE 34,3

REM CREATE THE PRE-PROCESSED PROGRAM IN A TEXT FILE

PRINT D$"OPEN OUT. TEXT"

PRINT D$ "WRITE OUT. TEXT"

PRINT : PRINT "LOAD" + A$
390 KMAX = K:K = 0:GSN = 3003
400 REM 'GSN' IS A GENERATED STATEMENT NUMBER

PRINT "63001 END": REM JUST TO BE SURE

PRINT "63002 POKE- 16296, : HCOIOR=4* (H07) : RETURN"

PRINT "63003 POKE - 16295,0: HCOLOR= HC - 8 * (HC > 7) : RETURN"
K = K + 1: IF K > KMAX THEN 650
ST$(K) :I = 2:LS = LEN (S$)
I + 1: IF I > LS THEN PRINT S$: GOTO 420: REM DONE WITH THIS STATEMENT

Listing 5 continued on page 460

410
412
414
420
430 S$
440 I :

458 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

Buy Miaomodem He™ with Smartcom Fscftware
right now, and get this $140 value FREE!

their toll-free number. And you're
already well on your way to getting
on-line!

It frees up your time. This offer also
entitles you to $2075 worth of connect
time-at no charge. Use it as you please!
Check the latest news and sports.
Look up your flight schedule. View
your stock portfolio. You name it. The
time is yours! Sixty minutes worth, or
more, depending on the day and
hour

Giving you lots of connec
tions. THE
SOURCE has
assembled the
most compre-
hensive programs avail-
able on any system. For
fun and practical appli-
cations. From games
to commodity news.
Electronic mail
to telecon-
-* ferencing.

Discount shopping to abstracts of articles
from business magazines. And everything
you need to know is right there in your
comprehensive, illustrated User's Manual.
It's included with your free membership
to THE SOURCE during this special,
limited time offer from Hayes.
Plus the last word on communications.
Now here's a book that delivers what it
promises! In Alfred Glossbrenner's best
seller, THE COMPLETE HANDBOOK OF
PERSONAL COMPUTER COMMUNICA-
TIONS, you'll find a thorough, informative
study of microcompu-
ter communications.
Worth every cent of
the $19.95 this hard-
bound book sells for And yours absolutely
free! If you act now! See your dealer soon.
Buy Micromodem He with Smartcom I,
and get the best telecomputing system for
your Apple. Plus a $140 value FREE.
Hayes Microcomputer Products, Inc.
5923 Peachtree Industrial Blvd., Norcross,
Georgia 30092. 404/449-8791.

[ connec- l iuivs , you n d

©Hayes

Between Nov. 1-Jan. 15, you and

your Apple can make the big break.
From isolated desktop computing.
Totheexdtingworldoftelecomput- I
ing. With Hayes Micromodem lie
and Smartcom I communications
software. A complete telecomputing
package for Apple II, III, He or Apple
Plus computers. Let Micromodem
He connect you, via telephone
lines, to computers, terminals ?
and information services all
across America. Including THE
SOURCES AMERICA'S INFORMA-
TION UTILITY.™

This offer takes you right to THE
SOURCE! And you won't have to
pay to join! The same day you pur-
chase your Micromodem He with
Smartcom I. call THE SOURCE on

Circle 210 on inquiry card.

IWhen you purchase your Micro-
• modem He with Smartcom I, save
your sales receipt and Hayes registration
card (packed inside the box).

2 Pick up the phone and call THE
• SOURCE, on their toll-free number:

1-800-336-3366.

Tell THE SOURCE representative that you
are participating in the special Hayes pro-
motion, give the serial number of your
Micromodem He (on the modem), and your
credit card number (VISA, MasterCard, or
American Express).f You will get your
password to THE SOURCE, right on the spot!

3 Within a week you will receive an
. agreement from THE SOURCE, along
with your New Member Kit. Sign the agree-
ment, and return it within 10 days to THE
SOURCE, along with your sales receiptf or
Micromodem Ile/Smartcom I. and Hayes
registration card. Remember; send no money.
Your membership is free!

4 That's all it takes! Look for your User's
• Manual and free communications book
within two weeks of receipt of the agree-
ment, sales receipt and registration card.

fTHE SOURCE requiresa major creditcard for billing of
hourly connect time to individual members. Corporate
members may apply for direct billing.

•Suggested retail price. * *60 minutes or more connect time, depending on the day and hour:

©1983 Hayes Microcomputer Products. Inc. Micromodem lie and Smartcom I are trademarks of Hayes Microcomputer Products, Inc.
THE SOURCE and AMERICA'S INFORMATION UTILITY are service marks of Source Telecomputing Corporation, a subsidiary of The
Reader's Digest Association. Inc. Apple Computer is a registered trademark of Apple Computer. Inc.

BYTE November 1983

459

Listing 5 continued:

450 MS$ = MID$ (S$,I,1)
460 IF MS$ = "H" OR MS$
470 GOTO 440
480 MS$ = rHD$ (S$,I,5)

"X" OR MS$ = "D" TliEN 480

490
500
510
520
530
540

LEN (S$)

IF MS$ = "HPLOT" OR MS$ = "XDRAW" OR MS$ = "DRAW M THEN 510

GOTO 440

REM GOT IT, NOW SCAT"! FOR ":" OR END
J = I + 5:GSN = GSN + 1
J = J + 1: IF J > LS THEN 550

IF MID$ (S$,J,1) < > ":" TliEN 530
550 Itf = J - I:H$ = MID$ (S$,I,LH) : REM H$=THE HPLOT SEQ1ENT
560 TAIL$ = "": IF J < LS THEN T?IL$ = KED$ (S$,J)
570 S$ = LRPT$ (S$,I - 1) + "GOSUB6" + STR$ (GSN) + TAIL$:LR =
580 LT = LH + LH + 74: REM. LENGTH OF THE NEW STRING

590 IF LT < 239 THEN OUT$ = "F" + STR$ (GSN) + 01$ + H$ + 02$ + H$: PRINr OUT$
: GOTO 620

600 REM IF H$ IS TOO BIG W, VTLLL NEED MORE THAN ONE LINE

610 IF LT > 238 THEN OUT$ = "6" + STR$ (GSN) + 01$ + H$: PRINT OUT$:GSN = GSN
+ l:OUT$ = M 6" + STR$ (GSN) + 02$ + H$: PPINT OUT$

620 IF SV 7 = THEN GSN = GSN + l:OUT$ = "6" + STR$ (GSN) + "RETURN": PRINT OUT
$:I = I + 10: GOTO 440
630 RET1 EXERCISE BSAVE OPTION

640 GSN = GSN + l:OUT$ = "6" + STR$ (GSN) + "POKE 8,PEEK (230) : POKE 230," + STR
$ (32 * VAL (SW$)) + " :HCOLOR=4*(HC>7) :" + H$ + " :POKE230,PEEK(8) " + RT$: PRINT
OUT$:I =1+10: GOTO 440
650 REM NORMAL EXIT
660 PRINT "LIST"
670 PRINT "SAVE" + A$ + ".PP"
680 PRINT "DELETE" + A$ + ".TEXT"
690 PRINT "RUN PASS3": REM LINK TO I AST PASS
700 PRINT D$"CLOSE OUT. TEXT"

710 POKE 34,0: VTAB (2) : PRINT "CREATING FILE " + A$ + "
720 PRINT : PRINT : POKE 34,3

73 REM THERE'S A HIDDEN COTRL-D IN THE NEXT STATEMENT
740 PRINT "EXEC OUT. TEXT"

Listing 6: Pass 3 of the preprocessor.

10 REM PASS3 - CLFAN UP UNNEEDED FILES

20 D$ = QIR$ (4)

30 PRINT D$"DELETE OUT. TEXT".

40 PRINT D$"DELETE PASS1.EXEC"

50 POKE 34,0: HOME

60 PPJNT "PROCESSING COMPLETE"

70 PRINT D$"CATALOG"

80 NEW

.PP

Color Number

Normal Color

Shifted Color

black

black

1

magenta

red

2

dark blue

blue-violet

3

violet

rose

4

dark green

steel blue

5

gray

blue gray

6

medium blue

violet blue

7

light blue

red violet

8

brown

forest green

9

orange

tan

10

gray

red gray

11

pink

orange yellow

12

kelly green

medium green

13

yellow

light green

14

aqua

sky blue

15

white

white

Table 4: The extended

palette of low-res colors.

460 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

To find out where we're showing
off the P1350 printer, call one of
these Toshiba distributors:

COMPU SHOP
1355 Glenville Drive
Richardson, TX 75081
(214) 783-1252

CYPRESS DISTRIBUTING CO., INC.
1266 Lincoln Avenue
Suite 109

San Jose, CA 95125
(408)297-9800
DIGITAL ENTRY SYSTEMS
27 Spruce Street
Waltham, MA 02154
(617)899-6111
GENERAL BUSINESS
COMPUTERS, INC.
2 North Olney Avenue
Cherry Hill. NJ 08003
(609)424-6500
GENERAL MICROCOMPUTER
Georgetown Center
52303 Emmons Road #26
South Bend. IN 46637
(219) 277-4972
INTECH GROUP
Royal Commerce Center
2025 Royal Lane
Dallas, TX 75229
(214) 241-1717

KALTRONICS DISTRIBUTORS. INC.
702 Landwehr Rd.
Northbrook, IL 60062
(312)291-1220
MICRO DISTRIBUTORS
11 794 Parklawn Drive
Rockville, MD 20852
(301) 468-6450 or
(600)638-6621

MICROAMERICA DISTRIBUTING CO.
17103 Kingsview Avenue
Carson, CA 90746

(213) 327-6030
1050 Remington Road
Schaumburg, IL 60195
(312) 882-0095
366 Washington Street
Wellesley. MA 02181
(617)431-7660

1461 Exchange Drive
Richardson, TX 75081

(214) 235-3616

MICROWARE DISTRIBUTORS, INC.
20415 S.W. Blanton Avenue
Aloha, OR 97007

(503) 642-7679

MIDTEC ASSOCIATES

8363 Quivira Road

Lenexa, KN 66215

(913) 541-1711

MONROE DISTRIBUTINGCO.

2999 Payne Avenue

Cleveland, OH 44114

(216)781-4600

PARAGON SALES, INC.

780 Charcot Avenue

San Jose, CA 95131

(408)263-7955

PREMIER SOURCE DISTRIBUTING

1882 McGaw Avenue

Irvine, CA 92714

(714)261-2011

STAR DATA, INC

4021 N. 30th Street. Suite 4

Phoenix, AZ 85016

(602)955-9233

SYSPRINT..INC.

7777 S. Central Expressway, Suite 2A

Richardson, TX 75080

(214)669-3666

TRANSALASKA DATA SYSTEMS, INC

200 Center Court

Anchorage. AK 99502

(907) 561-1776

... Or these Toshiba Regional

Offices:

TOSHIBA AMERICA, INC.

177 Madison Avenue

Post Office Box 2331 R

Morristown. NJ 07960

(201)326-9777

TOSHIBA AMERICA, INC.

662 Office Parkway

The Colonnade Building

St. Louis. MO 63141

(314)991-0751

TOSHIBAAMERICA, Inc.

2555 Cumberland Parkway. Suite 285

Atlanta, GA 30339

(404)434-3891

TOSHIBA AMERICA, INC.

18017 Sky Park Circle

Suites P and O

Irvine, CA 92714

(714) 250-0151

In Touch with Tomorrow

TOSHIBA

Circle 477 on inquiry card.

Nothing shows off

your IBM PC
likefoshiba's P1350

Now there's one three-way printer
that fully equals the word processing,
data and graphics capacity of your
IBM PC: Toshiba's P1350.

But the P1350 is more than com-
patible with PC hardware. It will
print programs like Lotus 1-2-3 data
processing and graphics output with
remarkable character definition*

For even more flexibility, the
Toshiba P1350 with Qume SPRINT 5
emulation handles all popular word
processing programs. Under software
command, the P1350 will print high-
speed drafts or switch to letter-quality
text and graphics.

The innovation behind this three-
in-one flexibility is Toshiba's print
head. Pin diameter has been reduced
to just eight mils. And the number of

See us at Comdex booth 5153.

Circle 478 on inquiry card.

pins in the print head
has been increased to 24.

The result is a superior 360 by 180
dot-per-inch density pattern in the
text mode. Instead of spinning your
wheels at 40 cps, the P1350 produces
letter- quality printing at 100 cps. In
its draft mode, Toshiba's P1350 can
accelerate up to 192 cps.

When it comes to graphics, the
P1350 really shows its stuff. Whatever
your computer displays, Toshiba's
P1350 prints. With astonishingly
clear definition. And extra-fine repro-
duction that can only come from a
print head capable of 200 million
impressions and exclusive 180 by 180
dot- per- inch graphics density pattern.

In Touch with Tomorrow

TOSHIBA

Information Systems Division, TOSHIBA AMERICA, INC.

Then, if that's not
enough to pique your
interest, the P1350 also
features three differ ent font s. Variable
pitch. Subscripts, superscripts and
underlining without the need of a
secondpass.Asuper-reliable, optional
sheet feeder. And more.

So show offyour IBM. OR ANY
OTHER PERSONAL COMPUTER.
With the superior quality and
flexibility of Toshiba's spectacular
P1350 printer.

Distributors on the adjacent list
make it easy to find the P1350. Or
get more information by calling,
toll-free, 1-800-457-7777.

*IBM PC to P1350 graphics utilizes PaperScreen and color
graphics adapter. IBM PC is a Trademark of International
Busi ness Machi nes. Lotus and 1 -2-3 areTYademarksof Lotus
Development Corporation. © 1983 Toshiha America. Inc.

BYTE November 1983 461

1

It's an executive's dream. From a lifeless heap
of charts, tables, diagrams and data comes
a full color, comprehensive, three-dimensional
slide presentation in one working day.

The most impactful, pertinent, and concise
analysis of your complex data — on-screen
computer-generated color graphics — is trans-
lated for presentation to 35mm color slide film
and ready for processing the same day

The VX Series from Vectrix, seen here tailored
specifically for the IBM PC* can create high
resolution, superior quality presentation graph-
ics for thousands and thousands of dollars
less than ever before possible. No other color
graphics machine near this price offers 512
colors per pixel from a palette of over 16 million.
The VX Series from Vectrix has a versatile
paint program, allowing color images to be

i

i

programmed on-screen much as an artist
paints on canvas. And, for the first time, auto-
matic reproduction of 35mm slides is possible
with breathtaking accuracy

The VX Series, functioning as a co-processor
to virtually any host computer, delivers the first
truly affordable in-house color graphics pre-
sentation capabilities to the business world.
With on-board software, hardware line and
arc generation, built-in command set and
character generation from a user-friendly for-
mat — Vectrix can color every business pre-
sentation a success for less money than you
ever imagined. For specifications and tech-
nical data on the VX Series, and additional
features and options, call toll f ree : 1-800-334-8181.
Vectrix Corporatioa 1416 Boston Road,
Greensboro, North Carolina 27407

r

IBM PC is a trademark of International Business Machines
©1983 Vectrix Corporation
IBM PC courtesy of Entre Computer Center, Greensboro, NC

: -

Discover the first
affordable high-
resolution color
graphics worksta-
tion that delivers
35mm slide film
the same day

VECTRIX OVERSEAS
DISTRIBUTORS

Lucas Ahlstrom
Progress Data AB
Sundbyberg, Sweden
Telex 20006

Cliff Cawood
Systems Link Pty., Ltd.
Johannesburg,
South Africa
Telex: 82574

Pierre-Alain Cotte
Multisoft
Paris, France
Telephone: 783-8837

Terry Gray
Microprocessor

Applications Pty, Ltd.
Victoria Australia
Telex: 31187

David Moseley
Sintrom Electronics, Ltd.
Berks, England
Telex 847395

Alan Rosenthal
Megatronix, Inc.
Ontario, Canada
Telex: 266104926150

Vectrix Corporation
1416 Boston Road
Greensboro
North Carolina 27407

1-8CO-334-8181

Circle 492 on inquiry card.

Photo 2: The 32 addressable low-res colors.

Photo 3: A black-and-white example, created
drawn using selected HCOLOUR= values;
HC0L0R=3 (white).
Text continued from page 458
ing the appropriate colors to smooth
out the lines; the right half was
plotted using the usual HCOLOR = 3
(white).

Writing a Pac-Man game in all the
original colors is now a little closer to
reality, but it will have to wait. What
we really need is an eight-color hi-res
screen dump for one of those new
color printers. . . .■

using phase-shifted plotting. The left side was
the right half was plotted with the standard

Robert H. Sturges jr. (134 Markham Dr., ML
Lebanon, PA 15228) is a senior engineer at
Westinghouse Electric Corp.

To receive a 5V4-inch disk with the source code
for the preprocessor described in this article and
12 demonstration programs, send $14.95 to
Robert H. Sturges Jr., POB 83, Oakdale, PA
15071.

November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

463

THE WORD IS

"After careful study,

we standardized on the IBM-PC. And the IDE line

was the only choice for our add-ons."

-Randall B. Grossman, Management Analysis Center, Cambridge,M A

When Fortune 500 companies hire you to plan and implement top management strategies, you just don't have
room for error. So when Management Analysis Center decided to standardize on add-ons for their IBM PCs, they
wanted the most reliable, most integrated line of products they could find. Their choice? Significantly, IDE.

"We quickly learned that we wanted an IDE expansion board in every PC." MAC began by trying several other
brands of add-ons- but things didn't always go as they were supposed to.All that changed when they discovered the
IDEAplus Combination Card from IDE. Before long they were trying other IDE products. And soon after that, they
were using all of our products simultaneously. With beautiful, trouble-free results.

"Now when we install an IDE board, I almost don 't bother to test it! 7 Of course, one reason people may feel they
don't have to test our products is because we test them. Not just as components^ but as integrated units- and for 100%

*See all of IDE s products at COMDEX: Shown above,our IDEAboard Memory Card, IDEAplus Combination Card, IDEAComm 1200 Integral Modem,
and IDE Adisk Winchester Disk Drive (available in 5MB-40MB capacities); plus our IDEAshare and IDEAnet disk-sharing and networking products,

OUT ON IDE:

See us at

COmMHTMl '83

November 28-December 2, 1983
Booth Number W948 West Exhibit Hall

Circle 220 on inquiry card.

of their functions. But product performance is only one side of our reliability. . .

"Their service is just superb. And we can count on it in all our offices nationwide!' Support- that's the other
side of our reliability.And you 'll find plenty of it at IDE. Across the country and internationally. It's the kind of support
that will be there in the future, too, as our line expands *

"When it comes to add-ons for the IBM PC, it just isn V worth going
anywhere else! 1 If reliability across a broad product line sounds like
something you can use, give us a call at 1-800-257-5027 (in Massachusetts,
call 6l7-275-4430).Or visit us at COMDEX November 28 to December 2.
Eitherwaywe'llgetthewordouttoyouonlDE.

Associates

Better ideas for personal computers.

IDEAssociates, Inc., 7 Oak Park Drive, Bedford, MA 01730

IDEAComm 3278 Mainframe Communications Card, IDEAmini I/O Card, and IDEAgraph family of graphics products.

TKTOC
WE'VE GOT
THE CLOCK

Enhance the performance of your IBM® PC or XT with RAM + 3, a new
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Lithium Powered Clock The RAM + 3
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And the inexpensive lithium battery ensures that
the clock keeps accurate time even when the power
is off.
RS-232 Serial Port It's an easy way to connect letter quality
printers, modems and other peripherals to your IBM. It's
compatible with IBM's Asynchronous Communications Adapter
and can be selected as either COM1 or COM2. No translation
software is required.

Parallel Printer Port Designed to operate most
parallel printers, it is functionally identical to and
completely compatible with the IBM Printer
Adapter.

Memory Options To increase the memory
capacity of your IBM, there are five RAM + 3
memory options: Ok, 64k, 128k 192k, and 256k.
The memory expansion boards are socketed and
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a no memory, unsocketed RAM + 3 is also
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FLASH DISK™ and FLASH PRINT™ To
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FLASH DISK lets you designate as much as 576k
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FLASH PRINT is a user definable buffer that lets
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memory as a buffer. Your printer can run at its
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RAM+ 3 is Available and Affordable Seattle Computer RAM + 3 boards are
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RAM +3 prices start at $210.00*

*(Unsocketed, no memory version;
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®IBM is a registered trademark of International Business Machines Corporation
466 BYTE November 1983

&mm

TER

Seattle Computer Products, Inc. ,
1114 Industry Drive, Seattle, WA 98188
Circle 411 on inquiry card.

A Character Editor for the

IBM PC

The Font program replaces part of the IBM PCs
character set with user-defined symbols

Designed to display musical nota-
tion on the IBM Personal Computer's
screen, a BASIC program called Font
lets you substitute custom symbols
for a portion of the computer's stan-
dard character set. And even if you're
not interested in character-set design
and manipulation, you might still
find this article of interest— Font
makes heavy use of sof tkeys (assign-
able keys) and sof tkey trapping, thus
demonstrating techniques you can
use in a wide variety of programming
chores.

Hardware Requirements

Font is designed to run on an IBM
Personal Computer (PC) with 64K
bytes of RAM (random-access read/
write memory), an 80-character by
25-line high-resolution monitor, a
color-graphics-monitor adapter, a
5 ¥4 -inch disk-drive adapter, and
BASICA (the advanced BASIC inter-
preter); you can, however, modify it
to run with less equipment.

Before considering Font's operation
in detail, consider how the IBM PC
handles character display during nor-
mal operation. It features a standard
font consisting of 256 characters

by Raymond A. Diedrichs

(listed in reference 1, appendix G),
each of which is assigned a code
ranging from to 255. The decimal
code 65/ for example, signifies the
capital letter A. The computer
displays each character within an 8-
by 8-dot box on its screen, and
displaying A, for instance, is merely
a matter of illuminating specific dots
within the box. An integrated circuit
called a character generator stores the

The IBM Personal

Computer displays 256

standard characters

using an on-board

character generator.

box patterns for all 256 characters; to
display a character, the computer's
display electronics looks up that
character's code in the character
generator and illuminates the cor-
responding dots on the screen.

The computer isn't limited to dis-
playing the patterns stored in the
character generator, however. It has
two graphics modes— Screen Modes
1 and 2— that allow substitution of

custom patterns for the upper 128
standard patterns (the ones above
hexadecimal 80). Reference 2 (pages
3 through 6) provides a terse discus-
sion of the substitution mechanics.

Essentially, to substitute your own
patterns when the computer is in
Screen Mode 1 or 2, you need only
write the starting memory location of
your custom set of box patterns into
the 8088 microprocessor's interrupt
vector IP hexadecimal, located at
memory location 125 (decimal). You
can think of this vector as a flag
variable that the computer tests when
it's in a graphics mode and com-
manded to print a character whose
code is greater than 127. If the
variable is not 0, the computer
assumes that the value is a pointer to
the custom pattern table, and it
displays the custom pattern rather
than the standard one.

In summary, then, redefining char-
acters when using the PC requires
placing the computer in a graphics
mode, storing the address of a re-
placement pattern table in interrupt
vector IP hexadecimal, and generat-
ing and loading the pattern table that
reflects your custom character set.

November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. 467

PREVENT THE DISASTER

OF HEAD CRASH AND

DROPOUT.

The war against dust and dirt
never ends. So before you boot-
up your equipment, and
everytime you replace a
cassette, disk or drive
filter, be sure to use Dust-Off II;
it counteracts dust, grit and lint.
Otherwise you're flirting with
costly dropouts, head crashes
and downtime.

Dust-Off II is most effective
when used with Stat-Of f II. Stat-
Off II neutralizes dust-holding
static electricity while Dust-Off II
blasts loose dust away. There's
alsothe Dual Extender and Mini-
Vac for vacuuming dust out of
hard-to-reach places.

Photographic professionals
have used Dust-Off brand
products consistently on
their delicate lenses and
expensive cameras for
over ten years. They
know it's the safe, dry,
efficient way to contami
nant-free cleaning.

Cleaning not provided by liquid

cleaners.

Dust-Off II's remarkable

pinpoint accuracy zeros in on the

precise area being dusted. And
you have total control — every-
thing from a gentle breeze for

iystSnll

Stat-Of f II neutralizes dust-holding
static electricity from media and
machines.

delicate computer mechanisms
to a heavy blast for grimy dirt.
Don't let contamination dis-
rupt your computer operation.
Stock up on Dust-Off II — the ad-
vanced dry cleaning system,
at your local computer or
office supply dealer.

Or send $1.00 (for
postage and handling)
for a 3 oz. trial size and
literature today.

Dust-OffH

The safe dry cleaning system

FalconSafeiy Products, Inc.. 1065 Bristol Road, Mountainside, NJ 07092

Font Generation Using Softkeys

When you design a character set,
the effort divides into three parts:
character design, experimentation
with designed characters, and design
refinement.

Reflecting this division of effort,
Font offers the following functions:

• character editing
•experimental use of characters

• experiment saving
•experiment loading

• character-pattern saving
•character-pattern loading

The first two functions further
divide into subfunctions. The char-
acter-editing function, for example,
includes four subfunctions:

• defining a character as edited
•copying a pattern from some other
character

•erasing a character pattern
•aborting the current edited version
of a character

The PC's softkeys make programs
divided into functions and subfunc-
tions easy to implement and use. The
Font user is guided from function to
subf unction by means of the softkeys
and the softkey menu displayed on
the bottom (twenty-fifth) screen line,
or menu line. Also, the softkey tech-
nique prevents confused users from
trying to use features of one function
after invoking another function. Only
those operations displayed on line 25
can be selected; the computer thus
ensures that only appropriate fea-
tures can be chosen.

Font uses softkeys (both function
and cursor) in the trap mode, as op-
posed to the generate-character-
string mode. In the trap mode, each
enabled softkey is assigned both a
trap subroutine and a menu phrase
that's displayed on the screen's menu
line. When an enabled softkey is
pressed, the assigned subroutine is
executed regardless of any other pro-
gram line that is executing. No IN-
PUT statements are required here,
thus eliminating the insatiable
prompting "?" and "Redo from start"
command.

468 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

Circle 186 on inquiry card.

INTRODUCING
THE 1WO-PRINTER

MKROBUFFER 1 1 +

Like all Microbuffer models, the Microbuffer 11+
eliminates waiting for your printer to finish
before you can use your computer again. It allows
you to print and process simultaneously.

But the Microbuffer 11+ has one unique quality
not found in any other Microbuffer: it can be used
with virtually any printer— serial or parallel, or both
at once!

If you have an Apple II, 11+ , Il/e and more than
one printer, Microbuffer 11+ can eliminate a
tremendous bottleneck.

While your parallel printer is going at full
speed, your serial printer can be printing the same
file or a different file right along with it. And you
can be using the Apple to do something else at
the same time.

The Microbuffer 11+ printer interface will fully
support the Apple He 80-column format. And it
allows an 80-column screen dump from the
Videx' 80-column board in your Apple II or 11+ .

Perhaps, best of all, Microbuffer 11+ is versatile
and smart. It supports over 30 commands for text
formatting, sending printer controls, printing screen
dumps and setting up the MII+ itself. AND it
includes graphics print routines for nine popular
printers as well as 8 additional graphics printing
commands. Whether you have 1 printer or 2,
Microbuffer gives you the maximum amount of
printing flexibility in the minimum amount of time.

The new Microbuffer 11+ is available now in
16K, 32K, and 64K models. Ask your dealer for a
demonstration, or for further information.

microbuffer:

so what are you waiting for?.

Another fine ^^^=- _ _— .

product from S^PRAGTIGAL

^PERIPHERALS

31245 La Baya Drive, Westlake Village, CA 91362
(213) 991-8200 . TWX 910-336-5431

See us at Comdex corner of 156 & 257.

Circle 367 on inquiry card.

BYTE November 1983

469

Lines 1000-1999

Softkey routines

Lines 2000-2999

Character-edit utilities

Lines 3000-3999

General utilities

Lines 4000-4999

Character-pattern

load/save

Lines 5000-5999

Character edit

Lines 6000-6999

Character experimenta-

tion

Lines 7000-7999

Experiment load/save

Lines 8000-8999

Initialization

Lines 9000-9999

MAIN

Table 1: Memory assignments for the

subroutines in the program shown in

listing 1.

Listing 1: The Font character editor for the IBM PC.

Softkeys in Use

Let's see how Font manipulates
softkeys. The program is given in
listing 1, and Font's road map is
shown in table 1. The table indicates
that Font's module MAIN starts at
line 9000 of listing 1.

MAIN executes an infinite loop:

DO FOREVER
IF SUBROUTINE_HAS_RUN
IS TRUE
PERFORM MAIN SOFTKEY
INITIALIZATION
SHOW SCREEN PROMPTS
ENDIF
ENDDO

The SUBROUTINE_HAS_RUN
flag (variable FSUBR) is set true dur-
ing initialization and by any function
module that is executed. MAIN loops
patiently and does very little work.
So what happens when a softkey
is pressed? To answer that, first look
at the subroutine MAIN uses to set
up the softkeys for its functions.
Listing 2 is a simplified version of this
subroutine, showing only the setup
for the Fl key Softkey Fl is assigned
the word "STOP" and a trap subrou-
tine starting at line 1040. When
MAIN is executing and you select the
STOP function by hitting Fl, the PC's
BASIC interpreter instantly ceases to
execute MAIN'S program statements
(it remembers where it left off, how-
ever) and begins executing Fl's trap-
routine statements beginning at line
1040. If you glance at line 1055 in
listing 1, you'll see that this is in fact
the driver for the STOP function— it
closes all files and executes a STOP
Text continued on page 476

470 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

FONT EDITOR ^'1.0

R. A* DIEDRICHS 12 APRIL* 1982

00 REM

05 REM

10 REh

15 REh

20 GOTO 3005

000 REM

005 REM SOFTKEY ROUTINES

010 REM

015 IF ER>hINR THEN ER=ER-1

RETURN

IF EOhINC THEN EC=EC-i: FCHNG=1 'CURSOR LEFT

RETURN

IF EC<hAXC THEN EC=EC+1 J FCHNG=1

RETURN

IF ER<hAXR THEN' ER=ER+1

020
025
030
035
040
045
050
055
060
065
070
075
080
085

'CURSOR UP

'CURSOR RIGHT

RETURN

close: stop: return
fsubr=1j return

FAB0RT=i: RETURN
FDEFINE=1J RETURN
FC0PY=i: RETURN
FERASE=1J RETURN
FREPEAT=1J RETURN

'CURSOR DOWN

■' STOP

•' RETURN

' CEDIT ABORT

•'CEDIT DEFINE

'CEDIT COPY

'CEDIT ERASE

'CUSE REPEAT

090 REM DISPLAY PSEUD0 CURSOR AT * ERfEC ) UNTIL USER DATA ENTRY OCCURS

095
100

105
110
115
120
125
130
135
140
145
150
15 5
160
165
170
175
180
185

x=(ec+coff)*3: y=* er+roff )*a: get < x»y )-*x+7,y+7)»cur: r$= ,,m

WHILE R$ = "" AND FSUBR=0 AND FAB0RT=0 AND FDEFINE=0 AND FREPEAT=0

AND FC0PY=0 AND FERASE=0 AND FDUhP=0
PUT (XfY)fCURS0R»PSETJ R$=INKEY*J PUT ( X, Y >>CUR»PSET
X=( EC+C0FF)*3J Y=( ER+ROFF )*3I GET ( X» Y >- * X + 7» Y + 7 )»CUR

WEND

RETURN
REh NULL ALL SOFTKEYS

FOR 1=1 TO 10: KEY I r "" I KEY* I ) OFF: NEXT I

FOR 1 = 11 TO 14: KEY( I ) OFF: NEXT I

RETURN
REh hAIN hODE SOFT KEY SETUP

G0SUB 1125

KEY 1»"ST0P": KEY 2*"CL0AD": KEY 3 » " CSA'v'E" I KEY 4»"CEDIT"

KEY 5f"CUSE H : KEY 6»"EL0AD ,r : KEY 7y"ESAVE M

ON KEYd ) GOSUB 1055 J ON
ON KEY* 4) GOSUB 501 OJ ON
ON KEY(7) GOSUB 7070
FOR 1 = 1 TO 7: KEY* I ) ON:
RETURN

190 REh CEDIT hAIN SOFKEY SETUP

195 GOSUB 1125

200 KEY 1» "RETURN"

205 ON KEY< 1 ) GOSUB 1060

210 KEY (1) ON

215 RETURN

220 REh CEDIT CHARACTER SOFTKEY SETUP 1

KEY* 2) GOSUB 4015:
KEY* 5) GOSUB 601 0:

ON KEY< 3 ) GOSUB 405^:
ON KEY(6) GOSUB 7005

NEXT It DEF SEG: POKE 106 »0

230

235

240

245

250

255

260

265

270

275

280

285

290

295

300

305

310

315

320

325

330

335

2000

2005

2010

2015

2020

2025

2030

2035

2040

2045

2030

2035

2060

2065

2070

2075

2030

2085

2070

GOSUB 1125

KEY 2f"C0PY" J KEY 3 » " ERASE": KEY 4» "DEFINE" : KEY 5>" ABORT"

ON KEY* 2) GOSUB 1075J ON KEY* 3) GOSUB 1080: ON KEYC 4 ) GOSUB 1070

ON KEY(5) GOSUB 1065 J ON KEY(U) GOSUB 1015: ON KEY* 12) GOSUB 1025

ON KEY* 13) GOSUB 1035: ON KEY* 14) GOSUB 1045

KEY* 2) ON: KEY* 3) ON : KEY* 4) ON J KEY* 5) ON

KEY* 11 ) ON: KEY* 12) ON J KEY* 13 ) ON J KEY* 14 ) ON

DEF SEG: POKE 106 »0

ER=0: EC=0J FCHNG=0J FREPEAT=0: FCOPY=0J FERA3E=0

R0FF=CEDR0WK
C0FF=CEDC0L+30

FC0PY=0: FERASE=0

minr=o: hAXR=7:
hiNc=o: hAxc=7:

RETURN
REh CUSE SOFKEY SETUP
KEY 1," RETURN" J KEY 2 »' REPEAT 1 '
ON KEY* 1 ) GOSUB 1060: ON KEY* 2 ) GOSUB 1035
ON KEY* 11 ) GOSUB 1015
ON KEY* 12) GOSUB 1025: ON KEY* 13) GOSUB 1035J

key* i ) on: key* 2) on: key* in on: key* 12 > on:

DEF SEGJ POKE 106*0

ER=0J EC=0: FCHNG=0: FFREPEAT=0:

hINR=0: hAXR=EXPROW: R0FF=CUSR0W

hINC=0: hAXC=EXPCOL: C0FF=CUSC0L

RETURN
REh

REh CHARACTER EDIT UTILITIES
REh
REh REMEMBER CHARACTER DATA

DEF SEG=

FOR 1=0 TO 7
OLD* I )=PEEK* TABLEADI'.R-H CHAR-128 )*-3-!-I )

N'EXT I

RETURN
REh RESTORE OLD CHARACTER DATA

DEF SEG=

FOR 1=0 TO 7
POKE ( TABLEABCRH CHAR-128 )*3H )»0LD( I )

f^EXT I

RETURN
REh DISPLAY A CHARACTER AND ITS DATA

DEF SEG= 0: GOSUB 2215

FOR 1=0 TO 7
VALUE=PEEK* TABLEADDR+* CHAR- 1 23 )*SH )

ON KEY* 14 ) GOSUB 1045
KEY* 13) ON: KEY* 14 ) ON

Listing 1 continued on page 472

THE PRICE OF TAST
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ipti """

256Kbyte
SemiDisk $995

For more than a year, we've been making the
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The NEW 256Kbyte board is only $995. And the
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The SemiDisk is the ORIGINAL single-board
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Floppies are ok for data transfer or long-term
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If you are using high level languages, spelling
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Even better, Release 5.0 of the SemiDisk CP/M-80
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Call 503-646-5510 for CBBS"/NW, a SemiDisk-equipped computer bulletin board.
SemiDisk trademark of SemiDisk Systems, Inc. Copyright i 1983 SemiDisk Systems, Inc.

Circle 415 on inquiry card.

NO WAITING

Circle 216 on inquiry card.

Listing 1 continued:

SQUEEZED

SLOTS?

□ Six expansion slots plus power supply

□ Brings system total to ten slots

□ No special addressing, part of PC
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An expansion chassis is a must for any-
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And there's plenty of power, too, be-
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in California call (619) 569-0646

The l-Bus
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2325
2330
2335
2340
2345
2350
2355
2360
2365
2370
3000
3005
3010
3015
3020
3025
3030
3035
3040
3045
3050
3055
3060
3065
3070
3075
3080
3085
3090
3095
31O0
3125
3130
3135
3140
3145
3150
3155
3160
3165
317
3175
3180
3185
3190
3195
3200
3205
3210

ELSE PIXEL*= ,:

: rRQU*

-EC)

CHR*<CHAR): GOSUB 2115

if'ACEtt 25 >

: T i CI iR*< CHAR ) i " t v » CHAR- 128 i '

GOSUB 2115
NEXT I

LOCATE CEDR0U+llfCELC0L+31J PRINT " 01234567"
RETURN
REM DISPLAY PIXELS IN A CHARACTER ROU
R0U*=""
CHARSH=VALUE
FOR J = l TO S
IF ( CHARSH mi: 2>=1 THEN PIXEL*~ ,! -

R0L'*=PIXEL*fR0U*

CHARSH* INK CHARSH/2 )
NEXT J

LOCATE CEDR0U + 2HfCEDC0Li27: PRINT
RETURN
REN PUT EDIT PATTERN IN THE CHARACTER TABLE
VALUEM

ABBRsTASLEADDRMWK CHAR-128 J'j.SKTROU
IF ADBR>ADBRMAX THEN RETURN
DEF SEG =0;

, v , ALUE=PEEKi ADDR): VALUE=VALUE OR 2tC7~EC)
IF R*=EBCHAR* THEN VALUE=VALUE GR 2f>;
ELSE VALUE=VALUE AND NOK 2U7 -EC ) )
POKE ADDR t VALUE

I=ER: LOCATE CEBR0UrCEtC0L>35: PRINT
RETURN
REN DISPLAY A CHARACTER
LOCATE CEDROUrCEDCOLi-34: PRINT

LOCATE CEDROUfCEDCOL 1-34: PRINT ,: T r CHR*< CHAR )i H l ' : , CHAR-128? ,! < ,: f CHARi ">*'
RETURN
REN COPY A CHARACTER
FC0PY=t

BCASK*=SPACE*< 1? >+CHR*< 13 H3PACE*( 16): FCUR30R-0
ASK*="C0PY FRON CHARACTER"+CHR*< 13 H' CODE v 0-126 ) ,:
ENPR0U=14! ENR0U'=15: ENCOL^U: GOSUB 3015
LOCATE ENPROWfi: PRINT BCASK*
IF ENTRY*="" THEN RETURN

FROKZ=VAL(ENTRY*)J IF FR0HX<0 OR FR0rtt>127 THEN 2255
DEF SEG=
FOR 1=0 TO 7

VALUEJi=PEEK< TABLEABBR-K FROM/. )*BK )

POKE < TABLEABBR+C CHAR-128 >*3fl )j VALUE/.
NEXT I
GOSUB 2075
RETURN
REN ERASE A CHARACTER
FERASE=0
DEF SEG=
FOR 1=0 TO 7

POKE ( TABLEADDRK CHAR-128 )*8H >>0
NEXT I
GOSUB 2075
RETURN
REM CHANGE ONE DISPLAYED CHARACTER COBE
R=2

IF CHAR>247 THEN R=8 ELSE IF CHAR>207 THEN R-6 ELSE IF CHAR:: 167 I HEN R-4
C=( ( CHAR-128 ) NOB 40 )#2 + 1
LOCATE RrC: PRINT CHR*< CHAR )» J RETURN
REN

REN GENERAL UTILITIES
REN

REN POSITION CURSOR AND INPUT ENTRY*
ENTRY*="": R*=' ; "

LOCATE ENPROU'fi: PRINT A3K*:L0CATE ENRGINENCOL: PRINT SPACE** 4 )
UHILE R*OCHR*<13) AND F3UBR=0 AND FREPEAT=0 AND FDUMP=0

IF FCURS0R=1 THEN GOSUB 1070 ELSE R*=INKEY*

IF R*>="0" ANB R$:>"9 :r THEN ENTRY*=ENTRY* i-R* ELSE GOSUB 3065

LOCATE ENROUfENCOLJ PRINT ENTRY*

IF LEW ENTRY* »3 THEN LOCATE ENROUrENCOLJ PRINT SPACED 4 )JENTKY* = ,: ,:
WEND
RETURN
REN DELETE LAST CHAR FRON ENTRY*
IF LENCR*)=2 THEN IF A3C< RIGHT** R** 1 > K>83 THEN RETURN
IF LEN(R*)=1 THEN IF A3C< R* K.>3 THEN RETURN
IF LEW ENTRY* >=0 OR LEW R* )=0 THEN RETURN
ENTRY$=LEFT*( ENTRY* rLEN< ENTRY* )-l )
LOCATE ENROUiENCOL: PRINT SPACE* ( 4 )
RETURN
REN DISPLAY CURRENT EXPERIMENT
FOR 1=0 TO EXPROU
. LOCATE CUSR0W+I+lfCUSC0L-3: PRINT I

LOCATE CUSROU + IH,CUSCOL; PRINT ■ ! " 5

REM LOCATE CU3R0W+ I f If CU3C0LU

FOR J = TO EXPCOL

PRINT CHR*< EXPERIMENT IfJ>>5

NEXT .J

PRINT " ,:
NEXT I
RETURN
REM DISPLAY ALL CHARACTER COBES
LOCATE BISPROUii: PRINT SPACE$<80>: LOCATE BISPROUrl

PRINT ROULABEL*?" " i R0UL63EL*; " " ? ROULABEL*,' ,: ,: JROULABEL*
FOR 1=0 TO 2

FOR J=0 TO 3?
PRINT CHR*< 40*1 fJf 128)?" ,: i

NEXT J

PRINT " " Listing 1 continued on page 474

472 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

Floppies Think They're Winchesters.

People get awfully impatient with
slow drives. But the awful truth is,
most micros are slower than the
slowest drives.

When a processor is unable to keep
up with a drive, it simply slams the
door shut after reading only part of a
track. The diskette continues speeding
along under the head, but no data is
being transferred. After a sector of
dead time, the read resumes again
where it left off.

Not so in a Sage™ micro.

It can read an entire track
in one revolution,
step to the next
cylinder and read
another entire track
during the second
revolution. Time-
wasting with interleaving
and skewing never occur.

The lightning fast disk interfacing
and 68000 processor actually let the
floppy drives on a Sage micro meet the
theoretical transfer rate for standard
5/4 inch floppy disk drives.

How fast is that? Fast enough
to load a 20K program in about a
second.

Our Winchesters Think Big.

There is only so much area on a 5 ] A
inch hard disk. So how come we can
giveyou an extra 1.5Mybytes on a
lOMybyte Winchester?

Remember, it's the computer, not
the drive, that makes the difference.

The Sage IV micro features full track
buffering instead of one or two sector
buffering. This means that the disk
area that usually must be reserved for

header information,
synchronizing gaps and trailer gaps
can now be used for storage.

Be A Sage Thinker.

No other computer gives you so
much disk performance and capacity
for so little.

So whether you'd be satisfied with
one or two floppies that think they're
Winchesters, or if you need big Win-

chester capacity up to 200 megabytes,
think Sage micros.

Call today for full details and the
name of your nearest dealer.

Sage Computer Technology Corpo-
rate Office, 4905 Energy Way, Reno,
Nevada 89502. Phone (702) 322-6868.
TWX: 910-395-6073/SAGE RNO

Eastern United States

Sage Computer Technology
15 New England Executive Park
Suite 120, Burlington, MA 01803
(617) 229-6868

In UK
TDI LTD, 29 Alma Vale Road,

Clifton, Bristol BS8-2HL
Tel: (0272) 742796
Tx: 444 653 Advice G

In Germany
MM Computer, GmbH,
HallwangerStr. 59, 8210 Prien
Tel: 08051/3074 Tx: 525 400 mmco-d

© 1983 Sage Computer Technology all rights
reserved Sage & Sage IV are trademarks of
Sage Computer Technology

TM

The computer you don't wait fori

Circle 404 on inquiry card.

THIS MAY BE
THE SAVINGS ON

SOFTWARE

WHEN YOU'RE
A MEMBER OF

SOFTWARE

OF THE

MONTH CLUB

As a member of the Software of
the Month Club, you'll receive:

■ SAVINGS: high volume CLUB
purchases allow wholesale-like
prices to members.
Example: dBASE II... $389*

■ SELECTIONS: members to
decide best-seller list by
frequent polling: 40-50% off.
Other requests at cost plus 5-10%.

■ SUPPORT: technical hot-line.

■ NEWSLETTERS: tips &
"how-to" by consultants.

■ HARDWARE SPECIALS: co-op
savings.

■ No minimum purchase required.

Membership registration fee $25.

Joinnowforonly$7 [limited time)

and receive price list.

BX 11-83

SOFTWARE OF THE
MONTH CLUB, INC.

953 Mission St.. Mint Mall
San Francisco. CA 94103

Enclosed is $7 for this special.
Please enroll me in the club.

Name

^ONTH ° V

City

State/Zip

NEXT It F'K'INT

"Plus shipping/handling. Subject to change without notice.
474 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

Listing 1 continued:

32:1.5 NEXT I

3220 FOR 1 = 120 TO 127 J PRINT CHR$< 1 + 128 ) ? ,:

3225 RETURN

3230 REM OBTAIN FILENAME FROM USER

3235 GOSUB 1125: FSU3R=lt CLS

3240 LOCATE FILEPR0MPTR0U, 1 1 PRINT LABEL*

3245 LOCATE FILEPR0MPTR0U+2r 1 : PRINT ASK*;: INPUT RESPONSE*

3250 RETURN

4000 REM

4005 REM CHARACTER FILE LO AH/SAVE

4010 REM

4015 REM CHARACTER FILE LOAD

LABEL$="LOAB A CHARACTER FILE": A3K$=" ENTER FILENAME"
GOSUB 3230

IF RESP0NSE$="" THEN CLS J RETURN
DEF SEG=0

BLOAD RESPONSE* fTABLEADDR
CFILE$=RESPONSE$
CLSJ RETURN
REM CHARACTER FILE SAVE
LABEL$="SAVE THE CHARACTER FILE CURRENT FILENAKE=" +CFILE$
ASK$="ENTER FILENAME"
GOSUB 3230

IF RESP0NSE$=" " THEN CLS: RETURN
CFILE$=RESPONSE$: BEF SEG=0
BSAVE RESP0NSE$fTABLEADDRTl024
CLSJ RETURN
5000 REM

5005 REM CHARACTER EDIT
5010 REM

5015 CLS: GOSUB 1125: GOSUB 3175: CR0U=0 : FREPEAT=0: FCURS0R=0
5020 BASK$=SPACE$( 15 >+CHR$( 13 )+3P ACE$< 21 )
UHILE FSUBR=0
GOSUB 11?0: FAB0RT=0: FDEFINE=0

ASK$="ENTER CHARACTER" +CHR$( 13 ) + ' CODE (0-126) "
UHILE ENTRY$=""

ENPR0U=16: ENR0U=17: ENC0L=15: GOSUB 3015
LOCATE ENPROUri: PRINT BASK*
IF FSUBR=1 THEN GOTO 5125

CHAR=VAL(ENTRY$ ): IF CHAR<0 OR CHARM27 THEN ENTRY$=""
UEND

CHAR=CHAR+128

GOSUB 2015: GOSUB 1125: GOSUB 2075: GOSUB 1220
WHILE FAB0RT=0 AND FDEF1NE=0
GOSUB 1090

IF R$=EBCHAR$ OR R$=EDCHAR$ THEN CRGU=ER: GOSUB 2165
IF FC0PY=1 THEN GOSUB 1125: GOSUB 2235 : GOSUB 1220
IF FERASE=1 THEN GOSUB 1125 : GOSUB 2310J GOSUB 1220
UEND

IF FAB0RT=1 THEN GOSUB 2045
IF FUEFINE=1 THEN GOSUB 2350
ENTRY$=""
WEND

CLS: RETURN
6000 REM

6005 REM CHARACTER PATTERN USE
6010 REM

6015 CLSJ GOSUB 1125: GOSUB 3175J GOSUB 3100: GOSUB 1285: RC0DE=0: C0HL=0
ASt-$ = "ENTER CHARACTER" +CHR$( 13 ) + "C0DE < 0-126)": FCURS0R = 1
ENPR0W=13: ENR0U=1?: ENC0L=14
WHILE FSUBR=0
GOSUB 3015: IF FSUBR=1 THEN 6050

IF FREPEAT=1 THEN LOCATE CUSR0U+3» CU3C0L-7 i PRINT RCODE l FREPEAT=0
ELSE RC0DE=VAL( ENTRY* K LOCATE CUSROU+3 y CUSCOL-7 : PRINT "

IF RC0BE>=0 AND RC0DE<=127 THEN LOCATE ER+CUSROUil » EC+CUSCULil , 1 :
PRINT CHR$( RC0DE+123)r J EXPERIMENT ERrEC )=RC0DE+123
6050 WEND
6055 CLS: RETURN
7000 REM

7005 REM EXPERIMENT LOAD/SAVE
7010 REM

7015 REM EXPERIMENT LOAD
7020 LABEL$ = "LOAD AN EXPFR'TMFNT
7025 GOSUB 3230 : IF RESPONSES" "
7030 EFILE$=RESPONSE$
7035 OPEN EFILE$ FOR INPUT AS *1
7040 FOR 1=0 TO EXPROU
7045 FOR J=0 TO EXPCOL
7050 INPUT*lr EXPERIMEN'K I , J )
7055 NEXT J
7060 NEXT I

7065 CLOSE 1J CLSJ RETURN
7070 REM EXPERIMENT SAVE
7075 LABEL$="SAVE AN EXPERIMENT
ASK$="ENTER FILENAME ,;
GOSUB 3230J IF RESPONSE$=" "
EFILE$=RESPONSE*
OPEN EFILE$ FOR OUTPUT AS *1
FOR 1=0 TO EXPROU
FOR J=0 TO EXPCOL
PRINT #1, EXPERIMENTS J)

4020
4025
4030
4035
4040
4045
4050
4055
4060
4065
4070
4075
4080
4035
4090

5025
5030
5035
5040
5045
5050
505 5
5060
5065
5070
5075
5030
5035
5090
5095
5100
5105
5110
5115
5120
5125
5130

6020
6025
6030
6035
6040

6045

: ASK*=" ENTER FILENAME
THEN CLS: RETURN

7030
7035
7090
7095
7100
7105
7110
7115
7120
7125

CURRENT EXPERIMENT IS |: +EFILE$

THEN CLSJ RETURN

NEXT J

NEXT I

CLOSE i:
8000 REM
8005 REM INITIALIZATION

CLSJ RETURN

Listing 1 continued on page 476

Circle 318 on inquiry card.

I

saw

There's a certain kind of person
whobuys a Morrow business computer.

The kind of person who doesn't folksy the crowd. In business. Or away from it.
YouVe succeeded by making your own decisions.

And when it comes to a decision on computers, you know that you don't have to pay
a lot of money to get a lot of computer. Morrow. knows that too.

That's why we make a complete line of systems, including software, from $1599 to
$2745. Plus letter-quality printers starting at $595. All, with performance so reliable you'll
probably never need the nationwide service we offer from Xerox.

But maybe you don t know this: We've just introduced aTiard-disk system with more
performance at a lower price than anything else on the market. Anything.

The new MD11 includes an 11MB hard disk; 400K of floppy memory; 128K RAM;
8K ROM; 2 serial, 1 parallel and a main framejpommunications port. Add the legendary speed
of the Morrow controller, a complete package of software, plus
a full-size terminal, and you may not be ready for the price: ^ir

$2745, complete.

Morrow has never built computers to please everybody.
We build them for people who demand value. '

It's simple. Those whoi know, buy Morrow.

The computer for independent people. %

Morrow, 600 McCormick Street, San Leandro, CA 95477 * *£• * 2 -

For the Morrow Dealer nearest you, calk (S00) 521-3493

(4151 430-1970 in California • t

New 11MB MD11 for $2745

Text continued from page 470:
statement.

Pattern editing demonstrates a
more complicated (and powerful) use
of a softkey. MAIN uses F4 as the
CHARACTER PATTERN EDIT
(CEDIT) function; the subroutine
starting at line 5000 of listing 1 is the
trap routine for this key. But this
routine is actually the entire charac-
ter-edit module, and it acts like a
"mini-MAIN" routine— the module
sets up the softkeys for its own sub-
functions, obtains your input, and
lets you push a cursor around a char-
acter's dot pattern. When you signal
"no more" by replying with a carriage
return to an input prompt, CEDIT
sets the flag variable FSUBR true and
executes a RETURN statement.

Where does the computer's BASIC
interpreter return to? Back to MAIN,
picking up execution exactly where it
left off. MAIN detects that the flag
variable FSUBR is true (meaning that
some function has executed), and
MAIN therefore sets up the softkeys
and screen to restore its function
offering.

When softkeys are used in this
manner, you quickly become used to
pressing certain keys to obtain certain
functions. For this reason, it's a good
idea to retain certain softkeys for the
same general use. Key Fl, for exam-
ple, is always used within Font to
return to the next highest function
level.

It also pays to consider the layout
of the softkeys; placing a Kill All soft-
key next to a Save File key that is
heavily used is an invitation to
disaster.

Font softkey manipulation routines
always call a central module that
flushes all old softkey definitions
before any manipulation routine pro-
ceeds to set up for new definitions.
Experience shows that this approach
is the safest and most reliable way to
ensure that only currently meaning-
ful softkeys are enabled. Control of
the keys is simplified by this tech-
nique; if all keys are flushed before
setup, then only those keys to be
used need further attention.

A Font Work Session

Let's walk through a Font work ses-
sion so that you get the idea. You've

Listing 1 continued:

8010 REM

8015 CLEAR * 28804

8020 DEFINT CrEfFfIiJiMfOiPiRiVrX>Y

8025 PRO«PTROU=10: PROtfPTC0L=30 : CEDROU-10: CEDC0L=lt EXPRQU=14J EXPC0L=55

8030 DISPR0U=i: CUSR0U=S: CUSC0L=22: FILEPR0KPTR0W=1

8035 CLS: LOCATE PROMPTROWf PROfiPTCOL I PRINT "FONT EDITOR VI. 0" : PRINT;

PRINT SPACE$< 31 )»" INITIALIZING.
8040 DIM EXPERIMENT-; EXPROUi EXPC0L )» CURC 5 >» CURSOR* 5 )»PREV\ 7 )
8045 CFILE$="": EFILE$="": ROULABEL$="0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 3 9"
8050 EBCHAR$=" "J EDCHAR$="D"

8055 FOR 1 = 2 TO 5: CURSOR* I ) = -l t NEXT It CURSOR* )=8 5 CURSOR* 1 >=S
8060 SCREEN 2: KEY OFF

8065 ADDRMAX = 65535!: TABLEADDR=ADDRr1AX-1024
8070 DEF SEG= 0: POKE 125 » * TABLEADDR/256 )
8075 FOR 1=0 TO 1023: POKE TABLEADDR t I i0i NEXT I
9000 REM
9005 REM KAIN
9010 REM

9015 CLS: FSUBR=1
9020 WHILE 1=1
9025 IF FSUBR-1 THEN FSUBR=0: G0SUB 1145: KEY 0NJ

LOCATE PROMPTROUtPROMPTCOL: PRINT "FONT EDITOR Vi.O" : PRINT:
PRINT SPACE** 27) J" SELECT A MODE 1 *
9030 DUMMY$=INKEY$: DEF SEG: POKE 106*0
9035 WEND

Listing 2: A simplified version (showing only the setup for the Fl function key) of the figure
1 subroutine that sets up softkeys.

1130 REM MAIN MODE SOFT KEY SETUP

1140 KEY It" STOP"

1150 ON KEY* 1 ) G0SUB 1040

1165 KEY*1 ) ON

117 RETURN

'DEFINE 25TH LINE MENU PHRASE
'ASSIGN TRAP SUBROUTINE
'ENABLE THE KEY FOR TRAPPING

Listing 3: A program segment that installs a designed and tested character set.

100 REM INSTALL A CHARACTER PATTERN TABLE

110 CLEAR i 28804

120 SCREEN 2

125 SADDR = 64512!

130 BLOAD "filename" » SADDR!

'RESERVE 128 8 BY 8 TABLE ENTRIES
'DECLARE HIGH RES GRAPHICS MODE
'DEFINE PATTERN TABLE START ADDRESS
'LOAD THE PATTERNS INTO THE TABLE

140 DEF SEG= Ot POKE 125r SADDR/256 'DEFINE TABLE ADDRESS IN INT 1FH

keyed Font into your PC and now you
boot BASICA from DOS (disk oper-
ating system). When you load and
run Font, you see the initialization
announcement appear. The pattern
table is now blanked and characters
can be user-defined. You next see
"SELECT A MODE/' and the func-
tions available appear on the bottom
line— at this point, you are observing
Font's module MAIN as it executes.
MAIN offers you the following
functions:

Fl - STOP (terminate Font)
F2 — CLOAD (load a character

pattern set from disk)
F3 — CSAVE (save a character pat-
tern set on disk)

F4 - CEDIT (edit a character

pattern)
F5 — CUSE (use a pattern set

experimentally)
F6 — ELOAD (load an experiment)
F7 — ESAVE (save an experiment)

During your first session you have
no patterns to load. You therefore hit
F4 to choose the CEDIT function. The
screen clears, and CEDIT displays a
new screen; it shows a reference ruler
and all 128 characters in five rows
(because you haven't defined any yet,
they are all still blank). CEDIT then
prompts you to input the numeric
code of the character you want to
edit. It asks for a code between and
127, rather than 128 and 255, because

476 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

Thirsty for 384k for Your IBM PC?
Try a SixPakPlus

Since the introduction of DOS 2.0. the capabilities of
the PC have been increased with the ability to
address up to 640k of memory. With the current PC
having 256k available on the computer motherboard,
you need another 384k to reach 640k Great you say.
but multi-function boards only have room for 256k
on them. Well look again, because nowyou can get
the new SixPakPlus™ with up to 384k of memory,
clock/calendar, asynchronous (RS232C serial] port,
printer port, SuperDrive 1 " electronic disk emulation,
and SuperSpooler™ pr/nter spooling. There is even
an optional game port. And if you already have
enough memory for your present needs, you can
still get on the bandwagon by buying it withoutany
memory. When your needs for memory grow, the
sockets are ready for you to install six banks of 64k
panry checked memory.

With the SixPakPlus™ from AST Research you get
the most advanced multifunction board available
from the industry leader in IBM PC enhancements.

You get a clock/calendar powered by a clip-on
battery which does not require factory service to
replace. It automatically loads the correct time and
date when you turn on your computer. The serial
port can be configured as COM! or COM2, and has
jumpers for simplifying wiring of cables. The printer
port uses all the same signals as IBM's — you can
even use the IBM diagnostics on it. The optional
game port uses any IBM compatible joystick,

The board is backed up with a one-year warranty
on parts and labor and the Oubie' satisfaction
guarantee. If for any reason you are not satisfied
with the performance of your board within 30 days
of purchase, you may return it for a full refund,
including the postage to return it. And if your board
should need warranty service we do the repairs in
48 hours or we replace your board with a new one .
That's the level of service that has made us the
largest dealer in the world for AST Research products.

inpimiwnwiinin!'

MegaPlus II & 1/ OP I us II
The Ultimate Expansion for IBM PC or XT

The AST Research MegaPlus II™ has three functions
standard: Parity checked and fully socketed memory
up to 256k in 64k increments; clock/ calendar with
battery back-up for automatic loading of time and
date when the computer is turned on; and asyn-
chronous communication port (RS232C serial) which
can be used as COM I or COM2, (DTE for a printer,
or DCE fora modem). Also included is SuperDrive™
"electronic disk" software. This program builds
"disk drives" in memory which access your programs
at the speed of RAM. You get SuperSpooler™, print
spooling software. It operates your printer while
you continue to work with your computer.
Options include a 100% IBM compatible parallel
printer port (can be configured as LPTI , or LPT2), and
a second RS232C asynchronous port (COM! or
COM2). Three MegaPak™ options can plug onto
your MegaPlus II "piggyback" style to give you an
additional 128k or 256k of memory, or a game port.

I/O-Plus W". is the answer for those who don't
need additional memory but would like all those
other multi-function board features. The l/O-Plus
II™ comes standard with a clip-on battery powered
clock/calendar, an asynchronous communication
pon (RS232C serial), SuperDnve™ electronic disk,
and SuperSpooler™ print spooling software.

Optional is a second asynchronous port (DTE, or
DCE), a parallel printer adapter, and the best game
paddle adapter on the market. It is an IBM standard
game port, but it can also use Apple compatible
paddles and joysticks. Options are all socketed so
they may be added later should the need arise.

Both boards come with a one year factory
warranty and the Oubie' satisfaction guarantee. If
for any reason you are not sati sifted with the
performance of your board within thirty days of
purchase, you may return it for a full refund,
including the postage to return it

TO ORDER
BY MAIL INCLUDE:

-complete description of products requested
-daytime phone number
-California residents add 6% sales tax
-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 TOLL FREE (800) 821-4479

PRICES:

l/OPIus 2™ with Clock/calendar, serial (asyn-
chronous) port, SuperDrive™ and SuperSpool™

S129

MegaPlus M™ no memory, with clock, serial
and software - S229

SixPakPlus™ no memory, with clock, serial port,
printer port, and software: S229

Each 64k of memory installed and tested on

MegaPlus, SixPakPlus or alone $50

Parallel Printer Port $35

Second Asynchronous Port $35

Game Adapter (I/O or SixPakPlus) $35

MegaPak™ with 256k of Memory $299

128k of Memory $199

GamePak for MegaPlusll $40

ConnectAII Cable Bracket $19

Cable to Parallel Printer $35

Cable to Modem or Serial Printer $25

Diagnostics Program $10

SUPERvVRITERbySorcim $179

SUPERCALC 2 by Sorcim $159

I dBASE II by Ashton-Tate $409

Word Processing Keyboard $229

Keyboard/Superwriter Package $399

SHIPMENT

Normal shipment is day after receipt of order,
we pay UPS surface charges on all items except
keyboards. For keyboards add $5 for surface. $10
for 2 day air. All COD shipments add S3
handling.

QUANTITY PURCHASES?

If your corporation, institution, or users group
has needs for quantities of boards, call us for
details on our quantity purchase program.

OUBIE'
DISTRIBUTING

4809 Calle Alto, CamariJIo, CA 93010

Tempo House

15 Falcon Road, London, SVX/ 11, UK

Circle 382 on inquiry card.

it is easier to deal with numbers that
start from (quick, what's the fifty-
third character above 128?). The char-
acters are still handled everywhere
else in Font in their proper order,
from 128 to 255.

You enter a character code, and
CEDIT sets up to edit that character.
First, the input prompt is erased.
Then the current character definition
is displayed in actual size in the mid-
dle of the screen, and a magnified
definition is displayed below. Also, a
new set of subfunction softkeys
appears:

F2 - COPY A PATTERN FROM

SOME CHARACTER INTO
THIS CHARACTER
F3 - ERASE THIS CHARACTER
F4 - DEFINE THIS CHARACTER
F5 - ABORT EDIT OF THIS
CHARACTER

The magnified pattern box has 8
rows of 8 columns and a blinking cur-
sor that can be moved to any of the
64 positions in the box. Each position
in the magnified box corresponds to
a matching dot in the actual-size
character. By typing a "D" (for dot)
in any position in the magnified box,
you turn on the corresponding dot in
the actual character; by typing a
blank, you turn off a dot. You use the
four cursor keys to move the cursor
around the pattern, placing dots
where you wish.

When you've formed the character
to your satisfaction, you hit F4 to
select the DEFINE function, and your
character now exists in the pattern
table. It is displayed in its proper
place in the upper part of the screen.

On the other hand, perhaps you
don't like what you've done; if so, hit
F3 to erase your pattern and begin
anew or hit F5 to abort the edit of this
character altogether and choose a
new character code. If you are work-
ing with many similar characters, you
can use F2 to copy from another pat-
tern into the one you are editing.

You form characters in this mode,
and at some point you've formed as
many as you want. The next time you
are prompted to "INPUT CHARAC-
TER CODE," use the Fl RETURN
function and CEDIT will return you

to MAIN. You can now save on disk
the patterns you have created by
selecting F3 for CHARACTER SAVE.
Having done that, you can move to
the CHARACTER USE function
(CUSE) by means of the F5 softkey
and experiment with your new char-
acters.

Experimenting with characters is
useful when symbols are to be made
up of multiple characters. In a
Dungeons and Dragons monster, for
example, CUSE lets you combine
characters and test alignment, suit-
ability, and visual effectiveness.
CUSE displays all 128 character codes
in the upper area of the screen and
defines a 14-row by 55-column work
area in the middle of the screen. You
can push a blinking cursor around
this area and insert any characters
you wish— defined or as yet unde-
fined. You are asked to input the

The CHARACTER USE

function combines

characters and lets you

test visual

effectiveness.

character code you want to place at
the current cursor position, and you
enter a code between and 127. The
actual-size character is placed there,
and you can use the four cursor keys
to move to other printing positions in
the work area and to place other
characters there.

Having supplied a character code,
you can also use the F2 REPEAT func-
tion to continue inserting the same
code as you move the cursor around;
this is handy for repetitive functions
such as placing the character that
forms the stave for musical notation.
You leave CUSE submode by means
of Fl RETURN.

Your designed and tested character
set is now ready for use. Your appli-
cations program— a fast-paced video
game, perhaps, or a choral-music
copier— must now install your
custom characters. Listing 3 is a pro-
gram snippet that performs the in-
stallation. When your program has
incorporated these program state-
ments, it prints to the screen using
your own characters in all their glory.

Enhancements,
Modifications, and Bugs

A secondary but elegant feature of
a softkey-based program is the ease
of installing new features. No "path"
needs to be established for a new fea-
ture; rather, another softkey is
allocated in the properly set-up
module, and the new feature is
thereby made available.

A screen-dump-to-printer function
could be added in this manner.
Because a file of character patterns
could be manipulated in a sense
similar to a file of text, it would also
be elegant to work with patterns
across a file boundary: append,
delete n characters, block move, and
other text-processing features would
be offered in an advanced character
editor for which Font is the basis.

For machines that don't have an
80-character by 25-line high-resolu-
tion monitor, Font can still be in-
stalled. Within the initialization, all
screen coordinates are expressed as
variables; change all 80-character siz-
ing to 40-character sizing, and Font
adjusts accordingly.

If you have at least 48K bytes of
memory, Font still fits in, although
you must forgo all comments and
tighten up the line structure. Reserve
1024 decimal bytes of storage using
the CLEAR statement, and redefine
the end of memory-address variable
ADDRMAX to the end of a 48K-byte
machine (49151 decimal).

In closing, it is only fair to mention
a bug in Font: it does not edit or use
character code 255. I believe that the
BASIC interpreter handles character
code 255 in some "special" way that
precludes redefinition. Perhaps an
alert reader can discover the root of
this bug.B

References

1. IBM BASIC Manual. First edition (August
1981), IBM part number 6025013.

2. IBM Technical Reference Manual. First edi-
tion (August 1981), IBM part number 6025008.

Raymond A. Diedrichs (300 Livingston Court,
North Wales, PA 19454) is a real-time process-
control programmer and has been involved in per-
sonal computing since 1976.

478 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

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Programming Quickie

How to Pass and Scan a CP/M
Command Line

by Daniel S. Hunt

Few compiler languages running under CP/M have the
built-in capability to get arguments from a system com-
mand and pass them to the program. This feature
enables you to type things like SORT SOURCE.DAT
DESTDAT and have the called program busy itself with
a sort program between a source and destination file,
with no further communication from the user.

Listing 1, a file-to-file line-sort program written in
BASIC-80, illustrates the two short routines that make
this useful feature possible.

How It Works

When you type a command for CP/M, it automatical-
ly transfers anything following the first word to the
128-byte I/O (input/output) buffer at location 80 hexa-
decimal. You may use the information in the buffer as
long as you haven't read or written the disk since you
called your program. The first byte in the buffer contains
the length of the argument transferred. The subroutine
get cp/m cmd (line 4000) looks at this length byte to find
how much of the buffer must be transferred to the com-
mand string, a$. The buffer pointer, p, is incremented
and each location is peeked and its character added to
a$, until a$ contains the full length of the command line.

At this point, a second routine, gnt (for get next token),
is needed to break up a$ into separate words. You may
give this routine any set of rules you like for scanning
a$. The rules in listing 1 require that command argu-
ments be separated by commas, tabs, or spaces. The pro-
gram skips past these separators until it finds alphanu-
meric characters, then builds a word, token$, character
by character until the next separator is found. The gnt
routine keeps track of where it is in the command line
with the variable psn, so that when it is called by the
main program a second time it can start where it left off.

The token$ in this program is simply the name of
source and destination files used to load and unload the

sort routine. The sorting routine in line 2010 is an almost
literal Pascal-to-BASIC translation of the nonrecursive
quicksort from Niklaus Wirth's fine book, Algorithms +
Data Structures = Programs (Englewood Cliffs, NJ:
Prentice-Hall, 1976). ■

Listing 1: This sort program illustrates the routines used to pass
(i.e., merge) and scan a command line. In this example, the command
arguments (token$) are the names for the source and destination files.

rem Command line demo for BASIC-RO compiler /c option
rem bv Daniel S. Hunt '82

defint i-s

true?! = -1

dim lnS(700)

dim stackl(700),stackr(700)

rem begin main

' loop control

'max •"'•' lines in sort

'quicksort stacks

gosub 4000 :'get cp/m cmd(aS)

psn = 1 : tokens = "" : gosub 5000 : ' gnt ( token$;aS,psn)

flS = tokens

tokens = "" : gosub 5000 : ' gnt( tokenS,aS,psn)

f2S = tokens

on error goto 99

open "I" , 1 ,f IS

on error goto

rem read unsorted data into strings
i = 1
while true%

line input #1 , ln$(i)

print lnS(i)

if eof(l) then 1220

i = i + 1

wend

1220 close

n = i

gosub 2010:'qsort(n,lnS() )

on error goto 99
open "o" , 1 , f 2 S
on error goto

Listing 1 continued on page 483

November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. 481

1—

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Programming Quickies.

Listing 1 continued:

for i= 1 to n

print #l,lnS(i)
next

print //l,chr$(26)
close
end :' main

2010 rem non-recursive quicksort (var lnS( 1 . .n) ,n: integer)

s = 1 : stackl(l) = 1 : stackr(l) = n
while s >

1 = stackl(s) : r = stackr(s) : s=s-l

whil

e 1 < r

i =

1 : j = r

: x$ = ln$(

(l+r)\2

whil

e i <= j

while

lnS(i) < x$

: i=

i+1 :

wend

while

x$ < ln$(j)

: j =

j-1 :

wend

if i <

= j then

swap

lnS(T

,lnS(

j):

i = i

+ 1

3 "

j " I

wend

if i

< r then
s

= s + 1:

stackl(s) = i

: stackr(s)

= r

r =

j

wend

wend

return

5000

rem

gnt(var

a $, tokens ;

var psn :

integ

sr);

rem

scan

through

delimiters

until 1st

token

char

found

chS

= mid$(aS,psr

,1)

whil

e (chS = " "

or ch$ = c

hr$(9) or ch$ =

',")

ch$

= mid$(c

iS,psn , 1 )

psn

= psn +

1

wenc

rem unget last character

if psn > 1 then psn = psn - 1

rem beginning at 1st char of symbol, scan to next delimiter
while true%

chS = mid$(a$,psn , 1 )

if ch$ = " " or ch$ = chr$(9) or ch$ = ","
then return

tokens = tokenS + ch$

psn = psn + 1

rem at end of string, nul it and set to position 1
if psn > len(a$) then

psn = 1 : a$ = "" :
return
wend
return

4000- rem get cp/m command line(var a$);

rem set pointer to cp/m default io buffer
p = &h80

rem get length of command line at first byte
la = peek(p)

r'em advance pointer and transfer command to a$

p = p + 1

aS = "" : nc =

while nc < la

ch$ = chr$(peek(p))

a$ = a$ + ch$

p = p+l : nc = nc + 1

wend
return

rem error exit for bad file name

99 resume 100

100 print "Bad file name(s)": close : end

YOU CAN'T

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LIST

YOUR
PRICE

60 50 t
200 189 t
450 349 t

TRAINING

American Training International,
all are available for CP/M. IBM
all 75 54

CP/M. PC-DOS. dBase-ll Easy-
Filer, Supercalc. Visicalc.
Multiplan. EasyPlanner. Micro-
plan. MBasic. WordStar. Easy-
Writer II, Benchmark

UTILITIES

CP + (Taurus) 150 108 t

DESPOOL (D/R) 50

Disk Doctor (Supersoft) 100

d-UTIL (Fox& Geller) 99

FancyFont (SoftCraft) 180

M-Sort (Microsoft) 195

Menu Master (Borland) 195
QuickScreen (Fox & Geller) 149
forCBASIC, MBASIC, dBase II.
FM80

SID (D/R) 100

SID-86 (D/R) 150

Smart Key (Heritage) 60

Smart Print (Heritage) 35

SuperSort (MicroPro) 250

Supervyz (Epic) 90

40 t

74 n

71 XX

159 n

133 t

141 t

120 n

84 t
116 %

44 t|

29 n

164 t
65 t

LANGUAGES

ALDS (Microsoft) 125

Basic Compiler (Microsoft) 395
BASIC Interpreter 80 350

Business BASIC Compiler 600
CBASIC II (D/R) 150

CBASIC 86 (D/R) 200

C Compiler (Microsoft) 500
CB80(D/R) 500

Cobol Compiler (Microsoft) 750

Fortran 80 Compiler
Level II Cobol (D/R)
MU LISP/MU STAR
MAC (D/R)
Macro Assembler
Pascal Ml + (D/R)
Pascal Ml +86 (D/R)
PL/l-80 (D/R)
PL/l-86 (D/R)

500
1600
200
90
200
500
600
500
750

RM/COBOL full devet sys. 750

96 \
269 t
239 XX
420 ft-
121 t
181 \
360 XX
403 t
499 XX
330 t
1150 XX
149 t

78 t
133 t
429 t
420 X
468 1
674 X
540 XX

RECREATIONAL
tnfocom for ALL formats (including hard to get
Kaypro, Morrow. Xerox. Osborne 00. etc.)
Zork 49.95 33

Deadline 59 39

Starcross 59 39

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Suspended 59 39

DATA COMMUNICATIONS

Crosstalk (Miscrostuff) 195 139

Move-It (Woolf) 125 89

Smartcom II (Hayes) 119 00

FOR RECOMMENDATIONS ON APPLICA-
TIONS SOFTWARE (Cyma. MBA. Star. Peach-
tree. Artificial Intelligence, etc.]
Complete selection at savings comparable to
all our other software S CALL

BYTE November 1983

The Universal Computer

ROMAR II— Runs Applesoft & CP/M!
6502 CPU for Applesoft, and Z-80 adapter card for CP/M. 64K
RAM, 72 keys in standard keyboard. 8 expansion slots accept .
standard APPLE cards. 80 W power supply w/fan, heavy duty /
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drives and 3.3 DOS.

list $795 Holiday Special $595!!!

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Bubble memory is not erased at power-down, no
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AST RESEARCH:

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Additional Adapter Boards (1 needed per work-
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Mainframe Adapter Board: S CALL

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IDS Microprism S 919

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Okidata 92 S CALL

RITEMAN Dot-Matrix Printer: Small enough to fit in
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Hayes Smartmodem 1200 S484

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Hayes 1200 B (F/IBM-PC) S449

US Robotics (similar to Hayes, but lower priced)

Autolink 1200 S399

Signalman MK12 Auto Send/Rec. 300/1200.
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OTHER COMPUTERS

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NorthStar Advantaoe. w/1 6-bit upgrade S2499

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16-BIT COMPUTERS

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Televideo: LIST S4495 S CALL

Zenith 2-100 (Hard Disk Optional)

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NEC-APC: 8086, 8" Floppies, Hard Disk Option.
SPECIAL OFFER: CP/M-86, WordStar. SpellStar. Mail-
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H02 Monochrome: LIST $3448 $ CALL

H03 Color: LIST 4198 S CALL

TERMINALS:

Hazeltine ESPRIT II LIST 645 S539

Hazeltine ESPRIT III LIST 895 S6I9

OUME OVT-108 LIST 895 S729

WYSE 100 LIST 995 S CALL

SANYO MBC-550

The first IBM-compatible

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computer under .JMLUW t\WJ \Xg-Jflf/

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MONITORS:

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Taxan RGB-1 S315

Taxan RGB-Ill hi-res S514

Zenith RGB hi-res S524

Princeton PGS hi-res S495

NEC 1203 RGB S610

BUY OF THE MONTH
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This hottest-selling computer in Japan can now be yours
at at unbelieveably low price!!!

Monochrome model: List S1995 SI 795

Color model: - S2995 2595

DEC Rainbow-100:

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EAGLE-PC: Many deluxe features (105 key keyboard). 8086 CPU
for faster processing.

EAGLE-PC-E: 1 Floppy. LIST $1995 S1555

EAGLE-PC-2: 2 Floppies, monitor, software S CALL

USTS3495 SCALL

EAGLE-PC-XL: 1 Floppy. 10 MB Hard Disk.

LIST $4495 SCALL

UQ J.NEVADA (800)

ORDERS: OtD"OODO

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Circle 50 on inquiry card.

BURROUGHS B-20

Most advanced 16-bit multi-user j
multi-tasking micro on the market i
Beats many mini's, yet priced com-
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— ~ — ■

Mo.-Fri 7:00 AM-5:30 PM PST, Sat. 9:00 A.M. -3:00 PM PST

TERMS: Prices in this ad apply to prepaid orders only, reflect 5% cash discount oil our regular sale prices
Fortune 1000 companies. Universities and Government only 30-day net based on oui regular (non-cash)
pnee This ad supersedes all prior offers Prices subject to change Absolutely no return on used or dam-
aged items Software returnable ONLY in UNOPENED original wrapping 15 DAY EXCHANGE PRIV-
ILEGE subject to 10,, restocking Add 3% lor Handling Shipping & Insurance (S3 95 minimum)
Nevada residents add 5 75 u u tax
APPLE is trademark ol Apple Computer Inc IBM is trademark ot International Business Machines Inc

BYTE November 1983 485

NEVADA

NEVADA

FORTRAN C

"If you want to learn or teach someone FORTRAN, this is the
package to buy." ACCESS, March/April 1983.

Perfect for teaching FORTRAN. Perfect for learning FOR-
TRAN. Perfect for Scientists and Engineers. Based upon
the ANSI-66 standards (FORTRAN IV), advanced features
include IF. . THEN . . . ELSE constructs, COPY statement,
CHAINing with COMMON, TRACE style debugging and
150 verbal error messages. What's more, you can intermix
in-line FORTRAN and Assembly Language statements for
those special Micro needs! Get yours today. Diskette comes
with 214-page manual.

NEVADA

PILOT

Why has Nevada PILOT become so popular? It's definitely
easier to learn than BASIC. The documentation (114 pages)
by Professor Starkweather is exceptional! And, it meets all
the PILOT-73 standards with many new features, including
a built in full-screen text editor.

Perfect for training, testing, virtually all programmed instruc-
tion and word puzzle games. Order yours now! Diskette
and manual come with 10 FREE programs.

NEVADA

EDIT

"A well-thought-out product with excellent documentation
and an astoundingly low price." Microcomputing, May 1983.

Now, high quality text editing for micros. Nevada EDIT is
great for program editing, as it was designed specifically
to create COBOL, BASIC, and FORTRAN programs. It's a
character-oriented full-screen video display text editor.

Simple to configure. You can customize tab stops, default
file type, keyboard control key layout, and CRT by menu
selection.

CP/M is a registered trademark of Digital Research, Inc. TRS-80 is a registered trade-
mark of Tandy Corp. Apple II is a trademark of Apple Computer, Inc. Osborne is a reg-
istered trademark ol Osborne Computer Corp. Xerox 820 is a trademark of Xerox Corp.
Kaypro is a trademark of Non-linear Sys. Heath/Zenith is a trademark of Heath Corp,
IBM is a trademarkof International Business Machines, Corp. NevadaCOBOL, Nevada
FORTRAN, Nevada PILOT, Nevata EDIT and Ellis Computing are trademarks of Ellis
Computing, Inc. © 1983 Ellis Computing, Inc.

o

ELLIS COMPUTING

%)Z{%

Nevada COBOL is based upon the ANSI-74 standards with
many advanced features. It's field-proven with thousands
of users world-wide in Business, Government and Education.
The excellent documentation (165 pages) is used as a class-
room text at a number of colleges.

Because of Nevada COBOL's superior design, it requires
about half the memory of competitive COBOL compilers.
This major advantage is just one reason many business
programmers are switching to Nevada COBOL.

And, lots of students are using Nevada COBOL because it's
the affordable, easy-to-use COBOL! Order yours now!

Also available: COBOL Application Packages, Book 1, $9.95.

Nevada FORTRAN and Nevada COBOL are now available
for the Commodore-64 from Commodore Business
Machines, Inc.

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 com-
pletely satisfied, just return the package — in good condition
with the sealed diskette unopened — within 30 days and
we'll refund your money.

This is a limited time offer, so order yours today!

each

MAIL TODAY! TO: Ellis Computing, Inc,

3917 Noriega Street

San Francisco, CA 94122

(415) 753-0186
The CP/M® Operating System, a 8080/8085/ Z80 microprocessor,
and 32K RAM are required.
Software Packages:

□ COBOL □ FORTRAN □ PILOT □ EDIT D BASIC
Diskette Format: 8" □ SSSD (Standard IBM 3740 format)

5 V* ' ' □ Apple CP/M □ Xerox 820 SD □ Osborne SD

□ Televldeo □ Micropolis Mod II
D North Star DD □ North Star SD

□ TRS-80 Mod I with CP/M @ 4200 hex D TRS-80 Mod I/Mapper

□ Heath Hard (ZL-89) □ Heath Soft (Z-90)
D Superbraln DD DOS 3.X (512 Byte sectors)

□ Kaypro DD □ DEC VT-180 D Epson QX-10

□ NEC PC 8001 □ Sanyo D Access

Shipping/Handling Fees: Add $4.00 for the 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!

Send my order for packages @ $29.95 each Total

COBOL Applications package @ $9.95 each Total

In CA add sales tax

D Check enclosed Shipping/handling

D MasterCard a Visa Total

# Exp. Date

Signature

Ship to
Name

Street

City/State/Zip

486 BYTE November 1983

Circle 177 on inquiry card.

Technical Forum

Make Fast and Simple Contour
Plots on a Microcomputer

Condot employs an algorithm that simplifies creation of plots
without requiring complicated code

by Sedgwick L. Simons Jr.

Contour-plotting programs for desktop microcom-
puters are scarce indeed. And programmers who ap-
proach too lightly the task of creating one are naive. At
last, however, a real solution has been found. The pro-
gram outlined in this article eases the task of generating
contour plots; in spite of or more likely because of the
lack of intelligence of the algorithm involved, the pro-
gram seems foolproof.

Ostensibly, contour plotting is not complicated. You
need only find and follow all the contour lines through
a data array. Certainly the program will have to handle
occasional saddle points, situations of low data sur-
rounded by high data, or a few missing values. And, of
course, you must avoid tracing the same contour twice
or taking a shortcut across a different contour. Sudden-
ly, the magnitude of this programming task is evident—
this traditional approach to contour plotting takes an aw-
fully intelligent program. And you know what intelli-
gent means: lots of complicated code and lots of run
time. And that means bad news for microcomputer
users.

Some clever shortcuts to the traditional approach do
exist. But some highly mathematical algorithms would
require a couple of hundred FORTRAN cards.

There is a solution. I offer figure 1 as evidence of an
easy, though devious, way to do top-quality contouring
on a microcomputer. The algorithm discussed in this ar-
ticle makes no attempt to solve the intricate problems

of traditional contour plotting. Instead of finding and fol-
lowing contour lines, it just looks through the data ar-
ray and draws dots whenever it crosses a contour line
(hence the name Condot). With sufficiently fine inter-
polation, the dots run together and voila— contour lines.

90

- 60

MODEL FLUX AE = 50

3/24/83

J !_

J L

16

20 24 4

MAGNETIC LOCAL TIME

CONTOURS AT: 0.25 0.50 1.00 2.00 4.00

Figure 1: This contour plot, based on an array of 960 observations
(24 by 40), was made using Condot. The program was run on a
Tektronix 4052, and the output was sent to a Tektronix 4662 pen plot-
ter. It took about 10 minutes to generate the plot.

November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

487

Listing 1: The Condot program, an algorithm for plotting contours.
If you leave out the remarks, the core contains only 57 commands.

40 REM
50 REM
60 REM
70 REM
80 REM
90 REM
100 FOR
110 FOR
120 REM
130 REM

CONDOT

SIMPLIFIED CONTOUR PLOTTING ALGORITHM FOR MICROCOMPUTERS

DR. S. L. SIMONS, JR.

RICE UNIVERSITT

1=1
J=l

TO A2
TO Al

DEFINE THE FOUR CORNERS OF A CELL —

140 X1=F(I,J)
150 X2=F(I,J+1)
160 X3=F(I+1,J)
170 X4=F(I+1,J+1)

180 REM

190 REM — IF ALL FOUR CORNERS ARE LESS THAN THE LOWEST CONTOUR OR
200 REM — IF ANY CORNER HAS A MISSING VALUE GO TO THE NEXT CELL.
210 IF XKCO AND X2<C0 AND X3<C0 AND X4<C0 THEN 600
220 IF X1=M0 OR X2=M0 OR X3=M0 OR X4=M0 THEN 600

23 REM

240 REM I-DIMENSION INTERPOLATION OVER THE CELL —

250 FOR K=0 TO 1-S2 STEP S2

260 Z1=X1-K*(X1-X3)

270 Z2=X2-K*(X2-X4)

280 IF ZKCO AND Z2<C0 THEN 420

290 GOSUB 650

3 00 REM 650 RETURNS THE SUBSCRIPTS OF THE CONTOURS CROSSED

310 IF C4<C3 THEN 420
320 M=Z2-Z1
330 R2=I+K
340 B=Z1-M*J
3 50 R2=I+K

360 REM COMPUTE Rl , THE J-DIMENSION CROSSING COORDINATE

3 70 FOR C5=C3 TO C4
380 R1=(C(C5)-B)/M
390 MOVE R1,R2
400 DRAW R1,R2
410 NEXT C5
420 NEXT K

43 REM

440 REM J-DDENSION INTERPOLATION —

450 FOR K=0 TX) 1-S3 STEP S3
460 Z1=X1-K«(X1-X2)
470 Z2=X3-K*(X3-X4)

480 IF ZKC(l) AND Z2<C(1) THEN 5 90

490 GOSUB 650

500 IF C3>C4 THEN 5 90

510 M=Z2-Z1

520 B=Z1-M*I

530 R1=J+K

540 FOR C5=C3 TX) C4

550 R2 = (C(C5)-B)/M

560 MOVE R1,R2

570 DRAW R1,R2

580 NEXT C5

590 NEXT K

600 NEXT J

610 NEXT I

620 END

630 REM

640 REM

650 REM

— SUBROUTINE —

CHECK FOR CONTOUR CROSSINGS BETWEEN Zl & Z2

660 IF Z1>Z2 THEN 700

670 Yl-Zl

680 Y2=Z2

690 GO TX) 720

700 Y1=Z2

710 Y2=Z1

720 FOR C3=l TO CI

730 IF YK = C(C3) THEN 770

740 NEXT C3

750 C4=0

760 RETURN

770 FOR C4=C3 TO CI

780 IF Y2<=C(C4) THEN 800

7 90 NEXT C4

800 C4=C4-1

810 RETURN

The core of Condot, shown in listing 1, was written
for a Tektronix Inc. 4050 series graphics computer and
uses reasonably conventional BASIC. If you leave out
the remarks, the core contains only 57 commands. In ad-
dition to the core, you'il need routines to get your data
array into memory, set up the graphics parameters (such
as window or viewport), and draw the axis and legends.

DEVELOPMENT HARDWARE/SOFTWARE
HIGH PERFORMANCE/ cost ratio

,inc. (601)467-8048

EPROM PROGRAMMER

Model 7128-L1.L2.L2A .$209.00

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Cross Assemblers $200.00

XASM (for MSDOS) . . .$250.00

U/V Eraser DE-4 $ 78.00

RS232 Cables $ 30.00

8751 adapter $174.00

8755 adapter 5135.00

48 Family adapter S 98.00

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DR Utility Package allows communica-
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PGX utility package allows the same
thing, but will also allow you to specify
a range of addresses to send to the
programmer. Verify, set the Eprom

type.

MODEL 7316 PAL PROGRAMMER

Programs all series 20 PALS. Software
included for compiling PAL source
codes.

Software Available for CPM? ISIS.
TRSDOS? MSDOS 4

1. TM of Digital Research Corp.

2. TM of Intel Corp.

3. TM of Tandy Corp.

4. TM of Microsoft.

Post Office Box 289

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[601J-467-8048

Avocet Cross Assemblers are
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Z8, 6502, 660X, etc.
Available for CP/M and
MSDOS computers. Order by
processor type and specify
kind of computer.

Model DE-4 U/V Products
hold 8, 28 pin parts. High
quality professional construc-
tion.

MODEL 7324 PAL PROGRAMMER

Programs all series 20 & 24 PALS.
Operates stand alone or via RS232.

488 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

Circle 204 on inquiry card.

THE MOST OUTSTANDING MULTIPROCESSOR, MULTIUSER ORCHESTRA.

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(2o)

(2b)

(I.J)

(1 + 1, J + l)

(I, J + l)

(1+1. J + l)

(I.J)

(I. J + l)

Figure 2: Parts (a) and (b) represent two different interpolations through one cell of data. The cell is defined by the four adjacent observations
XI, X2, X3, and X4, and the relative values of the I and J subscripts. The asterisks represent the dots that are plotted to produce a contour
line. Each cell requires interpolation through the I dimension (a) and the ] dimension (b). Note that the leftmost part of the contour line
in (a) falls between interpolation steps and was not plotted until the second dimension (b) was addressed.

One fully loaded Condot program in use at Rice Univer-
sity has routines for smoothing data, recovering data
from tape, interactive polling values on a finished plot,
and zooming to plot a selected part of a data array.

Even in BASIC, Condot is not unacceptably slow. It
took me about 10 minutes to plot figure 1 with a Tek-
tronix 4052 computer driving a Tektronix 4662 plotter.
The same plot can be done on a CRT (cathode-ray tube)
in about half that time. The data used for figure 1 was
in an array of 960 points, 24 across by 40 high. The run
time is not extremely sensitive to the size of the array
because large arrays decrease the amount of interpola-
tion that the program must perform. (Note that the 4052
is a fairly fast 16-bit machine using 6800s for bit-slice pro-
cessing and a high-resolution storage tube for display.)

If you are really short of memory, you can nevertheless
use this program. The Condot algorithm does not re-
quire that all the data be in memory at once. With some
simple tricks, even a very modest home computer can
be programmed to contour an array of 10,000 or more
data points.

Algorithm and Program

A stripped-down version of Condot is provided in list-
ing 1. You should be able to build your own custom con-
tour plotter around this core. You'll need to provide the
core with an ordered array of observations, F(A2,A1),
and a vector, C(C1), of the contour values in increasing
order. Set CO equal to C(l), the lowest contour value, and
M0 equal to some constant that represents missing
values in the data array F(A2,A1). The ordering of
F(A2,A1) is such that F(l,l) will be plotted at the lower
left, and F(1,A1) will be plotted at the lower right.

The actual mechanics of the Condot algorithm are il-
lustrated in figure 2. Don't worry about part b of the
figure yet. I use four adjacent points from data array F
to define a data cell. The subscripts of F define the

relative values of the two independent variables (X and
Y or I and J). The actual values in array F are observa-
tion data and define the "height" (Z value) at each cor-
ner of the data cell. This is the information to be con-
toured. Now, try to read this explanation with one eye
on figure 2a and the other on the program listing.

Condot starts at the lower left corner of the data (F(l,l))
and works out along a pair of rows (J direction) before
moving up to the next row. Each pair of rows defines
Al - 1 different cells. Therefore, the array of Al points
across by A2 points high defines (Al-1) x (A2-1) dif-
ferent cells to be contoured. Statements 100 and 110 start
the cell-plotting loops. All the contours in one cell are
plotted before Condot goes on to the next cell.

For convenience, the data points at the four corners
of the cell under consideration are set equal to XI, X2,
X3, and X4 in statements 140 to 170. Next, a check is made
to see if all the corners are below the lowest contour value
(CO), or if any of the corners contain the missing value
flag M0. In either of these cases, because there is no need
to do anything more with this cell, the loops are incre-
mented and the next cell is considered.

Unless you have really boring data, the program will
soon find a cell with one or more contours through it.
Because most users of Condot will have better plotter
resolution than data resolution, a systematic interpola-
tion is begun across the cell so that the dots plotted fall
close enough to each other to look like lines. First, cal-
culate pairs of points along the lines from XI to X3 and
from X2 to X4, as in figure 2a, and look for contours be-
tween each pair of points. Later, follow the same pro-
cedure through the other dimension, as in figure 2b.

Statement 250 starts the interpolation loop correspond-
ing to figure 2a. The step size, S2, should be between
and 1 and can be computed from the ratio of data res-
olution to plotter (or CRT) resolution in thel dimension.
In other words, S2 relates to the width of a dot on the

490 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

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BYTE November 1983

491

plotter. As the interpolation loop steps from XI toward
X3 and from X2 toward X4, calculate Zl and Z2 (the end
points defining the line segment on which contour cross-
ings will be plotted).

, Condot uses a short subroutine, starting at line 650,
to find all of the contour crossings on the Zl to Z2 seg-
ment. The subroutine returns two numbers, C3 and C4,
which are the lower and upper subscript values of the
contours crossing the line segment. If no crossings are
found, C4 ends up being less than C3, and statement
310 moves the program along to the next interpolation.
If contour crossings are found between Zl and Z2, lines
320 to 350 compute the parameters defining the line seg-
ment from Zl to Z2. Then, the loop starting at 370 draws
dots at the points where contours C(C3) through C(C4)
cross the Zl to Z2 line segment.

In case you haven't seen MOVE and DRAW com-
mands, here's an explanation of how they work. Each
command takes two arguments, the X and Y locations
of a point on the screen or plotter. MOVE causes the pen
to come up (if it is down) and move to the specified coor-
dinate. DRAW lowers the pen (if it is up) and draws a
line to the specified coordinates. Statement 560 first
moves the pen, without drawing anything, to the coor-
dinate Rl, R2. Statement 570 lowers the pen and orders
a line drawn to Rl, R2. But because the pen is already
at Rl, R2, the result is simply a dot.

By now you probably have a good idea of how Con-
dot works but might not see the reason for the two parts
of figure 2. Suppose you had part 2a (interpolation
through the I dimension) only. A contour line parallel
to the J axis could fall between interpolation steps and
never be found. To be sure no contour lines escape, you
must interpolate through both the I dimension (2a) and
the J dimension (2b) for every data cell.

Enhancements

You should be sure to build into your driver routine
an input for the interpolation steps S2 and S3 in lines
250 and 440. Knowing your array dimensions and screen
(or plotter) resolution, you can calculate the largest steps
that will cause the dots to merge together. Being able to

run Condot with interpolation steps of four to six times
these values is a useful option. The larger steps give a
preview of the final plot by making dotted instead of
solid lines. Best of all, this preview runs in a fraction of
the time the normal plot takes.

As mentioned earlier, Condot does not need an en-
tire data array in memory at any one time. If you've got
a whopping big array of data, or an 8K-byte computer,
your best bet may be to work with only two rows of data
in memory at a time. Specifically, read the first row of
data into memory before reaching statement 100. Then,
at statement 105, read row I + 1. At 605, after plotting
the cells defined by this pair of rows, set the first row
equal to row I + 1. In this way, you'll first use rows 1
and 2 to define the data cells, then use 2 and 3, 3 and
4, and so on.

Users of this routine should be aware of two things.
First, you may have noticed that the interpolations in dif-
ferent dimensions in figures 2a and 2b actually define
two slightly different surfaces through the data points
that define the four corners of the cell. The only time
you will notice this difference is when you try to plot
a very small (for example, a 4 by 6) array of data. The
second potential problem applies to users who employ
conventional pen plotters for output. Because this
algorithm draws dots, it generates a lot of PEN UP and
PEN DOWN commands, which means wear and tear
on the pen tip; also, some users may find their ears and
sanity adversely affected. If a hard copy from your
display is acceptable, you would probably be better off
with it. Otherwise, just pretend the plotter is your
mother's old sewing machine. ■

Acknowledgments

The author would like to thank Dr. P. H. Reiff, G. F. Boudreau, Dr. R.
Spiro, and Dr. ]. Schroeter, all of Rice University, for their insight and in-
spiration. Work on this contour-plotting algorithm was supported by NASA
grant NGR 44-006-137.

Dr. Sedgwick L. Simons is an assistant professor of physics at University
ofHouston Dozvntown College (Dept. of Natural Science, 1 Main St., Houston,
TX 77002). He received his doctorate degree in space physics from Rice Univer-
sity and developed Condot while working as a research associate there.

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492 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

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BYTE November 1983 493

Technical Forum

Address Calculation

The Forgotten Sort

Sorting speed is directly proportional to the number of elements

by Douglas Davidson

Most amateur programmers know a few sorting
algorithms— bubble sort certainly, probably the
maximum-minimum methods, and, on a slightly more
advanced level, the shell sort. Some know the more ef-
ficient sorts, such as shuttle or tree sorts. The best of
these sorting algorithms require time proportional to the
number of elements to sort (n*logn). What is not so well
known is a sorting algorithm— and not a terribly com-
plex one, either— that finishes in a time proportional to
n (the number of elements to be sorted). Therefore, for
some values of n, this sort must be faster than any of
the other types. It generally goes by the name of " ad-
dress calculation/'

To be fair, some good reasons account for its lack of
popularity. First, this method takes more than the
minimum necessary amount of memory space to sort
any given list; it requires additional storage proportional
to n. However, in most microcomputer BASIC opera-
tions, storage requirements are not excessive, and the
time savings may outweigh storage considerations. The
second and more fundamental objection is that an
address-calculation sort depends on the nature of the
sorting keys. Most sorts use the key values only for com-
parison, simply checking whether one key is greater
than another. This sort uses the actual value of the key.

For example, the address-calculation sort operates by
first reserving a large range of memory for storage. It
goes through its input list in order and, for each ele-

ment, uses the key value to calculate an address within
the reserved range. This mapping of keys to addresses
is crucial. The operation is most efficient when the map-
ping is one-to-one (one element to one address), but
practically it will be many-to-one. The only absolute
restriction on the mapping is that it be nondecreasing,
but it is important to the sort's efficiency that the greatest
possible dispersion of the list elements into the range
be achieved, or at least that the fewest possible collisions
(mappings of two list elements onto one address) oc-
cur. These considerations require knowledge of the
range and distribution of the keys. Because commercial
programmers must make sorts as general as possible,
address calculation is neglected. If the key distribution
differs substantially from the rectilinear (from an even
distribution, such as might be obtained from random
generation), then the function to map keys onto ad-
dresses must become much more complex. But for
microcomputer programming, often the key distribution
is close to random, making the address-calculation sort
a good choice.

With the appropriate address calculated, that location
is checked to determine its status. If it is empty, the cur-
rent list element is placed there, and the algorithm con-
tinues. If it is already occupied, then the element must
be inserted in such a manner as to maintain proper
order. When all list elements have been placed in the
range, the program simply reads them off in order, ig-

494 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

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Listing 1: The address-calculation sort program. Written for the Ap-
ple II computer, the program will generate a list of random numbers,
sort the list, and print the sorted list.

10

INPUT N

20

DIM NTXCN)

:REM *** GENERATE RANDOM NUMBERS

30

HOME : INVERSE : PRINT " ";N;" RANDOM NUMBERS": NORMAL

40

FOR J = 1 TO N

50

N*<J> = INT (65535 * RND U ) ) - 32767

60

PRINT J" . "N*<J>

70

NEXT J

8i

PRINT : INVERSE : PRINT " SORTED LIST ": NORMAL

:REM *** SORT ROUTINE

90

I = 2.36 * N

10t

BP = I / 65535

1 10

DIM A* < I + N >

:REM *** MAIN LOOP

120

FOR X = 1 TO N

130

XA = X

140

Y = (32767 + NX(X)) * BP

150

IF AX(U) = THEN AX(V) = XA : GOTO 190

169

IF NX(AX(V)) > NX(XA) THEN XB = XA:XA = AX(V) :AX(V> = XB

170

V = V + 1

180

GOTO 150

i*i

NEXT X

:REM *** PRINTOUT

200

C =

210

FOR J = TO I + N

220

IF AX(J) THEN PRINT C" . "NYA A'/.( J) ) : C = C + 1

230

IF C <= N THEN NEXT J

240

END

noring unused elements of the range, and places them
in the output list.

Test Program

Listing 1 is a formatted listing of an Applesoft version
of a test model address-calculation sort. The loop in lines
40 through 80 generates n random integer variables
(-32767 to +32767) and prints them out. The variable
I represents the number of locations allocated to the

Address calculation is one of a

type of sorts whose operation

depends on the nature of the

sorting keys.

range (more about the 2.36 later). The address-mapping
function is a simple linear one; keys are multiplied by
a constant BP to linearly map them onto the range to
I. A sort of string variables would compute a numerical
value from the first so many characters, weighting them
by position. Significantly, the actual list elements are
not placed in the array A%; rather, indexes represen-
ting their location in the input list N% are used. A con-
siderable space saving for lists in which the key is not
the whole record results from this approach. A% is
dimensioned at I + N (see line 110) to ensure that no ele-
ment, in the course of being inserted into A%, gets
bumped off the upper end. While this wastes space, it
could be avoided with extra programming; however,
that would obscure the primary ideas in this example.
The main loop goes through the list in order, computing
the address V from the key. -If the location is vacant,
line 150 places the index there. Otherwise, lines 160 and
170 insert the index in a higher location. The process
produces a "ripple" up the line, exchanging smaller

496 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

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ADDRESS CALCULATION

100 .200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900

Figure 1: The Address Calculation Response Chart. The amount
of time required to sort a list is directly proportional to the number
(n) of elements in the list. . ,

elements into place so that the highest element en-
countered gets placed in the next vacant location by line
150. Once all the indexes are in place, lines 200 through
230 print the results. You could just as easily place them
in another array. The counter C saves time by halting
the printout upon locating all the elements.

Efficiency vs. Speed

I still have not justified my grandiose claims for the
sort's speed. While the full mathematical treatment is
unnecessary, some discussion is in order. Note first that
the time used by the printout loop remains proportional
to the value of I (the number of locations assigned to
the range). This provides a motive for keeping I as small
as possible, and if I is made proportional to n, then the
time taken by this loop will also be proportional to n.

The time taken by the main loop would be proportional
to n if there were no collisions (that is, if lines 160 and
170 went unused). The number of collisions decreases
as I increases, providing a reason for wanting I to be
as large as possible. Counterbalancing the two con-
siderations shows that the optimum value for I will be
proportional to n; the time taken in the main loop then
also turns out to be proportional to n. The actual con-
stants of proportionality depend on the implementation.
These arguments are validated experimentally by figure
1, based on numerous timings of a stripped-down ver-
sion of listing 1 run on an Apple II Plus. The diagram
consists of a line plotted on top of points representing
averages of several runs at near-optimum I. The op-
timum time turned out to be slightly greater than 9
seconds per 100 n. The optimum value for I was
calculated to be about that used in listing 1; namely
2.36*N. Regardless of the implementation, the optimum
ratio of I to n should be about 2.5 + .5, with little varia-
tion of time within that range.

Summary

The address-calculation sorting algorithm provides a
fast, not terribly complicated sort for lists the nature of
whose keys and distribution is generally known. For
special purposes, it can provide the most efficient sort-
ing available. ■

Bibliography

1. Flores, Ivan. Computer Sorting. Englewood Cliffs, NJ:
Prentice-Hall, 1969.

2. Lorin, Harold. Sorting and Sort Systems. Reading, MA:
Addison-Wesley, 1975.

Douglas Davidson (1505 Mintwood Dr., McLean, V A 22101) is a high-
school senior. His hobbies include computers and astronomy.

PortaPac™

You'll Never Have To
Leave Home Without
Your Data Again!!

PortaPac™ is a revolutionary new product that allows the
transport and transfer of information without regards to soft-
ware protocols nor disk formats. PortaPac™ is small enough
to fit inside a suit pocket, yet large enough in capacity to store
up to 64,000 bytes of data (future versions up to 192K bytes).
PortaPac™ is light-weight, versatile, totally portable, and can retain
its content for up to 1 full year without ever changing batteries!
Key features:

• Industry standard RS232C interface with RTS/CTS handshake

• Full-duplex with baud rate from 50-19,200 switch-selectable

• Word length, parity, start/stop bits switch-selectable

• Transparent in-line or stand-alone host/terminal mode

• Totally portable • Can be used as a printer buffer

• Virtually maintenance free

498 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

Typical Uses:

• Transport of information - courier data pack • Exchange
of information • Backup /copy • Demo of software

programs/hardware devices • Printer buffer • External
storage for portable computers • Data aquisition for
sales people/sales demo • Diagnostic program
pack for field service technicians • and more
1 6K, 32K, 64K versions available. 16K version

$345.00, 64K version $695.00.
Ordering Information:
P Send order and check, COD, VISA,
MASTERCARD to

Cryptronics, Inc.

11711 Coley River Cir, Suite 7
Fountain Valley, CA 92078

Add $8.00 for freight and handling. California residents add &h%
sales tax. Allow 2-4 weeks for delivery.

A\

Cryptronics, Inc.

PortaPac™is a trademark of Cryptronics. Inc. Disclaimer: Cryptronics, Inc. shall not be responsible
for the use of its product for illicit purposes.

Circle 538 on inquiry card.

outside CA inside CA

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Wall Streeter 300 216

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Multiplan" 275 198

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Supertext Home Office ... 125 94
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Personal Investor 145 99

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Sensible Speller 125 94

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Dictionary 100 70

Screenwriter II 130 85

Screenwriter

Professional 200 149

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Word Handler 199 145

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Executive Speller 75 56

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Accounting + II GR 395 289

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Inventory 395 289

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Payroll 395 289

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Synergistic
Global Program
Line Editor 65 49

Vlslcorp
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Model 100 78

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Visicalc 250 169

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Utility Pak 1 129 99

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Modifiable Database 80 59

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25 Home/Education/Games

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Eduware

Algebra 1

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Compu-Read

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40
40
40

50
30
49

40
30

30

Learning System 150

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Typing Tutor II™ . .
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Speed Read Plus .
Synergistic

Stargazer's Guide .

30

30
30
30

37
22
37
37
37
37

30
22

22

108
22

Muse

Dataplot

Omega Microwave

Inspector

Locksmith

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Disk Organizer

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Stoneware

Graphics Proc. Sys.

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Visitrend/Piot

120

70
60

40

70

50

25
30
30
50
25
35

100

90

130 89
50 38

69 52

179 129

37 28

100 79

300 234

inside CA (800) 631-4400

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Menu Generator 40 29

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Terminal Program 100 75

Insoft

Electric Duet 30 23

Graforth II 75 56

Unk Systems

Link Index 195 149

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Lotus

Executive Briefing

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APPLE IIP

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Model 100

Desktop Plan 300

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78
234
312

129
129

APPLE lie™

Most Apple II products also run on the lie
(call for details). Products below are
specially designed for the He.

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Screenwriter II 130 90

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Softcard™ 345 219

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TG

Joystick 60 45

Vldex

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Videoterm with

Softswitch 375 239 '

CP/M-80

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Other formats are available as special orders
thru Software to go.

Business

ATI UST SALE

Power fa CP/M 75 54

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Bottom Line Strategist .... 400 279

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Supervyz 150 94

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The Final Word 300 223

Mince 175 139

Micro Pro

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Mailmerge 250 165

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Inside CA (800) 631-4400
Outside CA (800) 222-881 1

Local (415) 324-3730

Order lines are manned 6:30—6 Monday thru Friday and 9—
5 Saturday Other lines are open 9—5 Monday thru Friday.

Technical Support (4 15) 324-03 1 1

Order Status (4 15) 324-0306

Sales Manager (4 15) 324-0305

orders must be PAID

by November 20

to qualify for these

special prices

PROGRAMMING
INTERNATIONAL

505 Hamilton Avenue • Suite 301
Palo Alto, California 94301

More CP/M®, Apple®. IBM PC®.
UNIX® software hardware etc
available; call for quote All
sales are final.

TERMS: All prices subject to change without notice and availability. Cashier's check/MO/bank
transfer. Allow time for company or personal checks to clear. Prices reflect cash prepaid dis-
count. VISA/MASTERCARD/COD/PO's + 3%. C A residents add sales tax. All sales final for
games & special orders.

SHIPPING: $3 per item for UPS surf ace ($6 tor Blue Label) within Continental USA, except where
shipping cost is specified i n square brackets. UPS does not go to Canada, Alaska, APO's, FPO's;
call for ship charge or add 15%— we will refund/credit difference.

RETURNS: All returns subject to managers approval, must have authorization number, obtained
at 41S-324-03O5. Unauthorized returns will be refused; damaged goods will be refused. All returns
subject to 15% restocking tee. No return after 30 days.

Database

Anderson-Bell UST SALE

Abstat 395 359

AshtonTate

dBASE II 700 389

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Caxton

Cardbox 245 177

Condor

Condor 3 650 398

OJR

FMS 80 395 275

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Access Manager 300 225

Pit

Superfile 195 129

Fox & Getter

Ouickcode 295 195

Quickscreen/dBASE II ... . 149 125

dGRAPH 295 195

dUTIL 99 59

Human Soft

D8Pius 125 95

Micro Pro

Infostar 495 327

Microsoft •

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(MS0RT)~ 195 151

Optimal

Accelerator™ 195

dCLONE™ 295

Pearl Soft

Personal Pearl 295 229

T/Maker Ca

T/Maker 111 275 215

Home/Education/Games

Infocom UST SALE

Deadline 60 43

Starcross 50 38

Zork I 50 38

Zorkll 50 38

Zork III 50 38

Supersott

Dungeon Master 40 30

Nemesis 45 34

Language

Digital Research UST SALE

CB80 500 395

CBASIC 150 94

Programmer's Utility 200 159

PL/1 80..... 500 375

Pascal MT+ 350 262

Pascal MT+ with SPP . . . . 500 395

SID 75 63

ZSI0 100 88

Microsoft •

Basic 80 Interpreter 350 252

Basic Compiler 395 296

Cobol 80 750 562

Fortran 80 500 360

MACRO 80 200 150

^Lisp/^Star 200 156

Supersott

ADA Compiler 300 225

C Compiler 250 188

Ullllly/Comm/Graphics

Byrom UST SALE

BASrAM 200 149

Digital Research

Despool 50 38

Mlcroslut

Crosstalk/ Smartmodem . . 195 135
Supersott

Disk Doctor 100 75

Wool!

Move It 125 83

HARDWARE, NOT
MACHINE SPECIFIC

Amdek UST SALE

Color II (RGB) 899 645

Hayes Microcomputer Products

Chronograph 249 199

Smartmodem 1200 699 499

Smartmodem 300 279 209

NEC

Monitor 12" Green

Hi-Res 285 167

Novation

J Cat 149 119

Smart Cat 103 259 207

Smart Cat 103/212 595 476

Circle 374 on inquiry card.

BYTE November 1983

501

Programming Quickies

Fast Loading with Apple DOS 3.3

by John Williams

Apple DOS 3.3 normally takes considerable time to
load a large file. You can improve the DOS (disk operat-
ing system) file-loading operation, however, by using a
program called Loader that increases by as much as five
times the speeds of the LOAD and BLOAD (used for
binary files) procedures. Loader also quickens RUN and
BRUN operations, which execute the program in mem-
ory. (DOS's file-saving operation is also slow; that rate
is less crucial, however, because most files are saved only
once but might be loaded many times.)

DOS modified by the Loader program works with any
standard 16-sector disk and stores files on a disk the way
standard DOS does. With this enhanced system, files
can be read from disks written with regular DOS or from
commercial disks that use the standard DOS format.

Tracks and Sectors

Before I describe how Loader works, let's consider the
operation of standard DOS. DOS stores data on disks
that contain 35 concentric tracks; each track includes 16
sectors. A sector contains 256 bytes of code (or data). The
DOS routine RWTS (read or write track and sector) can
be used to read or write any complete sector but cannot
read a partially filled sector.

When a sector is to be read or written, RWTS starts
up the disk drive, moves the disk-drive head to the ap-
propriate track, and waits for the sector to arrive at the
disk-drive head. If the disk is already running and the
head is on the appropriate track, there's just a short delay
while the head waits for the sector.

DOS writes a file to disk filling one track at a time,
using sector 15 first, sector 14 next, and so on down to
sector 0. If a sector is already filled, DOS skips it and
fills the next one.

At first, such a scheme appears inefficient; if you want
sector 15 read first and sector 14 read next, you'll have
to wait 14/16 of a disk revolution for that sector to come
around. To speed the process, the designers of DOS ar-
ranged RWTS so it does not handle the disk sectors in
the ordinary numerical sequence.

Instead, RWTS uses a look-up table to translate the sec-
tor number it receives into a number that indicates that
sector's actual position on the disk. Table 1 illustrates
how the sector and position numbers correspond. (Posi-
tion immediately follows position 15.) Thus, the sec-
tors in a normal DOS file are arranged such that there
is always a spare sector position between one file sector
and the next, which gives the RWTS routine sufficient
time to read a file sector, process it (while the 256 bytes

in the next position pass unread under the disk head),
and return just in time to catch the next file sector. Con-
sequently, RWTS can read a complete track in slightly
more than two disk revolutions, starting at position 15
and ending at position 0. At this rate, in fact, the routine
can read an entire file at three revolutions per track: two
revolutions to read and less than one revolution to move
the head to the next track.

DOS Files

Because the RWTS routine determines the position of
each sector in a track, you might reasonably expect that
DOS file operations are carried out as quickly as possi-
ble. Unfortunately, a snag delays the procedure. Al-
though RWTS reads sectors efficiently, it reads only com-
plete sectors: that is, sectors containing 256 bytes. Most
files, however, do not completely fill all sectors allocated
to them; the last sector of each file probably includes
some unused bytes. Moreover, the first few bytes of such
files contain control information, which should be in-
tercepted and not transferred to user memory.

Programs, therefore, often use DOS to read files one
line or one record at a time, which results in proper
handling of control information without cluttering user
memory. Furthermore, this capability to read one line
or record at a time can prevent transfer of unused bytes
to user memory at the end of a file's final sector.

To provide such capability, however, DOS gives up
some of the efficiency of RWTS. For example, to read the
first record of a file, DOS must transfer (using RWTS)
the complete first sector of the file into a DOS buffer area
and copy the record to the user-program buffer. Then,
to read the next record, DOS simply copies subsequent
bytes from the DOS buffer to the user-program buffer.
When the DOS buffer is empty, DOS goes to the next
sector. The process continues until the entire file is read.
Because DOS copies from a buffer, only the exact amount
of data needed is written to the chosen locations in user
memory; the areas adjacent to those locations are not
disturbed.

The procedure I've just described solves the problem
of t reading less than a complete sector; however, it is
time-consuming. Because copying each file in and out
of the fixed DOS buffer slows the reading process, DOS
gets back to RWTS too late to catch the next sector; RWTS
must wait nearly an entire disk revolution for the sector
to come around again. Consequently, instead of requir-
ing three disk revolutions to read a file, DOS 3.3 needs
18 revolutions (i.e., it's six times slower).

502 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

Sector

Position

15

15

14

2

13

4

12

6

11

8

10

10

9

12

8

14

7

1

6

3

5

5

4

7

3

9

2

11

1

13

Table 1: The RWTS routine

uses this look-up table to determine

each sector's actual position

on

the disk.

Fast DOS

LOAD and BLOAD use such a procedure in DOS to
transfer from disk to memory the body of a file as well
as the first and final sectors. By placing a jump command
in the proper place, however, you can bypass this pro-
cedure and substitute the Loader routine, which affects
only LOAD, BLOAD, RUN, and BRUN.

With Loader implemented, these commands start as

they usually would: DOS performs all of the normal syn-
tax checks, reads the first sector of a file into the DOS
buffer, and sorts out the file address and length. Loader
then takes over, copying bytes from the DOS buffer con-
taining the first sector of the file. If the file is sufficient-
ly short to be contained in that one sector, the job is
done; Loader returns to DOS, which furnishes a prompt
or runs the file. However, a file usually fills additional
sectors.

As long as there are 256 bytes or more to be read in
the file, Loader calls RWTS, which in turn transfers the
next sector directly to memory, repeating this process
until fewer than 256 bytes remain. Because Loader places
the sectors directly in memory, it need not do any copy-
ing and can get back to RWTS in time for RWTS to catch
the next file sector. As a result, RWTS does not have to
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At the end of the file, there usually remains a partial-
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DOS, only the exact memory area involved in the LOAD
or BLOAD operation is disturbed.

The Loader program itself is small, containing about
250 bytes. It uses the same locations in page-zero that

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503

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Programming Quickies _^_^^_^_

Listing 1: A numeric listing for the Loader program, which speeds
loading times under Apple DOS 3.3. The program is for use on the
48K~byte version of the Apple II.

BEAF;

A 9

00

AC

43

BE

AD

C9

Bvi

BD

6C

BF

8D

BF

AD

CA

BEBFs

B5

3D

6D

BF

8D

76

BF

AD

CB

B5

iil)

F8

BE

AD

CC

B5

BECF :

E3D

F9

BE

EE

BD

BV5

3E1

AD

C3

05

ED

BD

B5

85

42

AD

BEDF ::

C4

B5

E9

00

85

43

AC

BD

B5

AE

CI

B5

3 A

DO

08

AD

BEEF :

C2

B5

FO

53

CE

C2

B5

CA

B9

00

96

91

42

C8

DO

EC

BEFF s

SC

EB

B7

BE

CI.

95

A9

OE

8D

C6

B5

E6

43

AE

C2

B5

BFOF:

FO

lA

AS

42

an

l-.i|- T

B5

rt5

4 3

SD

CO

B5

20

49

BF

EE

BFiFs

CO

B5

CE

C2

B5

DO

F5

AD

CO

85

B5

43

AD

CB

BS

8D

BF2F :

BF

B5

AID

CC

B'a

BD

CO

BZ>

AE

ci

B5

FO

OA

20

49

l.-! :

BF3F s

AE

CI

B'o

AO

00

FO

AS

AC

Eh

A 2

AC

C6

DO

OD

AD

BF4Fs

C9

B5

AE

CA

Bt>

AO

i.

20

65

BF

AO

oc

AD

BF

BS

AE

BF5F s

CO

B5

20

BF

60

8D

FO

B7

8E

F 1

B7

B9

00

97

FO

BF6F:

IS

8D

EC

B 7

ca

B9

00

97

8D

ED

B7

CB

8C

C6

B5

A 9

BF7Fu

B 7

AO

ES

20

B5

&7

BO

063

60

20

EA

A2

A 2

OS

Do

05

BFfcF:

20

EA

A 2

A 2

08

6EJ

6EJ

68

6 a

8h

4C

D2

A 6

A477s

4C

BA

BE

normal DOS routines use. But where is the best place
to keep these 256 bytes so they won't affect user
programs?

Loader fits in the area usually taken up by the disk
formatter. The DOS formatting routines that make up
the formatter are used to initialize a disk, and you don't
really need a copy of them on every program disk.

The DOS modified to contain Loader cannot format
an unused disk, but the INIT command works if the disk
being written has already been initialized. INIT clears
the catalog on the disk, then writes onto the disk a copy
of DOS that includes Loader. The modified DOS can-
not change the disk's volume number, however, so you
must maintain the same volume number, set with the
V option. Otherwise, DOS signals a VOLUME MIS-
MATCH error.

You can modify DOS in memory by entering the Apple
Monitor and typing in the code provided in listing 1.
(The code was written for a 48K-byte Apple II.) When
you have finished typing, reenter DOS using Ctrl-C,
set up a Hello program, insert a previously initialized
disk, and type INIT HELLO, followed by the disk's
volume number (e.g., V254). This procedure stores a
copy of the modified DOS on the disk. After you have
one copy on disk, you can either read it in and initialize
other disks in the same way or use a disk-copying util-
ity. Make sure you have an initialized disk that you are
prepared to reinitialize with the modified DOS before
you complete all the necessary typing. ■

John Williams spent many years working for British computer companies.
He now works for Bell Northern Research in Ottawa, Canada. He can be
reached at 18 Banting Crescent, Kanata, Ontario, Canada K2K 1P4.

504 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

Circle 535 on inquiry card.

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Technical Forum

A Simplified Algorithmic Approach

to Decision Tables

Decision tables can yield structured programs
suitable for use on personal computers

by Joe

Decision tables— a system-analysis technique whose
time has come and gone and come back again— are
graphic representations of logic problems.

They take the form of a table or array and are made
up of lists of conditions and lists of possible actions. A
proper action is selected by reading the decision table
to see which conditions control that action. When the
set of conditions meets the requirements for an action,
then that action is taken.

Decision-table techniques were developed in the late
1950s and early 1960s to solve manufacturing problems.
By 1961 and 1962, computer programs could operate on
decision tables, but by the middle 1960s interest died
out.

Decision-table techniques fell out of use because flow-
charts became popular, and the amount of computer
resources required to handle small decision tables for
individual programmers was not worth the cost in terms
of storage and execution time. Applications for the really
huge decision tables were not found all that often,
either.

The main reason for the renewed interest in decision
tables is that they are a good tool to use with structured
programs. They can represent the complex logical ex-
pressions that can appear in structured programs in a
compact space and in a form that can be manipulated
to produce optimized, structured code using CASE or
nested IF. . .THEN. . .ELSE statements. Computer time
and storage are now much cheaper, and I recommend
that any professional programmer have a decision-table
package for his or her personal computer.

The method presented here is a shortened and sim-
plified form of other techniques. Although no programs
are given here, the method is designed with ease of pro-
gramming implementation in mind. The use of + 1 and

Celko

- 1 makes it easy to perform the operations of decision
tables discussed here.

The Decision-Table Format

A decision table is made up of three areas: conditions,
which are labels on the rows; actions, which are labels
on the columns; and rules. A rule is the collection of
conditions for one action or, put another way, the ver-
tical grouping of values in the array formed by rows and
columns.

The conditions are Boolean expressions that can be
true or false. They should be independent of each other
and as simple as possible. Conditions such as "sex is
male" and "sex is female" should not both appear be-
cause one is simply the negative of the other. On the
other hand, a compound condition such as "(A>1)
AND (A<5)" might be better written as the two sim-
ple conditions "(A>1)" and "(A<5)."

The actions can be procedure calls, code modules,
pseudocode, or some other action to be taken by the pro-
gram being designed. The actions do not have to be
unique. In fact, it is quite likely that an action can be
triggered by several sets of conditions in a complex pro-

Cl: CORNER HAS LIGHT

+ 1

+ 1

-1

-1

C2: CORNER HAS TREE

+ 1

-1

+ 1

-1

Al:

DRIVE

AHEAD

A2:

TURN

LEFT

A3:

TURN

RIGHT

Al:

DRIVE

AHEAD

Figure 1: A decision table for a set of traffic directions: "Drive
straight ahead until you come to an intersection with a traffic light
but no tree, then turn left. When you come to an intersection with
a tree and no light, turn right/'

November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

507

gramming problem. Decision-table programs should in-
clude an action that reports errors; that is, condition sets
that aren't expected to occur but that might appear dur-
ing decision-table manipulation because of program-
ming mistakes or other such problems. The action "do
nothing" could be another possible outcome in any deci-
sion table. Just be aware that to perform the "do
nothing" action is to do something, as far as a program
is concerned.

The decision-table rules have one of three symbols in
them; + 1 means "yes" or true, - 1 means "no" or false;
and means "don't care." The use of the numbers 1
and instead of letters like Y and N or T and F makes
the table operations easy to program.

Figure 1 is a decision table for a set of traffic directions:
"Keep driving straight ahead until you come to an in-
tersection with a traffic light but no tree, then turn left.
When you come to an intersection with a tree and no
light, turn right."

Transformations for Decision Tables

Some obvious transformations can be performed on
decision tables to keep them simple. The conditions for
these transformations do not often appear explicitly but
show up after an expansion is performed on the deci-
sion table. The transformations are:

1. Remove any duplicate columns. Such duplicates have
the same rules and actions as another column in the
decision table. In practice, this condition does not oc-
cur very often.

2. Remove any duplicate rows. In practice, this condi-
tion does not happen very often, either.

3. Remove any condition with all rules. Because such
conditions indicate a "don't care" state, they can't
influence whether an action is performed.

4. Remove any action with all rules. Such an action
is always to be performed; thus, you need not make
a decision regarding it in the first place.

Note that if two different actions have the same rules,
then they are in contradiction. Figure 2 shows a deci-
sion table that has some contradictions in it.

For example, the condition Cl=+1, C2=-l, and
C3=+l, written as the vector ( + 1, -1, +1), satisfies
the left-hand-column requirements for Al as well as the
right-hand-column requirements for A2. Representing
the rules as vectors in the form (CI, C2, C3), the two
actions Al and A2 can both be triggered by inputs of
( + 1, -1, +1), (-1, +1, -1), (-1, +1, +1), and(+l,
+ 1, +1).

Such errors most likely show up when a decision table
is expanded (a transformation that I'll discuss in the next
section). Contradictions are often introduced when a
system is used by two or more groups of people. Hav-
ing no overall picture of the system, each group makes
different assumptions, and contradictions result. The
decision table is a good tool for detecting such problems
and explaining them to users.

Expansion and Contraction Transformation

Two important transformations can be performed on
a decision table: expansion and contraction. The other
transformations discussed so far were really just house-
keeping. These two major transformations allow us to
test a decision table for correctness and to rewrite it in
the best possible form.

The expansion transformation can be defined as fol-
lows:

1. Replace every column having a 0-valued rule with
two columns. For a column having more than one
0, pick one particular in that column with which
to work. The two resulting columns are identical to
the old except that one has a + 1 in the position where
the was and the other has a -1 in the position
where the was. The action stays the same.

2. Repeat step 1 until the decision table has no rules
left.

3. If all possible values of true and false are not rep-
resented, add to the decision table new columns that
have the missing combinations and an error (or un-
defined) action.

The purpose of expansion is to see that there are no
contradictions in the decision table and to show pro-
grammers any rules they may have overlooked.

The contraction transformation is just the opposite of
expansion, and it can be defined as follows:

1. If two columns are identical except that one has a +1
in one and only one position and the other has a - 1
in that same position, then replace both of them with
a single column that has a in the position.

2. Repeat step 1 as often as is possible.

CI:

+ 1

-1

C2:

+1

C3:

+ 1

Al

A2

Al

A2

Figure 2: A decision table with four hidden contradictions. A con-
tradiction occurs when one set of conditions satisfies the rules for two
different actions. When the rules are represented as a vector of the
form (CI, C2, C3), the contradictions in this table are (+1, -1, +1),
(-1, +2, -1), (-2, +2, +1), and (+1, +2, +1). Note that the 0s
in the decision table represent "don't care" conditions. Thus, for ex-
ample, the first contradiction (+1, -1, +1) satisfies the left-hand-
column rules for Al (the first +2 satisfying the upper left-hand-corner
entry and the -1 and second +2 satisfying the left-hand column's
entries) and the right-hand-column rules for A2 (the second +2
satisfying the bottom right-hand-corner entry, and the first +2 and
the -1 satisfying the right-hand column's entries).

508 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

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Circle 176 on inquiry card.

BYTE November 1983

509

(3a)

CI:

+1

+1

+1

-1

C2:

+1

-1

-1

+1

+1

C3:

+1

+1

+1

-1

C4:

+ 1

+ 1

+1

Al

A2

A2

A3

A 1

A4

(4a)

(3b)

CI:

+1+1+1+1

+1+1

+1+1

-1-1

-1+1-1+1

+1-1

+1-1-1-1-1

C2:

+1+1+1+1

-1-1

-1-1

+ 1-1

+1+1+1+1

+1+1

-1+1-1-1-1

C3:

-1+1-1+1

+1 +1

+ 1-1

+1+1

+1+1+1+1

-1-1

-1-1+1-1-1

C4:

+1+1-1-1

+1 -1

+ 1+1

+ 1+1

+1+1-1-1

+ 1+1

-1-1-1 -1-1

Al

A2

A2

A3

Al

A4

ERROR

(4b)

CI:

+ 1

+ 1

C2:

+ 1

-1

C3:

-1

+ 1

C4:

+ 1

+ 1

Al

A2

A3

A4

CI:

+1

+1

C2:

+1

-1

C3:

-1

+ 1

C4:

+ 1

+ 1

Al

A2

A3

A4

Figure 3: A decision table (3a) and its expanded form (3b). Note
that none of the five error columns is duplicated elsewhere in the
table; the condition combinations represented by these error columns
should not occur in the real-world situation modeled by the decision
table.

The purpose of contraction is to reduce the physical
size of the decision table. This serves two purposes.
First, a person can handle a smaller table more easily
than a large one. Second, it simplifies the application
of algorithms to generate programs from the decision
table. Very often, columns can be contracted in several
ways. This is especially true for the error conditions, but
if too many error conditions can be reduced, then the
conditions might have been less independent than
possible.

Figure 3 serves as an example. First, it is expanded
and then inspected. Rules 1 and 6 are contradictory, as
are rules 4 and 5. Rules 1 and 6 both expand to include
the rule ( + 1, + 1, - 1, + 1). Rules 4 and 5 both expand
to include the rule (-1, +1, +1, +1).

Furthermore, there are five missing rules that have
to be assigned error actions. These are shown as extra
columns on the right-hand edge of the expanded deci-
sion table.

Rules 1 and 5 have redundancies, as do rules 2 and
3. Rules 1 and 5 both lead to action Al for rules ( + 1,
+ 1, +1, +l)and( + l, +1, + 1, -1). Rules 2 and 3 both
lead to action A2 for rule ( + 1, -1, +1, +1).

Redundancy can be handled by ignoring it because
it is harmless or by carefully replacing a value in one
of the rules with a + 1 or - 1. For example, if we decide
to leave rule 1 alone, we can replace the present rule
5, which is (0, +1, +1, 0), with (-1, +1, +1, 0). It's

(4c)

Cl:

+ 1

+ 1

C2:

+ 1

-1

Al

A2

C3:

-1

+ 1

C4:

+ 1

+ 1

A3

A4

Figure 4: Because of the arrangement of its zero entries, the deci-
sion table in figure 4a can be split into subtables (4b) to yield two
independent decision tables (4c).

wise to remove the extra rules because they make the
decision table bigger than it needs to be.

Independent Subtables

Many times a decision table really is a collection of
several separate decision tables with no logical relation-
ship among all the conditions. Combining several in-
dependent decision tables into one is not a good way
to draw a decision table, but it often happens in the real
world because of the way people specify program re-
quirements. Conditions are often considered to be re-
lated because they occur in the same place and at the
same time. This means that two sets of actions and two
sets of conditions have " don't care" values in the rules
where they overlap. A sample decision table is shown
in figure 4.

510 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

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ROW
TALLY

COLUMN
TALLY

CI:

+1

+ 1

-1

-1

OM

C2:

1 °

-1

+ 1

-1

4

C3:

+ 1

-1

4

C4-.

+ 1

+1

6

Al

A2

A3

A4

1

4

2

2

2

LOWEST

Figure 5: Column tallies are computed by counting the number of
Os in a column and raising 2 to that power. To compute a row's tal-
ly, add the column tallies corresponding to each entry in that row.

Here is a simple transformation to split out the in-
dependent subtables:

1. Rearrange the rules of the decision table (either rows
or columns) so that it can be partitioned into sub-
arrays with zero subarrays on the minor diagonal.

2. Split the decision table into four separate and in-
dependent decision tables that correspond to the sub-
arrays.

3. Throw out the two decision tables with all Os.

4. Repeat the procedure, if applicable, on the two re-
maining decision tables.

This transformation gives you much smaller decision
tables with which to work.

Program Generation from Decision Tables

When the decision table is finally free of redundancy
and contradictions, you'll want to convert it into nested
series of IF. . .THEN. . .ELSE statements. These state-
ments give you part of a structured program. If you can
make this conversion automatically, so much the better.

The quick way to do this task is to pick one condition
and use it as the control expression in an IF. . .THEN
. . .ELSE statement. The two branches of the IF. . .
THEN. . .ELSE statement are subtables made up of the
conditions and actions for which the first condition is
true and false, respectively. This procedure is continued
for each subtable until the entire decision table has been
converted into a nest of IF. . . THEN. . .ELSE state-
ments.

The problem with this approach is that there are many
ways to generate a program from a single decision table.
This is a blessing in a way because it means that a deci-
sion table represents all possible valid programs. By hav-
ing the decision table in the program documentation,
should anything change you can restructure the pro-
gram without having to mess with horrible nested
IF. . .THEN. . .ELSE statements.

Listing 1: The program corresponding to the figure 5 decision table.

IF CI

THEN IF C3

THEN Al
ELSE IF C2

THEN Error

ELSE A2
ELSE IF C2

THEN IF C4

THEN A3

ELSE Error
ELSE IF C4

THEN A4

ELSE Error

Unfortunately, the number of possible generated
statements is huge. If there are n conditions, you have
n possible ways to pick the highest level control expres-
sion. Each of the two branches of the highest level con-
trol expression has n-1 possible control expressions,
and so on. For two conditions this is simply two possi-
ble arrangements, and three conditions have 12 possi-
ble arrangements. But four conditions have 576 possi-
ble arrangements. It gets worse as n gets bigger.

It would be nice to know that you are generating the
optimal program code from the decision table. Obvious-
ly a brute force approach will not work, simply because
of the number of possible statements.

There is a fairly simple procedure that provides good
results most but not all of the time. When it fails to pro-
duce the best possible program code, it at least produces
something close. The algorithm is illustrated by the table
in figure 5 and the code in listing 1. The steps of the
algorithm are:

1. Contract the decision table and presume that any rule
not in the decision table will result in an error action.

2. For each column, compute a column tally by count-
ing the number of Os and raising 2 to that power. If
it has no Os, its tally is 1; if it has one 0, its tally is
2; if it has two Os, its tally is 4, and so forth.

3. For each row, compute a row tally by adding the col-
umn tallies corresponding to the row's values.

4. Split the decision table on the condition with the
smallest row tally. In the event of a tie between two
or more conditions, use the condition with the most
equal distribution of +ls and -Is. This results in a
more balanced nesting of .statements.

5. Repeat this procedure on each subtable until it halts.

512 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

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513

IF CI
THEN

(6a)

IF CI

THEN IF C3
THEN

(6b)

ELSE IF C2
THEN

(6c)

C2:

-1

4

C3:

+ 1

-1

*

C4:

6

Al

A2

COLUMN
TALLY

4

2

ROW
TALLY

-LOWEST

ROW
TALLY

C2:

C4:

Al

ELSE

C3:

2

C4:

+1

0* L

A3

COLUMN
TALLY

2

LOW

ROW
TALLY

ELSE

C2.

+1

-1

<+— LC

C3:

4

C4-.

+ 1

+ 1

A3

A4

COLUMN
TALLY

2

2

ROW
TALLY

LOW AND BALANCED

COLUMN
TALLY

C2:

-1

C4:

2

A2

2

ROW
TALLY

COLUMN
TALLY

C3:

2

C4:

+ 1

0-*— LOW

A4

J

2

Figure 6: Program development for the figure 5 decision table. To start, select the row with the lowest row tally (the CI row in figure
5) and construct a new decision table out of the figure 5 table entries for which CI is true (see figure 6a). Note that if CI is true, then
Al or A2 must be performed; A3 and A4 are eliminated. Then, construct a new table out of the figure 5 table entries for which CI is not
true (which dictates A3 orA4, eliminating Al and A2). Similarly, construct new tables from each resulting table until each action is specified.
Figure 6b shows the transformation of the first subtable and 6c shows the transformation of the second subtable.

A subtable with all Os can be replaced immediately
with a call to its action procedure. A subtable with
only one condition can be translated immediately into
an IF. . .THEN. . .ELSE statement; just remember
that any rule not explicitly given is an error.

Figure 6 works out a table into code, showing the sub-
tables as part of the code. Note that the branches of the
different IF. . .THEN. . .ELSE statements do not both
pick the same condition for the next application of the
algorithm. Many people tend to write code that uses the
same condition for the next level at each branch just
because it looks symmetrical.

This procedure can be modified to take care of situa-
tions in which the programmer has special knowledge
of the data. This is done by adding weights to the tallies.
For example, imagine a decision table with only three
conditions, CI, C2, and C3. If CI requires 10 units of
computer time, C2 requires 5 units, and C3 requires 1
unit, then C3 should be the highest control expression
of the IF. . .THEN. . .ELSE statement. It's easy to see
why with a little thought. If we have to test all three
conditions, then it is going to cost 16 units of computer
time no matter what we do. However, if we can arrive

at an action by testing just C3, then we have spent only
1 unit. If we can arrive at an action by testing just C2
and C3, then we have spent only 6 units. By arranging
the statement carefully, we can save a lot of computer
time.

Hints for Program Design

The use of -1, 0, and +1 in this article was planned
to allow reduction operations to be performed by sim-
ple arithmetic.

Clearly the rules can be represented as an array in a
program. The columns can be expanded, then sorted.
Once sorted, the contradictions and redundancies will
show up. Finally, the array can be compared to all possi-
ble rules, generated by nested loops.

In real applications, a program that can handle a
dozen conditions is probably quite large enough. This
would require only a little over 4K bytes to store, which
is no trouble for a small computer. ■

Joe Celko (POB 10558, Atlanta, GA 30310) is a research scientist at the
US Army Institute for Research in Management, Information, and Computer
Science. Educated at Georgia Tech, he is a science-fiction fan and a computer
columnist.

514 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

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Programming Quickies

Subscripts and Superscripts
for the Atari

You can use ANTIC 3 mode to create specialized character sets

by Tim Kilby

The Atari computers give you tremendous flexibility
in defining your own character sets and providing a prac-
tical mode in which to use them. One special mode, AN-
TIC 3, allows for characters with true descenders,
superscripts, and subscripts. This means that you can
create a specialized character set for many applications,
including chemical and mathematical formulas (see
listing 1).

Starting from GRAPHICS

ANTIC 3 cannot be addressed directly; you must
modify a GRAPHICS display list to use this mode. A
simple routine to do that is shown in listing 2. Run this
routine and you will see that you now have 19 lines of
text, each line capable of holding 40 characters. The for-
mat looks like a GRAPHICS display, just spaced far-
ther apart.

If you try displaying lowercase letters on the screen,
youll see something definitely different about this mode.
In ANTIC 3, the first 2 bytes of character data are read
last. (Remember, there are 8 bytes of shape data per
character.)

That's right. The computer reads the third shape byte
first, then the fourth, fifth, and so on. After the eighth
byte, it reads the first and second bytes. This only hap-
pens for the 32 lowercase characters and symbols, char-
acters 96 through 127.

Why, you are probably asking, this strange way to read
character data? Each mode line in ANTIC 3 is actually
10 scatf lines tall, unlike the 8 lines in GRAPHICS
mode. For all characters, except the last 32 in the set, the
system prints the character using the top 8 scan lines in
the stack of 10. ANTIC 3 was designed to display lower-
case descenders, the tails on ys, gs, etc. So for those last
32 characters, each is printed in the unusual sequence

Listing 1: This output from the ANTIC 3 Demonstration Program
displays the use of lower case descenders, superscripts, and subscripts.

(x 2 +y 2 ) 2 =4Cx 2 -y 2 3
READY

Listing 2:The GRAPHICS Display List Modification Routine.

10 GRAPHICS

20 DL=PEEK<560)+256*PEEK(561)

30 POKE DL+3,67

40 FOR 1=0 to 175POKE DL+I+&,31NEXT I

50 POKE DL+24,65!POKE DL+25,PEEK(560)!

POKE DL+26,PEEK(561>

of bytes illustrated in figure 1. Not all the lowercase in-
ternal characters will work. With specially designed
lowercase letters, however, descenders really look
descended.

The quick and easy way to redesign this last quarter
of the character set is to use one of the several published
or commercially available character-set editors.
Characters that are so tall as to have dots in the second
byte, the second row from the top, will have to be
lowered. The b, I, t, i, and h characters are examples. I
suggest lowering all lowercase characters by using the
shift-down option of your editor. If your editor doesn't
have that option, you will have to do the shifting
manually. Shift all lowercase characters down 1 byte.

For true descenders, redesign characters that have
descenders so that the last 2 bytes to be displayed ap-

518 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

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BYTE November 1983 519

E=E=^E J | tffl 1 1 1 [ffl 1

Figure 1: Some standard characters as displayed in the ANTIC 3
mode. Note that the uppercase character is unaffected while the lower-
case characters are distorted.

(2a
Z

1

i

=

Figure 2: Redefined characters for use with the ANTIC 3 mode. The
lowercase g (2a) will have a descending tail, and the 3 (2b) can be
used as a subscript character.

pear as the first 2 bytes. It will look crazy, but that's what
is necessary for ANTIC 3. Figure 2a shows the g character
redesigned to be used for this mode. j

Subscripts and Superscripts

The real power with ANTIC 3, however, is in the ability
to display superscripts and subscripts. Just imagine
printing chemical or mathematical equations on screen
with the superscripts or subscripts just where they
should be. For subscripts, simply replace the lowercase
characters with numerals or other characters using your
editor's copy option, or design your own special sym-
bols. Then shift those characters 3 bytes lower for max-
imum descent. The number 3 would appear as it does
in figure 2b for use as a subscript.

Listing 3: The ANTIC 3 Demonstration Program incorporates the
routine in listing 2 to produce the output shown in listing 1.

6
7

8

9

10

2.0

30

^0

50

REIM ANTIC 3 Derio Progran

rem

REIM First relocate all 128
characters to a RAM location*
GOSUB 1000

REM Modify the display list*
GRAPHICS

DL--PEEK<560)+256*PEEK<56i!|
POKE DL+3,67

FOR 1=0 TO 17: POKE DL+I+6,3JNEXT I
POKE DL+24,65JP0KE DL+25, PEEK (560) J
POKE DL+26, PEEK (561)

58 REM

59 REM Change character set painter to
the RAM location of Modified sett

6 POKE 7*56 t C ADR/256
68 REM

69 REM Print equations in ANTIC 3 node
using new characters*

70 PRINT t PRINT "AgNOa + KBr c AgB
rb + KNOa"

80 PRINT tPRINT " (K$+y$)*= 4 »(x$-y$ ) "

9 END

10 POKE 10 6 f PEEK (106) -5 J GRAPHICS 05P
RINT "Transferring characters fron ROM

to RAM ♦♦♦♦'"
1010 CADR=256* ( PEEK (106)+-!)
1020 FOR 1=0 TO 1023? POKE CADR+I ,PEEK (
57344+1): NEXT I
1030 ? :? "Redefining 8 characters ♦ ♦

♦ ♦
10 38 REM
1039 REM Replace data for 8 characters

- a, b* c, g, r, x, y, and $ - J
10 10 FOR 1=0 TO 23SREAD X J POKE 776+CAD
R+I,XJNEXT I

1050 DATA 102,60,0,0,126,12,24,12
1060 DATA 60,24,24,24,24,24,219,126
1070 DATA 24,0,24,12,6,255,6,12
1080 FOR 1=0 TO 7IREAD XtPOKE 824+CADR
•fI,X?NEXT I
1090 DATA 102,60,0,62,102,10 2,62,6

110 for 1 = to 7 1 re ad x j poke 912+cadr
+:i:,x:next i

1110 DATA 0,0,0,124,102,96,96,96

1120 FOR 1=0 TO 15JREAD XJPOKE 960+CAD

r+i,xjnext I

1130 DATA 0,0,0,102,60,24,60,102
1140 DATA 108,56,0,102,102,102,62,12
1150 FOR 1=0 TO 7 t READ X t POKE 32+CADR+
I, X I NEXT I

1160 DATA 60,102,12,56,126,0,0,0
1170 RETURN

Superscripts are handled differently. Replace the lower-
case letters with uppercase letters, shifting them down
3 bytes also. Replace rarely used letters and the three
symbols with numerals, if you wish. (Do not edit the
three screen-editing symbols. Trying to print them would
still cause the function to be performed.) Now the lower-
case letters become the standard alphabet and all other
characters will appear as superscripts.

For those of you without a character editor, the AN-
TIC 3 Demonstration Program in listing 3 will transfer
the internal character set from ROM (read-only memory)
to RAM (random-access read/write memory) and
redefine several characters for a demonstration of this
outstanding mode. Try it!«

Editor's Note: For more information on using Atari graphics, please con-
sult the following articles: "An Introduction to Atari Graphics" by Chris
Crawford and lane Winner (January 1982 BYTE, page 18), "The Atari Tutorial,
Part 2: Graphics Indirection" by Chris Crawford (October 1981 BYTE, page
70), and "Character Editor for the Atari" by Tim Kilby (December 1982 BYTE,
page 167).

Tim Kilby (RR 1, Box 288-B, Sperryville, VA 22740), a former college pro-
fessor, is now an independent microcomputer consultant.

520 November 1983 '© BYTE Publications Inc.

When you visit your dealer and
compare the Princeton IBM -compat-
ible HX-12 sfde-by-slde with the IBM
color monitor, your eyes will see the
difference.

The HX-t 2 gives you higher resolu-
tion and finer dot pitch (.31 mm) than
the IBM 5153's medium resolution
(.43mm) for a cleaner, sharper Image.

Compare our full range of colors
and our crisp whites without red
bleed. You'll also see a difference in

our non-glare screen-a feature yoi
eyes will really appreciate in a long
work session.

The Princeton HX-12 comes with a
cable that plugs directly into the iBM
PC, ready to burst forth into 16
superb colors. All at a suggested retail
price ($695) that's a pleasure for sore
eyes and overworked budgets.

Apple He users: call us to iearn
how you, too, can now enjoy the vis-
ible superiority of the Princeton
HX-12."

mon-

Ask your local dealer for a dercv
stration and let your eyes decide. Or
call us at 800-221 -1490 for more inf or
mation and the name of your nearesi
dealer.

if you're ready to move up to
color, graduate to the Princeton
HX-1 2. It's right at the head of its class,

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Graphic

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; OURS: :3V mm dot pitch, 80 column text. ' THEIRS: .43 mm dot pitch, 80 column text.

THE PRINCETON HX-12

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K

With HP's broad range of workstations, you can choose the one that best fits your application and budget. From
personal computers for engineers to desktop mainframes, with beginning prices ranging from S3, 950 to S28,250,

Actual unre touched photo of an HP workstation screen.

It all started with a single
engineering workstation. Now
weVe taken it further than
anybody else.

No doubt about it; when you put a computer on every engi-
neer's desk, it helps them be more productive.

In fact, at Hewlett-Packard, the workstation approach has
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It's called the Engineering Productivity Network. As you
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With such a wide range to choose from, you can match the
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To help you tailor every workstation to a task even more
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Of course, when you tie all these individually-optimized
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higher level of performance. Whether you choose our HP-UX
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municate much better, and get more done than ever before.

The HP Engineering Productivity Network. You can start
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you start, you're actually making your whole department more
productive. One step at a time.

To find out more, just call the nearest HP office listed in
the white pages of your telephone book, and ask for a
Technical Computer Representative. Or write to Pat Welch,
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Cupertino, CA 95014. In Europe, write Henk van Lammeren,
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Amstel veen, The Netherlands.

We'll be happy to show you how far you can really go with
a good idea.

*UNIX is a trademark of Bell Laboratories.

m

HEWLETT
PACKARD

Circle 211 on inquiry card.

Programming Quickies

A Date/Time Stamp for Disks

These date/time programs aid disk organization by keeping a record

of when each disk was last used

by William Murray

The problem with organizing any set of programs and
disks is determining which ones you use most frequent-
ly. It is difficult to keep track of how often a utility or
data file is used. Your programming could become sub-
stantially easier if you could put on one disk the pro-
grams you use repeatedly. There is a solution to the prob-
lem of disk organization.

The date/time programs described in this article aid
disk organization by stamping each disk with the date
and time it was last used. Then each time you run the
disk you know the elapsed time between uses because
both the previous and the current date and time are
listed.

These programs, written on an Apple II computer with
48K bytes of memory, use the California Computer
System (CCS) clock/calendar card to provide the date
and time information. Although this software is system
dependent, adapting these programs to other systems
with available clock/calendar cards should not prove
difficult.

The CCS card uses a 5832 microprocessor real-time
clock/calendar, which is crystal controlled at 32.768 kHz
to maintain information from seconds to years. The data
is stored in binary-coded decimal form in the selected
memory locations. Battery backup keeps the card run-
ning when the Apple is off or during a power failure.

The only necessary modifications for the clock/calen-
dar board are: the installation of two 2112 RAM (random-
access read/write memory) chips in the provided sockets;
the installation of the RAM jumper; and the setting of
the interrupt request to a 1-second interval. These
modifications are covered in the documentation for the
board. The clock/calendar board must reside in slot #4
because the machine-language program is slot
dependent.

The three-part software includes the TIME/DATE. BAS
program entered when you initialize the disk (see listing
1), the TIME/DATE.OBJ machine-language program that
requests and stores the date from the clock/calendar card
(see listing 2), and a very short machine-language pro-
gram to store the date and time on the disk. The storage
program is created initially by typing

BSAVE TIME/DATE, A$3B8,L$19

Normally you enter the TIME/DATE .BAS program

524 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

when initializing a disk. Another technique is used for
disks that are already in use. Simply load the program
and save it under the name of the initialization file
(typically HELLO for loyal Apple users). TIME/
DATE. BAS calls up the TIME/DATE.OBJ and storage pro-
grams, samples the date, stores it and displays it, then
turns over the control of the Apple to you. Information
on the old date and time is stored in locations 3B8 to .
3CA hexadecimal. The clock/calendar card, meanwhile,
stores the current date and time in locations 2F5 to 300
hexadecimal. This information is finally formed as the
string A$. You can enter a message in lines 110 and 120
in TIME/DATE. BAS that will be displayed when the disk
is called up.

The first machine-language program requests informa-
tion from the clock/calendar card by addressing the prop-
er memory address (see line 19 in DATE/TIME.OBJ for
an example). After getting the information, the program
stores it at a memory location in RAM (see line 22). This
process continues byte by byte until all date and time
data is collected. The information is refreshed once a sec-
ond with every interrupt request. Notice that this pro-
gram is stored, starting at RAM location C400 hexa-
decimal, making the clock/calendar card slot dependent.

The second machine-language program stores the
data, written by the Apple, when it becomes necessary
to transfer the data from the "current date/time" to the
"past date/time." You create the file by typing

BSAVE DATE/TIME,$A3B8,L$19

before running the TIME/DATE. BAS program.

After you enter all of the software, simply insert the
disk into the drive and turn on the Apple. You must do
this twice the first time the disk is run because the old
date and time don't exist in the beginning.

By keeping track of those dates and times, you should
find disk and program organization to be much easier. ■

The clock/calendar card for Apple computers is available for $120
from California Computer Systems, 250 Cambean Dr., Sunnyvale,
CA 94086.

Dr. William Murray is a professor of Computer Science at Broome Com-
munity College, Binghamton, NY 13902.

Listings begin on page 526

40 *MOMaM *4 «/

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DISKETTES

DysanSS/DD ..31.00

Dysan DS/DD 42.95

Verbatim SS/DD 23.95

Verbatim DS/DD 39.00

Elephant SS/DD 22.95

Elephant DS/DD 29.00

DISKETTE STORAGE

5 1/4" Mini Plastic Case 1 .95

5 1/4" Protector (50 Disk) 16.50

8" Protector (50 Disk) 18.50

MONITORS

NEC 12" Hi-Res Green 158.00

NEC 12" Econo Green 115.00

Sanyo 9" B/W 139.00

Sanyo 9" Green 149.00

Sanyo 12" Green 139.00

Sanyo 13" Color 399.00

USI 12" Amber (Gold) 1 59.00

Amdek Color I 326.00

Amdek Color II 739.00

Electrohome 1 3" Hi-Res 699.00

PRINTERS

NEC 8023 473.00

NEC 7710 2399.00

Okidata Microline 92 499.00

Okidata Microline 93 873.00

Smith Corona TPI 545.00

Star Micronics Gemini 10X 269.00

Star Micronics Gemini 15 .... 375.00

PRINTER BUFFERS

Microfazer 8K 129.00

Microbuffer 16K 209.00

Microbuffer 32K 224.00

ln!_ine32K 224.00

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Novation AppleCat II.. 279.00

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Novation 212 Add On 335.00

Novation J-Cat 1 19.00

Hayes Micromodem \\ 279.00

Hayes Smarimodem 209.00

Hayes 1 200B 489.00

DISK DRIVES

Micro Sci A40 W/O Cont 350.00

Micro Sci A40 W/Cont 429.00

Micro Sci A70 W/O Cont 488.00

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Rana Drive W/O Cont 339.00

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Rana Disk Controller Card 95.00

Tandon TM-1 00-2 239.00

Tandon TM-55-2 239.00

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HARDWARE

ABT Keypad (New) 98.00

M&R Superterm 80 x 24 248.00

M&R SuperMod RF Modulator 23.00

TG Game Paddles 26.50

TG Joysticks 39.00

TG Select A Port 39.00

Adam & Eve Game Paddles 26.50

Videx Keyboard Enhancer II 115.00

Videx Function Strip 69.00

Videx Soft Switch 27.50

Microsoft Ram Card 79.00

Microsoft Z-80 C/PM Card 244.00

Microsoft Permium Pack 489.00

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7712A Syn S. Interface 146.00

7721A P. Interface Std 99.00

MOUNTAIN COMPUTERS, INC.

CPS Multi Function Card '.. 130.50

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ROM Plus w/Keyboard Filter 155.00

SOFTWARE

Magic Window 74.00

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Screenwriter II 95.00

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MICROPRO

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Castle Wolfenstein 19.75

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Happy Holidays!

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Apple Panic 22.75

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Gorgon 29.50

Bandits 23.00

Jellyfish 19.75

Fly Wars 19.75

Beer Run 19.75

Lemmings 19.75

Cyclods 19.75

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Algebra 27.95

Compu-Read 21 .95

SAT. Work Skill 34.00

Fractions 34.00

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All products guaranteed to be new
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foreign, and orders over 50 lbs. Cali-
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Prices quoted are for stock on hand

and subject to change without notice.

Limited quantities on some items. No

returns on software that has been

opened.

Circle 27 on inquiry card.

YOUR SATISFACTION IS OUR MAIN CONCERN

CP/M is a registered trademark of Digital Research.

Current Specials

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Listing 1: The TIME/DATE. BAS program.

10 TEXT t HOME I D* = CHR* <4>
20 REM t LOAD CLOCK/CALENDAR CON

VERSION ROUTINE
30 PRINT D*» M BLOAD DATE/TIME •OBJ

0"
40 REM t START CLOCK/CALENDAR R0

UTINE
•oO CALL ft 03 6 8
60 REM t LOAD PREVIOUS DATE/TIME

70 F* «a "DATE/TIME"

BO PRINT D* 5" NO ft ON CflvO"

90 PRINT D$; "BLOAD " > F* J " > A*3B8"

100

110

1 20

:l. 30

REM t DISKETTE INI TIALIZATIO

N MESSAGE

VTAB 1 t PRINT "DOB 3*3 WORK I

NG DISKETTE"

VTAB 21 PRINT "BY WILLIAM MU

RRAY 3/1/81"

VTAB St PRINT "LAST DATE/TIM

E RUN : "

140 VTAB 7 \ HTAB 1

1.50 REM t GET AND PRINT OLD DATE
/TIME ON SCREEN

160 F : OR I « 952 TO 970 X PRINT CHR*
( PEEK ( I ) )y t NEXT I

170 VTAB lit HTAB i: PRINT " CURR-
ENT DATE/71 MEt"

180 REM t GET AND PRINT NEW DATE
/TIME ON SCREEN

190 TA « PEEK <768):TB : = PEEK <

767 )MC = PEEK < 766 >STD = PEEK
(765)ME = PEEK <764>:TF = :
PEEK (763)

200 TK « PEEK <762)tTL = PEEK (

761 >:TG « PEEK (760)tTH « PEEK
<7S9>:TI = PEEK < 758 )tTJ =■■
PEEK < 757 )

210 REM X CHECK FOR A COMPLETE C
ONVERBION

220 IF (TF + TE + TD •*• TC ) > 36 THEN
190

230 REM t DATE STRING

240 C* « STR* CTH) + STR* < TG > f
"/" + STR* < TL ) + STR* < TK
) f " /" 4- STR* (TJ) f STR*
( T I )

250 REM t TIME STRING

260 B* - STR* (TF) f STR* (TE) +
"J" + STR* < TD ) i STR* < TC
) f " t" *• STR* ( TB ) + STR*
(TA )

270 REM J SPACE STRING

280 E* ■■'-- "

290 REM : TOTAL DATE/TIME STRING

300 A* == C* ■*■ E* 4- B*

310 VTAB 13 1 HTAB i: PRINT A*

320 REM t PLACE CURRENT DATE/TIME

IN F*
330 FOR I = 1 TO 19t POKE 951 +

I 9 ASC < MID* (A$ylvl )) f 12

8t NEXT I
340 PR INT P* P M BS AVE " ? F* y " v A* 3B8

yL*19
350 VTAB 23t HTAB 1
360 END

Listing 2: The TIME/DATE.OBJ program.

c4oo: l

C400IA5 45 2

C402:20 4A FF 3

C405IBA 4

C406:BD 00 01 5

C40V:0A 6

ORG *C400

LJiA *45

JSR 1HFF4A

LDA *O10OvX

ASL A MULT BY 2

LOAD AT SLQI 4
SAVE REGISTEFtfa

Listing 2 continued on page 528

526 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

Circle 348 on inquiry card.

How the American Express Corporate Card
can help small businesses in a big way

Created exclusively for com-
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Name

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City

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Zip

Phone

No. of Travelers

5

American Express Travel Management Services

American Express Travel Related Services Co., Inc. 1983.

* In Arizona call 602-954-2088

Circle 399 on inquiry card.

Board for S-IOOBus

256K DYNAMIC RAM
features: Model 256KZ

• 811 6B Data, 24B Address. • Parity bit per Byte. • Transparent refresh. • Unlimited DMA.

• 180nsec. Access Time. • Will run 8086, 8088, 68000 to 8mhz, Z80, Z8000 to 6mhz without
wait states.

FLOPPY DISK CONTROLLER Model FDC1

features: • Single or Double density, sides, in any combination of up to four 8" or 5.25" drives.

• Oigital phase locked loop. • DMA data transfer with cross 64K boundaries, 24B address, DMA
arbitation. • Monitor/boot EPROM accommodating two different processors. • CPM Bios programs.
•Serial port to 19.2K baud.

ZBOB CPU BOARD Model ZBO CPU

features: • 2, 4, or 6 mhz clock. • 22 bit Address by Memory Mapping in 1 6K blocks. • 2 or 4K
byte EPROM (not supplied) with Phantom generation. • Jump on Reset. • Provision to run two
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B01B6 CPU BOARD Model B01B6 CPU

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timers, interrupt controller • Interface to Numeric Data Processor, 8087. • 8 or 1 6 bit data transfer,
with 4 or 8 mhz clock. • Provision to run 2 different CPU's on the bus, such as our M:Z80 CPU.

Board Sets: ZBO CPU, 256KZ, FDC1, and CP/M 3.0

plus manual $1390.
*CP/M is a registered trademark of Digital Research, Inc.
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Listing 2 continued:

TARBELL

DATABASE SYSTEM
DOES A LOT MORE!

More files, fields, field types, precision, func-
tions and other features including:

• BASIC-like query language

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• Multi-user file locking

For the complete database system in ready-
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528 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

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261477 -RI

BYTE November 1983 531

Book Reviews

Programming the
IBM Personal
Computer: BASIC

Neill Graham
Holt, Rinehart
and Winston,
New York: 1982
287 pages, hardcover,
$17.95

Reviewed by
Stan Franklin

I teach BASIC to beginning
programming students. As a
result, publishing companies
send me examination copies
of BASIC texts, hoping they'll
be adopted for classroom
use. (A quick count revealed
15 of them decorating my
shelves.)

Recently, Programming the
IBM Personal Computer:
BASIC, by Neill Graham, ar-
rived from Holt, Rinehart
and Winston. Because I have
one IBM PC as my constant
office companion and an-
other for leisure hours, I felt
a mild stirring of interest.

Graham covers the usual
topics: data types, opera-
tions, variables, assignment,
input, loops, decisions, func-
tions, and subroutines. One
chapter is devoted to pro-
gram design, debugging, and
user errors. Others concen-
trate on formatting output,
arrays, strings, and sequen-
tial and random files. There's
an eye-catching chapter en-
titled "Event Trapping and
Music." Finally, the author
presents an "Introduction to
Color and Graphics." That
covers a lot of ground, I
thought, and wondered if
Graham could fulfill his
promise.

Two hours and 100 pages
later, I was hooked. Over the
course of the next several
days, I gobbled up the whole
book (almost 300 pages),
reading with some care and
experimenting on both PCs.
It was like eating peanuts; I

didn't want to stop. When
there was nothing left but the
glossary and index, I still
wanted more. The only thing
left to do was to share my
good fortune with other PC
users.

Since you've already
glimpsed the book's con-
tents, let me describe
Graham's presentation. As its
title implies, the book is
aimed directly at users of the
IBM PC. Graham asks the
reader repeatedly to use the
machine in direct mode (i.e.,
instructions typed without
line numbers are executed as
soon as they are entered) to
illustrate the features he de-
scribes. Here's an example of
Graham's hands-on ap-
proach from the text:

In general, the IF statement
takes any value other than zero
to represent true:
IF 25 THEN PRINT 'TRUE"

ELSE PRINT "FALSE-
TRUE
Ok

Chapter 11, "Sequential
Files," offers another good
example of Graham's ap-
proach:

We can easily demonstrate the
operation of PRINT # and
PRINT # USING by using these
statements to write to the screen.
Execute the following OPEN
statement in the direct mode:

OPEN "SCRN:" FOR
OUTPUT AS #1

Ok
The screen has now been opened
as file number 1; PRINT #2 and
PRINT #2 USING will send
their output to the screen. Ex-
perimentation quickly reveals
that PRINT #2 now behaves
like PRINT and that PRINT #2
USING behaves exactly like
PRINT USING:

PRINT #1, 25, -10,
25 -10 -30
Ok
PRINT #1, USING

-30

"$$,###.## "; 24.93,

7039.10
$24.39 $7,039.10
Ok

This hands-on presenta-
tion leaves an active reader
with a feeling of familiarity
with BASIC statements on
the PC.

From the beginning of the
book, I was struck by the
nontraditional order in
which Graham covers vari-
ous topics. AUIO, RENUM,
and the uses of the Alternate
and function keys were ex-
plained in the first chapter.
As I read further, I realized
that Graham's sequence had
been carefully thought out.
Features are introduced in
the order in which a new
user will need or wonder
about them. This order of
presentation appeals to the
mathematician in me.

As each new command or
statement appears, the
reader is already familiar
with the concepts he needs
to understand it. There's no
need to go thumbing back
through the book to review a
forgotten command.

New commands are intro-
duced first in their more
common forms and later in
more complex guises, as
needed. SAVE first appears
on page 17. SAVE ,A (save a
program in text format rather
than coded) is explained on
page 223 as a prelude to the
MERGE command that re-
quires it.

Graham presents his ideas
in sentences that are short
and to the point. Yet he re-
states ideas often enough to
ensure that descriptions are
clear and precise. For
instance,

A number is printed with a
space following the last digit. A
positive number is printed with
a space preceding the first digit;
and for a negative number, the
preceding space is replaced by a
minus sign:

PRINT 100

100
Ok

PRINT -100
-100
Ok
PRINT "XXXX"; 100;

"XXXX"; -100; "XXXX"
XXXX 100 XXXX -100

XXXX
Ok

In the output from the first
PRINT statement, 100 is pre-
ceded by one space. In the out-
put from the second PRINT
statement, the preceding space is
replaced by a minus sign. In the
third PRINT statement, the
semicolons, as usual, do not in-
troduce any additional spaces.
However, 100 is printed with a
space preceding it and a space
follozving it, and -100 is printed
with a space following.

Every few pages, the
author provides pertinent
words of caution. A few ex-
amples follow:

Type declaration statements
should be used with caution. It
is easy to forget what letters of
the alphabet correspond to what
types, and thus have the com-
puter assume that a variable is
of a different type than the one
you intended. This can lead to
hard-to-find errors, such as a
result being computed with in-
sufficient precision.

Incidentally, when data is be-
ing stored on cassette tape, the
computer has no way of know-
ing whether the cassette recorder
is operating properly and the
data is actually being stored. A
common error is forgetting to put
the recorder in the record mode,
so that the recorder is playing
data back while the computer is
sending it data to be recorded.
Because you won't be warned of
recording problems, it's a good
idea to record each cassette file
at least twice.

It is especially important that

532 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

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BYTE November 1983 533

Book Reviews .

we close a file that has been writ-
ten to. Otherwise, (a) some of
the data written to the file might
not actually be transferred from
main memory to the file, and (b)
in the case of a diskette file, the
file might not be entered properly
in the directory on the diskette.

Don't confuse the null char-
acter with the null string. The
null character is the character
whose ASCII code is zero. The
null string contains no charac-
ters, null or otherwise.

As you might have guessed
by now, I'm sorely tempted to
go on quoting these warn-
ings. If only I had had this
kind of help when I first
began programming in
BASIC; I'm sure I made each
and every error Graham cau-
tions against.

Between the descriptions
and warnings is a wealth of
explanations. Topics dis-
cussed include control struc-
tures, modularity, top-down
design, testing, debugging,
error trapping, sorting, and
garbage collection. An exam-
ple gives a flavor of Graham's
explanations:

INKEY$ is particularly useful
for video- game programs, which
are constantly busy moving ob-
jects around on the screen but
which must also check the key-
board periodically to see if the
user has entered a command,
such as to fire a missile.

Some beginning BASIC

texts offer the student rela-
tively trivial program listings
as models, but not so with
this one. Versions of an infor-
mation-retrieval program
illustrate the use of arrays
and sequential files. A text
editor exercises BASIC'S
athletic string-manipulation
capabilities. A simple game
program affords practice with
event trapping. Every
module in each of these pro-
grams is explained individ-
ually. The student is led to a
detailed understanding of
how modules work indepen-
dently and together. These
programs are worthy of
study, both for how-to tech-
niques and as a model of
structured-programming
style.

Each chapter ends with a
short list of suggested exer-
cises. These range from
"Modify program such-and-
such to do so-and-so/ 7 to
substantial extensions of ex-
ample programs, to 'Try pro-
gramming the computer to
play some of your favorite
songs." (Exercise 4 from the
first chapter deserves special
notice. You are asked to
"Write a program that self
destructs.") When you've suc-
cessfully negotiated each ex-
ercise in this text, you can be
sure you're off to a fast start
as a BASIC programmer on
the IBM PC.

Hard as it is to find any-
thing to be negative about, 111
try. The last chapter, entitled

"Introduction to Color and
Graphics," is the least com-
plete. Additional features
available with the Color/
Graphics Monitor Adapter
are presented in the same
lucid manner the reader has,
by now, come to expect. But
the chapter ends with neither
example programs nor exer-
cises. For the monochrome
user, this is not a problem,
but the user of a color system
will want to augment the text
at this point.

Perhaps a table of contents
for example programs would
have been of use. A greater
variety of exercise programs,
which would give instructors
more choice for assignments,
would also be welcome for a
text being considered for
classroom use.

For readers who already
know one dialect of BASIC,
Graham's book offers an ef-
ficient means of learning the
idiosyncrasies and features of
the IBM PC version. Micro-
soft has produced a power-
ful, yet remarkably easy-to-
use, implementation of the
BASIC language for IBM.
The addition of a WHILE
statement facilitates a more
structured approach. The full
screen BASIC editor, together
with the function keys and
use of the Alternate key,
make programming the PC
in BASIC a breeze compared
to other systems I know.
Graham's text allows efficient
and pleasant mastery of

these tools.

While the experienced
BASIC programmer can skim
the chapters, pausing only to
become familiar with those
features peculiar to this
system, the approach of the
novice programmer must, of
course, be different. The text
starts almost gently, leading
the student through the
mysteries of BASIC. In later
chapters the pace quickens.
Programming the IBM Personal
Computer: BASIC is a must for
anyone (whether experi-
enced or a novice) who in-
tends to program the IBM PC
in BASIC.B

Stan Franklin i s professor of math-
ematical sciences at Memphis State
University (Memphis, TN 38152).
A mathematician by training, he has
become addicted to personal com-
puting both at home and at work.

BYTE's Bits

Public Computer Course

The Groton, Connecticut, li-
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534 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

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Book Reviews

Experiments in
Artificial
Intelligence for
Small Computers

John Krutch

Howard W. Sams and

Co., Indianapolis, IN:

1981

112 pages,

softcover, $9.95

Reviewed by
John Figueras

Several years ago, I asked
a computerist at Stanford
University why artificial-
intelligence (AI) programs
were written in LISP. He re-
plied that you could do
things in LISP that you
couldn't do in other lan-
guages. I didn't believe him
then, and, with the appear-
ance of Krutch's book, I
believe him even less now.

Krutch has carried over in-
to BASIC programs the kinds
of problems and solutions
that are considered the
showpieces of AI. Each of the
seven chapters in this treatise
is devoted to a special pro-
vince of AI. The first three
chapters cover the Kingmove
program (elementary chess
moves), Checkers, the alpha-
beta algorithm, and Problem
Solving— TF, a pattern-match-
ing program that tries to
predict your behavior during
entry of random strings com-
posed of symbols "T" and
"R" Chapter 4 covers Fetch,
a semantic information-re-
trieval program that deduces
logical consequences from
declarative input statements,
including a language parser.
The fifth chapter explores
Haiku, a program that com-
poses verse. Autowriter is a
program covered in Chapter

6 that writes computer-
generated text such ■ as
stories, and the last chapter
is devoted to Joseph Weizen-
baum's Doctor program of
natural-language processing.
Krutch presents programs
in Level II BASIC for the
Radio Shack TRS-80, but an
appendix enables users of
other versions of BASIC to
adapt the programs to other
machines. Apple users
should watch out for the
random-number function
RND (N) in Level II BASIC,
which returns a random
number between 1 and N
and must be replaced in
Applesoft by the expression
INT (N * RND(l)) + 1. One
subtlety that gave me about
an hour's worth of trouble is
that apparently the STR$
function in Level II BASIC re-
turns a string padded on the
left with a leading blank,

which the Applesoft STR$
function does not do. The
pattern-matching program in
Level II BASIC, TF, removes
this blank space with the
MID$(A$, 2) function. You're
in trouble if you use the
Applesoft equivalent to re-
move the nonexistent blank.
By paying careful attention to
the author's appendix and
scrutinizing the program,
you should be able to make
a relatively painless transla-
tion for your computer. I
tried the Haiku program,
which generates four types of
this terse form of Japanese
poetry. The results were quite
delightful:

Sun under the glade:
A dawn firefly on a lake
Crimson haze

Of course, most of the time,
the poetry is exactly what

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538 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

Circle 94 on inquiry card.

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Book Reviews —

you might expect from a ran-
dom-number generator. The
program is based on Krutch's
own analysis of the forms
and vocabulary that actually
appear in English versions of
haiku. The vocabulary of
nouns, verbs, prepositions,
and articles is contained in a
group of clearly identified
DATA statements that you
can change to suit your own
taste in haiku.

The other program that I
played with, TF, asks the
user to key in random se-
quences of the symbols T
and F. It detects patterns of
entry (some of which you
may not even be aware) and
predicts every fifth symbol
that you enter. It is in-
teresting to watch the pro-
gram become "trained" as
you continue to enter sym-
bols. Its recognition rate is
about 70 percent, which is
significantly better than
guessing.

Krutch must have done

quite a bit of digging and in-
cisive reading to penetrate AI
methodology and translate it
into relatively simple BASIC
programs. I am afraid, how-
ever, that he has brought
home the fact— pointed out
by others— that the past suc-
cesses claimed for AI were
based on tricks that produce
impressive demonstrations
but that rely more on the in-
telligence of programmers
than on the intelligence of
programs and computers.

Krutch's book offers insight
into early techniques, and
any home computerist skilled
in BASIC can have lots of fun
with his programs. They are
models of clarity and good
form and are worth the atten-
tion of anyone who might
like to learn how a pro styles
his programs. ■

John Figueras (65 Steele Rd., Vic-
tor, NY 14564) has a doctorate in
organic chemistry.

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BYTE November 1983 543

Book Reviews

The Handbook
of Artificial
Intelligence,
Volume 3

Paul R. Cohen and

Edward A. Feigenbaum,

eds.

William Kaufman Inc.

Los Altos, CA: 1982

639 pages, $45

Reviewed by
Henry W. Davis and
James E. Brandeberry

The Handbook of Artificial In-
telligence is a comprehensive
three-volume survey of arti-
ficial intelligence (AI) that
presents basic concepts so as
to be understandable to the
novice and useful to the ex-
pert. Each of the 15 chapters
covers a subspecialty of AI.
Because the volumes have a
hierarchical structure, read-
ers can cover the chapters in
sequence or go directly to a
particular area of interest.
The survey articles that ap-
pear at the beginning of each
chapter are substantive
10-page summaries of the
history and direction of
various AI fields. Copious
references point readers to
related material both within
and outside of the three-
volume set.

Volumes 1 and 2 were re-
viewed in the July and
September 1983 issues of
BYTE. Volume 3 covers plan-
ning, learning, automatic
deduction, machine vision,
and cognitive science (the
overlap area between AI and
psychology). The chapters on
machine vision and learning
are especially comprehen-
sive; each contains almost
200 pages. The Handbook has
no chapter on robotics; the
AI aspects of robotics are
covered in the material on
planning and vision.

Planning

A plan is a list of opera-

tions or actions designed to
achieve a goal. Normally the
list is at least partially
ordered. For example, a plan
to paint a ceiling might in-
clude these actions: get the
paint and brush, get the lad-
der, set up the ladder, pre-
pare the ceiling, and put on
the paint. In automatic plan-
ning, a program takes a gen-
eral goal (such as painting a
ceiling) and produces an
ordered list of basic opera-
tions that will achieve the
goal when performed in se-
quence. The program must
know ahead of time those
basic operations from which
it is to build the plan, as well
as their prerequisites, to
properly sequence them.

The problem in generating
even simple plans is that the
computer gets bogged down
by possible plan sequences,
most of which won't work.
That's because many parts of
the plan interact with one
another. In the previous ex-
ample, we have to get the
ladder before we prepare the
ceiling due to the interaction
of two basic operations. If our
goal is to paint both the ceil-
ing and the ladder, then we
must paint the ladder last. In
this case, two subgoals of our
goal have interacted. Failure
of a program to deal ade-
quately with such interaction
in generating even a 10-ele-
ment plan could cause it to
consider and reject over 3.6
million (10 factorial) alterna-
tives.

Three approaches to plan-
ning that several successful
programs have used are non-
hierarchical, hierarchical, and
skeletal refinement. The dif-
ference between hierarchical
and nonhierarchical planners
is that the former represent
the goal through several
layers of abstraction. A plan
is sketched for each layer and
then refined in the layer
below. This enables the hier-
archical planner to deal with

interacting subgoals before it
is committed to a lot of pro-
cessing that must be un-
done later. It also enables the
planner to expand those
parts of the potential plan
that are crucial to its success
before it worries about in-
essential details. Nonhierar-
chical planners cannot tell in-
essential details (such as
paint stirring) from crucial
ones (such as getting the
paint). While clever ways of
handling the interaction of
subgoals have been devised
for nonhierarchical planners,
they appear inadequate for
complex plans. In the skel-
etal-refinement approach,
the planner maintains a
library of rough-plan outlines
for dealing with various
subgoals. Several outlines are
fleshed out and combined to
generate a plan. These plan
outlines are very similar to
scripts, data structures used
in natural-language process-
ing and discussed in Volume
1 of the Handbook (see July
1983 BYTE, page 450).

Five articles describe pro-
grams using these tech-
niques for planning in do-
mains that are as varied as
toy-block manipulation,
engine repair, and molecular-
genetics-experiment design.
An article on the process of
human planning appears in
the chapter on cognition and
describes a model developed
by Barbara and Frederick
Hayes-Roth of the Rand Cor-
poration. They propose that
humans plan using a process
that combines hierarchical
and opportunistic approach-
es. A key role in their model
is played by a data structure
called the blackboard, which
has been used successfully in
speech-understanding sys-
tems and is described in
Volume 1 of the Handbook. We
do not doubt that the Hayes-
Roth model will be explored
by future artificial-intelli-
gence programs.

Learning

Learning is the process
through which people and
computer programs increase
their knowledge and improve
their skills. AI research in
learning is motivated by the
need for more capable, flex-
ible programs and the desire
to understand the nature of
learning itself.

Several different types of
learning have been studied in
AI. The Handbook focuses on
inductive inference, or learning
from examples. That is, the
program is given samples of
how it should behave and,
from them, seeks higher-
level rules or concepts to
enable it to perform as
desired. For example, a poker
program might be given
several positive and negative
samples of a flush and, from
this, must build concepts
enabling it to recognize a
flush in the future. In
another example, a program
that does symbolic integra-
tion, as in a freshman
calculus class, begins by
blindly applying all the in-
tegration techniques it knows
to a given problem. By ob-
serving what works and
what fails, it builds rules
about which techniques
work best in various situa-
tions. The program has thus
become skilled through
working examples and no
longer needs to search
blindly.

A type of induction for
which well-understood AI
techniques exist occurs when
a single concept is to be
learned from the samples.
This is illustrated by the flush
poker example. Multiple-
concept learning problems,
in which many possibly over-
lapping concepts must be
learned from a single-sample
set, are considerably harder
and not yet well understood.
For example, Meta-DEN-
DRAL, a program from Stan-
ford University, learns multi-

544 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

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(For example, your total savings as a trial member —
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R.G. Dromey. A solution-based guide to learning top-
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37981. CIARCIA'S CIRCUIT CELLAR: Volume I.

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BYTE November 1983 545

Book Reviews.

pie concepts. From descrip-
tions of molecules in some
family, along with their mass
spectrums, the program can
determine several molecular-
decomposition rules that will
explain the spectral data.

An even more difficult
form of induction is learning
to perform multiple-step
tasks. The symbolic-integra-
tion example illustrates this
type of learning because such
problems usually involve
several steps. One of the dif-
ficulties with multistep tasks
is the credit assignment prob-
lem: once a task is completed,
whether successful or not,
the program must then
assign credit or blame ap-
propriately to each interme-
diate step. Only then can it
begin to affect its own perfor-
mance rules.

The techniques and direc-
tions of this fascinating pro-
cess are very well explained
in the Handbook. One of

seven articles on learning
programs is Samuel's check-
er-playing program that im-
proves its skill with play and,
although 20 years old, is still
a delight to read about. An-
other is Lenafs AM, which
discovers "interesting" con-
cepts in mathematics. The
symbolic-integration learn-
ing, discussed above, is per-
formed by Thomas Mitchell's
LEX.

Cognition

In AI, intelligent programs
can employ mechanisms be-
yond those used by humans.
Nevertheless, psychology
and AI have had a mutually
helpful relationship: knowl-
edge about human intelli-
gence suggests extensions to
the theory of machine intel-
ligence, and vice versa. A
historic overview explains
how AI relates to cognitive
science, the branch of psy-
chology that uses computer

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programs to simulate theo-
ries of human cognition.
Eight articles describe many
of the foundation programs
in cognitive science, some of
which were seminal in AI.

A program of great impor-
tance to both AI and cogni-
tive science is General Prob-
lem Solver (GPS), developed
in 1956 by Allen Newell,
Herbert Simon, and their col-
leagues at Carnegie-Mellon
University. The program,
which worked on problems
from a variety of such areas
as logic, symbolic integration,
and puzzles, is described in
Volume 1 of the Handbook and
reexamined from a cognitive-
science perspective in Vol-
ume 3. GPS was designed in
an effort to model a certain
human problem-solving
mechanism (now called
means-ends analysis) in a
domain-independent way.
Elaborate empirical tests in-
dicate that people do use this
technique; it is now a stock
tool in AI.

Five articles describe
models of human memory.
For example, an early 1960 , s
program by Edward Feigen-
baum simulates the way
humans memorize se-
quences of paired nonsense
syllables. Its behavior is strik-
ingly like that of people's and
suggests possible mecha-
nisms in human memory. In
1968 Ross Quillian developed
a semantic net formalism that
enabled his program to
recognize word meanings in
sophisticated contexts. His
basic knowledge-representa-
tion scheme, discussed in
Volume 1 of the Handbook,
has since become a standard
programming tool in AI. Em-
pirical evidence suggests that
parts of his model may be
used by humans. Several
psychologists have extended
Quillian's ideas to obtain pro-
grams that simulate aspects
of human cognition. For ex-
ample, John Anderson's ACT
system has a long-term mem-
ory, a short-term memory,

and a programmable produc-
tion system that effects
changes in these memories.
Intended to be a general
model of human cognition, it
makes reasonable predictions
about human behavior in ex-
perimental situations. By
changing the production sys-
tem, one can test different
psychological theories.

Automatic Deduction

The section on deduction
contains six articles on the
history and major themes of
automatic deduction. Read-
ers who find this section dif-
ficult to read, as I did, may
want to review the material
on predicate calculus in
Volume 1 of the Handbook.

A program is doing auto-
matic deduction (also called
mechanical theorem-proving)
when it uses deductive infer-
ence to draw conclusions
from information in its data-
base. In AI, such programs
are being developed to per-
form commonsense reason-
ing as well as to prove so-
phisticated mathematical
theorems. It is not always
possible with a computer to
store all the little facts nec-
essary to answer common
questions. Instead, we store
general information and let
the program draw inferences.
For example, "John owns a
pet bird" and "All birds fly"
leads to the conclusion that
"John's pet flies." Instead of
storing "fly" separately along
with all the things that John's
pet can do, we let the pro-
gram draw inferences from
general information.

An early and very impor-
tant development in auto-
matic programming was a
technique called resolution,
pioneered by J. A. Robinson.
Ironically, it looked too prom-
ising in the 1960s. Disap-
pointment with the early ef-
fectiveness of resolution led
to condemnation of any use
of deduction in problem solv-
ing. But this attitude has
passed; today's view is that

546 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

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Book Reviews.

resolution is practical but
must be enhanced with prob-
lem-specific information and
be used with other tools.

Although it is a powerful
method, a problem with res-
olution is that it is not at-
tuned to the way humans
think. In response to this, an
approach called natural deduc-
tion has been developed.
Natural-deduction systems
are more complex but easier
for people to interact with.
The Handbook describes a
system, developed by R.S.
Boyer and J.S. Moore, that
has done such diverse tasks
as proving the unique fac-
torization theorem and veri-
fying the equivalence of in-
terpreted and compiled code.

An interesting article on
nonmonotonic logic describes
an effort to formalize for the
computer the human experi-
ence of getting new informa-
tion that partially contradicts
previous premises. Using the
bird example, if we later
discover that John's pet is an
ostrich, and that ostriches
don't fly, then we must
change the whole pattern of
inferences we have drawn.
Efficient and general ways of
handling this problem with
computers have not yet been
worked out.

Vision

Computer vision activities
fall into several categories.
Signal processing is concerned
with transforming one image
into another with more desir-
able properties. Classification
is concerned with techniques
for classifying images into
predetermined categories.
The Handbook focuses on the
image-understanding problem;
that is, the problem of build-
ing a description not only of
the image itself but also of
the scene it represents. It is
the image-understanding
problem that connects com-
puter vision to AI.

Pioneering work was done
in 1965 by L.G. Roberts when
he noted that describing solid

objects in a picture requires
a different approach from
that of processing two-di-
mensional forms such as
printed characters. His ap-
proach involved describing
the three-dimensional scene
that generated the picture
rather than describing the
picture. To make the problem
more tractable, he restricted
his three-dimensional scenes
to the blocks-world) that is,
scenes that contain only
cubes, rectangular solids,
wedges, and hexagonal
prisms. In this limited world,
Roberts was able to calculate
precise orientation, position,
and relative dimensions of
objects. Work by Roberts and
others during the early 1970s
led to techniques for finding
lines or edges in pictures
where visual noise and light-
ing make their presence
obscure.

Later work expanded on
the blocks-world characteri-
zation of scenes to provide
techniques for representing
real-world scenes. The key
factor was to learn how
orientation of surfaces, dis-
tance to camera, reflectance,
and amount of illumination
can be computed using laws
of physics and basic rules of
continuity of shape and mo-
tion. These properties are
then used as clues to aid in
describing the scene by
means of certain primitives
used for shape description.

A number of interesting
algorithmic methods have
been developed to help
understand a scene. Pyramids
and quad trees are hierarchical
image representations that
enable the computer to work
with multiple levels of reso-
lution of the image and to
concentrate on areas of high-
information content. These
characteristics seem to be
present in human percep-
tion. Relaxation methods are
a powerful technique for re-
ducing scene ambiguities
(such as incomplete or miss-
ing edges) by using local con-

straints in an iterative pro-
cedure. Linguistic methods
are a promising technique,
similar to compilers for com-
puter languages. A compiler
recognizes strings of lan-
guage primitives as belong-
ing to the language or as er-
rors (not belonging to the
language) and then associ-
ates meaning to the strings of
primitives. That is the goal of
linguistic methods for com-
puter vision. However, a
problem lies in defining an
appropriate set of primitives
and finding processes or
mechanisms for detecting
these primitives.

The Handbook describes
several successful vision sys-
tems. These include two in
robotics, a transistor wire-
bonding system and GM's
CONSIGHT-I, a system for
transferring parts from con-
veyor belts. Another system,
Stanford's ACRONYM, at-
tempts to identify and
classify instances of modeled
objects; that is, objects for
which the user has provided
a stylized prototype descrip-
tion. It extracts three-dimen-
sional information concern-
ing shape, structure, loca-

tion, and orientation. The
principal domains it has been
applied to are aerial-photo-
graph interpretations of air-
port scenes and low-angle
views or industrial parts at an
automatic workstation.

Conclusion

The Handbook is compre-
hensive, clear, and has an ex-
cellent bibliography. There
are a few unclear passages
and difficult articles, but,
given the scope of the work,
these are trivial objections.
The reader will not be able to
implement the Handbook's
ideas directly. The problems
and current approaches are
explained on a conceptual
level and references tell
where the technical details
can be found. The three
volumes are, in our opinion,
the best general text on Al
currently in print. ■

Henry W. Davis is a professor of
computer science at Wright State
University. James E. Brandeberry
uses computer vision in robotics
research and is an associate professor
of computer science at Wright State
University (Dayton, OH 45435).

BYTE's Bits

Call for Papers

The Association for Com-
puting Machinery has
scheduled a symposium on
communication architectures
and protocols to be held in
Montreal from June 6
through June 8, 1984. A call
has been issued for papers
focusing on state-of-the-art
networks, algorithms, and
protocols for data communi-
cations. Papers concerned

with both theory and prac-
tice based on software design
for specific applications or
technologies are being
solicited.

The deadline for submit-
ting papers is November 1,
1983. For additional informa-
tion, contact Michael J.
Fegurson, INRS-Telecom-
munications, 3 Place du
Commerce, Verdun, Quebec
H3E 1H6, Canada, (514)
761-5831. ■

548 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

Circle 146 on inquiry card.

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Programming Quickies

Array Capabilities for dBASE II

by Charles O. Hartman

Suppose you've used AshtonTate's dBASE II program
to create a dictionary database. For a text-processing ap-
plication, you divide an input line whose length is not
known ahead of time into individual words that can be
looked up in the dictionary. The good substring-han-
dling capabilities of dBASE II make it easy to locate the
spaces that define the words. But because dBASE II has
no array variables, how can you store each word for
separate processing? First, you'll need some dBASE II
background.

In advertisements and in the company's manual,
Ashton-Tate claims that its database program is a true
programming language. For the most part, this claim is
justified. The program includes provision for "com-
mand" files, whose lines are executed sequentially, and
it even includes an adequate line editor to help in debug-
ging these files. Like BASIC, dBASE II operates in either
immediate or program mode and, as in BASIC, the im-
mediate mode simplifies the debugging of processes
meant to run in program mode. Also offered by dBASE
II is a full repertoire of input and output formats (four
different classes of input commands, three of output).
As a high-level language, dBASE II renders complex file
handling more or less transparent.

However, dBASE II is lacking in two important ways.
First, it is poor in program control. Though it has IF,
THEN, ELSE, and a somewhat awkward form of a CASE
instruction, it lacks many control structures on which
BASIC or Pascal programmers have learned to depend.
Its only looping command is DO WHILE, whereas both
BASIC and Pascal allow simple FOR loops and Pascal
adds REPEAT. . .UNTIL to delay testing until the end
of the loop. Though DO WHILE is logically sufficient,
in many situations it multiplies the amount of code re-
quired for a given task, wasting both disk space and
time— resources already limited by a very high-level
language and by the large files a database program
naturally entails.

Second, dBASE II lacks structured memory variables.
The records that make up database files are structured,

of course, but the program variables can take only three
simple types: character, numerical, or logical. The
absence of array capabilities creates particular difficulties;
for example, arrays of two dimensions provide the easiest
and most usual solution for the problem of storing each
word for separate processing.

Typically, an array wide enough for each word and
long enough to hold all entries is established with the
DIM statement in BASIC or a type declaration in Pascal.
The array can then be accessed by subscripts, each of
which can be a variable. For example, here is one way
the process of establishing such an array could be coded
in BASIC:

10 J = 1 : K =

100 FOR I = 1 TO LEN(LINE$)

110 If MID$(LINE$,I,1) <> " " GOTO 140

120 J = J + 1 'NEXT ROW OF ARRAY

130 K =

140 K = K + 1 'NEW ROW STARTS IN COLUMN 1

150 ARRAY$(J,K) = MID$(LINE$,I,1)

160 NEXT I

After this, ARRAY$(n) refers conveniently and concise-
ly to the nth word in the line.

An even simpler solution uses an array of strings, each
of which can be accessed as WORD$(X). Yet, concep-
tually, a BASIC string is an array of characters; therefore
an array of strings is actually a two-dimensional array,
and this solution is a subset of the one just given.

Without arrays, you can do all necessary processing
on each word only within the DO WHILE loop that
divides the line into separate words. But if a choice
among later processing paths depends on earlier results,
or if the processing for each word is very time-
consuming or involves disk access, this quickly becomes
impractical. A second alternative is to write a separate
routine for each word, to associate it with a separate
variable name (Wordl, Word2, etc.). But the maximum
number of words possible must be assumed because the

552 ' November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

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number of words is not known ahead of time. And the
code for each routine is identical, except that Word2
replaces Wordl, Word3 replaces Word2, and so on. The
waste of time and space can be enormous.

But take heart! There is a way around this difficulty.
It depends on an undocumented use of the macro func-
tion of dBASE II. The macro sign, "&" (as in some
assembler languages), substitutes the current value of
the variable for the variable's name. (In linguistic terms,
it distinguishes the use of a variable from the mention of
the variable.) The normal purpose of the "&" function, as
anticipated in the dBASE II manual, is to substitute an
interactively input value in a command:

INPUT "Name, in quotes?" TO Name
FIND &Name

These macro substitutions are necessary because some
commands (such as FIND) use the content of a variable
and some (such as INPUT) use its name. This is ultimate-
ly a result of the weak variable typing that makes dBASE
II so casual and convenient in other ways.

To create a dBASE II pseudoarray, append a macro
variable to the name of a base variable. The sequence
Wordl, Word2, and so on, becomes the single variable
name Word&Counter, and the value of Counter can be
incremented like that of J in the BASIC example given
earlier (when Counter = 1, Word&Counter = Word(l),
and so on) . Macros also can be nested, so arrays of more
than two dimensions are possible.

There is a minor complication to this simple solution,
however: the macro-function works only on character
(i.e., string) variables. For example, this sequence will
not work:

STORE 1 TO Counter

INPUT "Next word?" TO Word&Counter

STORE Counter + 1 TO Counter

Instead, the first line would have to be

STORE T TO Counter

which defines Counter as a character variable. But this
change requires another because you cannot directly in-
crement a character ( variable, only its value. As with
BASIC and most implementations of Pascal, dBASE II
has a VAL function for this kind of type-conversion. The
conversion has to be performed twice: after being in-
cremented, the numeric value must be turned back into
a string. A STR function is provided by dBASE II for this
purpose. With this in mind, you might change the third
line in the preceding fragment to

STORE STR(VAL(Counter) + l) TO Counter

We're almost finished, but one final quirk requires a
change. The STR function demands a second parameter
after the name of the character variable, an integer to

554 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

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Listing 1: An example of a dBASE II program (a .CMD file) to get a line from the keyboard, divide it into words, and look them up in
an alphabetically-indexed dictionary database, DICT.DBF.

* get a line -from the keyboard:
ERASE

STORE " [blanks to width o+ screen] " TO Inputline
■3 8,8 SAY "Type in a 1 i ne"
a) 10,0 GET Inputl i ne
READ

* strip trailing blanks, add one back as last end-o-f-word -flag
STORE TRIMCInputl i ne>+ / ' to Inputline

*divide the line into words:
STORE 1 TO Wordbegi n
STORE 1 TO Poi nter
STORE - 1 ' TO Counter
DO WHILE Pointer <= LEN< I npu t 1 i ne )
IF % ( I n p u 1 1 i n e , Po i n t e r , 1 > = •'*

STORE *< Inputl i ne ,U)ordbeg i n , Po i n ter-Wordbeq i n ) TO Ulord&Coun ter
IF VAL< Counter) < ?

STORE STR(VAL( Counter )+l , 1 > TO Counter
ELSE

STORE STR<UAL<Counter)+l ,2) TO Counter
END IF

STORE Pointer TO Wordbegi n
END IF

STORE Pointer+1 TO Pointer
ENDDO

* 1 ook u p won ds in D I CT ■ DBF

USE Diet INDEX Alph i x

STORE UAL < Counter) TO Wordtotal

STORE •" 1 '" TO Counter

DO WHILE UAL< Counter) <= Wordtotal

F I ND &Wo r d&Cou nter
ENDDO
USE
RETURN

determine the length of the string. If the array is to have
fewer than 10 elements, the necessary change is trivial :

STORE STR(VAL(Counter) + l,l) TO Counter

If this limit cannot be assumed, the length parameter
must be increased. But "STORE STR(VAL(Counter) + 1,2)
TO Counter" cannot be used alone because it would in-
sert an illegal blank space in the variable names for
values of 9 or less. Therefore, a branch must be provided:

IF VAL(Counter)<9

STORE STR(VAL(Counter) + l,l) TO Counter
ELSE

STORE STR(VAL(Counter) + l,2) TO Counter
ENDIF

The transformation is now complete.

Listing 1 shows a routine based on this principle, to
divide a line into words and look them up. To illustrate
the principle, the routine is somewhat stripped down
in that it contains no error-trapping for extra blanks be-
tween words or for words not found in the dictionary,
and no provision to strip punctuation marks from the
end of a word before looking it up in the dictionary.
None of these additions, however, presents any real
difficulty. ■

Charles O. Hartman has published poetry in The New Yorker and other
magazines. He teaches English at the University of Washington in Seattle.
On leave (14 Briggs Terrace, Brookline, MA 02146), he is masquerading as
a technical writer and working on an article describing a program that scans
iambic pentameter.

556 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

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A

Statistical Programs for
Microcomputers

Choose a statistics package that is easy to use,
and then test its accuracy with the tools described here

Numerical accuracy is crucial to
any statistical program. Many statis-
tical packages designed for use on
microcomputers, however, haven't
yet benefited from the lessons in
numerical accuracy learned by pro-
grammers of mainframe statistical
packages. For example, many of the
microcomputer programs cannot ac-
curately compute the standard devia-
tion for all values of input variables
that you're likely to encounter in
practical situations. This article de-
scribes how to test the accuracy of
statistical microcomputer software
and provides simple test data you can
use to determine a program's limits.

Several programs available for the
Apple II are used as examples; the
problems pointed out are not unique
to these programs, however, nor are
they peculiar to the Apple II. Keep in
mind, too, that the tests outlined
check how the programs behave in
difficult cases; during normal use,
major problems won't occur. For ex-
ample, you may never have to deal
with a regression that has highly cor-
related x variables.

When comparing statistical soft-
ware packages, therefore, your main
consideration should be ease of use,
a major benefit of most microcom-
puter programs. (Mainframe pro-

by Peter A. Lachenbruch

grams could benefit greatly by incor-
porating such ease-of-use features as
those found in microcomputer pack-
ages.) Then use the tests this article
describes to determine when a pack-
age's limits of numerical accuracy are
reached.

Even a perfectly

accurate statistical

program would not

guarantee accurate

results.

Remember that even a perfectly ac-
curate statistical program, if such a
thing could exist, would not guaran-
tee accurate results. Another impor-
tant consideration is the statistical ac-
curacy of your input data. James
Frane (in "Methods in BMDP for
Dealing with Ill-Conditioned
Data— Multicollinearity and

Multivariate Outliers, a paper
presented at the 1974 American
Statistical Association meetings)
notes that data can be measured in
such a way as to preclude more than
one or two accurate digits in a regres-
sion result. He points out that the
numerical accuracy of the programs
often far exceeds the data's statistical

accuracy. This is especially true when
the independent (x) variables are
measured with some uncertainty.

Programs Compared

The statistical accuracy of four pro-
grams is compared here. First, Daisy
version 1.2.2 from Rainbow Com-
puting Inc. (19517 Business Center
Dr., Northridge, CA 91324) is a ver-
satile program with a data-entry pro-
cedure similar to that of Visicalc,
which makes it easy to use. Rank
tests, analysis of variance, and regres-
sion are available. While in the pro-
cess of writing this article, I received
version 2.0; I'll briefly discuss that
version also.

HSD Anova and HSD Regress are
part of a three-package system— the
third is called HSD Stats— from
Human System Dynamics (9249
Reseda Blvd., Suite 107, Northridge,
CA 91324). Data entry with these pro-
grams is simple, although a separate
file is created for each variable or each
case (as you choose). These programs
offer some error-checking capability;
during my work, for example, one
program detected a problem with the
regression and appropriately would
not calculate the coefficients. I've
been informed that a new regression
program will be issued shortly; it will

560 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

Input integers
Program

1 •

through

9

1001

through

1009

10.001

through

10.009

100,001
through
100,009

1,000.001

through

1,000,009

Daisy 1.2.2

x =
s =

5
2.738613

1005
2.738613

10,005
2.741147

100,005
3.694967

1,000,005

Daisy 2.0

x =
s =

5
2.73861279

1005
2.73861279

10,005
2.73861279

100,005
2.73861279

1,000,005
2.73861279

A-Stat List
Command 79.6

x =
s =

5
2.739

1005
2.739

10,005
2.739

100,005
3.771

1,000,005
21.333

A-Stat Correlate
Command 79.6

x =
s =

5
2.7386

1005
2.7386

10,005
2.7365

100,005
3.5178

1 ,000,005

A-Stat 83.1 *
Data Procedure

x =
s =

5
2.739

1005
2.739

10,005
2.739

100,005
2.739

1 ,000,005
2.739

HSD-Anova II
(Old program)

x =
s =

5
2.73

1005
2.73

10.005
2.68

100,005

1 ,000,005

HSD-Anova II
(New program)

x =
s =

5
2.74

1005
2.74

10,005
2.69

100,005
2.83

1 ,000,005

Aida

x =
s =

5
2.739

1005
2.739

32,005 **
2.739

* A-Stat 83.1 results were sent to me by its authors. That program was officially released in September, after this article was written. It pro-
vides correct skewness and kurtosis to one decimal place.

** Aida limits you to a maximum of five digits stored as integers, so the maximum number it can store is 32,767 times 10 to some power.
It uses the updating algorithm.

Table 1: The results obtained calculating mean (x) and standard deviation (s) with various statistical programs, showing that most
of the packages have problems dealing with large integers. Some programs provide hints when they're having trouble with a calculation.
For example, the HSD-Anova II program (earlier version) could not handle the calculation of standard deviation for the largest input
integers and provided a negative sum-of-squares value, an impossible answer signaling an obvious error. (The new version did not provide
a correct value for that standard deviation either, but it provided a positive sum-of-squares value.)

compute the coefficients even though
it detects a problem, but it will issue
an appropriate warning.

A-Stat 79.6 from Rosen Grandon
Associates (7807 Whittier St., Tampa,
FL 33617) is based on a subset of P-
Stat, a mainframe package. It was
created for use on the Apple and is
not a translation of the mainframe
code. It produces many useful statis-
tics but provides only three or four
digits of output. I received output
from A-Stat 83.1, a new version,
while writing this article. Although
the results are generally much better
with the new version, the limited
number of output digits remains a
problem.

Aida, a general-purpose program
offered by Action-Research North
West (11442 Marine View Dr. SW,
Seattle, WA 98146), permits easy data
entry (although you'll have to specify
decimal places). It stores numbers in
integer form and converts them for
manipulation, placing a limit of
32,767 as the largest number than can

be saved. This limit can be "swindl-
ed" by using the E05 scientific-
notation suffix to indicate a larger
number.

Computing Means

and Standard Deviations

The formula for the mean is

x = E xjn

(the mean equals the sum of the xs
divided by the number of observa-
tions). A potential problem occurs if
there are many observations and if
each observation yields a large value
for x or if the xs for each observation
differ only in the seventh or eighth
significant digit. Such conditions
rarely occur in microcomputer appli-
cations, however, and thus won't be
covered here.

Where problems can and do occur,
however, is in microcomputer calcu-
lations of standard deviation:

s = y/L(x t - x) 2 /(n - 1)

(1)

which is algebraically equivalent to
s = yf&x 2 , - nx 2 )l(n - 1) . (2)

The latter formula is easier to use
than the former one, and it works
well on a mechanical calculator (al-
though accuracy might dictate that
you recode the data by subtracting a
number near the mean from the x
values corresponding to each obser-
vation). Once data is entered, a com-
puter can use the formula to grind
out an answer, which we would nor-
mally accept without question
because, after all, a machine pro-
duced it.

If we aren't alert, however, ma-
chines can fool us. They can lose
precision when calculating the stan-
dard deviation of a small set of large
numbers.

Consider, for example, the stan-
dard-deviation calculations shown in
table 1. For each program discussed
in this article, the table shows the
calculated means and standard devia-

November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

561

i

x,

x?

m,

<

1

100,001

1.00002 x

10^0

100,001

2

100,002

1.00004 x

10^0

100,001.5

.500000

3

100,003

1.00006 x

10io

100,002

1.000000

4

100,004

1.00008 x

10io

100,002.5

1 .666667

5

100,005

1.00010 x

10io

100,003

2.500000

6

100,006

1.00012 x

10io

100,003.5

3.500000

7

100,007

1.00014 x

10io

100,004

4.666667

8

100,008

1.00016 x

10io

100,004.5

6.000000

9

100,009

1.00018 x

10io

100,005

7.500000

Total

900,045

9.00090 x

10io

Table 2: Calculation of the

variance of the in

tegers 100,001 through 100,009, using the

updating formula.

nA + (Lx ll )B l + (E*2i)B a + (Lx 3i )B 3 = Ly {

(Lxu)A + (Ex\i)Bi + (LxuX 2i )Bi + (Lx lt x 3t )B 3 = Lx u y t
(Lx 2i )A + (Lx li x 2i )B l + (Lx 2 2i )B 2 + (Lx 2i x 3i )B 3 = Lx 2i y<
(Lx 3i )A + (Ex lt x 3i )B t + (Zx 2i x 3i )B 2 + (Lx 2 3 .)B 3 = Lx 3i y { .

Figure 1: The normal equations for three predictors.

tions for five groups of nine integers:
1 through 9, 1001 through 1009, 10,001
through 10,009, 100,001 through
100,009 and 1,000,001 through
1,000,009. For all five groups the stan-
dard deviation should equal
2.7386127, but, as table 1 shows, the
programs lose accuracy when dealing
with the larger numbers. What hap-
pened? In calculating x 2 when x is
large, the computer truncates the
least significant digits; thus, for exam-
ple, although 100,001 2 actually equals
10,000,200,001, a computer might cal-
culate this value to be 1.00002 x 10 10 ,
losing the important information
stored in the least significant bit of
10,000,200,001.

There are at least two ways of com-
pensating for this problem. The first
one involves incorporating an updat-
ing algorithm in the programs. This
algorithm calculates a new, updated
mean m { as well as an updated
variance s 2 (the standard deviation
squared) after entry of the data value
x ( of each observation. For subse-
quent data-point entries, the updated
mean and variance become:

m, +l = (w7,+x l+1 )/(z+l)

(3)

s? +1 = [(z-l)s, 2 +(x +1 -m,) 2 z/(z-M)]/z. (4)

(Note here that the initial conditions
are m Q = and s 2 = 0.)

To understand the benefits of the
updating formula, consider using a
computer that truncates data at six
significant digits to calculate the stan-
dard deviation of the integers 100,001
through 100,009, first using equation
2 and then using the updating algo-
rithm. Using equation 2, the evalua-
tion proceeds as follows:

s 2 = (Ex 2 - 9x 2 )/8

= (9.00090 x D 10 - 9.00090 x 10 10 )/8

= 0.

Note that because the least significant
digits of the squared terms are lost
(maintaining them would require
storage of 11 significant digits), the
term within parentheses here is in-
correctly evaluated as zero, yielding
an incorrect variance of zero.

Now, consider what happens
when the same six-significant-digit
computer uses the updating formula
to calculate the variance. Table 2
shows the updated mean and var-

iance values resulting from the calcu-
lations (based on equations 3 and 4)
that follow each data entry. Taking
the square root of the final variance
value (calculated after entry of the
ninth data point) yields:

s 9 = yfs\ = yfZ5 = 2.738613,

the correct answer.

Unfortunately, using the updating
formula is a long-range solution that
is feasible only if you are patient
enough to wait for a revised package
from the program manufacturer or
can modify the program yourself. A
second solution is to be aware of the
limitations of your package and to
subtract the mean (or some conve-
nient value close to the mean) from
the observations and recalculate the
standard deviations. If the standard
deviations are the same with both
raw data and the data with the mean
subtracted, there is no problem. If the
standard deviations differ, however,
the standard deviation calculated
using the raw data is incorrect. Such
a check should also be done in com-
puting sums of squares and
cross-products for correlation and
regression problems. With some poor
methods, you can get a correlation
greater than 1 or less than - 1.

Subtracting the mean works well
for data that are all about the same
magnitude. If you have some data
values that are less than 100 and
some that are around 1,000,000,
though, there is very little you can do
other than use an updating algorithm
to correctly calculate the result.

Such problems would be exacer-
bated for calculations of higher-order
moments, which may be done via an
updating algorithm or a two-pass
procedure in which the mean is cal-
culated in one pass and the higher-
order moments are computed in a
second pass. For large data sets and
mainframe computing, this two-pass
procedure is expensive and ineffi-
cient; analyzing data in two passes
on a microcomputer, however, is
much less costly. Similar problems
arise for data in which the observa-
tion values are not large, but in which
all of the variation occurs in the
seventh or eighth significant digit.

562 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

Regression Analysis

Another type of statistical analysis
often performed on computers is
multiple linear regression, which at-
tempts to predict a response (y vari-
able or dependent variable) from a
set of predictor variables (the x vari-
ables). The prediction equation is
straightforward:

y = A + B t x t +,B 2 x 2 + ... + B k x k .

All we have to do is estimate the co-
efficients A, B u ..., B k , which in many
cases is fairly easy. However, if the in-
dependent variables are highly cor-
related, that is, closely related to one
another, computing estimates of
these coefficients can be very dif-
ficult. The estimates are found as a
solution to a set of k + 1 equations in
k + 1 unknowns. These equations
are called the normal equations. For
example, for three predictors the nor-
mal equations are those shown in
figure 1.

When the x variables are closely
related the problem that arises in
solving these equations is that a
quantity close to zero is used as a
divisor. If the computer is not ex-
tremely accurate, the entire solution
can thus be thrown far off. A second
problem arises if the xs have many
significant digits. Then you can have
difficulty accurately calculating the
sums of squares and cross-products
(the coefficients of A, B u B 2 and B 3
in the example).

I'll give examples with two sets of
data for the regression programs I'm
using for demonstration. (I also ran
these regressions on a mainframe
computer to compare accuracy. The
point here is not that the microcom-
puter programs are not accurate, but

X

Y

GNP

GNP

Unemployed

Armed

Population

Year

Employed

Deflator

Forces

83.0

234.289

235.6

159.0

107.608

1947

60.323

88.5

259.426

232.5

145.6

108.632

1948

61.122

88.2

258.054

368.2

161.6

109.773

1949

60.171

89.5

284.599

335.1

165.0

110.929

1950

61.187

96.2

328.975

209.9

309.9

112.075

1951

63.221

98.1

346.999

193.2

359.4

113.270

1952

63.639

99.0

365.385

187.0

354.7

115.094

1953

64.989

100.0

363.112

357.8

335.0

116.219

1954

63.761

101.2

397.469

290.4

304.8

117.388

1955

66.019

104.6

419.180

282.2

285.7

118.734

1956

67.857

108.4

442.769

293.6

279.8

120.445

1957

68.169

110.8

444.546

468.1

263.7

121.950

1958

66.513

112.6

482.704

381.3

255.2

123.366

1959

68.655

114.2

502.601

393.1

251.4

125.368

1960

69.564

115.7

518.173

480.6

257.2

127.852

1961

69.331

116.9

554.894

400.7

282.7

130.081

1962

70.551

Table 3: Multiple linear regression analysis is performed on these data (knozun as the Longley

data, they

describe the U.S. population from

1947 to 1962) to

come up

with a prediction

equation c

)f employment. (Source: J.

Chambers, Computational Methods for Data

Analysis.

See reference 1.)

that an indication of accuracy can tell
that you should check your answers
on a larger machine.) The first data
set, called the Longley data after its

The Longley data

values are known to be

highly correlated.

originator, has been reproduced in
many statistics texts. I have used the
scaled version of the data given in
Chambers's text (see reference 1). The
results were calculated by hand to 15
digits of accuracy; Chambers's ver-
sion is shown in table 3.
These data are known for being

highly correlated, and the goal of
using them is to form a prediction
equation of employment (variable
EMP) from a set of six independent
variables: Gross National Product
Deflator (GNPDEF), Gross National
Product (GNP), Unemployment
(UN EMP), Size of Armed Forces
(ARFQ, Total Population (POPN) and
Year (YEAR). The data are for the
United States from 1947 to 1962. The
correlations, which are given in table
4, are extremely high. Any one of
four variables can be used to predict
the employment variable quite ac-
curately. They are also highly inter-
related—these variables are really
carrying the same information. The
regression results calculated by the
Text continued on page 567

GNPDEF GNP UNEMP ARFC

POPN

YEAR

EMP

GNPDEF 1.0 .9916 .6206 .4660

.9792

.9912

.9709

GNP 1.0 .6043 .4478

.9911

.9953

.9836

UNEMP 1.0 -.1786

.6866

.6683

.5025

ARFC 1.0

.3655

.4183

.4591

POPN

1.0

.9940

.9604

YEAR

1.0

.9713

Table 4: The Longley data are highly correlated. Any one of four variables can

be used to accurately predict the

employment variable.

November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

563

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types \ :

iN'tio York OJJLcc

BUVings — Tap S Emp\oy«e»

Variable

GNPDEF

GNP

UNEMP

ARFC

POPN

YEAR

Constant

Longley

.0150619

-.035819

- .020202

-.010332

-.051104

1.829151

-3482.259

Sas

.0150602

-.035819

- .020202

-.010332

-.051104

1.829151

-3482.259

digits of accuracy
ratio

5
1.000113

5
1 .000006

5
1.000015

5
1 .000029

5
1.000002

7
1

7
7

Glim

.015060

-.0358108

- .0202023

-.0103323

-.0511071

1.829150

-3482.256

digits of accuracy
ratio

4
1.000126

5
1.000011

6
1

6
1

4
.9999413

6
1.000001

6
1 .000001

Daisy 2.0

.015062

-.035819

- .020202

-.010332

-.051104

1.829152

-3482.259

digits of accuracy
ratio

5
1.0

5
1.0

5
1.0

5

1.0

5

1.0

6

1.0

7
1.0

Daisy 1.2.2

.014765

- .035631

-.020176

-.010325

-.052007

1.826827

-3477.6646

digits of accuracy
ratio

2
1.037964

2
1.009105

3
1 .002049

4
1.000804

1
.9631198

3
1.001743

3
1.001832

HSD-Regress*

A-Stat** 79.6

.015

-.035

-.020

0.010

0.055

1.821

-3465.50

digits of accuracy
ratio

2
1.004127

1
1 .023406

2
1.01010

2
1 .03320

1
.9291655

2
1.004476

2
1 .004837

A-Stat*** 83.1

.0150618

-.035819

- .020202

-.010332

-.051105

1.829

-3482.257

digits of accuracy
ratio

5
1.00001

5
1.0

5
1.0

5
1.0

4
.99998

4
1.000083

6
1.0

Aida

.01294

-.03477

-.02005

-.01028

- .05750

1.81897

3461.856

digits of accuracy
ratio

1
1.00413

1
.97866

2
1.01010

3
1.03320

1
1 .04294

2
.99087

2
.99076

* HSD-Regress indicated there were problems in solving the equations and produced
no coefficients.

** A-Stat only printed results to three places after the decimal point.
*** By multiplying the dependent variable by 1000, greater accuracy was

possible.

Table 5: Regression coefficients resulting from calculations performed on the Longley data using microcomputer statistical packages and
two mainframe programs—Sas and Glim. The ratio and digits-of -accuracy figures shown for each program compare the computer results
with Longley's hand-calculated results.

Daisy

1.2.2

Dependent

Variable

GNPDEF

GNP

UNEMP

ARFC

POPN

YEAR

Constant

EMP

.014765

- .035631

-.020176

-.010325

-.052007

1.82688

-3477.66461

EMP + 2 x YEAR

.014060

-.034611

-.020023

-.010281

- .055533

3.81006
(3.826828)

-3444.86125

EMP + GNPDEF

1.014406
(1.014765)

-.035062

- .020091

-.010300

-.053900

1.817287

-3459.01282

EMP + GNP

.014877

.964200
(.964369)

-.020201

-.010333

-.051450

1.829662

-3483.20553

EMP + POPN

.014875

-.035818

-.020204

-.010333

.948622
(.947993)

1 .829966

-3483.79906

Table 6: Regression

results obtained

by altering a t

iependent variable. Here, the dependent variable EMP has been modified four ways:

first by adding to it the independent

variable YEAR

multiplied by the constant d =

2 and then by adding

r to it the independent variables

GNPDEF, GNP, and POPN, respectively, each multiplied by the constant d = 1

The resulting regression coefficients

should remain

566 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

Text continued from page 563:

programs are given in table 5. The
two mainframe packages are Sas (run
on an IBM 370/168) from the Sas In-
stitute in Caiy, North Carolina, and
Glim (run on a Prime 750) from the
Numerical Algorithms Group in Ox-
ford, England.

The equations given by Sas and
Glim are accurate to five or six digits
in each regression coefficient when
compared to Longley's results. In
Daisy 2.0, the accuracy problems of
version 1.2.2 have been corrected,
and version 2.0 warns you if the cor-
relation between the dependent vari-
able and a predictor is greater than
0.95. It also warns if the sum of
residuals resulting from the regres-
sion calculations is "not zero." When
using this data, I got the warning,
and the sum was -7.6 x 10" 6 . Daisy
1.2.2, A-Stat 79.6, and Aida average
about two digits of agreement. HSD
Regress simply refuses to calculate
the regression coefficients and in-
dicates that the data do not permit it
to compute the coefficients accurate-
ly. A-Stat prints the determinant (a
quantity used to solve the equations);
for these data it is 1.57031956 x 10" 8 .
If the coefficients in the normal equa-
tions are not small, then a small
determinant such as the one A-Stat
calculated for these data indicates
serious problems in solving the nor-
mal equations. (Readers who have

some background in matrix algebra
might note that the accuracy of the
solution depends on the condition
number of the matrix of the normal
equations. This condition number is
the ratio of the largest to the smallest
nonzero eigenvalue.)

Thus, A-Stat 79.6 and HSD Regress
indicate when they are in distress. A-
Stat only gives regression coeffi-
cients to three decimal places, so the
results given can have at most three
digits of accuracy if the coefficients
are less than 1. In fact, when the first
digit after the decimal is a 0, at most
two digits can be in agreement with
the Longley results. The ratio of the
Longley coefficients to the coefficients
computed by the programs is also
given in table 5. For Sas, Glim, and
Daisy 2.0, this ratio is never greater
than 1.0001 (0.1 percent accuracy). For
Daisy 1.2.2, A-Stat, and Aida, the
ratio may be as high as 1.04 (4 per-
cent accuracy). For A-Stat one coeffi-
cient is almost 8 percent low. The
ratios are generally greater than 1, so
the resulting prediction will be sys-
tematically low, possibly by a sub-
stantial amount. This low prediction
may not be the case for other prob-
lems.

Another check that is helpful is re-
ferred to by Kennedy and Gentle on
page 329 of Statistical Computing (see
reference 3). The procedure is as
follows:

1. Perform the usual regression.

2. Multiply one of the independent
variables by a nonzero constant
(d), add it to the dependent vari-
able, and calculate a regression on
this new dependent variable.

3. The regression coefficients should
be the same except for the one
used to change the dependent
variable. This one should be d
units greater (if d > 0). The
residuals should be the same.

This procedure (with d = 2 multi-
plying the independent variable
YEAR and d = 1 multiplying the
other independent variables) was
used with Daisy 1.2.2 and Aida; re-
sults are in tables 6 and 7.

The constant term varies about 1
percent in magnitude. The GNPDEF
coefficient changes by 7 percent in
the worst case examined, that of GNP
by 3 percent, UNEMP by less than 1
percent, ARFC by less than 1 percent,
POPN by 7 percent, YEAR by about
1 percent. The variables that are most
perturbed are those that are highly
correlated with EMP. Sas, Glim, and
Daisy 2.0 all give satisfactory results
with this test (data not shown). Sas
is accurate to six digits and Glim is
accurate to five.

Kennedy and Gentle's procedure,

which is available with a little effort

on any package, gives a simple

Text continued on page 570

Aida*

Dependent

Variable

GNPDEF

GNP

UNEMP

ARFC

POPN

YEAR

Constant

EMP

1.294

-3.477

-2.005

-1.028

-5.750

181.897

-346185.63

EMP + 2 x YEAR

1.294

-3.477

-2.005

-1.028

-5.750

181.897
(183.897)

-346185.65

EMP + GNPDEF

2.275
(2.294)

-3.491

-2.007

-1.026

-5.701

182.1337

-346646.77

EMP + GNP

1.308

-2.466
(-2.477)

-2.002

-1.025

-5.758

181.529

-345474.675

EMP + POPN

1.269

-3.458

-2.004

-1.025

-4.711
(4.750)

101.477

345375.96

* Dependent variable

was multiplied by 100 to get more digits on printout.

the same as the values shown in table 5,

except for the

coefficient corresponding to the

independent variable used to modify

the dependent

variable (for example,

the coefficient corresponding to the independent variable YEAR for

the dependent

variable EMP +

2 x YEAR).

Such coefficients should differ from the

zorresponding

table 5 value by the constant d;

thei

r correct values

are shown here in parentheses.

November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. 567

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Observation

r

2 3

4

5

1

.26730

.26741 .26736

.26730

.26728

2

-.09372

-.09392 -.09391 -

.09367

- .09364

3

.04637

.04678 .04662

.04630

.04629

4

-.41041

-.41042 -.41034 -

.41043

-.41044

5

.30784

.30169 .30474

.30993

.31006

6

-.24961

-.25236 -.25118 -

.29914

- .24909

7

-.16337

-.15988 -.16144 -

.16393

-.16401

8

-.01286

-.01074 -.01164 -

-.01321

-.01326

9

.01391

.01433 -.01425 -

.01382

.01379

10

.45582

.46010 .45829

.45509

.45501

11

-.01654

-.01231 -.01417 -

-.01726

-.01731

12

- .03881

-.03847 -.03864 -

.03888

- .03885

13

-.15597

-.15792 -.15704 -

.15566

-.15561

14

- .08551

-.08443 -.08491 -

.08570

-.08571

15

.34180

.34002 .34074

.34211

.34213

16

-.20715

-.20986 -.20874 -

.20667

-.20666

'Dependent variable for regression

Column Dependent Variable

1 EMP

2 EMP + 2 x YEAR

3 EMP + GNPDEF

4 EMP + GNP

5 EMP + POPN

Table 7: Residuals from

altered regressions using the Daisy

1.2.2 program. If the calcula-

tions are

accurate, the columns should all be the

same.

x t - Body Weight
(grams)

x 2 = Liver Weight
(grams)

x 3 =

: Relative Dose

y

176

6.5

0.88

0.42

176

9.5

0.88

0.25

190

9.0

1.00

0.56

176

8.9

0.88

0.23

200

7.2

1.00

0.23

167

8.9

0.83

0.32

188

8.0

0.94

0.37

195

10.0

0.98

0.41

176

8.0

0.88

0.33

165

7.9

0.84

0.38

158

6.9

0.80

0.27

148

7.3

0.74

0.36

149

5.2

0.75

0.21

163

8.4

0.81

0.28

170

7.2

0.85

0.34

186

6.8

0.94

0.28

146

7.3

0.73

0.30

181

9.0

0.90

0.37

149

6.4

0.75

0.46

Table 8: Data used in
by rats as a function of
sion. See reference 4.)

regression analysis to determine the percentage of a drug absorbed
their body weights. (Source: S. Weisberg, Applied Linear Regres-

568 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

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Body
Weight

Liver
Weight

Relative
Dose

Percent
Absorbed

Body Weight
Liver Weight
Relative Dose

1.0

.5000
1.0

.9902
.4901
1.0

.1511
.2033
.2275

Table 9: Correlations between sets

if the table 8 data collected

in an

experiment

with

rats.

Rat Data

Body Weight

Liver Weight

Relative Dose

Constant

Glim

-.021246

.014298

4.17811

.265922

Daisy 2.0

-.021246

.014298

4.17811

.265922

digits of accuracy
ratio

5

1.0

5

1.0

6

1.0

6
1.005408

Daisy 1.2.2

-.021246

.014298

4.178109

.2659217

digits of accuracy
ratio

5

1.0

5

1.0

6

1.0

6
1.0

HSD-Regress*

A-Stat**

-.021

.014

4.178

.266

digits of accuracy
ratio

2

1.01171

2
1.02129

4
1.00003

3
.99971

Aida

-.02138

.01369

4.2099

.26538

digits of accuracy
ratio

2
.99373

2
1.0286

2
.99245

2
1.00204

* HSD-Regress indicated problems
** A-Stat 79.6 prints only three digits.

Table 10: Accuracy of the analy.

in solving the equations.

sis of the rat data shown in table 8.

Text continued from page 567:

means of checking on the stability of

the regression.

The second data set I used to test
the statistical programs is a regression
analysis of an experiment conducted
on rats to determine the percent ab-
sorption of a drug as a function of
body weight, liver weight, and
relative dose. The relative dose was
based on body weight, so there was
a high correlation between body
weight and relative dose. The data
are given in table 8 and the correla-
tions are given in table 9.

I did not run the data on Sas, nor
are "true" results of 15 digits of ac-

curacy available for this rat data as
they are for the Longley data. The
comparisons here are with the results
of Glim. Again, HSD Regress de-
tected a problem with the data and
refused to compute the equation
based on three variables. It would
give results based on two variables as
long as relative dose and body weight
were not those two— the high corre-
lation with those variables was too
much for it to bear. The number of
digits of consistency of A-Stat 79.6
and Aida was again low compared to
Glim, being about two digits. Daisy
2.0 and 1.2.2 and Glim agreed to five
digits. The ratios of the coefficients

were all close to 1. The worst was
about 3 percent too high, as shown
in table 10.

Moral of the Story

What can be learned from all this?
Always check your input data. In the
process of doing this study, I dis-
covered two errors. On the rat data
I had erred when entering one data
point on Glim, which made all pro-
grams disagree with Glim on the rat
data. Thus, always check your data,
then do it again.

Don't completely trust a statistical-
analysis program. Check it out with
some simple tests such as those sug-
gested in this article. If the program
has a facility to give you some diag-
nostic information, such as the deter-
minant, check it on every problem.
The more useful test is the one based
on adding an independent variable to
the dependent variable. If the data
are really important to you and you
suspect them in any way, rerun the
data on a mainframe using standard
software. Suggestive signs are high
correlations in the independent var-
iables, a small determinant, instabil-
ity in the coefficients, or a diagnostic
indication from the program. ■

References

1. Chambers, J. Computational Methods for
Data Analysis. New York: John Wiley and
Sons, 1977. Assuming a familiarity with basic
statistical techniques, this book covers many
computing methods.

2. Cooke Q, A. H. Craven, and G. M. Clarke,
Basic Statistical Computing. London: Edward
Arnold Publishing Co., 1982. A nice elemen-
tary text with many BASIC programs, this text
examines accuracy and speed considera-
tions. Its programs are concerned with
elementary statistical analysis. I highly recom-
mend this one.

3. Kennedy, W J., and J. E. Gentle, Statistical
Computing. New York: Marcel Dekker Inc.,
1980. Providing a wealth of information on
problems in statistical computing, this book
is easier to read than Chambers's (ref. 1).

4. Weisberg, S. Applied Linear Regression. New
York: John Wiley and Sons, 1980. This book
is a useful treatment of many regression
topics, including diagnostic procedures.

Peter A. Lachenbrtich earned a PhD in bio-
statistics at the University of California at Los
Angeles. He is a professor of preventive medicine
with the University of Iowa College of Medicine,
Iowa City, I A 52242.

570 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

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without notice.

9) Z8000® Assembly Language Programming 10) 8080A/8085 Assembly Language

Leventhal, Osborne, Collins
Order #36-5 $19.99

An excellent source reference for this
powerful, 16-bitdevice. Filled with
trouble-shooting hints and sample
problemstoguide the userto mastery of
this "super chip'.'

Programming

Leventhal Order #1.0-1 $18.95

". . . an excellent encyclopedia of assembly

language programming'.' BYTE

C^

Osborne/McGraw-Hill

_Please send me a free catalog.

Dept C-l

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Circle 344 on inquiry card.

BYTE November 1983 571

Epson.
For those who need it,
simplicity

One computer.

Two points of view.

The Epson QX-10 personal computer.

To many, the Epson represents the
ultimate in simplicity.

Just press a single key for the func-
tion you require: word processing,
scheduling, business graphics, address
hook or file management. One key-
stroke produces your program. There
are no rigamaroles to remember. No
disks to change.

The result: you start to work
immediately. And you start being pro-
ductive, immediately. With step-by-
step prompts. In plain English, not
computerese.

Simplicity itself".

Or is it ?

The plain fact is that the ease of
operation the Epson offers today is
accomplished with a degree of tech-
nological sophistication most other
computers can only promise for tomor-
row—specifically, Hilly integrated
software, operating in an interactive
environment.

The few other computers offering
such "simplicity" cost $5,000 to $15,000
more. And most other computers can't
offer it at any price. Which makes
one wonder exactly what they do offer,
in terms of either simplicity, or
performance.

HOW MUCH CAN YOU DO

ON THE EPSON? HOW MUCH

ARE YOU READY TO DO?

The Epson's ease of operation
may spoil you, but it certainly won't
limit you.

Cast in point: every Epson comes
complete with an integrated soft-
ware system — Valdocs® — to effortlessly
provide the basic functions for which
most people buy computers. But it
is important to note that the Epson also
comes with CP/M®-80 2.2. So you
can choose from hundreds of programs:
dBase 11* Wordstar® Personal Pearl?
Snpercalc® M/cnplan? MBA General
Ledger? Multiplane Peacbtext*
Spell ur Her? and Datavieu? just to
name a few.

Or, you can write your own,
utilizing a variety of programming
languages such as COBOL 80,
FORTRAN 80; or Micros^ BASIC,
which is included, free.

Best of all, you will run the
software of your choice on the
computer of choice. The high-
performance Epson. With 256k
random access memory. J 28k dedi-
cated video memory. The
breathtaki ngly sensible
HASCI* keyboard.
Dual 380k double
density disk
drives.

2+2=

Graph

capabilities unequalled in
its price range. A high resolution monitor,
640 by 400 pixels, for clarity few com-
puters in any price range can offer. Plus,
an RS-232C interface, a parallel printer
interface, and internal space for up to
five peripheral cards so you can expand
your Epson as your needs require.

One further point: all these features,
and quite a few more, are included
in the Epson's $2,995 price. Some com-

572 BYTE November 1983

Epson.
For those who can handle it,
performance.

puter companies ask yon to pay extra
tor features like these. Most can not offer
them at any price.

That, too, is performance. The kind
of performance that can make choosing a
personal computer very simple, indeed.

EPSON QUALITY OR, WHY

WONDER WHAT TERRIBLE

KLUDGES LURK IN WHICH

SLEEK BOXES.

If you know computers, you
know Epson.
Epson
printers set
the industry
standard
for quality,
reliability
and value.
Rest assured,
the same
can be said
for the Epson
personal
computer.

The satisfy-
ing silence of
e slim, Epson-
signed clisk-
ives is one way
on to judge or,
in inside-out
spective, here is an
excerpt from a review
by Jim Hanson in the
April, 1983 issue of
Microcomputing?

"The Epson QX-10 is soundly designed
and executed. I looked hard and found
no evidence of kludging or shorting out
anything in the name of economy. All
the connectors have gold on them and are
of quality manufacture. The printed
circuit boards are heavy, with soldermarks
on both sides of double-sided boards.
The circuit boards are completely silk-
screened with component labels, and the
layout is as professional and clean as
you will find anywhere."

Isn't this what you expect? Alter all,
it's an Epson.

A WORD TO THE WISE:

GET YOUR HANDS ON

THE EPSON.

Is the Epson a simple, easy-to-use
computer for beginners? Or a sophisticated
high-performance computer for the
experienced? The answer is "yes. 11 And
when you think about it, aren't those two
computers the one you need now:

For technical specifications, and
the complete, 3-part Microcomputing
review, along with the name of
your nearby Epson dealer, call toll-
free (800) 421-5426. California resi-
dents, call (213) 539-9140.

*Excerpt reprinted by permission of Microcomputing Magazine.

All rights reserved

C1V.M is a trademark of Digital Research. Inc.

Yald< ks and HASCI are trademarks of Rising Siar Industries.

dBase li is a trademark of AshtonTate.

Wordstar is a trademark of Micropro.

Personal IVarl is a trademark ol Pearlsol't.

Spellwriter and Superealc are trademarks of Soreim.

Microplan is a trademark of Chang Labs.

MBA General Ledger is a trademark of Micro Business
Applications.

COBOL SO. FORTRAN 80. Microsoft, and Multiplan
are trademarks of Microsoft.
Peachtext is a trademark of Peachtrce Software.

/

EPSON

STATE-OF-THE-ART. . . SIMPLICITY.

BYTE November 1983

573

Cutlass Gera Holiday Coupe.

This car says a lot about style,
and says it beautifully

Yes, America's fastest growing mid-
size has a lot to say about style. In a
number of ways.

Just look at its simple aerodynamic
grace, The special padded formal roof.
The special accent stripes.

And that's just the beginning. The list
of standard equipment proves beauty
is more than skin deep. With electronic
fuel injected four-cylinder engine,
MacPherson strut suspension, rack-
l steering,.

Plus over 45 available options so
you can order it any way that suits your
style. A style that includes everything
from custom leather in the seating
areas to a new electronic auto calculator
located in the console.

The Cutlass Ciera Holiday Coupe
says it beautifully, again for 1984.

Some Oldsmobiles are equipped with engines
produced by other GM divisions, subsidiaries or
if filiated companies world w' *
or details. 1

There is a special feel

■I

tP

&

f/k

0&&

User to User

Conducted by Jerry Pournelle

Computing in Singapore

Dear Jerry,

Come, come, now, Jerry, I'm sure that
you have very good reasons to dislike the
"European standard/ 7 as you call it ("Ter-
minals, Keyboards, and How Software
Piracy Will Bring Profits to Its Victims,"
November 1982, page 394), but you really
needn't act so heavy-handed. If IBM and
DEC (and Olivetti, for that matter) want
to "wreck" their keyboards, so what?'You
are not compelled to buy their machines.

(I may as well point out that I have been
a touch typist for only about five months,
and I have hardly used the Selectric lay-
out you rave about. So if there is some-
thing better, I have never experienced it.
Although the M20 has incorporated the
"European standard/ 7 an Olivetti type-
writer I also have seems to have the Selec-
tric layout: the shift keys are large, and
the single- and double-quote marks are
to the right of your right pinky. I say
"seems" because I haven't the faintest
idea whether this is the Selectric layout.)

Your points in the following paragraphs
are good, though. The stupid thing we
are talking about is indeed only a key-
board and should accommodate the user,
not the other way around. The M20's key-
board is completely reprogrammable
under PCOS (Olivetti's custom Profes-
sional Computer Operating System), and
I can make it do anything I want. It really
escapes me why all the other computer
companies of note like Apple, Tandy,
IBM, etc., opted not to have easily repro-
grammable keyboards.

One thing disturbs me: disk formats.
CP/M is supposed to provide some kind
of standard. But if I go to a computer
store, it has disks "for CP/M" in "the
Apple/Softcard format," "the Northstar
format," "the NEC format," and "the
8-inch single-sided single-density for-
mat." A standard? It seems to me that if
I want to run CP/M programs on my ma-
chine, I need to purchase 8-inch drives
(not offered by Olivetti or by any other
company for the M20) and transfer pro-
grams to 5V4-inch floppies. Seems like a
lot of trouble.

I've noticed that most computer afi-
cionados like myself are male. There
seems to be some kind of cultural condi-
tioning that we give our females: "No,
Nancy, you can't use papa's computer.

That is for boys. Go play house." Sigh.

I'm looking for more pen pals my age
(I'm 15) in the United States. Since you
profess to have a cloud of kids causing
chaos in Chaos Manor, perhaps you
could recommend one (preferably female,
because I already have a male pen pal in
California). I'm interested in computers
of all kinds, but my greatest interest is in
microcomputers (I don't have constant ac-
cess to minis, let alone mainframes). I
have used, for varying periods of time,
ZX-81s, TRS-80s, Apples, Sords, and
Picos (a learning machine made here in
Singapore) as well as the Olivetti M20,
which I have had for almost seven
months.

My latest computer-related interest is
graphically presented perspective, i.e.,
when a computer creates pictures, using
high-resolution graphics on the screen as
the eye would see if an object were just
behind the screen (see November 1982
BYTE, page 474). The mechanics of draw-
ing such a picture can become somewhat
complex: you have to define the pitch,
bank, and heading of the observer, you
have to define the distance of the object,
and you have to create "perspective
plane" (usually the screen) in which to
picture the projectors (imaginary lines
leading from the object to the observer).
Unfortunately, my microcomputer does
not run fast enough to give it lifelike
animation. How I would like to have an
HP9000, which has a full 32-bit architec-
ture, that can. It is a bit out of my reach,
though, at S $120 000 (US $60,000).

How I thought that a 16-bit computer
was enough! After all, it can receive text
much faster than I can type it, it can move
convoluted blocks of text at blinding
speeds, it can, with the appropriate soft-
ware, relate cells to other cells (like
Visicalc and Multiplan), and it can utilize
the microprocessor's block-move capabil-
ities to move pictures, albeit in two di-
mensions, around the screen faster than
my eye can follow. But it cannot perform
three-dimensional rotation fast enough to
take advantage of the eye's visual per-
sistence, even without hidden-line
removal. Picture refresh in three dimen-
sions takes an agonizing 2 seconds for a
simple wire-frame house.

Sometimes I feel very, very old, even
though I am only 15. Due to a very
pressure-oriented school system, where

one must give more than a casual atten-
tion to school work, I cannot spend as
much time as I'd like using computer
systems. So I fall behind. And whiz kids
like Eugene what's-his-name of Hewlett-
Packard fly far ahead, unencumbered by
having to go to school or any of those
mundane things like a mere mortal like
myself has to do.

Recently, I went to Computa '83, a
somewhat large computer exhibiton here
in Singapore (it was supposed to be the
largest in Asia). I went there confident in
my higher-than-average knowledge of
microcomputer systems. Boom.

Mainframes. Minis. And I didn't know
the first thing about them. Do you know
the Tata Elexi 6400, being a "full" 64-bit
machine, can store 193 megabytes of
memory? With 4 gigabytes on line?

Oh, of course, there were those small
machines like the Apple, the NEC, and
the current crop of Japanese computers
(strangely, many S-100 systems and the
Olivetti M20 were not exhibited). But
those were holdovers from the last show.
Nothing new.

The most common microcomputers
here in Singapore are imitation Apple H's,
I am sad to report. Software as well as
hardware piracy here is rife. Programs can
be bought for only a few dollars above the
price of a disk and photocopying the
manual. There are shops in Singapore,
run by otherwise honest people, that
specialize in program copies. I was in one
recently (no, not to buy anything, as I
have an often troublesome set of
scruples), and a man wanted to buy a
copy of Sorcim's Supercalc. The vendor
offered it to him for about S $20, and he
complained that that was too high! They
proceeded to haggle over the price, with
the happy customer eventually walking
out with the program and photocopied
manual for S $15, no doubt to go home
and try it out on a fake Apple II. People
do not think twice before making and
distributing copies to friends.

It sometimes makes me sick.

What's it like in America?
Victor Chua
1 Sunset Ave.
Raffles Park
Singapore 1128
Republic of Singapore

Great heavens, if you're typical of 15-year-

Circle 338 on inquiry card.

November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. 575

User to User.

old students in Singapore, we should stop wor-
rying about competition from japan and turn
our attention farther west!

I wish I had time to conduct a long cor-
respondence with you, particularly on what
it's like in America; I wouldn't mind know-
ing what it's like in modern Singapore (when
I was last there the British hadn't pulled back
west of Suez, and there was insurgency in the
Malay States).

Regarding disk formats, I have my own com-
plaints about that; fortunately, hobo and
Kaypro have come up with programs that read
a number of different formats, and Tony
Pietsch has written one we can use with the
Compupro. There will undoubtedly be other
translator programs. It takes a bit of time, but,
after all, the micro industry is still quite
young. . . . Jerry

In Praise of APL

Dear Jerry,

Let me make a user's comment on APL,
a language you recently said you propose
to learn in the coming year ("The Debate
Goes On. . . ," August, page 312).

I am not a computer buff and not in
your class as a language analyst. But I do
use a computer at home (in BASIC and
FORTRAN on celestial mechanics and
correspondence) and at work (in APL on
engineering, financial analysis, and
reports) for several hours every day of the
week and have done so for years. The
focus is on the problem and the results.

For complicated one-shot problems of
the kind that arise in my work, APL is in
a class by itself, in my opinion. The
reason is that practically all of the func-
tions and operations on scalars, vectors,
and matrixes that arise, in any number of
dimensions, are optimized APL functions
callable with just 1, 2, or 3 keystrokes. For
example, I recently did a modest optical
analysis that took around 900 lines of
BASIC. For comparison, the same job in
APL is 45 lines. The convenience of APL
is high for the working engineer who is
not just cranking out numbers or text
from canned routines but who is con-
stantly addressing new situations and
writing new software. This is not to say
that APL is weak for other uses, but those
lie outside my immediate experience. The
language is completely interactive and can
be checked out line by line as it is written.

Your remark that APL is interpreted
(and hence, by implication, is slow) is
somewhat wrong on two counts: first, the

multitude of APL functions are precom-
piled in efficient machine language, and
the names are the addresses of these
functions. Thus, the execution is quite
fast. Second, if the analysis of some piece
of a problem takes a week or more
(typical) and the programming an after-
noon (FORTRAN) or half an hour (APL),
a few seconds' difference in run time is
irrelevant.
Norm Peterson
Santa Monica, CA

Thank you for the clarification; I was a bit
unclear in the article and should have men-
tioned that one of APL s major advantages is
that it's very fast.

APL enthusiasts tend to be enthusiastic
about their favorite language, and many report
that they can solve problems while other pro-
grammers are still thinking about an ap-
proach. In other words, APL is a hacker's
delight, if by hacker we mean someone more
concerned with getting the answer faster than
with writing elegant programs. (That's one
definition; there are others, and I don't care
to get into a debate on what the word hacker
means. As Humpty Dumpty said of words,
the important question is who shall be
master.). . . Jerry

Don't Knock C

Dear Jerry,

In response to your article "The Debate
Goes On. . ." (August, page 312), I agree
with much of what you wrote. However,
I feel you were unreasonably harsh on C.

You state that C produces overly large
object modules because it was originally
designed for use with Unix and lots of ex-
tra code has to be linked into the pro-
grams to let them run on microcom-
puters. This is misleading. Your sample
program,

/* simple.c */

/* A very simple program */

main( )

{

}

printf ("This is a very simple pro-
gram. \ n");

calls a very complicated subroutine,
printf. Even on the VAX 11/750 system I
use (running Unix), this program com-
piles to code over 4000 bytes long.

By making two changes, we can dra-
matically reduce the space needed. First,

get rid of printf. On Unix you can replace
it by the low-level system call write.

The second change is a little hairier. On
Unix, the program simple.c will compile
to a loadable object file simple.o, which
is then linked by the loader with a "start-
up" file, /lib/crtO.o, and the library
/lib/libc.a. The code in crtO.o calls the
routine exit, which eventually calls all
sorts of routines to close files, print error
messages, etc. The library libc.a also con-
tains the routine _exit, which does a
quick and dirty exit. Putting it all together,
we get:

/* simple2.c */

/* A (somewhat less) simple program */

main ( )

{

/*Meaning of arguments:
1 = standard output file
descriptor

". . ." = string to be output
31 = number of characters to
output.
*/

write (1, "This is a very simple pro-
gram. \ n", 31);

}
exit( )

{
}

_exit( );

The start-up code will now call the user's
exit ( ), so the library exit ( ) is not load-
ed. The resulting executable code is 164
bytes long. An even shorter alternative
would be to rewrite the start-up code to

call exit or to do an exit system call in

line.

We can simplify the program by creat-
ing a library routine for printing strings:

/* Quick and dirty string printing */

prints(s)

char *s;

{

while (*s ! = ' \ 0')
write(l,s + +,l);

/* A faster version */

prints(s)

char *s;

{

char *p;

/* Make p point at the ' \ 0' at the
end of the string. */

576 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

Computers are creating jobs

IF YOU'RE SERIOUS ABOUT

MAKING MONEY IN

MICROCOMPUTERS,

NRI IS SERIOUS ABOUT

SHOWING YOU HOW.

The U. S. Department of
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NEVER HAS THERE BEEN A

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TRS-80 is a trademark of the Radio Shack division of Tandy Corp.

With NRI training you'll explore
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You'll perform hundreds of
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rtnik

NRI School of Electronics

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Well give you tomorrow.

BYTE November 1983

577

HAPPY

HOLIDAY

SPECIALS

OTRONA ATTACHE $2595

BASIS 108 128KCP/M 3.0... $1999

PROWRITERI $369

PROWRITERII $659

EPSON FX-100 $725

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RANA ELITE II $380

RANA 1000 (FOR ATARI) $309

BUFFERED GRAPPLER

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32K $199

64K $239

MULTIPLAN IBM, Apple ll/lle. $169
IBM PC DSDD Drive

RANA $299

QUENTIN $275

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LOGO

Terrapin $119

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ACE Office Management System
ACE 1200 w/2 Drives, I/O Card,
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COLUMBIA

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User to User.

}

for (p
/* So, p
string*/
write(l,s,p

s; *p! = , \°'; p ++);
s is the length of the

-s);

Here are some simple rules for getting
compact object code for C:

1. Be very careful with library routines.
Calling printf will probably mean
loading the entire standard I/O library.
If space is critical, load or write a less
general special-purpose routine.

2. Use a peephole optimizer. The Unix C
compiler has a very useful optional
phase that makes local ("peephole")
optimizations in the output code. It
usually makes for substantial savings
in both space and time. In my opinion,
all compilers should have such a
phase.

3. Use register variables. The code will be
more compact and much faster. Com-
pilers without register variables are
cripples.

4. Exploit the features of the language.
Writing FORTRAN- or Pascal-style

code with arrays instead of using Cs
pointer arithmetic will increase code
size and running time. In fact, try not
to use arrays at all.

It is not difficult to get compact code
from C. Remember that the Unix (ver-
sions <6) operating system on the
PDP-11 was written almost entirely in C
and had to fit into a 64K-byte instruction
space.

The utility of C depends as much on
the compiler as on the language. C is a
systems programming language, a high-
level universal assembler, if you will. If
your C compiler produces voluminous or
inefficient code, you might as well use
Pascal.

I don't understand your comment
about readability. I find well-written C
easy to read. It isn't self -documenting, but
no language is. Your problems are prob-
ably caused by a lack of familiarity with
the notation rather than any inherent
obscurity in the language.
Paul E Dietz
Canoga Park, CA

Thank you for the explanation. My point
was that the C language requires a bit more
work than, say Pascal or CB-80, a point
which I think you've illustwted very well.

Those who use C a lot may not have prob-
lems recalling the notation and understand-
ing what they've done, but I know a number
of good programmers who don't work with C
weekly and who have great difficulty in under-
standing what they did when it comes time
to modify it. . . . Jerry

Ada's Shortcomings

Dear Jerry,

I want to voice disagreement with the
assumption that Ada will become a ma-
jor programming language.

It is commonly believed that the De-
partment of Defense (DOD) will require
Ada for all its programming. The June 30,
1983, Electronics (page 54) gives the actual
requirements— it will be used for all
"critical systems" entering advanced
development after January 1, 1984. A
critical system would be something like
an ICBM targeting program; payrolls, per-
sonnel record keeping, and test-data

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November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. 579

User to User.

number crunching are not critical sys-
tems. Obviously, the bulk of DOD pro-
gramming is noncritical and won't be re-
quired to use Ada. Another item on the
same page said that the first Ada compiler
has passed certification (Rolm and Data
General, for the Eclipse MV and a Rolm
supermini). I hear, unofficially, that this
compiler is the slowest measured entity
since I tried out for my high school track
team. The July 14 issue of the same pub-
lication (page 49) announces another

compiler due for certification in 1984. It
compiles for several 16- and 32-bit CPUs
and is claimed to be acceptably fast.

In short, we're dealing with a major
language for which only one compiler ex-
ists, with few on the horizon. Since DOD
won't allow subsets or extensions, we can
expect this situation to continue for a
while. Of course, there are some "Ada"
compilers that aren't mil-spec, to allow
practice for real Ada, but these give up
one of the language's few endearing

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qualities (portability), and you're practic-
ing to use a language that barely exists in
the real world. I'm not even sure what
portability means when an update to an
operating system may render your stan-
dard Ada compiler nonstandard, but let
that go.

The big advantage to Ada, by most
writers, is DOD support. As previously
mentioned, this support is not as great
as is typically claimed. I won't embarrass
anyone by naming the Air Force Base in
whose computer labs I worked this sum-
mer, but they don't plan to do any Ada
programming. Ever. Part of it is laziness.
COBOL and FORTRAN work, and they
know those already. Another part of it is
the fact that Ada is so powerful, so big,
with so many bells and whistles, that
they're afraid that they'll shoot them-
selves in the foot with it. The language
offers plenty of opportunities for odd data
combinations (one example) to send the
program into unpredictable activity and
very little to stop you from writing that
sort of program. C.A.R. Hoare's com-
ments in the February 1981 Communica-
tions of the ACM on this difficulty are more
than I can improve upon.

It would help if Ada had a semiofficial
subset that would be small enough to
allow it to be thoroughly learned and still
big enough to be useful. This would re-
quire a DOD policy reversal (unlikely) or
action by IBM or Japan's MITI (Ministry
of International Trade and Industry). No
one else is big enough to set a standard.
It's probably too late to get that done
before word gets around that Ada is an
overgrown specialty language or before
Congress finds out that the Pentagon has
been throwing money at this project for
years without a line of usable code to
show for it. To put it in one sentence, I
can't see anybody using Ada unless he's
being forced to use it, and there won't be
many people in that situation.
Philip R. McLean
University, AL

Today's mail brings both your letter and a
brochure from Telesoft, which claims to have
Ada compilers for the IBM PC and the 68000
chip. Many other Ada compilers are appear-
ing, according to my friends on the computer
networks.

Certainly it has taken longer than anyone
expected to get good Ada compilers, and I
gather the first ones— even for very large

580 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

Circle 181 on inquiry card.

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BYTE November 1983

581

User to User.

machines— were very slow indeed, but that
situation is rapidly changing. Whether that
will cause military programmers to rewrite
"nonurgent" programs into Ada is another
matter, of course.

It's the urgent ones that concern me. I had
in mind the Hoare comment when I mentioned
the difficulties of verifying Ada.

You certainly raise some interesting points,
and I'd be pleased to hear from other readers
who have ideas on the subject. . . . Jerry

Pro Power

Dear Jerry,

With respect to the quality of software
documentation, I recommend Power to
your attention: I find it very easy to use
by (1) skimming through the manual once
to find out what kind of things it will do
for me, (2) referring to the index or the
enclosed reference card for a specific ap-

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582 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

plication, and (3) checking the detailed
explanation of the particular command
for how to use it.

The main reason I got Power was to try
to rescue the information on a couple of
disks (I bought a couple boxes of cheap
disks before I learned better) with
damaged directories. I was delighted with
the results: it turned out that the glitches
in both disks were in an unused part of
the directory track, and with Power it is
possible to read and transfer anything on
the disk except the 128-byte sector where
the damage is. It is also possible to alter,
byte by byte, anything anywhere on a
disk, again excepting any damaged sec-
tors. I have used this feature to get rid of
a pestiferous and unnecessary warning
message in Wordstar. There are a number
of other very convenient utility programs.

On to another subject. I much dislike
the amber-trace CRTs that are being
pushed on computer users now and
much prefer the traditional green. It is
true that yellow is the most easily iden-
tified color (hue), but it also remains true
that the spectral sensitivity of the human
eye is highest in the green, and I main-
tain that, for a monochrome display, sen-
sitivity is more important than color dis-
crimination. I have a friend who uses an
IBM PC at his work, and he recently re-
placed a green monitor with an amber
one because it was easier for him to read.
It turns out that his problem is that he is
at the age where he is still trying to fight
off the effects of presbyopia, and he won't
get glasses yet. I use trifocals myself and
have found it very desirable to get a pair
of glasses with single lenses, focused for
the distance at which my keyboard,
monitor, and printed information all lie.
H. Orlo Hoadley
18 Kingsberry Dr.
Rochester, NY 14626

I reviewed an early version of Power over
a year ago. Perhaps it's time to look at an up-
dated version. Thanks.

As to amber screens, de gustibus non est
disputandem— it's a matter of taste. Some
love them. . . . Jerry

Duplicating the Original

Dear Jerry,

I have been trying to find out about the
differences between machines built
around a chip and machines built to take

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Circle 130 on inquiry card.

User to User.

any chips. For instance, if I bought a Com-
pupro and put an 8088 card in it, would
I then be able to run anything written for
a PC? Besides just running, would it run
as fast or as efficiently? It seems clear that
any sort of simulation can never perfect-
ly duplicate the original, so software writ-
ten for that original can never be entirely
functional. And if I plug a 68000 card in
there, can I go and buy anybody's Unix,
or do I have to wait for Compupro to set
it up? I am a fairly clever lad with a ham

radio license (expired), a smattering of
physics, and a lot of curiosity. I would
love to get a machine that would let me
play with all of the newest chips, but
more important is to be able to play with
all of the new software, which nowadays
seems to come out on Apple and PC
before anything else.

After-market hardware seems to follow
the same trend: I can get voice-recogni-
tion equipment for under $1000, but only
if I have an Apple or a PC. I guess what

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Always a step ahead.

it works down to is whether to just get
a PC for the software support and com-
petitive pricing. What is the difference,
really, between a PC and a Compupro
from the inside out? You were the first
person I came across who actually
seemed to have owned and used a lot of
this stuff.

Charles L. Convis Jr.
Mcloud Biosystems
314 Rigg St.
Santa Cruz, CA 95060

S-100 systems can in theory emulate other
systems, but there are problems. The graphics
are different, and the ROM software in the
PC is different. The answer to your question
is, alas, sometimes, and it depends on the soft-
ware. I wish I didn't have to be so ambiguous.
. . . Jerry

Pro p-System

Dear Jerry, "'

While I admire your science fiction and
your amazing capacity for work, your re-
cent user's column about the Sage Com-
puter and the p-System ("Sage in Bloom,
Zeke II, CBIOS Traps, Language Debate
Continues," March 1982, page 218) calls
for some criticism. Your view of the p-
System as a bug was completely negated
a few lines down by stating that it was the
fastest system you had benchmarked. You
later mention that the p-System points
one back to the editor during a syntax er-
ror, one of many good features that have
been in the system for several years.
Otherwise, you have nothing good to say
about the system. In comparison to your
favorite CP/M, one should fairly point out
that the integrated system of languages,
operating environment, editor, and
utilities is quite powerful and allows one
to keep automatic libraries of compiled
program segments, automatically date
files, and maintain volume names for
disks that ensure that the proper disks are
being used. Many other features, such as
I/O redirection, the monitor function,
chaining, and concurrent processes make
the system a joy to use. You might have
pointed out that the p-System was first
developed as a student operating system
and is thus a lot "friendlier" than CP/M
or Unix in the humble opinion of this
user. If you don't like Pascal, you might
have pointed out that one can use the p-
System with BASIC, FORTRAN, Lisp, or

584 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

Circle 484 on inquiry card.

Modula-2, the latter being mentioned in
your flash as being available without
mentioning that it is the p-System that
supports the version you acquired.

Finally the reason the p-System on the
Sage is not a bug for me is that if I bought
one, having chosen the p-System two
years ago for its excellent features, I could
take my entire environment of programs,
printer controllers, my nifty banking pro-
gram, and the procedure that signs my
name, and install them painlessly on the
new system. No new versions of BASIC
to learn, no new software to buy, just a
continuation of the growth and power of
my computing environment. That is
worth a lot.
Joseph A. Gear
Vernon, Ontario
Canada

J confess some unfamiliarity with the p-
System, and thus have little right to strong
opinions; certainly there are a number of Sage
users who consider the p-System a definite
plus. However, do recall that my son Alex and
his young lady friend are both students at the
University where UCSD Pascal was devel-
oped, so I have the benefit of advice from peo-
ple pretty thoroughly familiar with it.

I don't myself care for the general philosophy
of the UCSD operating system; but again, that
may be prejudice due to unfamiliarity. There
certainly are a number of satisfied p-System
users: after all, Carl Helmers, former editorial
director of BYTE, is so enamoured that his
license plates read P-CODE! .... Jerry

Naming Names

Dear Jerry,

For "pseudo disk/' how about "virtual
disk/' and for the "box that contains. . .
bus and power supply," "crux."
M. Gary Cohen
Searsport, ME

/ like "virtual disk." "Crux" though, eludes
my affection. Thanks. . . . Jerry

Logo: No Go

Dear Jerry,

While reading my kids a story, it oc-
curred to me that somebody should
vocalize the analogy of "The Emperor Has
No Clothes" to "Logo Is a Fraud." The en-

tire Logo mystique (even the normally
sensible BYTE devoted an entire issue to
its perpetuation) is supported only by a
bunch of "educators" and several thou-
sand defrauded kids. I say defrauded kids
because they could have learned all that
Logo has to teach by playing any of
several games (e.g., Face Maker, Deedle
Drawing, and Kids' Programming Lan-
guage). Had they been taught BASIC,
they could have had the rudiments of a
useful language. My own experience with

my kids and others says that any kid who
can understand Logo can do similar tricks
with print statements on any computer
with graphics. (Yes, I am saying a ZX-81
could replace all of Logo.)

I just hate to see the entire computer
community acting as if Logo were some-
thing useful when common sense says it
is baloney. Try to purchase a useful pro-
gram in Logo!
Pat O'Neil
Tempe, AZ

get REAL 1 6 BIT

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90 line expansion interface for more
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Two full function RS232C serial ports
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■ Source for monitor and bios included on

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*CP/M a trademark of Digital Research, Inc.

Circle 422 on inquiry card

November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. 585

User to User.

I have no real experience with Logo. What
I've heard is good, but it does seem strange
that we don't have it running on more
machines.

I must say I've not heard others express your
particular view, but, then, I've not heard
many views at all. . . . Jerry

On Heath Kits

Dear Jerry,

I recently purchased the Z-100 and find
it to be versatile, powerful, and feature-
packed. Heath/Zenith has done a good
job (I built mine). I have an additional
complaint about the system that you
didn't mention in the review— the fan
noise. I have the Z-100 in my office at
home and find the fan noise quite objec-
tionable. I also quite agree with your
criticism about the keyboard. It was a
design error not to have built the Z with
a removable keyboard. I hope to have
mine removed in the near future.
Wayne Hatter
709 Wakefield Rd.
Neptune, NJ 07753

We are still pleased with the Z-100, despite
the noise. If you manage to detach the Z-100
keyboard, let me know how! . . . Jerry

Dear Jerry,

Although I have been involved with
programming since junior high school on
everything from HP and IBM mainframes
to calculators, I have recently been bitten
by the personal computer bug. I am con-
sidering starting with a Heath kit such as
the H-100 but have never seen one (or any
Heath product, for that matter). What is
your opinion of the products from Heath/
Zenith? Also, I have not noticed a vast
amount of compatible software. Do you
know if it is available but just not listed
in favor of the more popular computers?

I am also a little confused when it
comes to CP/M. What's the difference be-
tween CP/M-86 and CP/M 2.2, etc., and
will any CP/M software run on any CP/M-
compatible computer?
lLt. James Blue
583rd Ordnance Co.
APO NY 09078

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I like the Z-100 but cannot comment on the
kit version because I have never built one.

CP/M-86 is 16-bit for an 8086 or 8088
CPU; CP/M 2.2 is for an 8080, 8085, or Z80.
. . . Jerry

Using RAM Disks

Dear Jerry,

When a "RAM disk" is used as a sub-
stitute for one of the disk drives in such
a system, does one load the program or
the data disk in the RAM disk for best
efficiency?
James M. Baehr
Lake Bluff, IL

The RAM disk allows very quick disk ac-
cess. Since most programs only load once and
have done with it, it's usually better to put
the data, particularly files, on the RAM disk
if you're short of space.

Try it, you'll like it! . . . Jerry ■

ferry Pournelle welcomes readers' com-
ments and opinions. Send a self-addressed
stamped envelope to ferry Pournelle, do
BYTE Publications, POB 372, Hancock,
NH 03449. Please put your address on the
letter as well as on the envelope. Due to
the high volume of letters, Jerry cannot
guarantee a personal reply.

BYTE is looking for articles for up-
coming issues on topics that include
the following:

•Professional Computing

• Computers in Education
•Modula-2
•Computer Graphics
•Mass Storage

• New Chips
•Communications

Anyone interested in writing on any
of these subjects should send an
outline of the proposed article to

Article Proposals
BYTE Magazine
POB 372
Hancock, NH 03449

Please include a telephone number at
which you can be reached during the
day.

586 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

Circle 528 on inquiry card.

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Circle 7 on inquiry card.

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month. Anyone interested in
hardware or software for any
make of computer can join
for a $6 annual fee. For
details, write to Bill Curlew,
Connecticut Computer Club,
92 Plaza Dr., Middletown, CY
06457.

Every Which Way

PC Report is the monthly
newsletter of the IBM PC
Users Group, an affiliate of
the Boston Computer Society
(BCS), that contains notes
from meetings, ads, special-
ihterest-group news, soft-
ware-exchange news, ab-
stracts of software reviews,
tutorials, special reprints,
and announcements of new
products, publications, and
services. Back issues are
available while they last
($1.50). Address all corres-
pondence to BCS/IBM PC

Users Group, POB 307,
Wellesley Hills, MA 02181.

Exchange HX-20 News

The HX-20 Users Group of
I^ondon, England, welcomes
information from all users
about their occupations and
applications of the Epson
HX-20. A newsletter is pro-
duced that contains docu-
mentation, how-to articles,
programs, and coming
events. Contributions to the
newsletter are welcome.
Contact the HX-20 Users
Group at 25 Sawyers Lawn,
Drayton Bridge Rd., Ealing,
London W13, England.

Users in Ohio,
North and Central

The Akron/Canton PC
Users Group is for users of
the IBM PC as well as anyone
else interested in small com-
puters. Meetings are held on
the first Monday of each
month from 7 to 9 p.m. in
Akron and Canton, Ohio, al-
ternately. Dues are $10 per
year and a newsletter is pro-
duced. For further details,
contact James Finucane,
10690 Clapsaddle Ave.,
Alliance, OH 44601, or call
(216) 935-0252.

Free Ads
For Members

The Greater South Bay
IBM PC Users Group meets
every month and produces a
newsletter, GSBUG, that con-
tains news, announcements,
and minutes of meetings.
The group contains special-
interest groups for commun-
ications, beginners, and in-
vestors. Membership dues
are $25 annually, family dues
are $30, youths are $10, and
the newsletter is available
without membership for $10.
Members receive free adver-

tising for up to three lines.
For further information, con-
tact the Greater South Bay
IBM PC Users Group, POB
665, Lomita, CA 90717.

Dry TVistate OSI

The Tristate OSI Users
Group provides a forum for
reference to OSI users in
Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, and
other areas. This is an infor-
mal association of people
who share advice about sys-
tems, interests, and prob-
lems. Inquiries can be sent to
Ted Morris, Tristate OSI
Users Group, 6306 Kincaid
Rd., Cincinnati, OH 45213.

International ZX
Users Group

The ZX Users Group of
New York is for users of
Timex/Sinclair computers. A
newsletter, the ZX World
News Bulletin, is produced
every other month and con-
tains news for special-interest
divisions such as telecommu-
nications, small business,
medical and research, corpo-
rate and business, hardware
and software, home comput-
ing, education, graphics,
word processing, and more.
For details, write to the ZX
Users Group of New York,
Box 560, Wall St., New York,
NY 10005.

South Florida
Enjoys Apples

The Apple Computer En-
joyment Society meets regu-
larly at the North East High
School in Fort Lauderdale,
Florida. Separate meetings
are held for beginners and
advanced users. Additional
information is available from
the Apple Computer Enjoy-
ment Society, POB 9222,
Coral Springs, FL 33065.

Morrow Users
Form Group

A national users group of
owners of the Morrow Micro
Decision and Decision I com-
puters has plans to publish a
newsletter and provide pur-
chasing discounts and other
benefits for members. A title
for the group has not yet
been chosen. Anyone inter-
ested in participating should
contact Users Group, POB
14241, Arlington, TX 76094.

60-Minute
Atari Newsletter

Bits, Bytes, and Pieces is a
club for users of Atari com-
puters. Meetings are held on
the first Saturday of each
month at 1:30 p.m. in A
Building/Recreation room at
Orchard Estates in William-
son, New York. A 60-minute
newsletter is produced on
cassette that records discus-
sions about hardware and
software, music, programs,
science fact and fiction, and
a general exchange of ideas
between members. Annual
membership is $36, which in-
cludes the cassette and ac-
cess to a disk library main-
tained by the club. Interested
parties can obtain a sample
cassette for $3, which will be
credited toward the member-
ship fee. For information,
write to Bill Wheat, 1103 Ar-
rowbend Dr., Williamson,
NY 14589.

Members' Disk
Needs Met

The Morrow Users Group
(MUG.l) meets regularly and
produces a newsletter that
contains minutes of the
meeting, answers to ques-
tions submitted to the news-
letter, reports, and reviews. A
software library is main-
tained and aims to accommo-

November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. 591

Clubs and Newsletters-

date members' needs. Mem-
bership is $15 a year. For
details, write the Morrow
Users Group, c/o S. S. White,
Suite 126, 9001 East Bloom-
ington Freeway, Blooming-
ton, MN 55420, or call Will
Thorp at (612) 571-4318.

Oregonians Meet

The Jackson Amateur
Computer Society meets
about four times a year in
southwestern Oregon. Meet-
ings include speakers and
presentations, and a newslet-
ter is produced. Membership
dues are $5 a year. An elec-
tronic bulletin board called
the Medford FORUM-80,
(503) 535-6883 is open 24
hours a day. For further
details, contact the Jackson
Amateur Computer Society,
c/o C. B. C. Inc., 2355 Camp
Baker Rd., Medford, OR
97501.

Join a Society

Triangle Sinclair Users
Group (TSUG) meets every
month in North Carolina to
discuss new products and
bugs. Meetings include pre-
sentations, a software ex-
change, and programs for
sale. A $10 annual member-
ship includes the newsletter
that announces software dis-
counts, club news, and re-
views. For details, contact
TSUG, 206 James St., Carr-
boro, NC 27510.

Houston Club Forming

The Savid Computer Club
has formed. To receive a
membership application
send a self-addressed
stamped envelope to Savid
Computer Club, 312 West
Alabama #2, Houston, TX
77006.

De Smet C

PCDOS - CP/M-86 - MPM-86 - CCP/M-86

$109

i OUTSTANDING PRICE/PERFORMANCE
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135 bytes compiled — 6144 bytes linked

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PCDOS Trademark IBM - CP/M Trademark Digital Research

Changes and Updates

The IBM Personal Com-
puter users group that is ac-
tive in Cincinnati, Ohio, is
now called ACORN. The
nonprofit club maintains a
public-domain disk library,
for which there is a minimal
charge to copy disks. Contact
the group by writing
ACORN: Greater Cincinnati
Users Group, POB 3097, Cin-
cinnati, OH 45201.

The Personal Computer
Club of Toronto, formerly the
IBM PC Users Group of
Toronto (November 1982
BYTE, page 539), welcomes
even those interested in the
IBM PC who are outside of
the Toronto, Canada, area.
Meetings are planned for the
third Tuesday of each month,
a software library has
formed, and an electronic
bulletin board is in the
works. The club contains
about 10 special interest
groups in communications,
education, C and assembly
languages, spreadsheets,
speakers, color graphics, and
more. The monthly newslet-
ter is free to all members and
includes ads, updates, and
features. Membership is $30
a year. To contact the club
write to the Personal Com-
puter Club of Toronto, POB
266, Station A, Toronto, On-
tario M5W 1B2, Canada.

The Boston Computer So-
ciety, representing at least 19
user/interest groups, pro-
duces and mails a Calendar
each month as a monthly
guide to meetings and
events. It is suitable for post-
ing. For information, write to
the Boston Computer Soci-
ety, Three Center Plaza,
Boston, MA 02108, or call
(617) 367-8080 (April 1983
BYTE, page 461).

A Commodore VIC-20
users group has formed
under the auspices of the
New York Amateur Com-
puter Club Inc. (NYACC).
Meetings will be held in New
York City, but members from

around the country are wel-
come to join on a corre-
spondence basis. Interested
Victims should write to
Mike Brown, New York Ama-
teur Computer Club, POB
106, Church St. Station, New
York, NY 10008 (November
1982 BYTE, page 539).

No Need to Shuffle

The Buffalo IBM Users
Group (BIBMUG) serves
users in the western part of
New York state. It provides a
forum for the exchange of in-
formation and experiences, a
software exchange, a month-
ly newsletter, and other
members' services such as
volunteers who help new-
comers get acquainted with
their computers and an elec-
tronic bulletin board. Mem-
bership is $20 a year, $10 for
students and senior citizens.
For details, write to BIBMUG,
POB 1487, Buffalo, NY
14221. ■

BYTE's Bits

Quick Switch

Two photos were inad-
vertently transposed in the
"What's New?" section in the
August 1983 BYTE. On page
511, the top photo depicts a
40-column thermal printer
with added interface mod-
ules from Alphacom of
Campbell, California. The
bottom photo shows the
letter-quality daisy-wheel
printers from Morrow of San
Leandro, California.

We apologize to the man-
ufacturers, Alphacom and
Morrow, and to our readers
for this error. ■

592 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

Our new multimode:

Correspondence quality. High-speed drafts.

Graphics. Attractive pricing.

And up to 500 cps.

Anadex rapidly moves a head.

High quality correspondence.
High-speed drafts.
High-resolution graphics.

Whatever your application, they're all built into the exciting new multi-
mode printer: Rapid/Scribe™ Model DP-6500 from Anadex.
But the built-in feature that's got everybody talking is Rapid/Scribe's speed
. . . 500 characters per second at 10 Pitch in the high speed draft mode; and
1 10 cps in the proportionally spaced, Dual Pass Correspondence Mode.

The accompanying chart summarizes the speeds. (Notice that at 10 Pitch
and 80 Columns, Speed is 275 Lines per Minute).

Equally exciting are the impressive array of features that have

become the Anadex hallmarks... friction and tractor feed,

Printing speeds (cps) sophisticated communications capability, emulation packages,

10 Pitch 50 ° C P S character font downloading, alternate character fonts, bar

1 2 p,tch 540 cps codes, and of course, a reputation for reliability.

Proportional 275 cps Couple those features with Rapid/Scribe's interfaces - Parallel,

10 Pitch ........ . . 250 cps Centronics compatible and RS-232-C Serial - and you have a

12 Pitch 300 cps solid, high-speed printer that fits virtually any computer and

Condensed computer application . . . including yours.

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80 Columns 275 Ipm

132 Columns 180 Ipm

©Copyright I 983. Anadex. Inc.

ANADEX, INC. • 9825 De Soto Avenue • Chatsworth, California 91311, U.S.A. • Telephone: (213) 998-8010 • TWX 910-494-2761
U.S. Sales Otfices: San Jose, CA (408)247-3933 • Irvine, CA (714)557-0457 • Schiller Park, I L (3 12) 671 -1717 •Wakefield, MA (61 7) 245-9160
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ANADEX, LTD. • Weaver House, Station Road • Hook, Basingstoke, Hants RG27 9JY, England • Tel: Hook (025672) 3401 • Telex: 858762 ANADEX G
ANADEX GmbH • Behringstrasse 5 • 8752 Mainaschaff • Frankfurt, W. Germany • Tel: 011-49-06021-7225 • Telex: 4188347

Circle 26 on inquiry card. BYTE November 1983 593

The best way to im

is to build

An idea whose time has come.
And gone.

It should come as no shock that your
mail is being handled by a postal system
that's 208 years old.

Of course, they've made improve-
ments along the way. Like adhesive stamps,
mailboxes and zip codes. But the basic idea
of carrying mail hasn't changed since the
days of Benjamin Franklin.

When you think of how much the
world has changed since then, you start to
realize that the post office hasn't exactly
kept up with the times.

The nation's new postal system.

The nation needs a whole new way to
deliver mail. One that's faster, cheaper and
more convenient. It's called MCI Mail.

MCI Mail is an electronic way to send
mail from your office or home to anyone,
anywhere. Regardless of the kind of equip-
ment they have. Or whether they have any
equipment at all. Just type in a name and
street address and we'll get it there.

Instead of using a mailbox and a
stamp, you use practically any electronic
typewriter, home computer, word pro-
cessor, data terminal or telex.

We've broken the language barrier.

Until now, different communicating
machines spoke different languages. For
instance, a Wang couldn't get along with
an Apple? They were incompatible.

But with MCI Mail, most kinds of
communicating machines can communi-
cate with each other. Instantly.

My grandma doesn't have a Wang,

Not every person in the world has a
sophisticated piece of equipment around
the place. But that doesn't stop MCI Mail.

You can reach these people in a matter
of hours. Or overnight. What they get is a

prove the post office

a new one.

V

I

Rr. C. Cofsky
Cofsky and Cofsky r Int.
2077 Lo*er Lane
Delia, Pa. 01478

Dear Mr. Cofsky:

This letter confirms our conversation this wmtinth
nith reference to job K52077. We are in total
agreement nith your proposal, except ^ - ^l|f

details. pi f # *j|$

high-quality copy, which can he sent on
your letterhead, with your signature.
All right, already. What's the price?

You'd expect to pay more for all this
speed and convenience. But what's really
amazing is that it costs less than any other
fast delivery. In fact, it can cost up to 90%
less than overnight mail. Speaking about
cost, this is one of the few times you can
save money without spending money. If
your equipment is hooked up to a phone,
you don't have to buy i

a thing. All you're doing is making better
use of the equipment you already have.

Besides that, there are no monthly
service charges, no subscription fees, and
no connect charges to pay. The only time
you do pay is when you send out mail.

We've even made it absolutely painless
to sign up. Just call 800-MCI-4244 today
and you can use MCI Mail in a few days.

The post office is an idea that worked
for 208 years. But MCI Mail is the way
mail should work today.

For a tree brochure with details and more
information (like how MCI Mail can bring you Dow
Jones® financial news), fill in the coupon. Mail it to:
MCI Mail, Customer Support, Box 1001,
1900 M St., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036. BW-1

N;i mi 1

Title

Company Phone

Add res,

Cirv State 7ip

Type of Equipment.
With

. Without Communications

MCI Mail The nation's new postal system.

Circle 288 on inquiry card.

Ask BYTE

Conducted by Steve Ciarcia

Number Crunchers
Take Note

Dear Steve,

My interests fall in the area
of what might be termed
"high-capacity" microcom-
puters. I would appreciate
your advice on a couple of
matters. First, which systems
do you feel are the most pow-
erful for number-crunching
applications? Perhaps one of
the 8086/8087/80286- or
68000-based systems? Sec-
ond, do you know of any
products that interface
9-track tape drives to the
S-100 or other buses? Thank
you for your assistance.
David Lavers
Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Electrovalue Industrial Inc.
advertises 9-track tape drives
and controllers for the Apple
II computer. They may have
controllers for others. Write
or call them at Electrovalue
Industrial Inc., POB 376-T,
Morris Plains, N] 07950,
(201) 267-1117.

I am going to pass on the
question as to which 16-bit
system is the most powerful
for number-crunching appli-
cations and, instead, refer-
ence an article that compares
many of them. "An Architec-
tural Comparison of Con-
temporary 16-Bit Micropro-
cessors" by Hoo-min D.
Toong and Amar Gupta,
published in the May 1981
issue of IEEE Micro, does an
excellent job of comparing
the various 16-bit processors
and should answer your
questions. . . .Steve

Good-bye Howard
Cosell

Dear Steve,

For some time I have won-

dered how much is involved
in the process of overlaying
video images, i.e., having a
game or text generated by a
personal computer displayed
over either a broadcast video
signal or one produced by a
videotape or videodisc
system.

Think of the fun you could
have if a system like this ex-
isted — you could blast the
bad guys on network televi-
sion shows from your easy
chair with a joystick! Or
perhaps computer-generated
messages could be displayed
on-screen over the show you
are watching, telling you that
your dinner is ready, some-
one is at the door, or the dog
wants in. You could even
program while watching the
news.

I know that television sta-
tions have the complex video
equipment that does this be-
cause we see it all the time.
Why can't some simplified
system be devised that will
allow a person to modulate a
signal on the same frequency
or channel as that being used
by local stations and give the
computer-generated image
priority so that the broadcast
image will in effect become
the background or playfield
area?

I realize that things that
sound simple are often the
hardest of all to implement;
there may even be legal bar-
riers involved in producing
signals of the same frequency
as those assigned to licensed
broadcast stations. I just
wanted to see what your
feedback on the subject might
be.

Doug Arnold
Cullman, AL

An article in the September
1982 issue of Micro, "Super-
imposing TV Pictures on PET
Video" by Peter D. Hiscocks,

describes a method of over-
laying a TV camera signal on
a microcomputer. The com-
bined output can be fed to a
separate monitor or VCR.
While a TV camera is shown,
the concept can be applied to
a TV receiver. The key
requirement is to synchronize
the microcomputer display to
that of the TV receiver. There
should be no legal problems
because you can work with
video signals and not worry
about transmitting radio-
frequency signals on TV-
channel frequencies.

As you mentioned, while
the concept is straightfor-
ward, this is not a beginner's
project. A means to isolate
the TV from the computer
should be employed to pre-
vent unwanted ground loops;
synchronizing the sweep rates
also requires a knowledge of
TV operation. . . .Steve

VCR Storage and
Retrieval

Dear Steve,

I really enjoy your articles.
The laser-optical videodisc
interface was especially good.

Is it possible to address
VCRs for video and/or data
storage and retrieval?
Michael Daugherty
Kapaa, HI

It is not only possible to in-
terface a VCR for video and
data storage and retrieval, it
has been done! An article in
the July 1980 issue of BYTE,
"Interactive Control of a
Videocassette Recorder with
a Personal Computer" by Dr.
Richard C. Hallgren (page
116), describes the interfacing
of a Sony Betamax VCR to a
Radio Shack TRS-80 and an
Apple II. . . .Steve

Sound-Generator
Interface

Dear Steve,

I like the sound-generating
circuit in figure 2 of your arti-
cle, "Add Programmable
Sound Effects to Your Com-
puter," in the July 1982 BYTE
(page 60). Can you show me
how to interface this to an
Apple He and an IBM PC?
Thank you.
Wayne Straub
Santa Cruz, CA

The programmable sound
generator can easily be inter-
faced to a Centronics parallel
port (or any parallel port, for
that matter). If you have a
parallel printer port on your
computer, this is all that is re-
quired: connect the eight
DATA lines to the eight
DATA lines on the port.
Connect the STROBE line to
the strobe output (the jumper
on the sound generator will
have to be set, depending on
the polarity of the strobe).
Finally, connect the READY
line to the ready or busy in-
put of the port.

Sending data to the card is
the same as sending data to a
printer. In BASIC, just use a
POKE command to send the
data to the address of the
port. . . .Steve

Apples and Cats

Dear Steve,

I have an Apple II and a
Novation Cat direct-connect
modem. I'd like to find a
commercially available RS-
232C interface card for the
Apple II with appropriate
software and documentation
so that I can use the modem
to communicate with family
and friends in the U.S. Can
you recommend such an in-

596 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

step into the future...

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Now you can have the multi-user, multitasking
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Hard disk support presently includes the IBM XT,
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The cost of all this — far less than the cost of
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Remember, when you buy COHERENT from NCI
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For more information call or write:

^>

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(604) 430-3466

COHERENT is a trade mark of Mark Williams Co. UNIX is a trade mark of Bell Laboratories. IBM PC and IBM XT are trade marks of International Business Machines Corporation.

BYTE November 1983 597

Choosing software?

Go with the "pros"...
use software selection guides from

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Essential information on the more than 2.000 com-
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598 BYTE November 1983

or use this coupon.

(For dealer information, call

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015424-4 [~] Datapro/McGraw-Hill Guide to IBM Personal Com-
puter Software $1 9.95

01 5404-X n Datapro/McGraw-Hill Guide to CP/M Software $1 9.95

01 5405-8 Who's Who in Microcomputing - 1 983 $39.95

Name

Address.
City_

_Apt_

_State_

Offer good only in US.

Order subject to acceptance by McGraw-Hill.

-Zip

23-D220-4440-3

terface card? Thank you.
Frank Bason
Silkeborg, Denmark

One of the more popular
serial interface cards for the
Apple II is the California
Computer Systems (CCS)
Model 7710. It features full
handshaking and data rates
up to 19,200 bps. Most soft-
ware packages provide sup-
port for this board, and I've
seen prices in BYTE as low as
$126.

Many software packages
are available for use with
your modem. Transend by
SSM Microcomputer Prod-
ucts is a very versatile pack-
age that comes in three ver-
sions, the least expensive of
which is $89. . . .Steve

Terminology

Dear Steve,

Would you please answer a
couple of questions for me.
They involve terminology
and, although I see these
terms often, I do not feel that
I know exactly what they
mean.

First, what are static RAM
and dynamic RAM? What is
the difference?

Similarly, what are
memory-mapped and bit-
mapped, and what, if
anything, is the difference?
Whenever I see these terms,
they always seem to be used
with reference to a CRT or
video display. Are they used
in any other sense?
Donald W. Kearney
Martinsburg, WV

Static and dynamic RAM
are two methods of obtaining
random-access memory (also
known as read/write mem-
ory). A static RAM chip can
be thought of as a flip-flop
device. When a data bit is
written into an addressed
cell, it flips the state of the
cell to a 1 or and remains in
that state (hence, static) until

changed. A dynamic RAM
chip can be likened to a ca-
pacitor. When a data bit is
written into an addressed
cell, it charges up a capacitor
and uses the charge, or lack
of charge, to indicate the
state. The problem is that this
charge gradually leaks away
due to internal resistance and
must be recharged (refreshed)
periodically in order to retain
the memory bit. These chips
are known as dynamic
RAMs.

A memory-mapped video
display is one that displays
the contents of an area of
memory. The display can be
bit-mapped or byte-mapped.
In a bit-mapped display, each
video memory location writ-
ten into will display up to
eight dots on the screen. As
an example, the hexadecimal
word FF will display eight
dots (one dot for each 1), and
the hexadecimal word 00 will
display no dots. This effect
can be used to create a high-
resolution display on the
screen. Although all com-
puters do not handle bit-
mapping in the same way, the
idea is similar.

Byte-mapping is a more
coarse version of bit-map-
ping. Instead of single-dot
resolution, only block resolu-
tion is available. As an exam-
ple, the Radio Shack Models
I and III utilize a block graph-
ics approach, creating shapes
by combining various block
combinations. . . .Steve

Color Computer
Items

Dear Steve,

In response to Mr. Duff
Kennedy (Ask BYTE, May
1983, page 516), there is a
BASIC compiler currently
available for the Color Com-
puter from Aardvark Techni-
cal Services, 2352 South
Commerce, Walled Lake, MI
48088. Written in BASIC, it
can handle only a small

EXPOTEK

2723 W. Windrose
Phoenix, Arizona 85029

1-800-528-8960

Guaranteed Low Prices

THIS MONTH'S SPECIAL

DAISYWR ITER 2000

CALL

for the IBM

COMPUTERS

TANDON 100 2DD .... $245
QUADRAMCARDS . . . .CALL
16K RAM CHIPS

SET OF 9 $1575

64K MEM/UPGRADE .... $80
SOFTWARE CALL

ALTOS

580-10 $4199

586-10 $5498

586-14 $7680

8600-12 $8399

ATARI

SAVE $ CALL

NORTHSTAR

ADVANTAGE $2150

W/15MB $4310

TELEVIDEO

802 $2515

802H $4449

803 $1845

1603 CALL

TERMINALS

ADDS

VIEWPOINT A1 $485

VIEWPOINT A2 $550

HAZELTINE

ESPRIT I $498

ESPRIT II $540

TELEVIDEO

910 $555

925 $699

950 $865

970 $1015

FOR APPLE

MICORSCI A2 $255

RANA ELITE I $260

RANA ELITE III $540

FOR ATARI

RANA 1000 $375

DISKDRIVES

PRINTERS

CITOH

F1040 $1090

F1055 $1499

1550P $599

8510P $345

SILVEREED
SAVE $ CALL

DATASOUTH

DS120 $595

DS180 $1169

DIABLO

620 $895

630RO $1710

NEC

3510 $1365

3550 . . $1705

7710 $1900

8023 $399

OKIDATA
SAVE $ CALL

MONITORS

AMDEK

300 GREEN $129

300 AMBER $145

310 AMBER (IBM) .... $199
COLOR I $275

BMC

GREEN $88

COLOR $299

16K RAM $69

Z80 $235

VIDEX 80 COLUMN . . . $227

VIEWMAX80 $175

MICROSOFT PREM. PK . $465

DISKETTES

ELEPHANT SS/SD . $18.00 BX

SCOTCH SS/DD . . . $22.00 BX

DYSAN SS/SD .... $33.00 BX

(100 MIN. ON DISKS)

ALL PRICES SUJBECT TO CHANGE
CUSTOMER SERVICE (602) 863 0759

Circle 182 on inquiry card.

November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

599

Have a merry
computer and a
happy software.

DISKETTES

SCOTCH 3M

S.S.D.OEN 40 TRK. 10. 16 SECTORS. $ 23.50
0.S.0.0EN 40 TRK. 10, 16 SECTORS. ...3650
8" DISKS IN STOCK CALL

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

DISKETTE STORAGE

S'A" BIB CLEANER 8.95

5V4 " PLASTIC LIBRARY CASE $ 2.50

PLASTIC STORAGE BINDER w/ Inserts.... 9. 95
PROTECTOR 574" (50 Disk Capacity).... 2 1.95
DISK BANK 5V," 5.95

ATARI

See Apple & Atari Software.

BANK STREET WRITER $ 49.98

EPSON CABLE TO 850 INT 20.00

HOME ACCOUNTANT 59.00

SIGNALMAN MODEM 85.00

TAX ADVANTAGE 38.97

WICO TRACKBALL 59.00

PRINTERS

STAR MICRONICS GEMINI 10 X $ CALL

STAR MICRONICS GEMINI 15 CALL

SOUNOTRAP for 80 column printers 99.00

SWEET-P PLOTTER 639.00

RIBBONS FOR MX-80 8.95

RIBBONS FOR MX-100 24.00

C-ITOH F-10 40 CPS PARALLEL 1250.00

C-ITOH F-10 40 CPS SERIAL 1250.00

C-ITOH F-10 55 CPS PARALLEL 1639.00

C-ITOH F-10 55 CPS SERIAL 1639.00

C-ITOH PROWRITER PARALLEL 399.00

C-ITOH PROWRITER SERIAL 550.00

C-ITOH PROWRITER II PARALLEL 699.00

C-ITOH PROWRITER II SERIAL 767.00

EPSON GRAFTRAX PLUS 60.00

EPSON RX-80..... CALL

COMREX CR-1 SERIAL 829.00

COMREX TRACTOR FEED 109.00

IDS 480 MICROPRISM 489.00

NEC 8023A 425.00

NEC SPINWRITER 3530 P. RO 1739.00

OKIOATA MICROLINE 82A 460.00

OKIOATA MICROLINE 83A 700.00

OKIDATA MICROLINE 84 1170.00

OKIOATA 92 CALL

OKIOATA 93 CALL

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

IBM

GRAPHICS PROGRAMS 14.00

100 READY-TO-RUN PROGRAMS 14.95

33 GAMES OF SKILL & CHANCE 12.50

APPLE

APPLE ]| BASIC 12.50

PROGRAMMING FOR APPLE 9.50

TRS-80

HOW TO DO IT ON THE TRS-80 22.95

MICROSOFT BASIC DECODED 22.95

TRS dos. 2.3 DECODED 19.95

BASIC DISK I/O FASTER & BETTER 22.95

GENERAL

101 PROJECTS FOR THE Z-80 15.95

1001 THINGS TO DO WITH YOUR

PERSONAL COMPUTER 9.50

THE GIANT BOOK OF SOFTWARE 13.50

30 PROGRAMS FOR THE HOMEOWNER.. ..9. 50

APPLE ll/lle HARDWARE

ABT APPLE KEYPAD $119.00

ALS Z-CARD 142.50

MICROSOFT PREMIUM PAK 485.00

MICROSOFT Z-80 SOFTCARD 249.00

M & R SUPERTERM 80x24 VIDEO BD 315.00

M & R COOLING FAN..... 39.95

M & R UNIVERSAL MOD 54.95

PROMETHEUS VERSACARO 165.00

SUPER CLOCK II 129.00

SUPER FIVE HALF HEIGHT DRIVE 279.00

T/G JOYSTICK 44.95

T/G PADDLE 29.95

T/G SELECT-A-PORT 54.95

T/G TRACKBALL 47.50

THE MILL-PASCAL SPEED UP 270.00

THE VOICE BOX 145.50

VERSA E-Z PORT 21.95

VERSA E-Z PORT II 27.90

VERSA WRITER DIGITIZER 259.00

VIOEX ULTRATERM 293.00

VIDEX 80x24 VIDEO CARD 260.00

VIOEX KEYBOARD ENHANCER II 129.00

VIOEX FUNCTION STRIP 71.50

KRAFT JOYSTICK 48.00

MICROBUFFER lit 16K W/GRAPHICS 199.00

MICROBUFFER II* 32K W/GRAPHICS 219.00

SUPERFAN II 62.00

SUPERFAN II W/ZENER 84.50

RANA CONTROLLER 104.00

SNAPSHOT 119.00

GRAPPLER+. 132,00

7710A ASYNCHRON. SER. INTERFACE 135.00

7712 A SYNCHRON. SER. INTERFACE 159.00

7742A CALENDAR CLOCK 99.00

7728A CENTRONICS INTERFACE 105.00

VISTA VISION 80-80 COL CARD 259.00

VISTA 8" DISK DRIVE CONTROLLER 549.00

MONITORS

AMDEK COLOR I $350.00

AMOEK RGB COLOR II 480.00

AMDEK RGB INTERFACE 169.00

AMOEK 310A IBM AMBER 179.00

BMC GREEN MONITOR 92.00

NEC 12" GREEN MONITOR 159.00

TAXAN 12" AMBER 145.00

TAXAN RGB 1 359.00

USI AMBER 9" 145.00

USI AMBER 12" 160.00

ZENITH GREEN 119.00

ZENITH AMBER 129.00

MOUNTAIN
HARDWARE

CPS MULTIFUNCTION BOARD 145.00

MUSIC SYSTEM 369.00

RAMPLUS 32K 160.00

ROMPLUS W/ KEYBOARD FILTER 165.00

ROMPLUS W/O KEYBOARD FILTER 125.00

ROMWRITER 149.00

MODEMS

New! Hayes IBM Internal 300/1200 baud
Direct Connect Modem w/soft,.$489.00

HAYES MICROMODEM II 279.00

MICROMODEM W/ TERMINAL PKG 299.00

HAYES CHRONOGRAPH 199.00

HAYES SMART MODEM (300 Baud). ...208.50
HAYES SMART MODEM (1200 Baud).. .528.00

IBM SIGNALMAN 229.00

NOVATION J-CAT 125.00

NOVATION SMARTCAT 212 499.00

NOVATION SMARTCAT.. 209.00

NOVATION AUTO-CAT (1200 Baud) 619.00

NOVATION APPLE-CAT (300 Baud) 310.00

NOVATION APPLE-CAT (1200 Baud) 605.00

SIGNALMAN MODEM W /RS-232C 85.00

TRS-80 MOD I
HARDWARE

LNW 5/8 DOUBLER W/DOSPLUS 3. 4. $181. 00

LNW EXPANSION INTERFACE 345.00

LNW 80 MOO II W/CP/M CALL

PERCOM DATA SEPARATOR 27.00

TANDON 40 TRK DISK DRIVE W/P.S...181.00
4 DRIVE CONTROLLER P/S 259.00

IBM HARDWARE

HERCULES GRAPHICS CARD 405.00

KRAFT JOYSTICK 48.00

MICROSOFT 64K 278.00

PLANTRONICS COLORPLUS GRAPHICS BOARD

w/ DRAFTSMAN 475.00

QUADBOARD 64K 308.00

T/G JOYSTICK .47.95

T/G TRACKBALL... 47.95

64K MEMORY UPGRADE 80.00

ALPHA BYTE IBM MEMORY
EXPANSION BOARDS

256K W /RS-232C 349.00

512K W /RS-232C 579.00

IBM DISK DRIVES

Alpha Byte's add-on drive kits for the IBM-PC -
each kit includes installation instructions.
Tandon TM100-1 Single head 40 trk..$195.00
Tandon TM100-2 Double head 40 Irk.. .249.00
TEAC HALF HEIGHT D.S. Disk Drives.. .279.00

BRACKETS & CABLE; for halt height drve 25.95

PANASONIC V2-HEIGHT DISK ORIVES... 249.00

ISOLATORS

ISO-2 6-SOCKET $49.95

BARE DRIVES

TANDON 5Va INCH

100-1 SINGLE HEAD 40 TRK $195.00

100-2 DUAL HEAD 40 TRK 249.50

100-3 SINGLE HEAD 80 TRK 250.00

100-4 DUAL HEAD 80 TRK 369.00

IBM SOFTWARE

CP/M 86 DIGITAL RESEARCH 54.00

d BASE II 429.00

EASYWRITER II 247.00

EASY SPELLER 149.00

EASY FILE 285.00

FIRST CLASS MAIL 85.00

GRAPHICS HARD COPY SYSTEM 19.50

HOME ACCOUNTANT+ 105.00

INFOSTAR 297.50

JFORMAT 39.00

LOTUS 1,2,3 380.00

MAILMERGE 174.00

MOVE IT 109.00

PFS: FILE 97.50

PFS: GRAPH 97.50

PFS: REPORT 97.50

PIE WRITER WOROPROCESSOR 145.00

SPELLSTAR 174.00

SUPERCALC 2 168.00

THE WORD PLUS 117.00

T.I.M. Ill 379.00

TYPEFACES FONT CREATOR 92.75

VERSA WRITER GRAPHICS TABLETS....270.00

VISICALC /256K 189.00

VISITREND / VISIPLOT 235.00

VISIDEX 192.00

VISIFILE 249.00

VISISCHEOULE 229.00

VOLKSWRITER V 1.2 132.50

WORDSTAR 297.50

WRITE ON 90.00

Call for additional IBM software prices.

CP/M is a reg. trademark of Digital Research. 'Requires Z-80 Softcard. tReg. trademark of Micro Pro International Corp. ^Trademark of Practical Peripherals. Inc.
MICROSOFT is reg. trademark. ttTrademark of Microsoft Corp,

"Trademark of Software Dimensions, Inc.

IBM GAME SOFTWARE

APPLE PANIC $ 23.61

CONQUEST 23.36

CROSSFIRE ' 24.95

DEADLINE 35.00

EXECUTIVE SUITE 31.50

GALAXY 19.50

LOST COLONY 23.36

MIDWAY CAMPAIGN 17.00

MILLIONAIRE 48.50

STARCROSS 28.00

THE WARP FACTOR 31.16

WITNESS 35.00

ZORK I. II, III 28.00

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

MICRO PRO

APPLE CP/M®

WORDSTAR 3.3*f $297.00

MAILMERGE'f 174.50

SPELLSTAR'f 174.50

WORDSTAR PROFESSIONAL'! 495.00

WOROSTAR W/ CP/M CARD 395.00

INFOSTAR 297.50

OATASTAR 204.50

MICROSOFT®

APPLE

ALDSff 95.00

BASIC COMPILER* 285.00

COBOL; 514.00

FORTRAN* 150.00

OLYMPIC DECATHLON 24.95

TASC APPLESOFT COMPILER... 125.00

TYPING TUTOR II 16.50

Z-80 SOFTCARD 249.00

APPLE SOFTWARE

APPLE MECHANIC $ 23.00

APPLESOFT WORKSHOP 37.45

ASCII EXPRESS PRO 98.00

BANK STREET WRITER 49.98

BEAGLE BAG 23.00

BEAGLE BROTHERS UTILITY CITY 23.00

DATA CAPTURE 4.0/80 COLUMN 59.95

OB MASTER VERS 4.0 239.00

DB MASTER UTILITY PAC I OR II 89.00

DICTIONARY.. 79.00

DOSS BOSS... 18.72

DOUBLE TAKE 27.68

EASY MAILER-PRO 117.00

EASY WRITER-PRO 136.00

FORMATT II ENHANCED 132.50

HOW TO PROGRAM IN APPESOFT BASIC38.45

LISA 2.5 59.95

MAGIC MAILER 59.00

MAGIC WINDOW II 117.00

MAGIC WINDOW.... 79.00

MAGIC WORDS 59.00

MASTER DIAGNOSTICS APPLE ][ 45.95

MICROTYPING II, Hayden 24.35

MULTIPLAN 199.00

MULTITOOL BUDGET 111.50

MULTITOOL FINANCE 74.25

PFS: GRAPH 89.95

PFS: (NEW) PERSONAL FILING SYSTEM. 85.00

PFS: REPORT 79.00

SCREENWRITER II 99.00

SUPER TEXT PRO 97.50

TIP DESK #1 15.95

TRANSCEND II 115.00

TYPEFACES FONT CREATOR 92.75

Z-TERM* 89.95

Z-TERM PRO* 129.95

CONTINENTAL SOFTWARE

F.C.M. W/FORM LETTER $ 71.50

G/L.A/R.A/P.PAYROLL Each 148.50

PROPERTY MGMT 325.00

THE HOME ACCOUNTANT 59.95

VISICORP

VISICALC 189.00

VISIDEX '. 189.00

VISIFILES... 189.00

VISIPLOT 158.00

VISISCHEDULE 229.00

VISITERM 79.00

VISITREND/VISIPLOT 229.00

CP/M® SOFTWARE

We carry CP/M* software in all popular disk
formats — Northstar. Televideo. and Heath/Zenith
formatted programs in stock'. Call for availability
and price. Most software also available on IBM.

d BASE II $429.00

DUTIL .....91.00

PASCAL/M Z-80 OR 8080 295.00

TRS-80 SOFTWARE

LAZY WRITER MOD I. II $135.00

NEWDOS/80 2.0 MOO UN 122.50

OMNITERM SMART TERM. MOO I. Ill 89.95

PROSOFT NEWSCRIPT MOD I. Ill w/labels109.00

SPECIAL DELIVERY MOD l.lll 119.00

TRACKCESS MOD I..... 24.95

X-TRA SPECIAL DELIVERY MOO l.lll.. ..179.00

This Month's Specials:

CHRISTMAS STOCKING STUFFERS!!!

EDUCATIONAL SOFTWARE FOR THE KIDS:

SPINNAKER: Snoopertroops I or II $34.95

In Search Of The Most Amazing Thing 31.16

Story Machine 27.26

KinderComp 23.36

Facemaker 27.26

Delta Drawing 38.96

ALL SPINNAKER PRODUCTS ARE AVAILABLE FOR YOUR (8M PC & PC XT. Also Apple & Atari.

PROTECT YOUR INVESTMENT!

SWITCHED SIX SOCKET VOLTAGE SPIKE PROTECTION. SGL-115S ONLY $30.50

APPLE

ALS 6 MHZ CP/M CARD WITH 64K. CP/M 3.0 & C-BASIC $ 319.00

QUENTIN RESEARCH APPLEMATE 4 TRACK DRIVE 243.00

APPLE lie

MICROSOFT CP/M, 80 COLUMN. 64K RAM $342.50

PFS: FILE. REPORT, GRAPH each 97.50

APPLE 11 +

MICROSOFT PREMIUM PAK, CP/M. 16K RAM.

VIOEX 80 CLM WITH SOFTSWITCH $485.00

APPLE 11+ AND lie COMPATIBLE

MULTIPLAN 40 & 80 COLUMN OR CP/M $199.00

MICROSOFT MULTITOOLS FOR MULTIPLAN CALL

IBM

CONCURRENT CP/M 86 for multitasking your PC $ 315.00

CP/M 86 DIGITAL RESEARCH 54.00

LOTUS 1,2.3 DATABASE, W/GRAPHICS & SPREADSHEET, Dos 1.1 or 2.0 380.00

HAYES 1200 B INTERNAL 1200 & 300 BAUD MODEM W/ SMARTCOM SOFTWARE 489.00

LATTICE C-COMPILER W/ FLOATING POINT (F.P.) 369.00

MICROSOFT FLIGHT SIMULATOR 38.95

MONTE CARLO MULTIFUNCTION CARD 64K 345.00

MULTIPLAN MS DOS 199.00

PLANTRONICS' COLOR PLUS W/DRAFTSMAN 475.00

QUAORAM QUADLINK CALL

WIZARDRY 47.76

STB SYSTEMS

"SUPER RIO" 2-RS-232, Parallel, Game I/O. Clock-Calendar & 64K.... $ 364.80

"SUPER I/O" RS-232, Parallel, Games I/O, Clock-Calendar, fits in small slot on RG XT. 193.75

MISC.

FINGERPRINT FONT CONTROL FOR EPSON MX 80 SERIES PRINTERS 55.00

•EACH MONTH WE WILL OFFER SPECIALS

PLEASE WATCH THIS BOX FOR NEW & EXCITING PRODUCTS

PASCAL Z 349.00

P & T CP/M® MOD 2 & 16 TRS-80 193.50

OICKCODE 230.00

SPELLGUARD 230.00

SUPERCALC 2 217.00

THE WORD PLUS 117.00

DIGITAL RESEARCH

C BASIC $109.00

MAC 82.00

PASCAL MT+ W/ SSP 429.00

PL/ 1-80 439.00

ZSID 92.00

SUPERSOFT

'C'COMPILER $187.50

DIAGNOSTIC II 92.00

DISK DOCTOR 78.00

FORTRAN 355.00

RATFOR 89.00

TINY PASCAL 80.00

MICROPRO

DATASTAR 204.50

INFOSTAR 297.50

MAILMERGE 174.50

SPELLSTAR 174.50

WORDSTAR 3.3 297.50

WORDSTAR PROFESSIONAL 495.00

MICROSOFT®

BASIC COMPILER $299.00

BASIC 80........ 249.00

COBOL 80 550.00

FORTRAN 80 359.00

MACRO 80 156.00

mu MATH/mu SIMP 200.00

mu LISP/mu STAR 165.00

MULTIPLANff 199.00

APPLE & ATARI GAMES

A.E $ 23.72

ARCADE MACHINE 44.38

CASTLE WOLFENSTEIN 23.50

SEA FOX 24.00

ZAXXON 31.16

BRODERBUND

APPLE PANIC $ 23.61

CHOPLIFTER 27.20

MIDNIGHT MAGIC 27.26

AUTOMATED SIMULATIONS

CRUSH. CRUMBLE AND CHOMP $ 24.95

HELLFIRE WARRIOR 31.35

INVASION ORtON 20.95

RESCUE AT RIGEL 23.36

STAR WARRIOR 31.35

TEMPLE OF APSHAI 31.35

ON-LINE SYSTEMS

FROGGER $ 24.50

JAW 8REAKER 23.36

ULYSSES & GOLDEN FLEECE 25.95*

ULTIMA II 42.00

WIZARD AND PRINCESS 27.26

INFOCOM

DEADLINE S 35.00

STARCROSS 28.00

SUSPENDED 35.00

WITNESS 35.00

ZORK I. II. Ill 28.00

EDU-WARE

COMPU-MATH DECIMALS $ 34.95

COMPU-MATH FRACTIONS 34.95

COMPU-READ 24.95

MORE GREAT APPLE
GAMES

8UDGEC0 PINBALL CONST. SET $ 31.61

COMPUTER QUARTERBACK 31.16

CRISIS MOUNTAIN 26.32

DARK CRYSTAL 31.61

EVOLUTION 33.80

FLIGHT SIMULATOR 26.61

INTERNATIONAL GRAND PRIX 25.95

MASK OF THE SUN 31.16

NIGHT OF DIAMONDS 27.26

PINBALL SUBLOGIC 24.50

POOL 1.5 27.26

RASTER BLASTER 23.36

SNACK ATTACK 23.36

THE SHATTERED ALLIANCE 49.95

THE SPACE VIKINGS 38.50

THE WARP FACTOR ...31.16

THIEF 24.95

TU8EWAY 27.26

TUES. MORNING QUARTERBACK 25.95

ULTIMA 31.16

WIZARDRY 37.95

SIRIUS SOFTWARE

GORGON $ 31.16

PHANTOMS FIVE 22.00

SNEAKERS 23.36

SPACE EGGS 23.36

EDU-WARE

COMPU-MATH: ARITHMETIC $ 39.95

COMPU-SPELL (REO. DATA DISK) 24.95

COMPU-SPELL DATA DISKS 4-8. ea 17.95

PERCEPTION PKG 19.95

RENDEZVOUS 28.50

ON-LINE SYSTEMS

CANNON 8ALL 8LITZ $ 25.95

CRANSTON MANOR 25.95

TIME ZONE 77.96

MUSE SOFTWARE

A.B.M $ 19.46

ROBOT WARS 32.95

THREE MILE ISLAND 31.61

To order or for
information call

In Los Angeles:

(213)706-0333
By Modem:

(2I3)991 : 1604

l"cALL OUR MODEM LINE
I FOR WEEKLY SPECIALS.

L '

IPUTER

PRODUCTS

31304 VIA COLINAS
WESTLAKE VILLAGE, CA 91362

*For all your computer pro-
duct needs, come visit us at
our new California store.

Satisfaction Assurance — Your satislaction is assured by our 30 day moneyback guarantee on all hardware products we sell. No refunds after 30 days. All manufacturers' warranties are honored by manufacturers. Defective
software will be replaced free during the first 30 days, however, no refunds or exchanges on software. Proof of purchase required. All returns must be authorized in advance. How To Order — All orders must be paid prior
to shipment Order by phone or by mail. Use Visa. M/C, check or COD. COD limit $300. Shipping charges: Visa, M/C orders = actual shipping costs. Prepaid orders add $3 (under 25lbs.) or S6 (over 25lbs.) COD's use
prepaid rates and add $4 surcharge. Foreign, FPO and APO orders add 15% of order total. Calif, orders add 6% sales tax, L.A. County add 6>/2% sales tax. Prices quoted are subject to product availability and may change without notice.

Circle 17 on inquiry card.

Circle 224 on inquiry card.

0D1MS/CRTS/PRINTERS/SWITCHES/ SWITCHES/MICRO COMPUTERS/CABLES

PRODUCT DESCRIPTION

LIST YOUR COST1

UDS 212LP, I2006ps Full Duplex (212 A)

445

callI

USR Password.300/T2006ps FD (212) Auto Dial

4<19

CALL

USR Courier3007T2006ps FD (212A) Auto Dial

519

CALL

Rixon R212I. 300/12006ps FD (212A) Auto Dial

499

CALL

Rixon PC 212A (IBM PC Modem Cord)

499

CALL

Hayes Smart 1200

67b

CALL

PENRIL 300/1200 AD Auto Dial

795

CALL

NEC 300/1200 Auto Dial. Auto Log On

795

CALL |

Visual50/55 CRT

695

CALL

DEC VT100-AA

1895

CALL

Adds Viewpoint A-1

650

CALL

Taxan RGB Vision Monitor

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Ask BYTE.

subset of the BASIC
language, but it is easy to use
and is great for short
machine-language subrou-
tines within a BASIC pro-
gram. The price is a modest
$24.95. I wholeheartedly
recommend it to anyone who
wants to speed up slow
BASIC programs. Aardvark
also sells versions for the
VIC-20 and Ohio Scientific
computers.

I also have a question
regarding the Color Com-
puter. I am interested in
building many peripheral
devices interfaced through
the joystick port of the com-
puter but have not been able
to find the 240-degree, 5-pin
DIN (Deutsche Industrie
Norm) plug to fit the port.
Radio Shack doesn't sell it,
and I have combed the ads in
BYTE and many other maga-
zines fruitlessly. Could you
please tell me where I can find
such a plug? Thank you very
much.

Greg Robinson
Cleveland Heights, OH

Thanks for the information
regarding the BASIC com-
piler for the Radio Shack Col-
or Computer.

In regard to your question,
Szvitchcraft Inc. carries a
complete line of 5-pin DIN
plugs with a 240-degree con-
tact spread. The straight-
handle male plug is part
number ST-304 and should
be available at your local
electronics supply company.
(A right-angle male connec-
tor is also available, part
number RA-354.) If not,
write or call Switchcraft for
the name of your nearest
distributor. Its address is
Switchcraft Inc., 5555 North
Elston Ave., Chicago, IL
60630, (312) 792-2700.
. . .Steve

EPROM
Programmers

Dear Steve,

I'm working on an IMSAI
system and need a homebrew
kit for stand-alone EPROM
programming. Because I
want to use the chips for
bootstrap start-up and data
input, I need (1) a program-
mer for 2708 and 2716 chips,
something that can be fabri-
cated from scratch with little
cost, and (2) an S-100 board
with the appropriate architec-
ture for the chips. Can you
direct me to books, sche-
matics, kits, or other resourc-
es? Thanks for your help.
Romolo Toigo
Chatham, NY

Many articles have been
published in recent years on
the subject of EPROM pro-
grammers. One article, "Pro-
gram Those 2708s!" by
Robert Glaser, which ap-
peared in the April 1980
BYTE (page 198), describes
the hardware and machine-
language software for an
S-100 system that is capable
of programming either 2708
or 2716 EPROMs. Hope that
will get you started.
. . .Steve

Calculating

Bandwldths

Revisited

Dear Steve,

I have read several- letters
in Ask BYTE addressing the
confusion of pixels, resolu-
tion, and bandwidth when
referring to video monitors.
The letter from J. T. Miller
(Ask BYTE, January 1983,
page 484) asked how to calcu-
late bandwidths needed for
80-column lines. Although
your response uses good
logic, one important consid-
eration has been neglected
from your calculations. You
said bandwidths "can be
calculated by dividing the ac-
tive trace time by the number
of horizontal dots." But this
results in bandwidths exactly
twice that of what is needed.

602 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

Circle 336 on inquiry card.

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Regardless of how many
dots may occur during the ac-
tive trace time, the maximum
frequency that can be pro-
duced is when every other
dot is on, giving an on-off-
on-off pattern. Any other
combination results in a
lower frequency. Because the
cycle time of the frequency
created by this pattern is the
time of two dots, you must
divide the total number of
dots by two. Using 640 dots
(as in your example), the for-
mula becomes

42/320 = 131 nanoseconds
(ns) per cycle, or 7.62 MHz

It should be noted that
these formulas can be used to
determine the bandwidth re-
quirements of any computer
character or graphics gener-
ator display. You must be
able to determine the total
number of displayable pixels
in addition to the active hori-
zontal trace time (the sweep
time that may contain pixels).

Further confusion is often
introduced when the relation-
ships between horizontal res-
olution and bandwidths are
explained. Horizontal resolu-
tion is the method most video
monitor manufacturers use to
rate their ability to reproduce
fine detail. When using the
conventions of a 4:3 aspect
ratio, with approximately
60-Hz vertical and 15,750-Hz
horizontal sweep frequencies
(as is necessary for any
graphics system compatible
with standard televisions or
monitors), the complex rela-
tionship can be reduced to a
constant formula: Lines of
Resolution X 12,727.27 =
Bandwidth. In order to fully
explain this relationship, we
must first know exactly what
horizontal resolution is.

The methods for determin-
ing the number of lines of
resolution are carry-overs
from optical-resolution
methods. It is actually the
number of individual lines
that can be resolved per unit

area in the medium con-
cerned. To measure vertical
resolution, horizontal lines
are used. Horizontal resolu-
tion uses fine vertical lines.
The limit is said to be when
the lines are at the spacing
that just reaches the point
where you can no longer dis-
tinguish the individual lines.
(Reducing the spacing further
would make the lines appear
as a uniform gray area.)

Once this cutoff point has
been determined, the next
step is to determine how
many lines of resolution this
is. Usually, this is done by
reading the number corre-
sponding to this point from
the scale on the resolution
chart. But this number does
not represent how many lines
would be made if this spacing
were extended to the full
width of the screen. The scale
represents the number of in-
dividual black and white lines
that would cover a width
equal to the picture's height.
This is to ensure that equal
spacing can be applied to
horizontal or vertical resolu-
tion scales, despite nonsquare
aspect ratios.

To determine the time re-
quired for the sweep width
that is equal to the picture's
height, you must multiply the
active horizontal picture area
by 0.75 (because of the 3:4
aspect ratio). The active pic-
ture area can be found by
subtracting the total horizon-
tal blanking time from the
total time for one horizontal
line. The times used in the
National Television System
Committee (NTSC) standard,
as is the standard broadcast
practice in the United States,
are approximately 11.1
microseconds (/as) for blank-
ing and 63.5 /as total horizon-
tal time. This gives

63.5 - 11.1 = 52.4 /as
(active picture area)

To get the time of the sweep
equal to picture height, we
have

604 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

Circle 514 on inquiry card.

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52.4 X 0.75 = 39.3 ps
(measured picture area)

To get the frequency equal
to the resolution limit, we
must divide the lines of
resolution by two. This is re-
quired because it is the total
of black and white lines, each
of which individually repre-
sents one-half cycle of the fre-
quency. It takes one black
and one white line to equal
one complete cycle of the cut-
off frequency. When the
measured picture area is di-
vided by this number, you
get the time of one cycle of
the cutoff frequency. The fre-
quency is simply the inverse
of this time, or 1/time.

If we use the typical broad-
casting limit of 330 lines of
resolution, we get

330 lines of resolution/2 =

165 cycles

39.3 /as measured picture area

/165 cycles = 238 ns
1/238 ns = 4.2 MHz (which
is the specified upper band-
width limit for NTSC)

Applying the previously
mentioned constant in place
of the complex calculations,
we have

330 X 12,727 - 4,200,000
(4.2 MHz)

These formulas can be helpful
when translating from "com-
puterese" to "videoese" be-
cause of the different meth-
ods and terms used to de-
scribe the detail characteris-
tics of the picture. Some cau-
tion is advised, however,
because even though the
calculations from lines of
horizontal resolution to
bandwidth are quite stan-
dardized, the calculations
from pixels to bandwidth
vary because of different ac-

tive picture times from sys-
tem to system.
David K. Broberg
Indianapolis, IN

Thank you very much for
your letter. You are indeed
correct in dividing the total
number of dots by two. The
maximum frequency does oc-
cur with alternating black
and white dots and was
overlooked in my example.

There is much confusion
on the subject of resolution,
especially when manufac-
turers of monitors do not
always publish consistent sets
of specifications. Ratings are
in terms of bandwidth, lines
of resolution, pixels, etc. It
becomes difficult to compare
unless the relationships and
definitions are known. Your
letter will do much to clarify
this issue. . . .Steve ■

In "Ask BYTE, "Steve Garcia answers questions on any area of
microcomputing. The most representative questions received
each month will be answered and published. Do you have a
nagging problem? Send your inquiry to:

Ask BYTE

c/o Steve Garcia

POB 582

Glastonbury, CT 06033
Due to the high volume of inquiries, personal replies cannot
be given. All letters and photographs become the property of
SteveGarcia and cannot be returned. Be sure to include "Ask
BYTE" in the address.

The choice is yours — and you can get
your first issue free if you subscribe now

If you want to make the most of your
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Subscription form

Fill in this form and send it
to the appropriate
magazine's subscription
department, c/o Business
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Please send me 13 issues of
D Micro Adventurer

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Date

Please start my subscription
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606 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

Circle 530 on inquiry card.

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Apple and the Apple logo are registered
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WHY YOU SHOULD

RECOMMEND

AKAYPROEVEN

IF YOU DIDN'T

BUYONEYOURSELE

If you're happy with the
computer you now own, we're
happy for you. Because we both
know what you went through
to buy it.

More than likely, it was a
long year's education that sent
you into a complex maze of trial
and error. You spent a lot of
time asking questions in com-
puter stores. More time hunt-
ing for answers in computer
books. Even more time invest
tigating all the hardware, let
alone software options you
had to consider.

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what you needed. A year that
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puter. After all, a business person
shouldn't be required to make de-

Registered Trademarks: Apple - Apple Computer, Inc., IBM — IBM
Corp., CP/M - Digital Research. Inc., Z-80 - Zilog, M-Basic - Microsoft,
Inc.. Tandy, TRS-80 — Tandy Corporation, Osborne — Osborne Computer
Corporation, Xerox — Xerox Corporation. Prices based on published
'information as of July 15. 1983. © 1983 Kaypro Corporation.

cisions better left to an engineer.

Trying to find compatible
interfaces and software packages
alone would drive most people
up the wall (remember?).

So, we've taken a different

approach to making and selling
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Off the shelf, Kaypro II is
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IPS A COMPLETELY
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Since we don't consider a
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other hardware as optional extras,
all Kaypro's hardware comes
complete in an integrated system.
Except, of course, for a printer.
As you know, some people don't
need one. And those who do
must decide whether they need

dot matrix or letter quality
printing.

What's complete on a

•Kaypro II?

64K RAM, Z-80 micro-
processor. A 9\ f green screen

monitor. Dual disk drives, the

same used by IBM. A detach-
able keyboard that's more com-
plete than you'll find on the latest
Apple. Built-in interfaces for both
a printer and communications.

In other words, all the hard-
ware you'd recommend to a first-
time buyer. In one complete
package.

IT COMES COMPLETE
WITH SOFTWARE.

While businesses can be
very different, the fact is that 95%
of all business needs can be ful-
filled by a series of three business
applications programs. Word
Processing/Spelling, Data Base
Management and Financial
Spreadsheeting.

It's the software that's
optional with other computers.

But it too comes complete with
a Kaypro.

And with its CP/M operat-
ing system, Kaypro II is capable
of running thousands of other
business programs, to fill more
specialized needs.

IT SELLS FOR $1595,
COMPLETE.

People are bound to ask you
how much they should spend, on
a computer. There is, of course,
an obvious answer: as little as
possible and still get a serious
business system, complete with all
the functions they need.

At $1595, Kaypro II is
the least expensive serious busi-
ness system we know of on the
market today.

There are basic starter sys-
tems advertised for less. But their
optional hardware and software
can double or triple their basic
price. So they can end up cost-
ing $2000-$3000 more than
a Kaypro.

A good example is an Apple
He. With a hardware configuration
comparable to Kaypro lis, com-
plete with comparable software, it
ists for an average price of $4400.
$2805 more than a Kaypro.

IT OFFERS

MORE MEMORY FOR

THE MONEY

Since disk drive memory
capacity is always a concern, once
again the idea is to get the most
for the money. With two disk
drives, Kaypro II gives you 400K
for $1595. With equivalent hard-
ware, an IBM gives you 320K for
about $2800. And Apple He
gives you 286K for about $2400.

So once again, Kaypro II
delivers.

IT HAS POWER

TO SPARE FOR WHAT

MOST BUSINESSES

NEED.

The more you love compu-
ters, the more tempting it is to
recommend a 16-bit vs. 8-bit

machine. You know that 16-bit
systems are a little faster and
have more power to run longer
programs.

However, 16-bitters are far
more expensive than the 8-bit
variety. And, unfortunately, have
only a handful of business appli-
cations software packages that
really take advantage of them.

SPECIFICATIONS

Microprocessor

Perfect Filer

Z-80

Perfect Calc

Operating

spreadsheet

System

Wordstar word

CP/M 2.2

processing

User Memory

The Word Plus

64K

Profit Plan

Disk Drives:

spreadsheet

2 drives, 400K,

M-Basic

unformatted

12 Games

Interfaces

Uniform— allows

1 Serial

computer to

1 Parallel

'read' and 'write'

Keyboard

TRS-80, Osborne,

Detached, 63-key

Xerox disks

with numeric

Dimensions

keypad

Height: 8 inches

Software included:

Width: 18 inches

Perfect Writer

Depth: \5Vi inches

word processing

Weight: 26 lbs.

Perfect Speller

(portable)

Considering the real needs
and budget limitations of most
small businesses, why suggest a
company limo when a good
company car will do?

Since 75% of all micros
sold today are 8-bit systems, it's
indicative of their capacity to take
care of business. Wed stick with
a Kaypro II.

IT CAN PAY FOR
ITSELF FASTER THAN
MORE EXPENSIVE
COMPUTERS.

Every business person
wants a computer to pay for
itself in increased productivity.

And the faster the better. Perhaps
on this count alone, Kaypro II is
worth recommending.

As a fully functional busi-
ness system for $1595, Kaypro can
win the payout race hands down.

ITS BECOME A
LEADING SELLER

THANKS TO

COMPUTER BUFFS,

LIKE YOU.

In fact, Kaypro II is one of
the best sellers in the $1000-
$5000 price range. And it got
there largely because of the
enthusiastic word of mouth, and
word of press, of computer
enthusiasts. Many of whom, after
building their own systems,
bought a Kaypro II as their
second computer.

So you certainly won't be
alone if you recommend Kaypro
II to anyone shopping for a first
computer.

Or look at it this way. Once
you tell people about the com-
plete business computer for $1595,
theyll probably stop bugging you
with a lot of questions.

They may even forget to ask
why you didn't buy a Kaypro II
for yourself.

Just between us buffs, we
can't recommend a good answer
for that.

CALL 800-447-4700 FOR
THE DEALER NEAREST YOU.

Circle 251 on inquiry card.

Software Received

Apple

Circascript Word Processor, a

word processor that lets you
use your personal computer
to reduce the repetitive
aspects of writing. This
menu-driven program pro-
vides movement, organiza-
tion, and storage of 40-col-
umn text in a wrap-around
format. Features including
tabbing, underlining, global
search and replace, and
more. For II, II Plus, and lie;
floppy disk, $39.95. Circadian
Software Inc., POB 1208,
Melbourne, FL 32901.

Diet, a nutrition-planning
program. Count calories, de-
cide your ideal weight, learn
the effect of exercise on
weight loss, and keep weight
charts for several people with
this program. Based on 1980

recommendations of the
Food and Nutrition Board.
For II Plus and He; floppy
disk, $15.95. Hallie Software,
POB 4383, Auburn Heights,
MI 48057.

I.Q. Baseball, a baseball-quiz
game. One or two players
can test their knowledge with
300 questions about 27
major- and minor-league
baseball teams. Answer cor-
rectly and advance for a
single, double, triple, or
home run around a baseball
field with all the sounds of a
big-league ball park. Who-
ever is ahead after five inn-
ings wins the game. For II
Plus and He; floppy disk,
$24.95. Davka Corp., Suite
843, 845 North Michigan Ave.
Chicago, IL 60611.

Lancaster, a colorful gravity-
simulation game. Brightly

colored bubbles reveal larvae
within that hatch to become
deadly insects. If you get hit
in one of six levels you will
be blowing bubbles forever.
For the II; floppy disk, $29.95.
Silicon Valley Systems Inc.,
1625 El Camino Real, Bel-
mont, CA 94002.

lode Runner, a fast-action
arcade-type game that takes
place in the Bungeling Em-
pire, a kingdom where
power-hungry leaders have
stolen gold from the people.
You must recover every piece
of gold from hidden cham-
bers while designing your
own escape routes. For II, II
Plus, and He; floppy disk,
$34.95. Broderbund Software
Inc., 1938 Fourth St. San
Rafael, CA 94901.

Magazine Catalog, a ref-
erence-organizing program

that lets you catalog maga-
zine articles by subject mat-
ter, magazine title, date, and
first page. You can add or
change data, search for a list
of magazines containing de-
sired subject matter, and
print the entire file or just the
newly added data. For the II
Plus; floppy disk, $12. RMH
Software, POB 41, Wilsall,
MT 59086.

Multi-View Drawing, the

first module in a series of
four computer-aided drafting
instruction programs that
helps beginning drafting
students visualize and draw
multiview drawings. It con-
tains a drawing quiz, projec-
tions, and two drawing com-
pletions. An Epson printer is
optional. For II or He; floppy
disk, $250. St. Louis Design
Service, 4144 Cypress Rd.,
Saint Ann, MO 63074.

StarLogic Announces Savings on
IBM PC Compatible Disk Drives

Under 2.0 DOS

Internal 5 1 /i" Floppy Drives

Standard-sized drive, plug compatible with IBM PC
and IBM PC XT

Tandon single-sided drive- 180K bytes $165

Tandon double-sided drive-360K bytes $235

Internal Half-Height 5V*" Floppy Drives

Single drive configuration

double-sided drive 360K bytes $225

Dual drive configuration two double-sided

drive 720K bytes $460

5 1 /4" Winchester DiskSystems® From
Interface Inc For Your IBM PC

Includes Winchester drive, cabinet, power supply,
cable, controller, I/O adapter and device driver.
Compatible with 2.0 DOS.

10 Megabyte formatted DiskSystem $1375

1 5 Megabyte formatted DiskSystem $1 775

25 Megabyte formatted DiskSystem $2175

SW Winchester Backup or Additional

Storage For Your IBM PC XT or IBM PC
DiskSystem.

Slave compatible with 2.0 DOS

1 Megabyte formatted storage $1 225

1 5 Megabyte formatted storage $1 425

25 Megabyte formatted storage $1 925

Telephone Orders Only
MasterCard, VISA or
Cashier's Check COD

(213) 883-0587

StarLogic

20932 Cantara Street ^^

IBM is a registered trademark of IBM Corporation
DiskSystems is copyrighted by Interface Inc
Prices are subject to change without notice

20932 Cantara Street
Canoga Park, CA 91301

610 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

Circle 438 on inquiry card.

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Amazing! This was Printed on an Epson

by The $<wcjj 3*twd System from &of tQXraf t

Letter Quality

Say good-bye to correspondence quality and
hello to ^oTicy 3>&*U } s hi g h-resolution, pro-
portionally spaced, letter quality. 3wc# 3*<yrd
provides fonts in sizes from 8 to 40 points;
styles include Roman, Bold, Italic, Script,
Old English, and more (see samples below).
All this on low-cost Epson MX and FX
printers.

Easy- to- Use

$t*7uy tfryrd is a software package for
CP/M and IBM PC compatible systems; no
special hardware or installation is required.
With ^t»7vcy %*U you use your favorite editor
or word processing package to create a file
to be printed. Include as few or as many
formatting directives as you desire. Then use
$<*ruA/ 3*orU to print your file.

Create Your Own Characters Numerous Applications

You can use over 30 font sets in the %**#
3*^rd package and furthermore, can create
any new characters or logos you like, up to
1 inch by 1 inch. A database of over 1500
characters is included in the package.

Font Style and Size Samples

(actual size)
a point Roman 10 point Roman 12 point Roman

18 point Bold 18 pt. Sans Serif

18 pt Italic 20 hi. $urihl

BO point CBlb Sngltatf

^ancx/ 3*(^d customers are constantly
covering new applications. For example:

Business and personal letters

Custom forms, invoices, labels, signs

Foreign Languages

Mathematical Notation, Greek

Super- and wSub-scripts

View Graphs

Custom Letterheads

Resumes

Articles for publication

Entire newsletters, brochures

Complete manuals, cover-to-cover

Advertisements, including this one

Invitations, place cards

dis-

SoftCraft, Inc 8726 S Sepulveda Bl Suite 1641 LA, CA 90045 (213) 821-8476

Gray

IBM £ CP/M order now (213) 321-8476 M/C, Visa welcome.

InfoUtold

Software Report Card

Fancy Font

Performance
Documentation
Ea»e of IMe
Error Handling

I 5 j *

□ □ D

□ □ D

□ □ a
a a a

Copyright 1983 by Popular Computing,
Inc, i subsidiary of CW communications
Inc Reprinted from InfoWorld
NOT PRINTED BY FANCY FONT

fvri/ivt tA* QyjXAiAAj^Tvty

US* QAM/TV iXbtto^r'.

InfoWorld 5/2/83

Now available for
Gemini 10 and 15
printers.

SoftCraft 8726 S Sepulveda Suite 1641 LA, CA 90045

(Epson or IBM printer with Graftrax required)

Fancy Font System $180 00

Fancy Font Demo Diskette $ 10 00 l

California Residents add 6 5S sales tax.

Outside US add $10 ($2 demo) postage

Mail check or money order to SoftCraft

Diskette Format

11 8" CP/M D QX10 □ Osborne D KayPro

U IBM MSDOS 2 D Victor 9001 2 D Apple CP/M 3

$7 50 applicable towards purchase of Fancy Font
2
MSDOS requires I28K memory

L IpUJ V r *H B IL a r J* n i & ^* 1 } PI ll lA e E intejface_reguired_ J

THIS ENTIRE AD WAS PRINTED ON AN EPSON MX80 PRINTER AT THE ACTUAL SIZE SHOWN

Circle 423 on inquiry card.

Software Received.

Planetmaster, a unique eco-
logical-simulation game in
which you command a terra-
formed space-sanctuary
satellite with multiple cli-
mates and seasons, unpre-
dictable weather, varying
geography, and hybrid veg-
etation. Select endangered
alien species, transport them
to your planet, and keep
them alive. For II Plus and
lie; floppy disk, $24.95.
Magnetic Harvest, POB 255,
Hopkins, SC 29061.

Practical Accountant, a user-
friendly, single-entry, small-
business accounting program
that can balance your check-
book as well as provide cash-
flow, profitability, and fore-
casting information. Key
features include easy data en-
try, automated reports, flexi-
ble charts, easy access, and
check-printing capabilities.
For the II, II Plus, and He;
floppy disk, $149.95. Softlink

Corp., 3255-2 Scott Blvd.,
Santa Clara, CA 95051.

Sign-up, a sign-generating
program. Produce signs and
banners to display in grocery,
hardware, or stereo stores.
You can print up to eight jus-
tified or centered lines with
up to 8-inch letters. Good for
nonprogrammers due to
menu-driven commands and
arrow keys. Requires Epson
printer. For II and lie; floppy
disk, $69. Frost Byte, POB
616, Walker, MN 56484.

Statpro, an integrated soft-
ware program to handle
complex data storage and
management, statistical and
graphical analyses, and re-
port generation formerly
limited to larger computers.
Database allows quick access
to extensive numerical data
capabilities. Statistics con-
tains a comprehensive collec-
tion of statistical procedures

such as descriptive, regres-
sion, analysis of variance,
time series, and multivariate.
Graphics plots the results of
all Statpro statistical analyses.
For II, II Plus, and He; flop-
py disk, $1995. Wadsworth
Electronic Publishing Co.,
Statler Office Building, 20
Park Plaza, Boston, MA
02116.

CP/M

Josef, a programming lan-
guage that lets you develop
programs from a vocabulary
of commands. Newly created
programs can be entered in- •
to the vocabulary to create
more complicated programs.
Includes a tutorial and built-
in vocabulary of commands.
Floppy disk, $35. Modular
Systems 82, POB 1456, Wolf-
ville, Nova Scotia BOP 1X0,
Canada.

Mini-Ledger, a single-entry
accounting program devel-
oped for small businesses
with less than 25 employees.
It is designed to ease busi-
ness decision making by
keeping track of monthly ex-
penses and income. Floppy
disk, $150. Paradigm Con-
sultants, Suite 203, 39812
Mission Blvd., Fremont, CA
94539.

Commodore

Busicalc, an electronic-
spreadsheet program that
can balance household
budgets, prepare cash-flow
forecasts for businesses, and
redo year-end accounts. This
program lets you set up rows,
columns, and headings. For
the 64; cassette, $69. Skyles
Electric Works, 231E South
Whisman Rd., Mountain
View, CA 94041.

SEI, Inc.

r ? r ? i r f r i i i i i i
t: : f i t ? f t f ; I f t l i
? r ? i?i ? i

"CAT-100 COMPUTER"

The CAT- 100 Computer. Some say it's ahead of its time, we say it's just in
time, with its dual onboard processor Z80/6502, the CAT-100 is c apable of
running both Apple II and CPM software 1 . System monitor ROM includes
only boot program. Base price includes (>4K memory, one disk drive and
four Apple" compatible expansion slots. The CAT-100 has optional dual
slim-line disk drives, mane by quality famous ALPS of Japan. The
detachable full ASCII keyboard has standard upper/lower case, auto
repeat & N key rollover capabilities. Standard on the keyboard are
separate cursor control keys and a numeric keypad. Last but not least the
display has composite color or B/VV output with six < olor graphic display
(280 * 192 line or 280 • 160 with 4 text lines). Game I/O connector and
built-in speaker are standard, not options. So when you read this ad call us
for a brochure. You won't be too late, you'll be just in time 1 .

PRICE: *850°°

Disk Drives

Half-high, contemporary slim line
styling, quick disconnect cable,
wnisper quiet operation, fast 12 mS
step rate. Apple & Franklin compatible.

Drive w/cable &
documentation
Disk Controller
Card

$224 95
$5995

Orange/
Amber Monitor

I A 18 MHZ bandwidth monitor, ideal

for high resolution graphics. The

I orange/amber color is extremely

, easy on the eyes for extended use. A

composite video I/O monitor, 75

OHM input, 110 VAC.

I Monl 5119^5

For your Apple Computer
Cooling System
Power Monitor

Fits computer or monitor stand, 2

surge suppressed grounded power
outlets & single illuminated switch
control of system.

Cooling system/ $R095

power monitor O «7

| Apple Peripheral Cards

80 column card $ 1 09 05

16K RAM card $ 44 05

Z80CPM card $ 59 B5

Disk controller card *59 05

Eprom programmer card .... $ 84 05
R.F. Modulator $ 24"

Store Hours j

Mon-Fri 9-5 I

Saturday 10-3

SEI, ItlC, 641 Academy Drive, Northbrook, IL 60062
To order: 1-800-323-1327

For information & Illinois orders call: 1-312-564-0104
VISA & MasterCard acceptable — Add 5% for shipping and handling

612 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

Circle 401 on inquiry card.

APPLE lie
64K RAM CARD

80 column x 24 lines

64K RAM

Compatible with
Apple lie Software

s

149

00

PARALLEL INTERFACE

EPSON TO APPLE

New From

COEX

$49 95 CABLE

INCLUDED

5 1 /4"Floppy

DISKETTES

All Certif ied-1 00% Guaranteed

149'

BOX of 1 00 .

Above with

Hub Rings $169.00

COEX 80-FT D P °RfN M 4 T R RIX

• 9x7 Dot Matrix, 80 CPS,
Bi-Dlrectional Printing

• 2K Buffered Memory

• 80, 96, 132 Columns,
Graphics and Block Printing

• Selectable Char Pitch, Line
Spacing and Feed PARALLEL

COEX Interface Card to Apple . . $49.95
Commodore Interface Card to

VIC, 64, PET $79.95

for APPLE

16K RAM CARD

Language Transparent
COEX FACTORY $4Q95
WARRANTY

»49 s

EXTENDER CARDS

for APPLE.
forl.B.M...

$16.95
$19.95

FLOPPY DISK DRIVE

Apple He Compatible

with • Track Zero Micro Switch

• DOS 3.2.1 & DOS 3.3

• CP/M and PASCAL

DESIGNED *--_ nn

FOR YOUR SOQC00

APPLE" 4Ull

Controller Card ^^c *%*%
for above $75.00

BMC 12 $,
Green Monitor

00

DO YOU HAVE
A COMMODORE?

NEW ROM for COEX 80 & DP8480

Allows Full Graphics Compatibility
with All Commodore Computers

$

29

95

Now You Can Afford Another 64K . . .

Specifications:

• Fully Static Operation

• Supports S-100 I EEE-696 Standards

• Uses Popular 2716 Pinout Type
Static RAM's

• Board Access Time Under 200nS

• 150nS RAMS Standard

• No Wait States Needed at 6.000MHz

• High Quality FR-4 Type PC Board

• Switch Selectable Phantom Line

All Data, Status and Address Lines

Fully Buffered

Gold Plated Contact Fingers for Low

Contact Resistance and Long Life

Switch Selectable Extended Address

Lines For Up To 16 M-bytes

Extreme Low Power Dissapation

(<500mA Typical

Top 8K May Be Switched Disabled

and/or Interchangeable with 2716

Type EPROM's

Especially when its less than
a half cent per bit!

COEX 64K S-100 CMOS
STATIC RAM BOARD

S^QOOO

only

299*

Assembled & Tested

"Have You Kissed Your Computer Lately"

Components Express, Inc.

1380 E Edinger • Santa Ana, Calif. 92705 • 714/558-3972

TWX 910-595-1565 • ADVACON SNA • International Orders Welcome
Terms of Sale: Cash, Checks, Credit Cards, M.O.. C.O.D. Calif, residents add 6% sales tax.

614 BYTE November 1983

Circle 85 on inquiry card.

Fundamentals of Mathemat-
ics, an educational system for
grades 3 to 12 that contains
almost 90 lessons, programs,
tutorials, and drills. The
teacher is given an assort-
ment of sample-problem,
pretest, and posttest work-
sheets. For the 64; floppy-
disk preview, $9.95. Sterling
Swift Publishing Co., 7901
South IH-35, Austin, TX
78744.

IBM

Personal Computer

Big Top, an arcade-type
game in which you maneu-
ver an acrobat through a
multiring circus. Climb lad-
ders, jump over beach balls,
duck cannon balls and
knives, and avoid obstacles
while trying to collect all the
ringmaster's hats. Floppy
disk, $39.95. Funtastic Inc.,
5-12 Wilde Ave., Drexel Hill,
PA 19026.

Buy or Lease, a financial de-
cision-making tool. This pro-
gram provides up-to-date
coverage that reflects current
economic trends. Includes
first-year expensing, invest-
ment and energy credit, ac-
celerated cost recovery, cur-
rent interest rates, and all tax
rates. No prior programming
experience needed. Floppy
disk, $125. John Wiley &
Sons, 605 Third Ave., New
York, NY 10158.

Compac, a file-reduction sys-
tem. Any file— ASCII text or
binary— can be reduced by 10
to 40 percent. Two indepen-
dent programs, Compac and
Decompac, compress and
restore your files, respective-
ly. Floppy disk, $49. Sextant
Systems, POB 251, Holmdel,
NJ 07733.

Creative Graphics, a general-
purpose drawing program
that enables the nonpro-

grammer to create, modify,
and store color graphics de-
signs. It also provides a slide-
show generator and hard-
copy output to present black-
and-white and color designs.
Floppy disk, $139.95. Accu-
pipe Corp., 222 West Lan-
caster Ave., Paoli, PA 19301.

Decision, a program that
compares up to 21 multiple
complex alternatives to im-
prove decision making. This
program will organize, quan-
tify and sum evaluations,
and develop values. Features
include easy data entry and
revision, automatic file man-
agement, and error handling.
Floppy disk, $20. Once
Begun Computations, Sears-
port, ME 04974.

The Draftsman, a busi-
ness-presentation package
for producing charts, graphs,
and simple illustrations.
Generate two-dimensional

graphs with minimal input
or combine multiple graphs
on one screen. Requires a
color card. Floppy disk, $200.
Starware, Suite 450, 2000 K
St. NW, Washington, DC
20006.

File Command, a utility pro-
gram that combines a file
directory with a multiline
command area to provide a
fast, easy way to issue DOS
commands and manage files.
The directory can be stored
by file size, by the dates that
files were created or last
saved, alphabetically by file-
name or extension, or by
drive and directory path.
Floppy disk, $35. IBM Corp.,
Personal Computer, POB
1328-C, Boca Raton, FL
33432.

Gradebook 3.0, a utility
package that lets teachers
store, retrieve, print, calcu-
late, and correct up to 200

PRICE, SERVICE, INTEGRITY../ " 0WE IT T0 yourself to call usi .orderTonly) (800)392-7081

"■^■V WTfcBm w »^W— f * lhVIIYI1 " *** (Hours: Monday-Friday B:3Q a m.4:30pm Pacific Tima) Catif., Alaska, Hawaii & all info Call (213J725-30E

■ ^:-Vy'B

FX-80. 160 CPS.80 Col., friction &

tractor feed, parallel Call

FX-100, 160 CPS, 132 Col., friction

& tractor feed, parallel Call

MX-8 0, MX-80 F/T, MX-100 . ..Call

HQXEQIZl

Gemini- 10X, 120 CPS, 80 Col., fric-
tion & tractorfeed, (parallel) .SCall
Gemini-15, above w/15" platen.Call

8023A, 100 CPS, 80 col., par. $385
3550 Spinwriter, 30 CPS, 203 Col.,
letterquality, {Parallel . . . $1,815
Tractor for NEC 3550 $245

_ mm .

f .

B510AP Prowritec 120 CPS, 80 col .

graphics, (Parallel) SCall

1550 Prowriter-ll, 120 CPS, 136 col.,
2K buff er, graphics, (parall el) .SCall

■mum

120 CPS, 9x9 matrix, tractor/fric-
tion feed, compact size: only 2-7/8"
ht. Fits in briefcase, (parallel) .S389

IDS Prism 80C, 200 CPS, 80 col., 4-
color, graphics, friction/tractor feed,
sheet feeder, (parallel) . . . $1,259
IDS Prism 132C, above but 132 col.
Parallel $1,495

EEESEa pi 350

Super dot-matrix printer w/24-pin
hi-resolution head. 192 CPS draft,
100 CPS hitter-quality (parallel) Scall

■A

JSBEESEgg

Letter quality daisywheel printer
1 6 CPS, bi-directional, friction feed,
parallel interface. Super value $695

Serial interface $749

Tractor $119

I.HLsy.',:IL.d:|,;,V,l

The intelligent letter-quality printer
w/48K built-in buffer memory, 17
CPS, bi-directional, auto margin jus-
tification, universal interfaces $-j, 195
Tractor S119

13 CPS daisywheel printer, 2-color
printing, 3K buffer, (parallel) .SCall
Sheet feeder-$249 Keyboard --$195
Tractor $1 19 Ribbons $49/doz

Pl'lHUl'M

18 CPS daisywheel, 13" platen, 2K
buffer, 3 -pitch, (parallel). . . .SCall

F-IOStarWriter
40 CPS daisywheel (parallel ) $1 ,089
55 CPS daisywheel (parallel) $1,349
Tractor for F-10 .$225

ML-S2A, 120 CPS, 80 col, pin &
friction feed, serial 8c parallel .$379
ML-83A, 1 20 CPS, 1 36 col „ tractor
& friction feed, parallel/serial ,$629
ML-84P, 200 CPS, 136 col., friction
& tractor feed, (parallel) . . . .$989
ML-84S, above but serial. . $1,059
ML-92P, 160 CPS, 80 col., friction
& tractor feed, (parallel) . . . .$499
ML-92S, above but serial. . . .$599
ML-93P, 160 CPS, 136 col., tractor
St friction feed, (parallel). , . .$849
ML-93S, above but serial, . . .$969
2410P, 350 CPS, 136 col., friction &
tractor, 2-color, (parallel) . S2.295

nasaiajTTx-1040

NEW! 12 CPS daisywheel printer W/
built-in tractor adjustable 2V4-14V4".
Parallel & serial interfaces. Wordstar
compatible. Programmable pitch &
line spacing. Compact size S625 Complete w/1014 printer

■HHEa

TTX-3000
Smart Terminal
uilt-in text edit S
graphic capability
Design for upgrad
ng to stand-alone
""^computer, word
processing &
telecom sys
tern. 80x25 line swivel screen/10 func-
tion keys Si numeric keypad. . S549

a

Multi-Function

Cards for
IBM PC and XT

New Low Prices!
(Each card now comes w/
SuperDrive & SuperSpool)

Amount of memory installed on board 64 K 128K 192 K 256 K.

with all options (serial, parallel ports & clock) - $277 $327 $377 $427

Six-function card with 64K-384K RAM memory, Parallel port. Serial port.
Optional Game port, Clock-Calendar, SuperDrive & SuperSpool Software.

Memory installed on card -64K 128K 192K 256K 320K 384K

wl Parallel, Serial ports & clock.... $288 $338 $388 S438 $488 S538

0p,ion,IG ° mepo,, IMM l iJ M i — dds35

Amount of memory installed on board 64K 128K 192K 256K

w/standarcl features of serial port No. 1 & clock.. $279 $329 $379 $429
w/ either parallel or additional serial port No. 2 - $314 S364 $414 $464
w/ both parallel and additional serial port No, 2 $349 $399 $449 $499
MegaPak - expends a fully populated MegaPlus ca rd to 51 2K .... ;$299

y populated MegaPlus ca rd

VEEMEM

Standard card w/one serial port (SI ) and clock/calendar, .
Additional Parallel (P), Game (G), or Serial 2 (S2) port . .

. . . . $129
. add $35 aa.

QUADBOARD - Multi-Function board for
IBM-PC. Full parity checkings memory selec-
tive addressing. w/QSpool & QDrive software.

Amount of memory installed on card 64K 128K 192K 2S6K

with parallel, serial ports, clock/calendar $295 $345 $395 S445

QUADRAM

Add Multi-Tasking to y our ISM -PC and XT now!

EBEEB3 re.

AddRam Elite or AddRam Plus

Ultimate Multi -Function Boards

*TASCMASTER software converts PC-DOS to concurrent PC-DOS to run
up to 9 programs simutaneously, *64-512K on a single board. * Real time
clock/calendar w/NiCad battery that recharges itself. * RamSpool is hard
disk supported under DOS 2.0 .* RamDisk creates up to 2 electronic disks.
AddRam Elite (parallel & serial ports) AddRam Plus (Two serial ports)

Memory installed 64K 128K 192K 256K 320K 384K 448K 51 2K

$399 S459 $519 $579 S639 S699 $759 $819

EASTERN ENTERPRISES, INC.

Mass Merchandising Since 1969
2937 S. VAIL AVE., LOS ANGELES, CALIF. 90040

ITITIHI 5B53XBI

BMC BM-AU9191MU, 13" RGB

color, 640-dot, 16 color . . . $449

Princeton HX-12, 12" RGB color,

690-dot hi resolution. Sale $485

Amdek RGB Color II Plus. 640-dot,

16 colors - $485

Quadchrome, 12" RGB Color. 690-
dot $489

Zenith ZV M 134 RGB Color $399

BjEssmsssna

DynaxGM-120, 12" green. 600 line.

20 MHz. List $200 $129

USl PI-2. 12" green, 1,000 line, 20

MHz S159.00

Taxan KG-12N, 12" green 800-dot.

List $199.00 $ 149.99

mmnmmm

Dynax AM121, 12" umbei; 600-dot
20 MHz. List $250 $149

Taxan KA12N, 12" amber, 800-dot,
List $205.00 $150.00

USl PI-3. 1 2" amber, 1 ,000 line, 20
MHz $179.00

Gorilla Green Monitor $109

HALF HEIGHT DISK DRIVES

for Apple II and Franklin Ace
Super 5 (ALPS) 40- track, SS . .$239
Super 5 (Toac) 40 track, SS . . .S269
Super 5 (Teac) double sided . . $365

Control card for SS drive S59

Control card for DS drive .... $69

PC

&

XT M

,,-jlfflp

IBM PC & XT COMPUTERS
Caff for price & availabilit y

u.m'W:Ud.i:ii:i.nraa

WordStar $495 ,$279

MailMerge $250 $149

SpellStar $250 $149

Wordstar & Mailmerge $399

Wordstar & Spellstar $419

Wordstar Professional $489

Infostar $299

1-2-3 (Req. DS drive). .$495 CALL

dBASE II $700 $419

Financial Planner $509

Friday $225

Bottom Line Strategist S325

Home Accountant Plus. $150 S109

TKISolver $299 .S249

Multiplan S275 S199

PFS:File $99

PFS: Report .' $99

Versaform $389 $249

PeachPak (GL/AR/AP1.S395 $237
The Tax Manager . . . .$250 $179

VisiCalc/256K $250 $179

Real Estate Analyzer . .$250 $189

SuperCalc I $295 $139

SuperCalc II $295 $199

Spell Guard $195 $159

Super Writer $295 $229

5%"DISK DRIVES

TandonTM-100-1 SSDD 160K .$195
Tandon TM-100-2, DSDD 320KS245

Tandon TM-100-4 DSQD S335

Control Data full ht.DSDD 320KS259
QUME half height DSDD 320K S249
Panasonic half ht. DSDD 320K .S249

Circle 167 on inquiry card.

November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

615

Software Received.

students' scores and grades.
As many as 60 scores may be
recorded per pupil in such
categories as daily, quiz, test,
exam, and project. Floppy
disk, $36.95. DEC Comput-
ing, 609 Oakleaf Dr., Garrett,
IN 46738.

Learning DOS 2.00, a utility
package that teaches you
how to use the disk operating
system. This package in-
cludes on-screen practice and
instructions, graphics for
computer terms, and expla-
nations of batch files and
fixed disks. Floppy disk, $30.
IBM Corp. (see address
above).

Learning to Program in
BASIC, a technical private-
tutor course that teaches pro-
gramming systematically so
as to reduce the program-
ming required to accomplish
a specific task. Floppy disk,
$35. IBM Corp. (see address

above).

PFS:File, an information-
management package that
works like a conventional
paper-filing system except
that you can record, retrieve,
and review information in a
fraction of the time. It lets
you design your own basic
form, fill in the blanks, and
change the data. Floppy disk,
$140. Software Publishing
Corp., 1901 Landings Dr.,
Mountain View, CA 94043.

PFS: Graph, a graphics pro-
gram that produces bar, line,
or pie charts of presentation
quality in minutes. It also
produces picture or dot-
image files that can be used
with PFS:Write documents.
Floppy disk, $140. Software
Publishing Corp. (see ad-
dress above).

PFS:Report, a utility package
that enables you to produce

tabular reports from files
created by PFS:File. Each of
the multiple columns corres-
ponds to an item from the
form of your data file. Data
can be sorted alphabetically
or numerically, and numeric
calculations can be per-
formed. Floppy disk, $125.
Software Publishing Corp.
(see address above).

The Mail Manager, a mail-
ing-list system that helps you
prepare, maintain, and print
your mailing lists. Print on
standard-sized labels and
prepare up to 1000 label-file
listings. The program fea-
tures user-definable sorting
and selection of records
based on field value or record
number. Floppy disk, $39.
Starware (see address
above).

Master Miner, an arcade-
type game. Mine the riches
of an asteroid belt in the year

2184. Don't let claim jumpers
steal your gems before you
can deposit them into your
starbase. Requires color-
graphics adapter. Floppy
disk, $39.95. Funtastic Inc.
(see address above).

Medicomp Personal Medical
Records Program, a personal
medical history. Each in-
dividual can maintain a per-
sonal medical history as well
as keep track of such periph-
eral information as appoint-
ment dates, names of doc-
tors, insurance policies, and
more. Transferable to a doc-
tor's compatible program.
Floppy disk, $89. Medicomp
of Va. Inc., 9526-A Lee High-
way, Fairfax, VA 22031.

Microsoft Flight Simulator,

a flight-simulation of a single-
engine aircraft. Its working
instruments, panoramic
graphic views, and real-time
flight conditions provide full

CompuPro

8 andlor 16 Bits.

At CompuPro, we know it isn't enough to make the best computer system around — expert planning, custom
configuration, tailored software and swift service are just as vital to our customers. That's why we carefully
select and train each of our Full Service CompuPro System Centers to provide a complete solutions package for
your high-performance computing needs. So for your business, scientific and industrial applications, turn to
the professionals listed below. Think of them as your computer consultants — not just retailers.

ARIZONA

Scottsdale

S-100
(800)528-3138

CALIFORNIA

Bakersfield

Creative Computing Services

(805) 325-9877

Berkeley

American Computers & Engineers

(415) 849-0177

Track Computer Center

(415)845-6366

Burlingame

Mentzer Computer Systems

(415) 340-9363

Canyon Country

Creative Computing Services

(805) 251-9877 '

Carmichael

Logic Systems

(916) 971-3133

Chatsworth

Priority One Electronics

(213) 709-5464

Hayward

Best Computers Hayward

(415)886-4732

Irvine

Priority One Electronics

(714)660-1411

Los Angeles

American Computers & Engineers

(213)477-6751

Gifford Computer Systems

(213)477-3921

Mountain View

ACC

(415) 969-4969

Oakland

Track Computer Center

(415)444-8725

Pacific Palisades

System Interface Consultants

(213.) 454-2100

Pasadena

Omni Unlimited

(213) 795-6664

Petaluma

Advanced Information Mgmt.

(707) 763-7283

Pleasanton

Best Computers Stoneridge

(415)463-2233

San Francisco

Gifford Computer Systems

(415)391-4570

©1983 COMPUPRO

616 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

use of flight controls accurate
enough to meet FAA regula-
tions for day or night and
visual- or instrument-flight
conditions. Floppy disk,
$49.95. Microsoft Corp., 10700
Northup Way, Bellevue, WA
98004.

Money Matters, a personal-
finance program to help
maintain your checkbook,
reconcile your bank state-
ment, plan and review a
budget, and keep records of
money-saving tax deductions
for personal, family, or
small-business use. This
menu-driven program fea-
tures extensive help screens
and error checking. Floppy
disk, $99. Starware (see ad-
dress above).

Multi-job, a PC-DOS-en-
hancement program that can
run existing programs writ-
ten in BASIC, Pascal, assem-
bly language, or any other

language for the PC. You can
shift from one job to another
using a single-function key.
You can use the printer, sort,
capture data, download, and
plot simultaneously. Floppy
disk, $159. Starware (see ad-
dress above).

One Hundred and One
Monochrome Mazes, an

arcade-type game for the
whole family. Complete 101
mazes by going through trap
doors, invisible walls, and
deep black pools. Some are
easy and others are not. If
you can solve the last maze
(#101), you become a master.
Floppy disk, $35. IBM Corp.,
POB 1328-C, Boca Raton, FL
33432.

PC Parrot, a speech-synthesis
program. Without interfacing
extra hardware you can add
audible speech and other
sound effects to any BASIC
program. Floppy disk,

$39.95. Dragon Data Systems,
Suite 110, 1068 Homer St.,
Vancouver, British Columbia
V6B 4W9, Canada.

Private Tutor, an interactive
learning program. This self-
study system is easy to use in
the home, school, or office.
It provides lessons and drills
for home users; can design
special-education require-
ments; and handles busi-
ness, finance, manufactur-
ing, or personnel services.
Floppy disk, $50. IBM Corp.
(see address above).

Report Manager, a three-
dimensional application gen-
erator and spreadsheet that
gives computer users in busi-
ness the power of a program-
mable, multidimensional
system for financial plan-
ning, forecasting, and statis-
tical analyses. Floppy disk,
$399. Datamension Corp.,
615 Academy Dr., North-

brook, IL 60062.

Trickers, a strategy game for
up to three players. Similar to
chess and checkers, you
move your colored circles to
their crown edge by jumping
and removing opponents
whenever possible. Crowns
are indicated by triangles.
Floppy disk, $12.95. Trickers,
POB 239, Barrington, IL
60010.

Versaform, a business-form
processing package. Using
the familiarity and structure
of existing paper forms, this
program accelerates both the
speed and accuracy of pro-
cessing information. It
merges customer informa-
tion, financial data and
costed line items, and simpli-
fies the error-free processing
of most business forms. Flop-
py disk, $389. Applied Soft-
ware Technology, 170
Knowles Dr., Los Gatos, CA

Spoken Here. . .

San Leandro

Gifford Computer Systems

(415)895-0798

San Rafael

Computer House

(415)453-0865

Santa Barbara

Data Bank

(805) 962-8489

Santa Maria

Data Bank

(805)922-1333

Santa Rosa

Matrix Computers

(707) 542-0571

Sunnyvale

Pragmatic Designs Inc.
(408)736-8670

COLORADO

Rocky Mountain Microsystems, Inc.
(303) 232-4545

FLORIDA

Brandon/Tampa

Micro Computer Technology
(813) 685-7659

1983C0MPUPR0

Satellite Beach

Binary Magic, Inc.
(305) 777-7080

HAWAII

Kahului Maui

Capacity Plus Computers
(808) 877-3496

ILLINOIS

Athens

Computers Plus

(217)636-8491

La Grange Park

Small Business Systems Inc.

(312)579-3311

Skokie

Lillipute Computer Mart Inc.

(312)674-1383

INDIANA

Terre Haute

General Software Inc.
(812) 234-9421

MARYLAND

Bethesda

JR Systems
(30T 657-3598

MASSACHUSETTS

Boston

New England Electronic Exch.

(617)491-3000

Chestnut Hill

Key Micro Systems

(617)738-7306

NEW YORK

Amherst

Gifford Computer Systems

(716) 833-4758

Deer Park

Datapro Systems Inc.

(516)595-1311

(Please turn the page)

(omp

uPro

A GODBOt/7" COMPANY

3506 Breakwater Court, Hayward, CA 94545

November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. 617

Software Received-

95030.

Word Proof, a word-working
program. Improve your writ-
ing with this program that
checks your spelling and
finds synonyms and ana-
grams. It also has a full-
screen editor to write, for-
mat, modify, and print what
you write. Up to 22 lines of
text can be displayed at one
time. Floppy disk, $60. IBM
Corp. (see address above).

Mattel Intellivision

Dracula, an arcade-type
game for one or two players.
As Count Dracula in a
human form, you must run
from constables who patrol
the streets, fly away from
vultures attacking you as a
vampire, and return to your
coffin before sunrise. Car-
tridge, $39.95. Imagic, 981
University Ave., Los Gatos,
CA 95030.

Ice Trek, an adventure game
for one player. To prevent the
advance of a devastating Ice
Age, you must guide Vali
through herds of caribou and
over an arctic river to unlock
the Aurora Borealis. Car-
tridge, $39.95. Imagic (see ad-
dress above).

Nova Blast, an arcade-type
game. To protect the under-
water city from flying fighters
and water walkers, you pilot
a skysweeper equipped with
radar. Avoid collisions and
shots from the enemy. Car-
tridge, $39.95. Imagic (see ad-
dress above).

Safecracker, an adventure
game. Your job as a super spy
is to steal top-secret docu-
ments from various embas-
sies. If you can't crack the
safe, you can blow it open
with dynamite. Avoid police
and traffic accidents as you
careen through the town.

Cartridge, $39.95. Imagic (see
address above).

Tropical Trouble, an arcade-
type game. A pleasant ship-
wreck on a South Sea island
turns to danger when Doris
is captured. Help Clarence
rescue her while fighting off
boulders, coconuts, clams,
and ferns. Cartridge, $39.95.
Imagic (see address above).

Truckin, a highway-trucking
simulation game. As a
trucker, you race against time
to any city in North America.
Watch out for Smokies, sharp
turns, and other trucks. Earn
as much as you can hauling
loads, watch your gas gauge,
and radio ahead to synchro-
nize pick-up and delivery.
Cartridge, $39.95. Imagic (see
address above). ■

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 de-
scription 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 prod-
uct 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 re-
ceived is considered to be on loan to BYTE and is returned to
the manufacturer after a set period of time. Companies send-
ing software packages should be sure to include the list price
of the packages and [where appropriate) the alternate forms
in which they are available.

And Hera.

Staten Island

John D. Owens Assoc.
(212)448-6283

NORTH CAROLINA

Greensboro

General Semantics Inc.
(919)288-1117

OREGON

Portland

Microwest Computer Products
(503) 238-6274

RHODE ISLAND

Coventry

Key Micro Systems
(401)828-7270

TEXAS

Austin

CPA Systems Inc.

(512)458-9281

Dallas

Dator Systems

(214)521-0915

Houston

Gifford Computer Systems

(713)877-1212

1983 COMPUPRO

Seguin

CPA Systems, Inc.
(512)379-0660

WISCONSIN

Greenfield

Byte Shop of Milwaukee

(414) 281-7004

Madison

Beam International

(608) 255-2325

CANADA
Vancouver, B.C.

Dynacomp Business Computers Ltd.
(604) 872-7737

Coquitlam, B.C.

CSC System Center Ltd.

(604) 941-0622

THE PHILIPPINES

Quezon City

Corona International Inc.
78-34-71

UNITED KINGDOM

Swansea

Comcen Technology Ltd.
(0792) 796000

CompuPro,

A GODBOUT COMPANY

3506 Breakwater Court, Hayward, CA 94545

618 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

THE COMPUTER TANDY
SHOULD HAVE BUILT.

Software-selectable screen formats
let you run either 24 x 80 CP/M or
16 x 32 and 16 x 64 LDOS programs.

Monitor comes in your

choice of green or amber

phosphor display.

*7r7rMX-*9M*

With our built-in disk interfaces,
you can simply plug in any
combination of peripherals.

Standard Centronics-type

parallel port accommodates

a wide variety of printers.

\£>^<%^

Our 5MHz Z-80B processor

runs your programs 25% faster

than TRS-80 Model 4.

Rugged construction includes heavy

duty case and full-stroke

sculptured keyboard.

Available storage includes Lobo's

5-1/4" floppy, 8" floppy and

Winchester hard disks.

All Lobo hardware products
carry a limited one-year
parts and labor warranty.

AT THE PRICE TANDY
SHOULD HAVE CHARGED.

The bottom line is this. For far
less than the price of a TRS-80*
Mod 4, you can own a lot more
computer.

A computer that's 25% faster.

That supports both the CP/M*
Plus and LDOS™ operating
systems.

A computer that features a
price tag of only $945 for the
MAX-80* processor. And that
expands with your needs with-
out breaking your budget.

A FLEXIBLE SYSTEM
AT A FLEXIBLE PRICE

When you put it all together
—an entire system, including a
dual 5-1/4" floppy drive sub-
system (320 Kb of disk stor-
age), monitoi; CP/M and LDOS

-totals up to just $1599.

Totally remarkable.

But that's not all. Because
this basic MAX-80 system is
incredibly flexible. Its dual
operating systems run far more
software than any other com-
pute:. (Including our specially-
discounted Perfect-Calc™ and
Perfect- Writer™ software
packages.)

And since our MAX-80 fea-
tures two RS-232C serial ports,
you can easily add both printer
and modem without switching
back and forth.

SUPPORTS A WIDE VARIETY
OF PERIPHERALS

What's more, Lobo offers
almost any peripheral you

might want to add to your
MAX-80. At very special prices.

Like $995 for a 5Mb Win-
chester hard disk, the ultimate
in fast, accurate data storage.

Or a whole line of affordable
dot matrix and letter-quality
printers. Or an 8" floppy drive.
Or even a MAX-80 local area
network.

EVERY PIECE OF HARDWARE BACKED
BY OUR UNBEATABLE WARRANTY

Because every part of the
MAX-80 system is so rugged
and reliable, we go beyond
industry-standard 90 day war-
ranties. We back every piece
of Lobo hardware with a full
year warranty.

So now, you can run virtually

all your TRS-80 programs faster
and cheapei.

Just give us your Visa or
Master Card numbei; We'll
rush you the MAX-80. Try it out.
Then, if for any reason you
change your mind, return it with-
in 30 days. We'll return all your
money.

So call us. Because owning
a MAX-80 costs you $945. But
finding out about it costs you
nothing.

1-800-235-1245

(1-800-322-6103 in California)

LOBO
SYSTEMS, INC.

358 South Fairview Avenue,
Goleta, California 93117

s a registered trademark of landy Corp CP/M is a registered trademark of Digital Research Corp LDOS is a trademark of Logical Systems. Inc Perfect-Calc and Perfect-Wnter are trademarks of Perfect Software, inc. C 1983 Lobo Systems. Inc.

OMPUTIR MAIL ORDER

C&TeteVideo

TERMINALS

910 $559.00

912 S689.00

920 $739.00

925 $719 00

950 $929.00

970 CALL

COMPUTERS

800A S 1099.00

802 $2699.00

803 $1949 00

802H $4695.00

806/20 $4999.00

816/40 $9199.00

1602 $3399.00

1603 CALL

MODEMS

HAYES

Smart $219 00

Smart 1200(1200 Baud) $519 00

Chronograph S19900

Micromodem 100 S309 00

Micromodem II $279 00

Micromodem I Hwith term) $299 00

Smart Com II $99 00

Smart 1 200B S469 00

NOVATION

J Cat S119 00

Cat S144 00

D-Cat $159 00

103 Smart Cat S189 00

Apple Cat II $279 00

103 212 Smart Cat S439 00

212 Apple Cat II $609 00

AppleCaMI2l2Upgrade $309 00

ANCHOR

Mark I IRS-232] $79 00

Mark II (Atari) . . $79 00

Mark Ml |T I 99) $109 00

Mark IV (CBM PET) $125 00

Mark V (Osborne) $95 00

Mark VI (IBM PC) $179 00

Mark VII (AutoAns/Auto Dial) $119 00

Mark VIM $269 00

TRS 80 Color Computer $99 00

9 Volt Power Supplv $9 00

ZENITH

ZT1 Terminal S369 00

DOmPllTCR

HEWLETT
PACKARD

HF*4*\ CV. . . £209.00

MF> 75 S749.00

HP41C $146 00

HP IOC $52 00

HP 1 1C $69 00

HP 1 2C $92 00

HP 15C S92 00

HP 16C $92 00

For HP41 41CV

HPIL Module $99 00

HF IL Cassette or Printer S359 00

C;rd Reader $144 00

Extended Functions Module S64 00

Time Module S64 00

ME-1 $1369.00

IIE-2 $1649.00

1IE-3 $2399.00

IIE-4 $3199.00

PC-E ., $1579.00

PC-1 $2399.00

PC-2 $2799.00

PC-XL $3599.00

1620 $3599.00

1 630 $5499.00

1640 $6499.00

Cyma Software CALL

MONITORS
AMOEK

300G S1 49.00

300A $159.00

310A $169.00

Color I $279.00

Color I plus $299.00

Color II $399.00

Color III $349.00

Color IV $999.00

USI

Pi 1 . 9 " G S99.00

Pi 2. 12" G S119.00

Pi 3, 12" A $149.00

Pi 4, 9" A $139.00

1400 Color $279.00

ZENITH

ZVM 122A

ZVM 123G

BMC

1 2" Green

9191 AU 13" Color ....
TAXAN

1 2 N Green.

12 A Amber

PANASONIC

TR 1 20 Hires. Green

CT 160 Dual Mode Color . . .

NEC

JB 1 260

JB 1201

JB 1205...

JC 1215

JC 1216

JC 1 203

$109.00
.S99.00

GORILLA

..S85.00
S249.00

$129.00
S1 39.00

.$149.00
$279.00

.S119.00
.$149.00
.$169.00
.$299.00
S429.00
.S469.00

12" Green $89.00

EPSON
COMPUTERS

CALL
CALL

TI-4D

COMPACT

COMPUTER

CALL

TIMEX

SINCLAIR

1 OOO

16K Memory $29.95

2040 Printer $99.95

Vu-Calc $17.95

Minclwaie Printer S99 00

NEC 355Q Printer S1799

PERCOM/TANDON

DRIVES

5V 4 " 320K Floppy $249.00

5 Meg Hard w/Controller. . . S 1 399.00
10 Meg Hard w/Controller. . .S1 699.00
15 Meg Hard w/Controller... $2095.00
20 Meg Hard w/Controller. . . $2399.00

AMDEK

310A Amber Monitor $169.00

DXY 100 Plotter S599.00

Color II S399.00

AST RESEARCH, IMC.

Six Pak Plus. ..from S279.00

Combo Plus ll...from...S279.00

Mega Plus... from S309.00

I/O Plus II ...from S169.00

QUADRAM

Quadlink S549.00

Quadboard...as lowas. . . S309.00
Quad 51 2 Plus...aslowas...S259.00
Quadcolor.-.aslowas ...S219.00

Chronograph S89.00

Parallel Interface Board ...S89.00
64K RAM Chips Kit S79.00

MICRO PRO

Word Star/Mail Merge $319.00

InfoStar $299.00

Spell Star $159.00

CallStar S1 59.00

MICROSTUF
Crosstalk S1 29.00

MICROSOFT

Multiplan. S179.00

ASHTON-TATE

DBase II $419.00

IUS

Easy Writer II S21 9.00

EasySpeller . S1 19.00

EasyFiler S239.00

CONTINENTAL SOFTWARE

1st Class Mail/Form Letter .. S79.00

The Home Accountant Plus .. S99.00

SYNAPSE

File Manager S99.00

LOTUS

123 S329.00

PFS
APPLE IBM

File S79.00 S89.00

Report S79.00 S79.00

Graph S79.00 S89.00

Write n/a S89.00

KRAFT

IBM Joystick $55.00

IBM Paddles $39.00

PROFESSIONAL SOFTWARE
PC Plus Word Processing S299.00

■ aa ■ a aa mm i_ Ll u. i_ i' .

PC-1500A S169.00
Pocket Computer

PC-1E50A SSS.OO

125 Printer/Micro Cassette . . .$1 29.00
1 50 Pnnter/Plotter/Cassette. . . $1 72.00

1 52 Cassette Recorder $62.00

155 8K RAM $94.00

158 8K RAM Battery $129.00

161 16K RAM $139 00

^ SANYO

MBC-555PC ...CALL

MBC 1 100 $1599.00

MBC 1 1 50 $2099.00

MBC 1 200 $1999.00

MBC 1 250 $2399.00

FDD 3200-320K Drive $399.00

FDD 6400-64K Drive $499.00

PR 5500 Printer S699.00

PRINTERS

EPSON

MX80 FT. MX100. RX80.

FX80. FX100 CALL

OKIOATA

82. 83. 84. 92. 93 CALL

STAR

Delta 10 $559.00

Gemini 1 OX S299.00

Gemini P1 5 S449.00

Serial Board $75.00

SMITH CORONA

TP-1 S469.00

TP-2 CALL

Tractor Feed S1 1 9. 00

C.ITOH

Gorilla S209.00

Prownter 8510P S379.00

Prownter 1 550P $689.00

Starwr.ter F10-40P $1 149.00

Printmaster F10-55P S 1569.00

Tractor Feed S 199.00

OAISYWRITER

2000 Letter Quality $999.00

2500... NEW CALL

Tractor Feed S 109.00

DIABLO

620 $949.00

630 S1 769.00

IOS

Call for ALLConfigurations on

IDS PRISM PRINTERS.

NEC

802 3 S399.00

8025 S729.00

3510 S1449.00

3530 S1 499.00

3550 S1 799.00

7710/7730 $1999.00

BMC

401 Letter Quality S699.00

RX-80 S259.00

COMREX
Comwriter II Parallel Printer . . . $499.00

CABLES & CONNECTIONS

Atari to Parallel S29.00

Atari to Serial S29.00

Apple to Parallel S69.00

Apple to Parallel/Graphics $99 00

Apple to Serial $89.00

IBM to Parallel S35.00

IBM to Serial S29.00

Parallel to Parallel $29.00

Serial to Serial S29.00

Grappler Plus S 129.00

PKASO S1 39.00

Atari to Modem Cable $29.00

CBM 64 to IEEE Board S79.00

Apple 80-Column Card $159.00

CBM Petto Parallel $99.00

CBM Pet to Serial S89.00

PAPER SUPPLIES

1or2 Address Labels(Tract.Feed)..S9.95
1 5" Report PaperfTract Feed) . . . $24.95
8' ;' Bin kWhtPaperfTract. Feed) .$19.95

= w*EST = ^CANADA: =EA5T=

1-800.6*8.3511 1-800-268 4559 1-800-233-8950

In PA call (717)327-9575, Dept. 1101
477 E. Third St. Williamsport, PA 17701
Order Status #: 327-9576

In NV call (702)588-5654, Dept, 1 1 01 In Toronto call (41 6)828-0866, Dept. 1 1 01 In PA call (71 7)327-9575, Dept. 1 1 01

P.O. Box 6689, Stateline, NV 89449 2505 Dunwin Ct.,Unit 1 B, 477 E. Third St. Williamsport, PA 1 7701

Order Status #: 588-5654 Mississauga, Ontario, Canada LSLITI Order Status #: 327-9576

Order Status #: 828-0866
No risk, no deposit on C.O.D. orders. Pre-paid orders receive free shipping within the UPS Continental United States with no waiting period for certified
checks or money orders. Add 3% (minimum $5.00) shipping and handling on all C.O.D. and credit card orders. Larger shipments may require additional
charges. NV and PA residents add sales tax. All items subject to availability and price change. We stock manufacturer's and third party software for mostall
computers on the market. Call today for our new catalog.

isp^s

ft FRANKLIN

CBM
8Q3S

CALL

ACE 1000 Color Computer
ACE1 100 Drive& Coverfor ACE 1000
ACE 1200 Computer with Disk Drive
ACE PRO PACK:

ACE 1000. Disk Drive.

80 Column Card. ACECalc &

ACEWriter II

MICRO-SCI

Apple S. Franklin

A2 $219.00

A40.. $299.00

A70 $319.00

C2 Controller $79.00

C47 Controller $89.00

RANA

Elite I (Apple/Franklin) $279.00

Elite II (Apple/Franklin) $319.00

Elite III (Apple/Franklin) ... $569.00

VISICORP

FOR APPLE. IBM & FRANKLIN

Visidex $189.00

Visifile S189.00

Visiplot S159.00

Visiterm $89.00

Visitrend/Plot $229.00

VisiSchedule $229.00

Desktop Plan $189.00

Visicalc (Apple. IBM. CBM). . .SI 79.00

Visicalc4 (IBM) $209.00

Visicalc Advanced lie $309.00

Stretch Calc $ 89.00

Visicorp prices for IBMmay vaiy slightly.
LJK

Letter Perfect Apple $1 09.00

Data Perfect Apple $75.00

AXLON
Apple/Franklin 128K Ram ...$299.00
Apple/Franklin Ram Disk .. .$729.00

MPC
Bubdisk (1 28K Non Volitare) . . . $649.00

JOYSTICKS

WICO

Joystick $21 . 95

Famous Red Ball $23.95

Power Grip $21 .95

Three-Way Deluxe $22.95

Atari/VIC Trackball $34.95

Apple Trackball $59.95

KRAFT

Atari Single Fire $13.00

Atari Switch Hitter $16.00

Apple Joystick $44.00

Apple Paddles $39.00

PUTER MAILORDER

Qz commodore

CALL ON
Executive 6*1 Portable

1520ColorPrinter/Plotter . $169.00
1525 80 Column Printer .... $21 9.00

1526 $319.00

1 530 Datasette $69.00

1541 Single Disk Drive $249.00

1600 VIC Modem $59.00

1 650 AD/AA Modem $89.00

1702 14" Color Monitor .... $249.00

Pet 64 $569.00

Pet 4032 $599.00

CBM 8032 $599 00

Super Pet $999.00

B 128-80 $769.00

BX256-80 $969.00

2031 $299.00

4040 $699.00

8050 $949.00

8250 $1199.00

9060 $1999.00

9090 $2199.00

4023.. $379.00

6400 $1399.00

64K Upgrade $269,00

Spell Master $149.00

Z-Ra m $549.00

Silicon Office $749.00

The Manager $209.00

Soft Rom $129.00

Jinsam CALL

Call Result 64 $1 39.00

PROFESSIONAL
SOFTWARE

Word Pro 2 Plus $159.00

Word Pro 3 Plus $189.00

Word Pro 4 Plus $279.00

Word Pro 5 Plus $279.00

InfoPro $179.00

Administrator $399.00

Power $79.00

Word Pro 6 4 Plus $65.00

CAROCO

far VIC SO/64

Light Pen $32.00

Cassette Interface $29.00

Parallel Printer Interface $69.00

3 Slot Expans. lnterface(20). . . $32.00
6 Slot Expans. Interface (20)... $79.00

cm. a.

CBM 64

1 . Word Pro 64 $65.00

2. Jumpman $29.00

3. Gorf (20/64) $14.95

4. MicrospecData Base64 . . .$69.00

5. Logo 64 $39.00

6. MicrospecGen. Ledger64 ...$79.00

7. Zork 111 $29.00

8. Frogger (64) $23.00

9. Quick Brown Fox (20/64) ...$49.00

10. Shamus $29.00

1 1 . Deadline $29.00

12. Assembler 64 , $14.95

13. Zork II... $29.00

14. 3-D Man $14.00

1 5. Protector $32.00

16. Starcross $29.00

17. Easy Mail 64 $14.95

18. Grave Robber $11 .00

19. Wall Street $19.00

20. Trash Man $32.00

ATARI HOME COMPUTERS

A

ATARI

ATARI 600XL £1 49

ATARI SOOXL $269

ATARI 1 SOOXL CALL

ATARI 400
ATARI SOO

CALL
CALL

1010 Program Recoraer $74.00

1 02040 Col. Printer/Plotter. . . $249.00

1025 80 Col. Printer... $449.00

1027 LetterQuality Printer . . . $299.00

1050 Disk Drive $379.00

1030DirectConnect Modem. .CALL

CX30 Paddles $1 2.00

CX40 Joystick $8.00

CX42 Remote Joystick CALL

CX77 Touch Tablet $69.00

CX80 Trak Ball $49.00

CX85 Keypad $105.00

CX418 Home Manager $69.00

CX488 Communicator II. . .$229.00
KX7098Atan Accountant .. $209.00

KX71 01 Entertainer $69.00

KX7102 Arcade Champ $75. 00

ALIEN

Atari Voice Box $1 19.00

Apple Voice Box $1 49.00

MEMORY BOAROS

Axlon 32K Ram $59.00

Axlon 48K Ram $99.00

Axlon 128K Ram $299.00

Intec 32K Board... $59.00

Intec 48K Board $85.00

Intec 64K Board (400 only) . . . $99.00
Intec Real Time Clock $39.00

OISK & CART HOLOERS
Flip-n-File 10 $4.00

Flip-n-File 50 $19.00

Flip-n-File 400/800 Cart $1 9.00

AT88-S1 $329.00

AT88-A2 $269.00 I

AT88-S2 $569.00 I

AT88-S1 PD $469.00 I

AT88-DDA $145.00 I

RFD 40-S1 $449.00 I

RFD 40-A1 $279.00 I

RFD 40-S2 $729. 00 I

RFD 44-S1 $539. 00 I

RFD 44-S2 $869.00 I

TX99-S1 $279.00 I

RANA
1000 Atar. Disk Drive $319.00

FLOPPY OISKS

MAXELL

MD-1 $29.00

MD-2 $44.00

FD-1(8' ) $40.00

FD-2{8" DS DD) $50.00

ELEPHANT

5VVSSSD $18.50

5V4*' SS DD $24.95

5V4" DS DD $29.95

VERBATUM

5V« • SS DD $26.00

5'/4" DS DD $36. 00

HEAD
Disk Head Cleaner SI 4.95

APPLE/FRANKLIN

1. Choplifter $27.00

2. Bank Street Writer $55.00

3. PFS: File $89.00

4. Visicalc $1 79.00

5. Home Accountant $55.00

6. Zaxxon $29.00

7. Most Amazing Thing $28.00

8. Visifile $189.00

9. Fathoms 40 $1 9.00

10. Deadline $35.00

11. PFS: Report $89.00

12. Zork III $29.00

1 3. Frogger $24.00

1 4. Facemaker $24.00

1 5. Snooper Troops #1 $32.00

1 6. Delta Drawing $35.00

1 7. Castle Wolfenstine $24.00

18. Wayout $29.00

19. Canyon Climber $19.00

20. Bandits $26.00

TOP SO

ATAR

1 . Donkey Kong $39.00

2. Zaxxon. $29.00

3. E.T. Phone Home . .' $39.00

4. Miner 2049er $35.00

5. Dig Dug $33.00

6. Choplifter $29.00

7. Donkey Kong. Jr $39.00

8. Canyon Climber $25.00

9. Snooper Troops #2 $34.00

10. Word Wizard $59.00

11. Picnic Paranoia $34.00

12. Jumpman $29.00

13. Shamus $34.00

14. Letter Perfect. .$109.00

15. File Manager 800 $69.00

1 6 . Preppie $24.00

17. Astro Chase $25.00

18. Blade/Black Hole $27.00

19. Pac Man $33.00

20. Baja Buggies $25.00

21. Crush. Crumble& Chomp... $24. 00

22. Wayout $27.00

23. Zork II $29.00

24. Visicalc $159.00

25. Atari Writer $49.00

26. Three Little Pi^s $25.00

27. Upper Reaches of Apsha: ...$16.00

28. Starbowl Football $24.95

29. Drelbs $26.00

30. Protector $34.00

31 . Frogger $25.00

32. Lunar Leeper $24.00

33. Wizard of Wor. $34.00

34. Kinder com p $21 .00

35. Moon Shuttle $22.00

36. Home Accountant $55.00

37. Templ^ofApshai $29.00

38. Spell Wizard $39.00

39. Nautilus $26.00

40. ORileys Mine ..$22.00

1.300.6^3.53ff

-CAUADA- z **m

1-800- 268 -4559 1-300-235-3950

In PA call (717)327-9575, Dep*. 1101

477 E. Third St. Williamsport, PA 17701

Order Status #: 327-9576 I

In NV call (702)588-5654, Dept. 1 1 01 In Toronto call (41 6)826-0866, Dept. 1 1 01 In PA call (71 7)327-9575, Dep». 1 1 01

P.O. Box 6689, Stateline, NV 89449 2505 Dunwin Ct.,Unit 1 B, 477 E. Third St. Williamsport, PA 1 7701

Order Status #: 588-5654 Mississauga, Ontario, Canada LSLITI Order Status #: 327-9576 — I

Order Status #: 828-0866
CANADIAN ORDERS: All prices are subject to shipping, tax and currency exchange fluctuations. Call for exact pricing in Canada.
INTERNATIONAL ORDERS: All shipments outside the Continental United States must be pre-paid by certified check only. Include 3% (minimum $5.00)
shipping and handling. EDUCATIONAL DISCOUNTS: Additional discounts are available to qualified Educational Institutions.

WS4

APO & FPO: Add 3% (minimum $5.00) shipping and handling.

Circle 527 on inquiry card.

Circle 303 on inquiry card.

PAL® PROGRAMMING
FOR S100 SYSTEMS

Complete Development System Includes:

SOFTWARE

• PALASM (PAL Assembler and Simulator)

• PAL Programming and Verification Module
(Software supplied on CP/M SD 8" Diskette)

HARDWARE

• PAL Programming and Duplicating Board
Programs Series 20 and 24 PALS

• Circuitry for Opening Security Fuses

• Standard S-100 (IEEE 696) PCB

• 24 Pin ZIF Socket for easy Operation

DOCUMENTATION

• PAL Design Specification

• Users Guide

Complete System $495.00

Software $ 75.00

Documentation on 8" SD Diskette $ 15.00

MICROPRECISION

1189 CRANFORD, CLEVELAND, OH 44107
216/221-1632

®PAL is a registered trademark of Monolithic Memories, Inc.

MAGIC COMPUTER
"INPUT/OUTPUT" MUG

Let the world know when
you're on a coffee break.
When hot liquid is
poured in, one message
disappears and another
takes its place on the
computer screen. Fas-
cinating to watch. Big 10
oz. size. Fine quality
white English porcelain.
10 day money-back
guarantee if not com-
pletely satisfied. *Q95
Toil-Free Mon,-Fri. 9am-6 pm
1-800-B-E-S-W-E-E-T
In Fla. (305) 687-9338

s weet !j iim BY113

1 5490 NW 7th Ave., N. Miami, FL33169

Please send me the Magic "Input/Output" Mug.

Quant (u $8.95 Add $2 each for shipping £> hand.

Fla. residents add 5% sales tax. Total $

End. is Check □ MO □ Charge my MasterCard (J

Visa Q Credit Card #

Exp. Date

•□ Just send me your free COMPGTERMAMA
Catalog for now.*

Signature

Name

Address

City

State Zip

Event Queue

November 1983

November

Computer Showcase Expos,

various sites throughout the
U.S. This popular show will
bring together hardware and
software manufacturers,
dealers, and consumers of
small computer systems. For
further details, contact the In-
terface Group, 160 Speen St.,
POB 927, Framingham, MA
01701, (800) 225-4620; in Mas-
sachusetts, (617) 879-4502.

November-December
Courses from the Continuing
Education Institute, various
sites throughout the U.S.
Among the courses offered
are "Man-Machine Interface,"
"Applied Interactive Com-
puter Graphics," and "High-
Performance Computer Ar-
chitecture." For more infor-
mation, contact the Continu-
ing Education Institute,
Oliver's Carriage House, 5410
Leaf Treader Way, Columbia,
MD 21044, (301) 596-0111; in
California, (213) 824-9545.

November-December
The IBM System/36 Sem-
inar, various sites throughout
the U.S. This seminar pro-
vides a discussion on the ca-
pabilities and performance of
the IBM System/36. For reg-
istration and details, contact
DGC Inc., 1450 Preston For-
est Square, Dallas, TX 75230,
(214) 991-4044.

November-December
Intensive Seminars for Pro-
fessionals, various sites
throughout the U.S. Elec-
tronics magazine, a McGraw-
Hill publication, offers semi-
nars in management and such
technical areas as speech rec-
ognition and synthesis, con-
trolling electromagnetic inter-
ference, fundamentals of
computer graphics, and mi-
croprocessor interfacing. In-
house presentations can be

arranged. For a catalog out-
lining seminars, locations,
and fees, contact Irene
Parker, McGraw-Hill Semi-
nar Center, Suite 603, 331
Madison Ave., New York,
NY 10017, (212) 687-0243.

November-December

James Martin Seminars and

Seminars of Excellence,

various sites throughout the
U.S. and Canada. For a
brochure describing these
data-processing and com-
puter-related seminars, con-
tact Technology Transfer In-
stitute, 741 10th St., Santa
Monica, CA 90402, (213)
394-8305.

November-December
Seminars for Professional De-
velopment, various sites
throughout the U.S. Datapro
Research Corporation offers
more than 35 professional de-
velopment seminars in such
areas as personal computers,
data communications, sys-
tems and software, and office
automation. Complete out-
lines and schedules are avail-
able from Datapro Research
Corp., 1805 Underwood
Blvd., Delran, NJ 08075,
(800) 257-9406; in New
Jersey, (609) 764-0100.

November-December
Software Workshops in
MMSFORTH, Boston metro-
politan area. These work-
shops are public versions of
the professional training
Miller Microcomputer Ser-
vices (MMS) offers to client
companies in support of the
MMSFORTH product line. A
variety of topics and skill lev-
els are covered. Full details
are available from Miller Mi-
crocomputer Services, 61
Lake Shore Rd., Natick, MA
01760, (617) 653-6136.

November-January 1984
Courses from Integrated
Computer Systems, various
sites throughout the U.S. A

622 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

Circle 451 on inquiry card.

THE FORTH SOURCE

TM

MVP-FORTH

Stable - Transportable - Public Domain - Tools
You need two primary features in a software development package a
stable operating system and the ability to move programs easily and
quickly to a variety of computers. MVP-FORTH gives you both these
features and many extras. This public domain product includes an editor,
FORTH assembler, tools, utilities and the vocabulary for the best selling
book "Starting FORTH". The Programmer's Kit provides a complete
FORTH for a number of computers. Other MVP-FORTH products will
simplify the development of your applications.

MVP Books - A Series

□ Volume 1, All about FORTH by Haydon. MVP-FORTH
glossary with cross references to fig-FORTH. Starting FORTH
and FORTH-79 Standard. 2 nd Ed. $25

□ Volume 2, MVP-FORTH Assembly Source Code. Includes
CP/M* , IBM-PC® , and APPLE* listing for kernel $20

MVP-FORTH Software - A Transportable FORTH

□ MVP-FORTH Programmer's Kit including disk, documen-
tation, Volumes 1 & 2 of MVP-FORTH Series (All About
FOR TH, 2 nd Ed. & Assembly Source Code), and Starting
FORTH. Specify □ CP/M, □ CP/M 86, □ CP/M + , D APPLE,

^ □ IBM PC, □ MS-DOS, D Osborne, □ Kaypro, □ H89/Z89,
^ D Z100, D TI-PC, □ MicroDecisions, □ Northstar.

D Compupro, □ Cromemco $1 50

□ MVP-FORTH Cross Compiler for CP/M Programmer's Kit.
Can also generate headerless code for ROM or target

CPU $300

□ MVP-FORTH Meta Compiler for CP/M Programmer's kit. Use
forapplicatons on CP/M based computer. Includes public
domain source $1 50

□ MVP-FORTH Fast Floating Point for APPLE Programmer's
Kit. Includes 951 1 math chip on board with disk and
documentation. $400

□ MVP-FORTH Programming Aids for CP/M, IBM or APPLE
Programmer's Kit. Extremely useful tool for decompiling,
callfinding, and translating. $150

□ MVP-FORTH by ECS Software for IBM-PC or ATARI®
400/800. Standalone with screen editor. License required.
Upgradeable $100

□ MVP-FORTH by ECS Software for IBM-PC or ATARI 400/800.
Enhanced with color animation, multitasking sound, utilities,
and unlimited run time license. $175

□ MVP-FORTH Professional Application Development System
(PADS) for CP/M, IBM-PC, or APPLE. A three level integrated
system with complete documentation. Complete system $400

□ MVP-FORTH PADS

□ MVP-FORTH PADS
n MVP-FORTH PADS

Enhanced virtual system $1 50

Programming Aids $150

Metacompiler $150

• •• MVP-FORTH operates under a variety of CPU's, computers, and
operating systems. CP/M® disks can be supplied 8", SS/SD, 3740
format or 5 1 /4 for Osborne® Northstar® Micro Decisions® Kaypro® or
H89/Z89® . Specify your computer and operating system. • • •

FORTH DISKS

FORTH with editor, assembler, and manual.

□ IBM-PC* by LM $100
D NOVA by CCI 8" DS/DD$1 50

□ Z80 by LM $50

□ 8086/88 by LM $100
D VIC FORTH byHES, VIC20

cartridge $50

APPLE by MM $100

APPLE by Kuntze $90

ATARI® valFORTH $60

CP/M e) by MM $100

HP-85 by Lange $90

HP-75 by Cassady ^$150

Enhanced FORTH with: F-Floating Point, G-Graphics, T-Tutorial,
S-Stand Alone, M-Math Chip Support, MT-Multi-Tasking, X-Other
Extras, 79-FORTH-79.

□ APPLE by MM,
F,G, &79 $140
ATARI by PNS, F,G, & X. $90
CP/M by MM, F & 79 $140
Apple, GraFORTH by I $75
Multi-Tasking FORTH by SL,
CP/M, X & 79 $395

□ TRS-80/1 or III by MMS
^ EX, &79 $130

^ □ Timex by FD, tape G.X, &

79 $45

□ TUTORIAL by LH, includes
Starting FORTH $95

□
□
□
□

D

Extensions for LM Specify
IBM, Z80, or 8086

□ Software Floating
Point $1 00

□ 8087 Support
(IBM-PC or 8086) $100

□ 951 1 Support
(Z80 or 8086) $1 00

D Color Graphics
(IBM-PC) $100

□ Data Base
Management $200

Requires LM FORTH disk, a
Victor 9000 by DE, G,X &
$150

□ fig-FORTH Programming Aids for decompiling, callfinding,
and translating. CP/M, IBM-PC, Z80, or Apple $15C

CROSS COMPILERS Allow extending, modifying and compiling for
speed and memory savings, can also produce ROMable code.
•Requires FORTH disk.

□ CP/M $300 □ IBM* $300

□ 8086« $300 □ Z80« $300

□ Northstar $300 □ Apple ll/ll + $300

□ FORTH Computer - Jupiter Ace

□ 1 6K RAM Pack

□ 48K RAM Pack

□ Par/Sec Interface

•

$150

$50

$125

$100

Key to vendors:

CCI Capstone Computing Inc.

DE Dai-E Systems

FD Forth Dimension

I Insoft

LH Laxen and Harris

LM Laboratory Microsystems

MM MicroMotion

MMS Miller Microcomputer Services

NS Nautilus Systems

PNS Pink Noise Studio

SL Shaw Labs

FORTH MANUALS, GUIDES & DOCUMENTS

□ ALL ABOUT FORTH by

Haydon. See above. $25
D FORTH Encyclopedia by

Derick & Baker.

Programmer's manual to fig-
FORTH with FORTH-79

references. Flow charted, 2 nd

Ed. $25

D Understanding FORTH by

Reymann $3

' □ FORTH Fundamentals, Vol.

IbyMcCabe $16

□ FORTH Fundamentals, Vol.
II by McCabe $1 3

^ □ Beginning FORTH by

Chirlian $17

□ FORTH Encyclopedia
Pocket Guide $7

□ And So FORTH by Huang. A
college level text. $25

□ FORTH Programming by
Scanlon $17

□ FORTH on the ATARI by E.
Floegel $

□ Starting FORTH by Brodie
Best instructional manual
available, (soft cover) $19

(hard cover) $23

D Installation Manual for fig-FORTH

Source Listings of fig-FORTH, for specific CPU's and computers. The
Installation Manual is required for implementation. Each $15

□ 1802 □ 6502 □ 6800 □ AlphaMicro

D 8080 □ 8086/88 □ 9900 □ APPLE II

D PACE □ 6809 □ NOVA □ PDP-1 1/LSI-1 1

a 68000 D Eclipse □ VAX □ Z80

Ordering Information: Check. Money Order (payable to MOUNTAIN VIEW PRESS.
INC.). VISA. MasterCard. COD's $5 extra. 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 $1 5. 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

□ 1980 FORML Proc.

$25

□ 1981 FORML Proc 2 Vol $40

□ 1982 FORML Proc.

$25

□ 1981 Rochester FORTH

Proc.

$25

□ 1982 Rochester FORTH

Proc.

$25

^ D 1983 Rochester FORTH

Proc.

$25

□ A FORTH Primer

$25

□ Threaded Interpretive
Languages

$23

□ METAFORTH by
Cassady

$30

D Systems Guide to fig-
FORTH

$25

D Invitation to FORTH

$20

□ PDP-11 User Man.
^ □ FORTH-83 Standard

$20

$15

□ FORTH-79 Standard

$15

□ FORTH-79 Standard

Conversion

$10

□ NOVA fig-FORTH by CCI
Source Listing $15

□ NOVA by CCI User's Manual
includes editor, assembler,

and utilities

$25

ORTH $15

MOUNTAIN VIEW PRESS, INC.

PO BOX 4656

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA 94040

(415)961-4103

Circle 319 on inquiry card.

BYTE November 1983 623

Circle 169 on inquiry card.

Eco-C

TM

^c^^l^

Compiler

Since November of last year, we've been testing our new
Eco-C Compiler and now it's ready for yourZ80™CP/M™
system. Some of the features include:

• All datatypes, including float, double and long.

• Fast, efficient code. For example: Our versions of
"seive" in January, 1983, BYTE; 15.8 seconds
(standard) and 11.7 seconds (optimized).

• Uses Microsoft's MACRO 80™ for REL file output.

• Standard (K&R) file I/O and library (most in source)
included.

• Easy assembly language interface.

• No royalty fees on generated code.

The price for Eco-C is $350.00 and includes MACRO 80 (a
$200.00 value by itself). We'll also include a free copy of
C Programming Guide while supplies last.

For further information, call or write:

'M2ZM

P.O. Box 68602

ECOBOFTflNC.

Indianapolis, IN 46268 (^^H
(317) 255-6476 - - --—

Registered trademarks are: Zilog (Z80), Digital Research
(CP/M), Microsoft (MACRO 80) and Ecosoft (Eco-C).

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,
Department 105, 1412 16th
Street, NW. Washington,
IKI^P DC 20036.

It's not too late.

Event Queue.

few of the course titles in-
clude "Digital Image Pro-
cessing," "Digital Signal Pro-
cessing," "Computer Graph-
ics," and "State-of-the-art
Robot Systems." The fees for
these courses range from $695
to $895. For information,
contact Ruth Dordick, Inte-
grated Computer Systems,
6305 Arizona Place, Los An-
geles, CA 90045, (213)
450-2060.

November- January 1984

Courses from Q. E. D. Infor-
mation Sciences, various sites
throughout the U.S. Sched-
uled courses include "Systems
Analysis Workshop," Data-
base Design," and "Project
Management and Control."
Address inquiries to Q. E. D.
Information Sciences Inc.,
Q. E. D. Plaza, POB 181,
Wellesley, MA 02181, (800)
343-4848; in Massachusetts,
(617) 237-5656.

November -January 1984
Technology Opportunity
Conference, various sites
throughout the U.S. This
conference series focuses on
the convergence of optical-
storage, videodisc, and com-
puter technologies. For full
details, contact Technology
Opportunity Conference,
POB 14817, San Francisco,
CA 94114, (415) 626-1133.

November- August 1984
Conferences and Expositions
from the Society of Manufac-
turing Engineers, various
sites throughout the U.S. and
around the world. More than
25 conferences and exposi-
tions are scheduled. For a
calendar, contact the Public
Relations Department, Soci-
ety of Manufacturing En-
gineers, One SME Dr., POB
930, Dearborn, MI 48121,
(313) 271-0777.

November 8-11

Wescon/83 and Mini/Micro
West-83, San Francisco, CA.
A conference and exposition,

Wescon covers a broad range
of topics, including artificial
intelligence, computer pe-
ripherals and simulation, and
robotics. Mini /Micro serves
the original equipment manu-
facturer community by ex-
ploring peripherals, proces-
sors, data communications,
and software. Contact Elec-
tronic Conventions Inc., 8110
Airport Blvd., Los Angeles,
CA 90045, (213) 772-2965.

November 9-10

Business-Expo, Philadelphia,
PA. This exposition serves as
a showcase for office equip-
ment ranging from computers
to coffee machines. More
than 20 seminars are planned.
Address inquiries to Busi-
ness-Expo, 702 East North-
land Towers, 15565 North-
land Dr., Southfield, MI
48075, (313) 569-8280.

November 9-11

Cryptography and Data Se-
curity, Washington, DC. For
details, contact Hellman As-
sociates Inc., Suite 300, 299
California Ave., Palo Alto,
CA 94306, (415) 328-4091.

November 9-15

Interkama 83, Diisseldorf,
West Germany. This exhibi-
tion is designed for the instru-
mentation and automation
industries. It's expected to at-
tract more than 1000 exhibi-
tors from over 25 countries.
For complete details, contact
Diisseldorf Trade Shows, 500
Fifth Ave., New York, NY
10110, (212) 840-7744.

November 11-13

The Austin Computer Fair
Xmas Show, Palmer Munici-
pal Auditorium, Austin, TX.
More than 100 exhibits and
seminars will serve to ac-
quaint the public and busi-
ness community with the
computer industry. Contact
David Orshalick, Austin
Seminars Inc., POB 4531,
Austin, TX 78765, (512)
835-8796.

624 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

WHO'D LET
A2WEAR-OLD
WORKWITHTHE
WORLD'SMQST

SOPHBIKATD

LASER SYSIEM?

Or evaluate primary sensor performances of
multimillion dollar satellites?

Or manage millions of dollars a year in
defense contracts?

The Air Force, that's who.

If you're a talented, motivated electrical
engineer or plan to be, you don't have to wait to
work with the newest, most sophisticated
technology around.

You can do it now, as an Air Force officer
working as an electrical engineer.

Don't get us wrong. We don't hand it to you
on a silver platter. You have to work for it. Hard.

But if you do, we'll give you all the
responsibility you can handle. And reward you well
for taking it.

You'll get housing, medical and dental care —
and excellent pay that increases as you rise in rank.

Plus there are opportunities to attend graduate

school. If you're qualified and selected, we'll pay
75% of your tuition. Those with special
qualifications can even study full time, at no cost.

So plug into the Air Force. Because when it
comes to technology, the Air Force can help you
achieve great sophistication at a very tender age.

For more information mail in the card, or call
our toll-free Engineer Hotline 1-800-531-5826 (in
Texas 1-800-292-5366). Better yet, send your '
resume to HRS/RSAANE, Randolph AFB, TX
78150. There's no obligation.

^

mmm

AIR FORCE

A great place for engineers

Circle 486 on inquiry card.

BYTE November 1983 625

TIMES

FASTER THAN

dBASE II

TM

If you bought your computer to save time, then you
need SUPER, the most powerful database system you
can use. Power is a combination of speed, ease of use
and versatility. SUPER has them all.

FAST - To demonstrate SUPER'S speed, ISA retained a
professional dBASE programmer to benchmark SUPER
vs. the acknowledged leader. A simple mailing list
application was chosen to minimize dBASE
programming cost. The results:

Task

SUPER Time

dBASE II Time

Set up/Program

5:20 min.

12:18:00 hrs.

Input 100 records

50:29 min.

1:27:50 hrs.

Sort & Print Labels

6:41 min.

4:18 min.

Totals

1:02:30 hrs.

13:50:08 hrs.

Notice that SUPER was faster at every task where your
time is involved— and saving your time is probably the
whole reason you bought a computer.

EASY TO USE - SUPER won because of its ease of
use. Since it is menu-driven, office personnel can easily
learn to use SUPER to set up their own applications,
speeding and simplifying dozens of tasks without the
need of programmer support.

VERSATILE - SUPER, unlike other business
programs, doesn't dictate how to run your business.
With SUPER the computer does what you want, when
you want, the way you want it. SUPER may be the only
business program you'll ever need. It can handle
customer files, payables, receivables, depreciation,
appointments, cost accounting, time charges,
commissions, inventory, manufacturing control, and
even matrix accounting systems!

SUPER PERFORMANCE AT A SUPER PRICE -

That SUPER beats the $700 dBASE program may
surprise you, but in terms of price vs. performance
SUPER has no competitors. Among its features are:
production input, data compression, multiple databases
on line, transaction posting, file reformating, stored
arithmetic files, flexible report formats, hierarchical sort
and multi-disk files for up to 131, 068 records. It can
select by ranges, sub-strings, and field comparisons. It
interfaces to word processors such as WordStar™,
SuperSCRIPTSIT™, Model 11/16 SCRIPTSIT™, and
NEWSCRIPT™. In fact SUPER has so many features that

it takes a six-page product description to cover them all.
Write or call and we'll send you one.

SUPER is available for TRS-80™ Models I & III under
NEWDOS™, LDOS™, and DOSPLUS; for TRS-80 Models
II, III and 16 under TRSDOS™; and CP/M™ systems.

NOW $199.00*

Manual (Price applicable to purchase)

Now available for the IBM PC

MasterCard and VISA accepted.

$ 25.00

NEW

SUPER/XT for IBM

10 Times Faster operation than 64K SUPER.

60 fields, relational structure, 32K maximum

record length, 10 indexes, table look-up on

data entry forverification or insertion, upward

compatibility with SUPER data files, multiple

screens, etc. $2gg QQ

Write for Catalogue

Institute For Scientific Analysis, Inc.

SOFTWARE FOR HARD USE

Dept B-5 Institute for Scientific Analysis, Inc.
P.O. Box 7186 Wilmington, DE 19803 (215) 566-0801

ORDERS ONLY
800-441-7680 EXT. 501

Trade mark owners: dBASEII-Ashton-Tate. SCRIPTSIT. SuperSCRIPTSIT, TRSDOS.
and TRS-80-Tandy Corp. NEWDOS/80-Apparat. Inc. WordStar-MicroPro Intl. Corp.
NEWSCRIPT-PROSOFT. LDOS-Logical Systems, Inc. CP/M-Digital Research.

•Plus $15.00 formatting charge for non-standard CP/M version.

626 BYTE November 1983

Circle 228 on inquiry card.

Circle 15 on inquiry card.

Event Queue

November 11-13

Hometech '83, Exhibition
Centre, Bristol, England. Per-
sonal computers and related
equipment will be displayed.
Contact Tomorrow's World
Exhibitions Ltd., 9 Park
Place, Clifton, Bristol BS8
1JP, England; tel: (0272)
292156.

November 13-16

HE Fall Conference, Sheraton
Centre Hotel, Toronto, Can-
ada. Sponsored by the Insti-
tute of Industrial Engineers
(HE), this event will include
speakers, educational ses-
sions, plant tours, work-
shops, preconference semi-
nars, and leisure activities.
For registration and details,
contact HE Conference
Department, 25 Technology
Park/ Atlanta, Nor cross, GA
30092, (404) 449-0460.

November 14-16

VLSI Design, Los Angeles,
CA. For details, contact Hell-
man Associates Inc., Suite
300, 299 California Ave.,
Palo Alto, CA 94306, (415)
328-4091.

November 14-17

AUTOFACT 5 Conference
and Exposition, Cobo Hall,
Detroit, MI. The focus of this
event will be on CAD/CAM
(computer-aided design/
manufacturing) and the ex-
panding technologies of com-
puter-integrated manufac-
turing and the automated fac-
tory. More than 90 com-
panies will exhibit
CAD/CAM systems, com-
puter graphics, software, in-
dustrial robots, and com-
puter-based test and measure-
ment systems. Concurrent
technical sessions and tutori-
als will be held. Contact
Gregg Balko, Society of
Manufacturing Engineers,
One SME Dr., POB 930,
Dearborn, MI 48121, (313)
271-1080.

November 14-17

Canadian Computer Show &
Conference, International
Centre, Toronto, Ontario,
Canada. Further information
is available from Industrial
Trade Shows of Canada, 20
Butterick Rd., Toronto, On-
tario M8W 3Z8, Canada,
(416) 252-7791.

November 15-17

SNA Architecture and Imple-
mentation, Sheraton Rolling
Green Inn and Conference
Center, Boston, MA. This
seminar provides the working
knowledge needed to design
SNA (system-network archi-
tecture) networks and eval-
uate SNA-compatible prod-
ucts. Examples of how vari-
ous protocols are used to
control communications will
be provided. Other topics in-
clude SNA functional layer-
ing and network elements.
The fee is $650. Full details
are available from Communi-
cations Solutions Inc., 992
Saratoga-Sunnyvale Rd., San
Jose, CA 95129, (408)
725-1568.

November 15-17

The Technical Manager in an

Engineering Environment,

University of California,
Berkeley. This course will
deal with practical techniques
for efficient management. It
will include workshop ses-
sions and clinics focusing on
specific problems. The fee is
$645. Further details are
available from Continuing
Education in Engineering,
Department 670N, University
of California Extension, 2223
Fulton St., Berkeley, CA
94720, (415) 642-4151.

November 15-18

Understanding Microproces-
sor-based Equipment and
Troubleshooting, Ramada
Airport Inn, Rochester, NY.
This course is designed to
provide technicians and en-
gineers with a background in
microprocessor fundamentals
and troubleshooting tech-

TWORKthos

BSrV; :■;■%,

:^fe.-- : V'M § £ k

Have both word quality and dot matrix printers

on U»e wrrift port voir.ou; ch^hfj r,g

an/ oi you! so-ftvv-re'

Share your printers, plotters or modems

automatically!

We have parallel switches designed especially for
/your PC

Call ASCI Today

Advanced Systems Concepts, Inc.

435 N. Lake Avenue, Dept. If

Pasadena, Ca 91 101

{80OJ 824-7080

inCalrfom.a<213> 793 897 1 Telex701215

PROFESSIONAL

SOFTWARE
FOR MICRO'S

* Insurance Agency Management

* Medical Office Management

* Dental Office Management

* Property Management

* Legal Time Accounting

* Professional Time Accounting

On-Line Order Entry
Super Ledger Accounting
General Ledger Accounting
Accounts Receivable
Accounts Payable

,TJ

gg\ Data Bas

^■— g X Managem

Runs On CP/M, CP/M-86 & MS-DOS

TTMT^/ A TO UNIVAIR INTERNATIONA

Ul\ 1 Vr\lK 9024ST.CHARLESROCK ROAI

ST. LOUIS. MISSOURI U.S.A. 631

SYSTEMS (314)426-1099

Dealers
Welcome

Circle 489 on inquiry card

November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. 627

Circle 237 on inquiry card.

A NEW STANDARD

IN PROFESSIONAL VOICE QUALITY

The new INTEX-TALKER features professional voice quality, unlimited
vocabulary and automatic inflection control. The built-in text-to-
phoneme algorithm is highly accurate. INTEX-TALKER can speak or
spell any ASCII text - including punctuation. 8 K bytes of user
programmable memory are included. A 2.7 K character buffer is
available for text storage or downloading user pragrams. Other
features include:

• 64 inflection levels (automatic or
manual control)

• RS232C and Parallel connectors

• Spelling and phoneme access modes

• Adjustable baud rates (75-9600)

• 5 octaves of music

• 6502 Microprocessor

• Completely self-contained
(requires no overhead)

• Built in speaker option

• Available at board level
in OEM quantities

For More Information

Write or call us at (313) 540-7601 to order or request our product
brochure. Visa/Master Charge accepted. S345.00 (plus shipping).

Irrtex Micro Systems Corporation

725 S. Adams Rd. - Suite L-8
Birmingham, Michigan 48011

MOVE-IT

makes

communication

simple

w$0 \

Lhii

FOR PC DOS, CPM-86 and CPM Systems.

• SIMPLE TO INSTALL. MOVE-IT can be installed in
under 5 minutes by answering simple questions at the
console. Included is the set-up information for over 100
micros and 10 I/O boards.

• SIMPLE TO USE PROGRAM. MOVE-ITS 20
commands allow you to auto-dial and access remote
information utilities, and bulletin boards, including
upload and download. Transfer files error free between
PC and other micros when both run MOVE-IT. Display
both local and remote directories . . . and a whole list
of other features.

• SIMPLE TO UNDERSTAND MANUAL. Complete 80
page manual is included. Over 8000 programs now in
use. "One of the few packages that actually works as
advertised," says Interface Age.

MOVE-IT program and manual suggested retail $150.
For CPM systems $125. Specify disk format and
operating sysem when ordering.

WOOLF SOFTWARE SYSTEMS INC.

6754 ETON AVE. CANOGA PK., CA 91303 (213) 703-8112

w

Event Queue-

niques. Equipment familiar-
ization and hands-on experi-
mentation are emphasized.
The registration fee is $595;
multiple discounts are of-
fered. Contact Micro Systems
Institute, Garnett, KS 66032,
(913) 898-6152.

November 17-18

Voice-Data Integration and
the Digital PBX, Washington,
DC. This symposium features
presentations on major voice-
data PBX systems and on
such related equipment as in-
tegrated workstations, voice-
store-and-forward equip-
ment, and more. For infor-
mation, contact Diane Pon-
tisso, Phillips Publishing Inc.,
Suite 1200N, 7315 Wisconsin
Ave., Bethesda, MD 20814,
(301) 986-0666.

November 17-19

Ed-Com/Fall '83, Los Ange-
les, CA. This conference and
exposition offers demonstra-
tions, seminars, hands-on
sessions, panels, and micro
courses that address, eval-
uate, and analyze the devel-
opment of computers in edu-
cation. Hardware, software,
and publishing companies
will display items of interest.
Contact Carol Houts, Judco
Computer Expos Inc., Suite
201, 2629 North Scottsdale
Rd., Scottsdale, AZ 85257,
(800) 528-2355; in Arizona,
(602) 990-1715.

November 17-19

The Fifth Annual Northeast
Computer Show and Soft-
ware Exposition, Hynes
Auditorium, Boston, MA.
This end-user computer show
offers nearly 500 displays of
computers, peripherals, ac-
cessories, and software. More
information is available from
Northeast Expositions, 822
Boylston St., Chestnut Hill,
MA 02167, (800) 841-7000; in
Massachusetts, (617) 739-
2000.

November 19

TC/TC: A Teachers College
Conference on Teaching with
Computers, Teachers Col-
lege, Columbia University,
New York, NY. As many as
60 teachers will present
computer-based lessons that
they have developed. Lessons
include reading, music, art,
mathematics, French, compo-
sition, and poetry for kinder-
garten through 12th grade.
Workshops will also be fea-
tured. Contact the Office of
Continuing Education, Box
132, Teachers College, Co-
lumbia University, New
York, NY 10027, (212)
678-3065.

November 20-22

The Third Annual Purdue
On-Farm Computer Use Con-
ference and Trade Show,

Purdue University Armory,
West Lafayette, IN. Exhibits
and demonstrations will be
featured. Contact Stephen J.
Resch, Continuing Education
Administration, Stewart
Center, Purdue University,
West Lafayette, IN 47907,
(317) 494-2755.

November 20-24

The Third Gulf Computer
Exhibition and the Gulf Of-
fice Exhibition, International
Center, Dubai, United Arab
Emirates. These concurrent
exhibitions are designed to
promote all aspects of com-
puter technology and com-
puter-related office equip-
ment. Information is available
from Mid-Asia/ Africa Busi-
ness Co. Inc., Suite 308, 739
Boylston St., Boston, MA
02116, (617) 536-3442.

November 28-December 2
Welcome to the World of
Personal Computing, Fort
Lauderdale, FL. This is a
comprehensive introduction
on how to use microcom-
puter technology in business,
industry, and government.
The workshop agenda offers
six modules ranging from
user productivity to software

628 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

Circle 440 on inquiry card.

0<mm

is

W

Slit!

Sli

111

i:'ifM:>

The best

career move you can make

is to the keyboard of your personal computer.

It's free. It's confidential.

Today's technical career market changes fast.

But now there's a way to keep up with it. This
new key to career opportunity is your personal
computer. And the cost is nothing but a phone call.

Just call CLEO. That stands for Computer Listings
of Employment Opportunities.

CLEO responds to your commands. You specify
what job categories, companies, or geographic loca-
tions interest you. CLEO calls up the appropriate ads
right on your screen. At every step, you're guided by
explicit online instructions.

Daily updates keep CLEO job listings current.
You can even apply for positions right from your

Circle 73 on inquiry card.

own terminal. For a detailed job search, or just an
idea of what's available, CLEO is waiting for your
call today. With today's opportunities.

CLEO access: (415) 482-1550 • (408) 294-2000 •
(213) 618-8800 • (714) 476-8800 • (619) 224-8800

300 BAUD, full duplex, standard ASCII code.
Access assistance: (213) 618-1525

Recruitment advertisers —
call (213) 618-0200 collect
to find out how you can

Computer Listings of Employment Opportunities place VOUr ad On CLEO.

An electronic publishing activity of The Copley Press, Inc.

BYTE November 1983

629

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
17791 Jamestown Lane Huntington Beach, CA
92647 (714) 848-3947

COMPETITIVE EDGE

P.O. BOX 556 PLYMOUTH, MI 48170

Order Line 800-336-1410 — Local & Info 313-451-0665

Announcing Our Super Reliable Budget Systems!!

That's right, now COMPUPRO® CSC circuit boards in our budget systems at no increase in
priceover the old A&T systems. And a new48-hourloaner floppy policy for only $25 addi-
tional that gives you 48-hour warranty on boards and floppys in the Competitive Edge Budget
System.
SYSTEM LIST SALE

CPU Z 6MHz, 64K, 1/0 I, CP/M® 2.2 $4495 $2995

CPU 85/88, 64K, 1/0 I, CP/M 2.2 4595 3095

10 MHz 8086, 128k, I/O I, CPM86™ 6025 3895

10 MHZ 68000, RAM 21 , I/O I CPM68K™ 6025 3895

MP/M 8-1 6 IM , 85/88, SS1 , I/O 4, 256K 7765 4995

10MHz 8086 MPM 86, SSI, I/O 4, 256K 8090 5245

FOR L0ANER FLOPPY POLICY ON ABOVE + 25

FOR MINI PRONTO 1 SLOT C.V.T. ADD 400

FOR 20 SLOT PRONTO R0LL-A-R0UND ADD 600

FOR ENCLOSURE 2 & PARA DYN DR CAB + 600

NEW LOWER PRICES ON COMPUPRO BOARDS!
DISK 1 A&T 327 DISK 2 A&T 459

CPU68KA&T 459

CPUZ6MHZA&T 215

CPU 8086 10MHZ 561

RAM22 256KA&T 1155

INTERFACER 4 A&T 297

CPU68K10MHZ 561

CPU8086A&T.. 495

RAM 21 128KA&T 723

RAM17A&T64K 329

INTERFACER 3-8 A&T 461

L0MAS S-100 PC LIST $2999 SALE $2495

L0MASCPU286 1116

L0MAS10MHZ8086 520

L0MASRAM67128K ...875

CP/M 86 FOR L0MAS 195

L0MAS 256K DRAM 636

L0MAS8MHZ8086 420

L0MAS HAZITALL 275

L0MAS LDP72 220

MSD0S FOR L0MAS 225

L0MAS128KDRAM 396

TELTEK SYSTEMASTER, (2)8"SSDD DRS 10 SLT .1895

Above includes CP/M 2.2 & SPELLBINDER

TETETEK HD/CTC 556 SYSTEMASTER Z80 627

SEATTLE GAZELLE 4695 SEATTLE 8086 SET 595

QUME QT102TERM 539 EPSON FX80 499

CPM, MPM, CPM68K are registered trademarks or trademarks of digital research.
COMPUPRO is a Godbout Company, Systemaster is a registered TM of Teletek.

Event Queue

reliability. For details, con-
tact Keston Associates, 11317
Old Club Rd., Rockville, MD
20852, (301) 881-7666.

November 29-December 2
Understanding Microproces-
sor-based Equipment and
Troubleshooting, Sheraton
Greenway Inn, Phoenix, AZ.
For details, see November
15-18.

December 1983

December

Courses in Continuing Engi-
neering Education, Washing-
ton, DC, and San Diego, CA.
Two titles of the five avail-
able courses are "Intelligent
Robots: The Integration of
Microcomputer and Robotic
Technology" and "Program-
ming in the C and Unix Envi-
ronment." Course fees range
from $695 to $875. For infor-
mation on dates, locations,
and fees, contact George
Harrison, George Washing-
ton University, Continuing
Engineering Education,
Washington, DC 20052, (800)
424-9773; in the District of
Columbia, (202) 676-6106.

December 6-8

Personal Computers and In-
formation Networks in a
Wired Society, San Fran-
cisco, CA. The topics for this
executive seminar include
personal computers and tele-
communications for com-
puterized commerce, inter-
enterprise-communication
links, fifth-generation and
Japanese technologies, by-
pass and integrated links, and
field trips. The registration
fee is $795. For details, con-
tact Stanford Business Re-
search Foundation, 825 San
Antonio Rd., Palo Alto, CA,-
94303, (415) 856-0711.

December 6-8

The Seventh International

Online Information Meeting,

Cunard Hotel, London, Eng-
land. This conference offers
presentations that address
current problems and oppor-
tunities facing those who pro-
vide information in business,
industry, government, and
education. Topics on the
agenda include networks,
costs of online and videotex
systems, software, and user
information. Products, ser-
vices, systems, and publica-
tions will all be on display.
Further details are available
from the Organizing Secre-
tary, International Online In-
formation Meeting, Learned
Information Ltd., Bessel-
sleigh Rd., Abingdon, Ox-
ford OX13 6LG, England; tel:
(0865) 730275; Telex: 837704
INFORM G.

December 6-8

Business-Expo, Dallas, TX.
For details, see November
9-10.

December 6-8

The Software Maintenance
Workshop, Naval Postgrad-
uate School, Monterey, CA.
Topics of interest include def-
initions of software mainte-
nance, tools for software and
database maintenance, and
program evolution. Contact
the IEEE Computer Society,
Suite 300, 1109 Spring St.,
Silver Spring, MD 20910,
(301) 589-8142.

December 6-9

Understanding Microproces-
sor-based Equipment and
Troubleshooting, Capitol
Plaza Holiday Inn, Sacra-
mento, CA. For details, see
November 15-18.

December 7-9

The 1983 ACM Conference
on Personal and Small Com-
puters, San Diego, CA. This
event, sponsored by the
Association for Computing

630 November 1983 © B\TE Publications Inc.

Circle 84 on inquiry card.

MEMORY PLUS MORE

LSI 11 MEMORY

MULTIBUS MEMORY

512 SINGLE BOARD

W/RS232-C PORT

MEMORY FOR IBM PC, XT

• On board parity with interrupt on
parity error.

• Addressable as a contiguous block in
64KB increments thru 1 megabyte.

SINGLE QTY. PRICE:
512KB $545.00

FREE with purchase of memory.

MEMDISK 1 Allows memory to emulate
disks.

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1

1

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IIHilMNilMIMtlili jai^it am

256KB TO 1 MB
SINGLE BOARD
LSI 11 MEMORY

• Control Status Register (CSR).

• On board parity generator checker.

• Battery back-up mode.

SINGLE QTY. PRICE:
256KB $595.00

1MB $3995.00

512KB TO 2MB EDC

SINGLE BOARD
MULTIBUS MEMORY

• Pin to Pin MULTIBUS compatibility for
both 8 bit and 16 bit systems.

• Addressable up to 16 megabytes.

• On board parity with selectable
interrupt on parity ERROR.

OR

• Error Detecting and Correcting (EDC).

SINGLE QTY. PRICE:
Without/EDC W/EDC
512KB $895.00 $1495.00
2MB $5995.00 $6495.00

MEMORY PLUS MORE from Chrislin means your getting the best in performance and pricing in the market today. Incorporating
the 256K RAM technology into the LSI and Multibus memories offers you the most recent technology available. Act now while
quantities still last.

140MB WINCHESTER DISK SYSTEM
FOR LSI BASED SYSTEMS

CI-1340-WF: 140MB formatted Winchester (8")
disk system w/controller and 2MB floppy (8")
backup w/controller.

PRICE:
$9995.00

€

"OFFERING QUALITY WITH AFFORDABLE PRICING"

Chrislin Industries, Inc.

31352 Via Colinas • Westlake Village, CA 91362

Telephone: 213-991-2254 • TWX 910-494-1253 CHRISLIN WKVG

IBM is a Trademark of International Business Machines. Multibus is a Trademark of Intel Corporation. LSI is a Trademark of Digital Equipment Corporation.
Circle 71 on inquiry card. BYTE November 1983 631

Circle 390 on inquiry card.

THE

GIFT

Now at your bookstore

Thumb indexed $14.95
Deluxe edition $15.95
Plain edge $13.95

RANDOM HOUSE

Publishers of The Random House Dictionary
of the English Language, Unabridged Edition

Btrieve

A b-tree based record retrieval
system designed to solve all your
application's database needs.

Btrieve/ N

Al It he power of Btrieve in a
network environment.

• Interfaces to BASIC, Pascal,
COBOL and C

• Multi-key access to any
number of files

• Duplicate and modifiable keys

• Unlimited number of records
per file

• Built-in file integrity controls

• Unsurpassed access speed

• Efficient memory utilization

Compare Btrieve's capabilities to
any record management or ISAM
system available and we are con-
vinced that you will select Btrieve.
$145.00

Share files among multiplexes

using Btrieve plus any one of

the following networks:

• MultlLink

■

• PCnet
• ShareNet

• X-NET

:':■ :

$495.00

■ ■ ■ ■

I

ft:/

&-

7. —

=^C

loftCraft

nc.

P.O. Box 9802 #590

Austin, Texas 78766

(512) 346-8380

Event Queue.

Machinery (ACM), includes
sessions on distributed sys-
tems, graphics, languages,
distributed operating sys-
tems, algorithms, operating
systems, human interfaces,
local-area networks, and
database systems. Contact
Anne-Marie Claybrook, The
Mitre Corp., POB 208, Bed-
ford, MA 01730.

December 7-9

Teaching Math with Micro-
computers, Dunfey Atlanta
Hotel, Atlanta, GA. This
seminar, sponsored by the
National Council of Teachers
of Mathematics (NCTM), is
designed to inform educators
in elementary, intermediate,
and secondary schools about
using microcomputers effec-
tively in mathematics educa-
tion. For details, contact
NCTM Seminar Series, 1906
Association Dr., Reston, VA
22091, (703) 620-9840.

December 8-11

Southeast Computer Show
and Office Equipment Expo-
sition, Atlanta, GA. Contact
Dee Harris, Computer Expo-
sitions Inc., POB 3315, An-
napolis, MD 21403, (800)
368-2066; in Maryland, (800)
492-0192.

December 9-15

Educatec 83, Porte de Ver-
sailles, Paris, France. This is
the first French exhibition of
computerized teaching and
training equipment, materi-
als, and techniques. Meetings,
symposiums, and debates on
educational technologies and
professional training will be
held. For details, contact Edit
Expo International, 4 rue de
Cheroy, 75017 Paris, France;
tel: (1) 294 05 60; Telex:
641284 F EDIXPO.

December 12-14

An Introduction to Small
Computers for Business Ap-
plications, Hamilton Hotel,
Schaumberg, IL. This confer-
ence and hardware demon-

stration will provide a cur-
rent introduction and review
of small computers and mi-
croprocessors with an em-
phasis on what they are,
what their terminology is,
and what is available. Pro-
gram materials are included
in the $350 fee. For details,
contact Bob Mattis, Informa-
tion Systems Division, EECI
Inc., POB 241, Glen Ellyn, IL
60137, (312) 790-0010; in
California, (415) 763-2371.

December 12-15

Conference on Human Fac-
tors in Computing Systems —
CHI '83, Boston, MA. Pa-
pers, sessions, and tutorials
will focus on system usabil-
ity. Additional information is
available from Raoul N.
Smith, GTE Laboratories, 40
Sylvan Rd., Waltham, MA
02254, (617) 466-4044.

December 13-15

Automatic Testing and Test
Instrumentation '83, Metro-
pole Hotel, Brighton, Eng-
land. This is an exhibition
and conference covering all
aspects of test systems. For
details, contact Network
Events Limited, Printers
Mews, Market Hill, Bucking-
ham, MK18 1JX, England;
tel: (028 0) 815226; Telex:
83111.

December 14-15

Hi Tech Update '83, Delta Ot-
tawa Hotel, Ottawa, On-
tario, Canada. An annual up-
date on state-of-the-art high
technologies. Contact Marg
Coll, 1138 Sherman Dr., Ot-
tawa, Ontario K2C 2M4,
Canada, (613) 225-4229.

December 15-16

Personal Computer Local
Networks, San Francisco,
C A. This is the final program
in the four-part Architecture
Technology Corporation
1983 Forum Series. This pro-
gram will bring together
manufacturers and users of
local network schemes to ex-

632 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

Circle 424 on inquiry card.

Only the PC Saver Line Cord

protects your

computer two way s !

%

^>

Surges, spikes and line noise cause
computer errors.

The circuitry inside your personal computer and
peripherals depend upon a clean supply of AC line
voltage/ Computers and peripherals are very sus-
ceptible to surges, spikes and line noise. These volt-
age anomalies-are caused by ordinary activities such
as the start and stop of elevators, operating home
appliances, even switching lights on and off.

You may already be familiar with the results.
Crashed software. Garbled files. Memory losses.
Even damage to your computers sensitive circuits.
Unique 2 step protection.

First, it filters the current from the wall outlet.
Designed to IEEE specifications, the PC Saver Line
Cord quickly clips surges and spikes to a safe 133
volts RMS/175 volts DC level and filters transverse
and common mode noise with an 1' type filter.

SMOOTH
CURRENT

Second, the PC Saver Line Cord filters noise
generated by peripherals within your system. For
example, a printer and computer are connected to
an outlet strip. Operating the printer generates
noise which feeds back through the outlet strip into
the computer causing software errors and possible
hardware damage. With its protective circuitry the
PC Saver Line Cord eliminates this problem.

Fits most personal computers.

The PC Saver Line Cord fits almost every make
of personal computer, such as the IBM PC™ and
XT,™ all Apples,™ Texas Instruments,™ DEC,™
WANG,™ Compaq,™ Victor,™ Kaypro,™ Osborne™
and many more. Simply replace your factory sup-
plied power cord with the PC Saver and your system
is assured maximum protection.

PC Saver Line Cord: outstanding value.

At only $49.95, the PC Saver Line Cord gives
you better performance than products at twice the
price. Available at computer stores everywhere or
direct from Kensington Microware Ltd. 919 Third
Avenue, New York, NY 10022, (212)486-7707, Tlx:
236200 KEN UR. For phone or mail orders please
include $2.50 shipping and handling. New York
State residents add applicable sales tax. Visa and
Mastercard accepted.

J KENSINGTON
I li&i MICROWARE

PC Saver was tested to the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers {IEEE)
specification 507 1980, Category A. Also available in 220/240 Volt model.

Circle 254 on inquiry card

PC Saver — trademark of Kensington Microware Ltd.
© 1983 Kensington Microware Ltd.

Event Queue -

change information in an in-
formal setting. The format in-
cludes presentations, panel
discussions, and a techno-
logical summary. The fee is
$395. For further informa-
tion, contact the Architecture
Technology Corp., POB
24344, Minneapolis, MN
55424, (612) 935-2035.

December 27-30

Modern Language Associa-
tion Convention, Sheraton
Centre, New York, NY.
Among the highlights of this
convention is a large technol-
ogy exhibit. Full details are
available from the Modern
Language Association of
America, 62 Fifth Ave., New
York, NY 10011, (212)
741-5587.

January 1984

January 4-6

Seventeenth Hawaii Interna-
tional Conference on System

Sciences, Honolulu, HI. This
conference is devoted to ad-
vances in information and
system sciences with empha-
sis on medical-information
processing, decision-support
systems, and office automa-
tion. For information, con-
tact Emily Yano Jorgensen,
Center for Executive Devel-
opment, College of Business
Administration, University
of Hawaii, 2404 Maile Way
C-202, Honolulu, HI 96822,
(808) 948-7396.

January 8-11

Retail Directions '84, New
York Hilton and Sheraton
Centre Hotels, New York,
NY. The 73rd annual conven-
tion and exposition spon-
sored by the National Retail
Merchants Association
(NRMA) will feature new de-
velopments in retail store
technology, business sys-
tems, marketing techniques,
and sales-promotion tools.

Admission is free to bona fide
members of the retail indus-
try. For details, contact Dan
Soskin, NRMA- Enterprises,
100 West 31st St., New York,
NY 10001.

January 8-14

CADRE '84 Conference and
Teachers Institute, San Jose,
CA. Computers in Art and
Design, Research and Educa-
tion (CADRE) is a forum that
comprises leaders, thinkers,
and computerists from such
fields as art, research, indus-
try, education, and the public
sector to explore the impact
of computers on the arts. The
teachers institute begins on
January 11, 1984, and the fee
is $100. Early registration for
the conference is $150; $200 if
postmarked after November
1, 1983; and $250 on site. For
further details, contact
CADRE '84 Conference, De-
partment of Art, San Jose
State University, Washington

Square, San Jose, CA 95192,
(408) 277-2555.

January 16-17

Interface Circuit Design, San

Francisco Airport Hilton
Hotel, San Francisco, CA.
This short course will cover
MOS analog/ digital interface
circuit design for VLSI digital
systems. Course notes are in-
cluded in the $450 fee. For a
brochure, contact Continu-
ing Education in Engineering,
University of California Ex-
tension, 2223 Fulton St.,
Berkeley, CA 94720, (415)
642-4151.

January 16-20

UNIFORUM, Washington-
Hilton, Washington, DC.
This conference and exposi-
tion is designed for and by
users of Unix-based systems.
For details, contact Mark
Weber, Professional Exposi-
tion Management Co. Inc.,
Suite 205, 2400 East Devon

IBM PC-8087SUPPORT FROM MICROWARE

87FORTRAN/RTOS™ is a full ansi

77 subset with 8087 extensions It generates
in line 8087 code allowing use of all 8087
data types, including 32, 64 and 80 bit reals
and 64 bit integers The complete subset I/O
is supported including Internal and External
Files and List Directed I/O. Extensions
include recursive subroutines, interrupt
handlers and the generation of software
interrupts 87FORTRAN/RTOS uses the Intel
large memory model, allowing data/code
structures which utilize the full megabyte. The
compiler provides direct access to 8088 ports
and supports logical operations on 8 and 16
bit operands normally treated i n assembly
language. 87FORTRAN/RTOS is ideal for
applications which are number intensive or
control hardware. 95% of all "main frame" size
programs compile and run without extensive
editing. The price includes support for one
year and RTOS $1 350

87PASCAL/RTOS™ is the most

powerful compiler available to PC users at
this time. It is an ISO- Standard Pascal, with
8087-8088 exceptions. These make it possi-
ble to use all the 8087 data types directly,
while generating modules in one of the three
Intel Memory Models. Modules produced
using different memory models can be inter-
faced and linked This gives the user com-
plete control of the memory model/speed
trade off characteristic of iAPX cpus All
exceptions to the ISO definition are clearly
marked with a grey background in a manual
which is a standard of the industry, and more
readable than many tutorials. The compiler
makes it possible to cause or handle inter-
rupts. It also reads ports and performs all the
tasks necessary to control iAPX-86 hardware.
Use of 87 PASCAL guarantees you upward
compatibility with future Intel processors and
languages. Includes RTOS $1 350

RTOS™ — Real Time Operating System

RTOS is a Micro Ware configured version of iRMX-86, Intel's legendary real time operating
system. This DOS is entirely re-entrant and provides many features found only on mainframes It
includes the Intel Assembler, ASM-86, which supports the 8086, 8087, 8088 and 801 86. All
modules produced by the compilers or ASM-86 are combined, loaded and managed with the
Utilities LINK-86, LOC-86 and LIB-86. These products make it possible to load modules
anywhere in RAM, and resolve external references between runtime modules. Overlays with a
single root job are supported by the linker. Binding of modules is accomplished at link or load
time. RTOS/ASM-86/LINK-86/LOC-86/LIB-86 $600

Micro
lAlare

P.O. Box 79
Kingston, MA

02364

(617) 746-7341

You Can
TalkToUs!

MicroWare 8087 Products

8087-3 CHIP in stock $223

87 MACRO™ - our development
package for the IBM Assembler includes
a Preprocessor which translates 8087
opcodes, source for a library of code macros
and a COMPLETE function library with
trigonometries, transcendental encoder/
decoder and conversions $1 50

87 BASIC - includes patches for
BASCOM.COM, BASCOM.LIB and
BASRUN.EXE and the MicroWare 8087
runtime routines $1 50

M ATRIXPAK - assembly language
matrix routines callable from any 8087
compatible IBM compiler. Allows user-
specified very large matrices Size is limited
by available ram $1 50

87FASTPAK - includes one Micro-
Ware runtime library, the 87/88 Guide, an
8087, and installation instructions $375

87/88GUIDE - an excellent tutorial on
writing 8087 code and interfacing it with
compilers Full of code that runs! $30

Microsoft Fortran 3.1 289

Microsoft Pascal 3.1 289

Microsoft Business Basic Compiler 495

Microsoft C Compiler with Librarian 450

Computer Innovations CI/C86 345

Supersoft Fortran 340

Energraphics 235

Abstat 345

64K RAM 'Upgrade Kit.'. '.'.'. . . '.'.'. .'.'.'.'."...". . . 64

Hayes Smartmodem 1 200B 499

Sandstar Modular Expansion Boards call

Epson FX-100 or C. Itoh Printers call

634 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

Circle 315 on inquiry card.

LOWEST PRICE

SMITH CORONA
LETTER QUALITY PRINTERS

SMITH CORONA TP1 $ 482

STOCK SALE ONLY 9 LEFT 417

TELETEX TTX-1014 S & P 506

STARWRITER 40 cps S or P 1112

PRINTMASTER 55 cps S or P 1436

NEC 3510 33 cps SERIAL 1400

DOT MATRIX PRINTERS

GORILLA BANANA Graphics 221

PANASONIC KX-P1090 Fr&Tr

Emulates FX-80 334

STAR MICRONICS GEMINI
10X 120cps dot graphics 307
15 160 cps like FX-100 442

OKIDATA
82A Serial & Parallel 120cps
84 Parallel 15" Fr&Tr 200cps
92 Parallel 10 K Fr&Pin 160cps

C. ITOH
PROWRITER 8510 10"Par 120cps
8600 Near Letter Quality Par

IDS PRISM 80

MANNESMANN TALLY 180-L

ADVANCED DIGITAL

ADVANCED DIGITAL 6MHz COMPUTER
SINGLE BOARD Z80B RS232 S-100 128K
with DISK CONTROLLER for 5"or8"
SUPER SIX (Includes PSNET/l ) $ 555
SUPER SLAVE=Z80B+PSNET/I+128K 437
SUPER STAR has 5Mb removableHD 4352
CPM 3 350

TURBODOS MULTI USER 356

ALTOS COMPUTERS

ALTOS S-100 COMPUTERS

5-15D 3-User 2 5 1/4" $2002

580-10 3-User Hard Disk 4379

8000-10 with 208K RAM 5467

8000-14 with 208K RAM 8008

586-10 16-bit 12Mb Hard Disk 5830

8600-12 16-bit 20Mb Hard Disk 9104

TRAXX 5 1/4" ADD ON DRIVES

TRAXX 5 1/4" ADD ON DRIVES
Bare drive SSDD Quantity 2 Ea $ 215
SSDD w/cabinet & power supply 312

SUPERBRAIN
SUPERBRAINII

DOUBLE DENSITY $1970 I

QUAD DENSITY 2376

SUPER DENSITY 2684

COMPUSTARS FOR NETWORKING CALL
Prices too low to advertise

SYSTEMS GROUP Multi-User

SYSTEM 2966 w/17Mb Tape Backup
8"Floppy+19Mb Hard Disk $7434

RADIO SHACK TRS-80 SAVE! CALL

AMERICAN SQUARE COMPUTERS is
organizing a World Wide Associa-
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Which Computers are Best FREE

TELEVIDEO
TERMINALS

.jTELEVIDEO 910 Emulates

■ t TELEVIDE0 910+ Smart

.TELEVIDEO 914 NEW Detach Kbd
TELEVIDEO 924 NEW Non-volatile

| TELEVIDEO 925 Detach keybrd

! TELEVIDEO 950 Prog funct keys
TELEVIDEO 970/50 VT-100 compat
ADDS Viewpoint 3A+ Emulates
ADDS Viewpoint G Graphics
ADDS Viewpoint 60G Graphics
ADDS Color Terminal NEW!
Zenith Z-29 Z19&VT100 compat
Zenith ZT-1 Terminal+modem
Visual 50 Ergonomic
Visual 55 New! Enhanced #50
Visual 102 80/132 columns
V102 Graphics option for 102
Visual 300 ANSI&VTIOO compat.
Visual 330 VT52&Hazl500 comp.
Visual 500 Graphics 14" screen
Visual 550 Graphics* Buffered

MONITORS
ZENITH

ZVM-122 Amber Phosphor
ZVM-123 Green Phosphor
ZVM-131 Composite Color
ZVM-RGB-135 Color Monitor
USI 12" Amber 20 MHz

$ 419
538
506
614
674
863
935
458
1371
1511
998
655
460
653
734
890
653
842
842
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2138

$ 117
124
322
491

$ 149

Insured Shipping at Low Rates.

NEC

JB1205 12" Amber Phosphor
JC1215 12" Color w/Audio

AMDEK

AMDEK 13" COLOR I

$ 177

321

$ 286

GRAPHICS & COLOR GRAPHICS

VECTRIX

VX 128 8 colors 322x560 Pix.
VX 384 16.8 million colors
VXM Hi Res. 13" RGB Monitor

MICROANGELO

MA 512 512x480 Monochrome $ 674
MA 520 512x480 + Screen Pak2 890

COMPUTERS
COMPUPRO

Compupro computers come as main-
frame, boards, and drives, and you must
set the switches.

816A Computer 8085/8088 128K $3964

816B Computer 8085/8088 256K 5038

816C 8085/8088 384K 3 users 6470

816D 10 MHz 8086 512K 10052

816-08 CPUZ 208K Oasis 6471

816-016 10 MHz 8086 512K 10052

816-68K 8 MHz 68000 256K 6471

SEATTLE Pure 16 bit computer is the
fastest microcomputer by actual test!

S-100, 128K Static Ram, 8 MHz
8086 18-slot Mainframe, 3 serial
& 1 parallel ports.

Gazelle II Avail. Nov/Dec CALL

Hard Disk Gazelle II CALL

TARBELLwith 2-8" disk drives

TARBELL REBEL S-100 64K Z80B 6Mhz
REBEL 2 2 5 1/4" Flpy=800K $2479
REBEL 5 1/4" Floppy + 5Mb HD 3009
REBEL 5 1/4" Floppy +10Mb HD 3139
REBEL 5 1/4" Floppy +16Mb HD 3268

TARBELL EMPIRE S-100 64K 2 8 M Drvs
EMPIRE I Single sided $3304
EMPIRE II Double sided 3775

MEDICAL SOFTWARE

MICROMED or MICRODENT $1~656

STARDOC for OASIS SYSTEMS 350

NORTH STAR ADVANTAGE

NORTH STAR ADVANTAGE 8 BIT 8/16

Work Station $1918 $2281

2 Floppies 360K ea. 2252 2542

5 Mb Hard + 360K Floppy 3362 3652

15 Mb Hard+ 360K Floppy 4385 4748

NORTH STAR HORIZON

1 User Multi

2 Floppies 360K ea $2252 N/A

5 Mb Hard & Floppy 3362 $6095

15 Mb Hard +Floppy 4385 6821

18 Mb Hard +Floppy 5837 8273

CALIFORNIA COMPUTER SYSTEMS

CALSTAR 2 8" Drvs 2.5Mb 128K $2295

2210-01 ONLY 4 LEFT IN STOCK 684

Micro Decision II
MICRO DECISION

"A DEAL YOU CAN'T REFUSE"

64K RAM Z80 4MHz 2 serial ports
1 parallel port 2 5 1/4" drives.
Free Software: CPM 2.2, Microsoft
Basic, BaZic, WordStar, LogiCalc
spreadsheet, Correct-it spelling
checker, Personal Pearl data base

ONLY
MD2 2 Single sided drives $ 828
MD2 + MDT50 Terminal 1272

MD2 + MDT50 + MP100 Printer 1768

MD3 Business Computer: Featuring
Free Software above + Free QUEST
BOOKKEEPER SYSTEM FANTASTIC BUY!
MD3 2 Double sided drives $1055
MD3-+ MDT50 Terminal 1499

MD3 + MDT50 + MP100 Printer 1924

MD11 has 10Mb HARD DISK+1DSDD flpy
MD11 with MDT50 Terminal 12139

ABOVE PACKAGES INCLUDE ALL CABLES

DECISION I

SingleUser=FREE CPM,MicroSoftBasic.
S-100, IEEE 696, 14-slot, 4 MHz Z80
Realtime clock, Interrupts, 3 Serial
&1 parallel port,64K RAM expandable
to 1 Megabyte

D100 $1712

D120 = D100 + DSDD 5 1/4" + 10Mb HD
+Wordstar, Correct-It, LogiCalc,
BaZic, Personal Pearl, and Quest
Bookkeeper Software 3538
Multiuser = Hardware & Software as
D120 w/256K RAM & Memory Protect
+ Micronix Operating System runs
16 programs simultaneously!
D200 w/10 Mb DMA Hard Disk 3120
D210 w/16 Mb DMA Hard Disk 4240
D220 = D210 w/512K RAM & 6 Serial &
2 Parallel ports. A 6-user system,
can be upgraded for 15 users. 5293

MORROW DISK DRIVES

Complete systems include S-100 con-
troller, power supply, cabinet, & fan,
CPM & Basic 80. /
Add Drives include ppwer supply, cabi-
net & fan. .V

£ System
5 1/4" Win. 10*$ $1572
5 1/4" Win. 15M$ 1713
8" Winchester 10Mb
8"Winchester 20I$o

MORROW 8"FL0PpSj
One 1 sided jj
One 2 sided I
Two 1 sided |
Two 2 sided J

Add

Drive

$1081

1362

2625 2134

3187 2766

DISK DRIVES w/DMA

$ 870 $ 576

1081 800

1418 1011

1839 1432

APPLE, IBM OR MORROW, WHICH IS BEST? FREE BROCHURE!

Call for latest prices & availability

AMERICAN

Factory Guarantees

We Beat Prices

.SQUARE

919-889-4577

Circle 24 on inquiry card.

4167KivettDr,

COMPUTERS

Jamestown N.C. 27282

919-883-1105

BYTE November 1983 635

Event Queue.

Ave., Des Plaines, IL 60018,
(800) 323-5155; in Illinois,
(312) 299-3131.

January 17-19

Mini/Micro-Southeast and
Southcon/84 High Technol-
ogy Electronics Exhibition and
Convention, Orange County
Convention/Civic Center,
Orlando, FL. Mini/Micro is
designed for the original
equipment manufacturing
community to explore periph-
erals, processors, data com-
munications, and software. A
few of the topics Southcon/84
will address are artificial intel-
ligence, computer-aided
design, and factory automa-
tion. For details on these con-
current events, contact Elec-
tronic Conventions Inc., 8110
Airport Blvd., Los Angeles,
CA 90045, (213) 772-2965.

January 23-25

Teaching Math with Micro-
computers, Hacienda Resort
Hotel, Las Vegas, NV. For de-
tails, see December 7-9.

January 24-26

Advanced Semiconductor
Equipment Exposition (ASEE)
and Technical Conference,

San Jose Convention Center,
San Jose, CA. Five sessions
designed as a broad-based
program focus on the manu-
facturing aspect of the semi-
conductor industry. For de-
tails, contact Joyce Estill,
Cartlidge & Associates Inc.,
Suite 205, 4030 Moorpark
Ave., San Jose, CA 95117,
(408) 554-6644.

January 24-26

Specialized Tubing in the Air-
craft Industry, Disneyland
Hotel/Convention Center,
Anaheim, CA. This clinic,
sponsored by the Society of
Manufacturing Engineers
(SME), will focus on state-of-
the-art technological advances
in specialized aircraft tubing.
Topics include automated
computerized bending, com-
puterized support systems,
production tube bending, tube

cut-off, tool design, and end
finishing. The fee is $420 for
SME and affiliate members;
$480 for nonmembers. To reg-
ister, contact Leonard B.
Antosiak, Special Programs
Department, Society of
Manufacturing Engineers,
One SME Dr., POB 930,
Dearborn, MI 48121, (313)
271-1500 ext. 384.

January 25-27

The Business Telecommuni-
cations Exposition, Giants
Stadium, Stadium Club, East
Rutherford, NJ. This exposi-
tion is for managers of tele-
communications in such
fields as facsimile, communi-
cations (voice, video, and
data), office automation,
word processing, and pur-
chasing. Registration is re-
quired for admittance to the
exposition. Contact Michael
Houston, The Exposition
Group Inc., 9128 Columbia
Ave., North Bergen, NJ
07047, (201) 662-1318.

January 27-29

Computer/Electronics High
Tech Show, Cincinnati Gar-
dens Exhibition Center, Cin-
cinnati, OH. Wholesalers,
retailers, manufacturers, and
individuals will display hard-
ware and software. For infor-
mation, call the High Tech
Show, (513) 351-9112. ■

In order to gain optimal
coverage of your organi-
zation's computer confer-
ences, seminars, work-
shops, courses, etc., notice
should reach our office at
. least three months in ad-
vance 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 sec-
tion if it is sent to us far
enough in advance.

Low-cost Interface DiskSystems
for IBM PC-2.0 DOS

©

■ 10, 15, 25 megabyte models available now!

i DiskSystem includes Winchester disk drive, cabinet,

power supply, cable, controller, I/O adapter and

device driver ■ Fully compatible with 2.0 DOS

(unmodified) ■ Exclusive double shock isolation

system ■ Standard warranty includes 90 days

parts and labor
1 megabytes formatted storage $ 1 695
15 megabytes formatted storage $2295
25 megabytes formatted storage $2995

■ 5W Winchester Backup or Additional Storage

For IBM PC XT or IBM PC DiskSystem

■ Slave compatible with 2.0 DOS

1 megabyte formatted storage $ 1 425
1 5 megabyte formatted storage $ 1 645
25 megabyte formatted storage $2295

Dealer Inquiries Invited

I 2 INTERFACE INC

7630 Alabama Avenue

Canoga Park, CA 91304

(213) 341-7914 Telex: 662949

IBM is a registered trademark of IBM Corporation
DiskSystems is a copyright of Interface Inc

636 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

\^%) See us at

Las Vegas Convention Center Booths 2290 and 2288

Prices are suggested retail and subject to change without notice

t 1 983 Interface Inc

Circle 234 for dealer inquiries.
Circle 235 for end-user inquiries.

<OmPUTCR WAREHOUSE

CALL TOLL FREE

PRINTERS

C-ltoh

F-10-Parallel or Serial $1079

55 CPS Serial or Parallel $1 555

8510 Parallel (Prowriter) $339

Computer International

Daisywriter2000w/48K $999

Comrex

CR-2 $449

Datasouth

DS180 $1155

Diablo

620 RO $850

630 RO $1699

DTC

380Z $1080

IDS

Microprism 480 $480

Prism 80 $ 1 1 60

Prism 80 Color $ 1 345

Prism 132 $1310

Prism 132 Color $ 1 500

Juki

6100 Call

Epson

All models Call

NEC

PC-8023A $385

PC-8025 $669

3510 $1365

3550 $1710

7710 $1900

2010 $785

2015 $785

2050 $910

Okidata

82A $355

83A $550

84P $975

84S $1060

92 $420

93 $700

2350P $2020

2410P $2299

Olivetti

PRAXIS 41 (w/interface) $539

2300 INKJET $31 9

Qume

1140 w/interface $ 1 369

Silver Reed

EXP550P $579

EXP550S Call

EXP500 $389

Star Micronics

Gemini-10X Call

Gemini-15X Call

Delta 10 Call

Tally

MT 160L w/Tractors Call

MT180Lw/Tractors Call

Spirit80 Call

Toshiba

P1350 $1445

Transtar

120P $449

120S $429

130P $669

130S $709

HOS $1179

T315 $449

DISK DRIVES

Rana

Elite 1 $245

Elite 2 $380

Elite 3 $490

Controller (w/Drive only) $75

1000 (For Atari) $269

TRAK

pi-1 $199

ATD-2 $375

1-800-528-1054

SPECIAL OF THE MONTH

$1375

UNBELIEVABLE SYSTEM!
UNBELIEVABLE PRICE!

PIED PIPER • GEMINI 10X
TAXAN 12" AMBER MONITOR
5 SOFTWARE PACKAGES

System includes: Pied Piper Portable (features below) •Gemini 10X

• Taxan KG-12N • CPM • Perfect Writer • Perfect Speller • Perfect Calc

• Perfect Filer * All necessary cabling.

VIDEO TERMINALS

ADDS

A-1 Green

$480

A-2 Green

$490

Viewpoint 60

$619

Hazeltine

Esprit I

$485

Esprit II

$540

Esprit III

$735

Qume

QVT 102 Green

QVT 102 Amber

QVT 103 Green

QVT 103 Amber

Televideo

910+

$535
$550
$840
$850

$549

925

$699

950

$899

970

$975

Wyse

WyselOO

$680

Wyse 300

$1020

Visual

Visual 50 Green

Visual 55 Green

Zenith

Z-29

$599
$720

$635

MONITORS

Amdek

Video 300

$130

Video 300A

$145

Color 1

$270

Color 1 Plus

$275

BMC

12" Green

$85

12" Color

$195

NEC

JB 1201

$155

JB 1260 .

$115

Taxan

12" Amber

$125

Zenith

12" Green Screen

12" Amber Screen

$95
$120

DISKETTES

Maxell

MD-1 (Qty. 100) $230

Scotch

744-0(Qty. 100) $200

Elephant

S/S S/D (Qty. 100) $ 1 55

COMPUTERS

Altos

Series5-80-2 $1949

5-80-10 W/MPM $3525

5-86-10 Call

Smart II Call

Atari

600XL $149

800XL $248

Columbia Call

Corona Call

Hyperion

Single Drive System $2325

Dual DriveSystem $2665

Northstar

Advantage $2160

Advantage w/5MB $3345

Advantage W/15MB $43 1 5

Pied Piper

Communicator I Portable, Z-80, 64K Ram, Full sized
keyboard, Slimline 5M Disk Drive with 1M Byte of
storage, Monitor output, Perfect Word, Perfect Calc,
Perfect Speller, Perfect Filer, CPM, 90-day nationwide
warranty $965

Sanyo

MBC-550 $749

MBC-555 $1059

Televideo Systems

802 H $4210

803 $1815

1603 $2150

806/20 $4775

800 A (user station) $ 999

Teleport Call

comwrcR

WAREHOUSE

MODEMS

Hayes

Smartmodem

Smartmodem 1200

Smartmodem 1200B

Micromodem II

Abovew/terminal program .

Novation

J-CAT

$199
$485
$430
$265
$299

$90

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 manufacturers warranty. Please add
$8.00 per order for shipping. Prices & availability subject to change without notice. Send cashier's check or
money order... all other checks will delay shipping two weeks. 12/83

I;. ■ . i

I" :

- *l4BPr^y^ ORYX

Z^^ QUALITY DISCOUNTS

APPLE/
FRANKLIN

ASHTON-TATE
dBase II S 399

ASPEN SOFTWARE

Grammatik $ 60

Proofreader 42

BEAGLE BROS.

Apple Mechanic .... $ 22

DOS Boss 17

UtiliityCity 22

BRODERBUND

Bank Street Writer ... $ 55
General Ledger w/AP . 305
Payroll 275

CDEX

* Visicalc Training . . . .$ 45

CHARLES MANN
Class Scheduling ... 299

CONTINENTAL SOFTWARE

Home Accountant . . .$ 55

DOW JONES

Market Analyzer . . . .$245
Market Manager .... 219
Microscope 569

PEACHTREE (CP/M)
Peachpak 40 G/L + A/R

+ A/P (Special) . '. . $259
Series 40
G/L. A/R. A/P ea. . . . 195

Inventory 225

Series 9

Peachcalc 279

Telecommunications . 279

PENGUIN SOFTWARE

Complete Graphics . . $ 53

Graphics Magician ... 45
Complete Graphics/

Apple Tablet 86

Special Effects 50

SOFTECH

Basic Compilers'

Runtime $169

Softeach 94

UCSD p-system set . . 469
Xeno file 39

SOFTWARE PUBLISHING

PFS: File $ 94

Graph 94

Report 94

SUPERSOFT

Basic Tutor $ 79

Fortran 325

LOGO CORNER

Krell Logo $ 75

AbelsonBook 15

Terrapin Logo w/full documentation 115

HAYDEN
Piewriter $108

HOWARD SOFTWARE

Real Estate Analyzer . .$175

LINK SYSTEMS

Datafax SCall

Datalink 79

MICROPRO

Wordstar (Special) . . .$375

(w/CP/M Card, 70 col.

&64K
Infostar (Includes

CP-M/70COI/64K) . . 375
Pro Pak

(WS/MM/SS/index) . 499

MICRO LAB

Asset Manager $ 144

Invoice Factory 144

Payroll Manager .... 216

Tax Manager 129

WallStreeter 216

MICROSOFT

Cobol-80 $ 499

Fortran-80 145

TASCCompiler 125

A.L.D.S 99

Multiplan(DOS) 175

OMEGA

Locksmith $ 69

Inspector 47

Watson 44

SYSTEMS PLUS (Z80 req.)
Landlord 375

VISICORP

Visicalc (II or ME) ... .$179
Visischedule 225

CPM
SOFTWARE

BYROM SOFTWARE

•BSTAM $149

•BSTMS 149

COMPUVIEW

* V-Edit 8080Z80, IBM PC$ 130
*V-EditCP/M86 160

DIGITAL RESEARCH

• Pascal Mt + W/SP . . .$389

MAC 85

SID (8080 Debugger) . . 68

ZSID (Z80 Debugger) . . 90

CP/M 2.2 140

C Basic 2 110

PL/1-80 375

INFOCOM

'Deadline $ 49

'Starcross 39

'Suspended 39

•Zorkl, II, lll(each) . ... 39

LEXISOFT

'Spellbinder $275

MARK OF UNICORN

•Final Word $239

d-BASE II CORNER

AshtonTate

DBase II

$ Call

Bottom Line Strategist

FPL

299

475

Friday

225

Human Soft

dB Plus

$ 99

Fox & Geller

Quick Code

$225

D Uti I

60

Software Banc

d-Base II User's Guide:

w/ d-Base II Purchase

$ 15

w/o d-Base II Purchase

20

Anderson-Bell

Abstat '.

$349

Tylog Systems

. . . . $?nfi

'All above available on PC-DOS

MICROPRO

'WordStar SCall

•InfoStar 275

•Pro-Pack (WS/MM/SS

Index) SCall

MICROSOFT

Basic 80 $249

Basic Compiler 289

Fortran 80 330

Cobol 80 499

Macro 80 150

MuMath/MuSimp .... 194

MuLisp/MuStar 156

•Multiplan 175

ORGANIC SOFTWARE

•Datebook 229

•Milestone 229

PICKLES & TROUT
CP/MforTRS $180

PRO/TEM SOFTWARE
'Footnote $ 105

REVASCO

Z80 Disassembler ... $ 85

SORCIM

•Supercalcll $199

Superwriter

(W/Speller & Mailer) . 179

vm

*^J PEACHTREE CORNER

*• PeachPak4(GL r AP,AR) $ 259

• General Ledger / Accounts Payable / Accounts
Receivable / Sales Invoicing / Inventory Control /
PeachPay Payroll Each 399

• Peachtext 160

• Peachtext w/Random House Thesaurus 195

• Spelling Proofreader 95

• PeachCalc 90

• Job Cost System 399

• Client Posting & Accounting 399

' • Graphics Language 275

*• Business Grahic System 199

MICROSTUF

'Crosstalk $135

NORTHWEST ANALYTICAL
•Statpak $379

OASIS

•The Word Plus $120

* Punctuation and Style . 99

SELECT

Select Word Processor $356

STAR COMPUTER SYSTEM
G/L, A/R, A/P or Pay . .$350

'Legal Time, Billing . . . 845
Property Management . 845

Formats Available*

8" std, Altos Apple ll/lll, Cromenco, CP/M 86, Dec VT-80, Eagle,
Heath/Zenith, Hewlett Packard 125, Micropolis/Vector Graphic,
Northstar, Osborne, Otrona, Superbraln, Televideo, Xerox 820.
'Some Format Subject to "Download" fee

SUPERSOFT

•Diagnostic II $ 90

Disk Doctor 75

* Fortran 4 305

Basic-8086 225

Lisp 120

Z8000 Assembler. ... 400

C Cross Assembler . . 400

•Scratchpad 219

IBM/PC

Please see CP/M
listing. All products
with a "*" in front will
also run on PCDOSand
are priced the same.

ALPHA SOFTWARE
Data Base Manager II .$195

Mailing List 72

Executive Package ... 105

Type Faces 99

Question 35

Apple — IBM
Connection 130

CENTRAL POINT
Copy II PC $ 34

CONDOR III $450

CONTINENTAL
HomeAccountant . . .$ 99

DIGITAL RESEARCH
Concurrent CP/M 86 . .$225

CP/M-86 50

Cobol 86 499

Pascal MT + 86 w/SPP 375

SPP86 150

SID86 113

C Basic 86 135

DOW JONES

Market Analyzer ... .$245
Market Manager .... 219

ECO-SOFT
Microstat $230

FINANCIER

Personal $ 119

Tax Series 105

GRAPHIC SOFTWARE'

Super Chartman II ...$299
Super Chart man IV . . . 199

Both 350

LEXISOFT
Spellbinder $259

LIFETREE
Volkswriter $135

LOTUS 123 SCall

PEACHTREE

Please see listing
under CP/M.

Peachtext 5000 (Word pro-
cessor, dictionary, spelling
proofreader, PeachCalc elec-
tronic spreadsheet, list
manager). FREE box of 5 1 />"
diskettes and $10 coupon for
AccessPak (retail $525).
All of the above $ 247

SCIENTIFIC MKT.
Market Fax SCall

638 BYTE November 1983

SUPERSOFT

CCompiler-8086 ... .$350

Star Edit 180

Disk Edit 80

Basic Compiler 225

Fortran IV PC/DOS

or 8086 299

8087 Support 40

Diagnostics II 89

Optimizer ........ 149

Personal Data Base . . 99

Investment Tax Pac , . 160

Scratch Pad 219

SYSTEMS PLUS

Landlord (prop, mgmt.) $375
Runtime Basic

(req'd forabove) ... 45
. . . and many more!

APPLE/

FRANKLIN

BOARDS

ALSCP/MCard $299

ALS Smarterm 249

ALSZ-Cardll 142

ABT Keypad 99

AxlonRamdisk 128K. . 299

Bit3DualComm-plus . 209

CCS 7710 Asynch Serial 119
Central Point Alaska

Card 105

EastSide Wild Card . . 110
M&R Sup'r terminal

80col 249

Microsoft 16K Ramcard 72

Microsoft Softcard ... 245

Microsoft Softcard + . 429
Microsoft Premium

Softcard (He) 397

Microtek Printer l/F . . 75

Microtek Dumpling-16 . 195

Microtek Dumpling-GX 119

Mountain A-D/D-A . . . 279
Mountain Music

System w/Software . 299
PCP 4 MHZ Appli-Card

+ 88 Card 599

PCP 88 Card 16 Bit +

64K 475

Prometheus Versacard 159
Prometheus Graphitti

Card 99

SSM ASIO Serial l/F

w/cable 129

SSM AIO-2 4 Serial/

Parallel 179

Street Echo II Speech

Synth 129

Tymac Parallel l/F

w/cable 79

Videx Display Enhancer 109
Videx Display

Enhancer II ...... 129

Videx Function Strip . . 69

Videx Videoterm VT-600 235

Videx Ultraterm 299

Wesper16K Ram Card 69

IBM/PC
BOARDS

AST RESEARCH

ComboPlus 64K
Clock/Calendar, Serial &
Parallel. l/F. Expandable

to256K $287

MegaPlus 64K. Clock/
Calendar. Serial Port.
Expandable to 512K

w/Megapak 287

Extra ports available for
Megaplus and I/O Plus II
includes Game. Parallel

& Serial 40

Megapak 256K upgrade

for Megaplus .... $Call
I/O Plus II Clock/Calen-
dar and Serial Port. . 118

BYAD DS-II
(64K.Z80, CP/M) . . . $599

MAYNARD ELECTRONICS

Floppy DriveController $185
Floppy Drive Controller

w/Parallel or Serial

Port 249

Sandstar Memory Card

— 3 modules cap. . 194
Sandstar Multifunction

Card — 6 modules

cap 93

SandstarModules . . . $Call

QUADRAM
Quadboard 64K. Clock/

Calendar, Serial &

Parallel Ports.

Software $296

Microfazer Stack Printer
Buffer (expandable to 512K)

• Parallel/Parallel 8K ... 145

• Parallel/Parallel 64K . . 188

• Serial/Parallel 8K .... 170

• Serial/Serial 8K 189

Quadlink 64K Memory.
Game port allows Apple
Software to run

on IBM/PC $Call

TECMAR Products .... $ Call

XEDEX/MICROLOG
Baby Blue $475

TALL TREE

512K JRAM Mem.
Board $699

MONITORS

Amdek Video 300A

Amber $180

Amdek RGB 425

NEC 12" Hi-Res Green. 187

Sanyo 12" Hi-Res Green 199

USI Hi-Res 12" Amber . 169

NEC JB-1260 Green . . 119

PGSRGBColor $ Call

NECJC-1203RGB ... 560

Quadram Quadchrome $ Call
Taxan 12" Amber

Monitor 149

Taxan 12" Green .... 136
Taxan 12" Medium RGB 323

Taxan 12" High RGB . . 512
Taxan RGB Cable

forPC 17

MODEMS

Novation Apple-Cat II . $269

Hayes Micromodem II . 299

Anchor Mark I 84

Anchor Mark VII 129

Hayes Smartmodem

300 $205

Hayes Smartmodem

1200 509

Davong DSI-512 Hard . $ Call
Davong DSI-519 Hard . $ Call
Corona 5 MG Hard Disk 1 ,560
Corona 10 MG Hard . . 1,995

CDC 1800 270

Corvus $ Call

Tall Grass $ Call

Vista Solo 143K $ 259

Vista Solo &Cntrlr ... 329
Want Slim Line & Cntrlr 299
Want Dual Slim Line &

Cntrlr 529

PRINTERS

C. ItohStartwriterFlO . 1.250
C. ltohProwriter8510 . 425
C. ltohProwriter1550 . 725

NEC 3550 $ Call

NEC8023A 475

OkidataMicroline82A . 389
OkidataMicroline83A . 599
OkidataMicroline92 . . 499
IDS Prism 80

(w/4 options) 1,399

IDS Prism 132

(w/4 options) 1,547

IDS Micro Prism 565

Silver-Reed

Daisy Wheel $ Call

Star Micronics

Gemini 10X 325

TELECOMMUNICATIONS CORNER

***SPECIAL***

Hayes Smartmodem 1200/Hayes Smartcom II Software

AST I/O Plus II Clock Calendar and Serial Port $695

Above w/Smartmodem 300 415

Hayes Smartmodem 1200 & Smartcom II Software 579

Hayes Chronograph . . 189 star Micronics

Novation 212 Auto-Cat . 585 Gemini 15 489

US Robotics Auto-Dial GE Printers $ Call

(full auto 300/1200). . 459 Epson FX-80 599

US Robotics Auto-Link TranstarT-130-P 725

(autoanswer TranstarT-315P Color . 519

300/1200) 379 Mannesman Tally

US Robotics Password 395 MT160I 475

MT160L 585

. . . and much more.

DISK DRIVES

Tandon TM-55-2 $275

Tandon TM-100-2 .... 240
Davong DSI-501 Hard . $ Call

DISKETTES

DISPLAY CARDS CORNER

Hercules Graphics Board $369

Orchid Monochrome Graphic Adapter 432

Plantronics Colorplus 389

USI Display Card (color/monochrome) $ Call

Amdek MAI Card $ Call

Tecmar Graphic Master $ Call

3M5"DSDDBox ....

$ 40

BASF 5" DS DD Box . .

37

Maxell 5" DS DD

MD2Box

40

Verbatim 5" DS DD Box

35

Ultra Magnetics 5" DS.

DD. Bonus Box

(12 diskettes)

35

We offer the follow-
ing complete systems
w/full support on our
technical line . . .

• Franklin 1000 & 1200

• Corona

• NEC APC &8800

• Columbia

• Televideo

. . . please call.

PLOTTERS

Enter P100 Sweet P

Apple/Franklin,

IBM/PC $ 599

Strobe M100 Plotter

w/l/F Apple/Franklin . 499
Strobe M100 Plotter

(RS232) 539

Panasonic Digital

Plotter $ Call

Miscellaneous

Koala Technologies

Graphic Tablet

w/Software,

Apple. IBM/PC .... $ 99
Symtec Light Pen

IBM/PC $ 140

Symtec High Pen

Apple/Franklin .... 200
TG Joystick Apple/

Franklin 46

TG Joystick IBM/PC . . 49
Versa VersaWriter

Tablet IBM/PC.

Apple/Franklin .... 259
Mouse Systems PC

Mouse 229

Wico Analog Joystick . 59
Wico Apple Adapter . . 18
Wico IBM/PC l/F Card . 52
Keytronic Keyboard

IBM/PC 209

Keytronic Keyboard

Apple/Franklin .... 249
Curtis PC Products ... $ Call
Electronic Protection

Series S Call

CP/M is a registered
trademark of Digital
Research. IBM and the IBM
logo are registered
trademarks of International
Business Machines. Apple
and the Apple logo are
registered trademarks of the
Apple Computer Company.
Franklin and the Franklin
logo are trademarks of the
Franklin Computer Company.

Please: We welcome: ^^^^

• Wisconsin residents — add 5% for sales tax. " Visa - Mastercharge & American Express — (Add 4%) ^^^^^%CV
. ,, Mcnl ,. ... • Checks (Allow 1-2 weeks for clearing) ^^^^ ^ Ct^A

•Add $3.50 for shipping per software and light items. o^,,',.,.,. .. . *' .... . ^^^^ i V\D*/

iz U- i m »u ■• ii • COD Add $2.00 per shipment — Cash or certified ^^^ ^ A?3 V ^

For multiple and other items, call. . ' • M \ ^^^^ **H.m \ ** ^mi

check required) ^^^^ j^rfjW -«*■■*

• Foreign - add 15% handling & sh.ppmg for prepayment. Hours; m . ^ ^ . ^^L C\ 9% ** V ^ M ■ ■
(Int I money order) Sat. 10:00 - 2:00 • Central Time .-^ClCSVj ^m IHHiH

• Prices subject to change without notice. _m^^ A *0 ^*^m\

• aii items subject to availability. For technical information ^^^^^+\\\ ^t^M

„ . , & in Wisconsin: 715-848-2322 ^^llCAV^^^JiJJSSSHS

Store prices are strictly retail. ^^^^ /%\A^^^LJLjLJk3BIBIIHHHIB

ORYX SYSTEMS, IHC. ^^^^^Wl+ZMV ^l

205 Scott St. • P.O. Box 1961 ^^^<^V-^™r "- "'^MfJ^ ^ *^M fc,

Wausau, Wl 54401 ^*^fSV3 .**mL-\ iULjEjEjM/ ^^^SfcJ^^ ^'

-inn. Telex ^^^^^^^■■Hhrnrnrnrnrnriririmi "Iiimi

"" s,s "^^v *;/«■■■■■■■■■■■■■* ly| /ii
^^^■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■5 kA m w/a\

Circle 343 on inquiry card. byte November 1983 639

Books Received

The Art of Computer Pro-
gramming, Donald William
Drury. Blue Ridge Summit,
PA: Tab Books, 1983; 311
pages, 13 by 21 cm, soft-
cover, ISBN 0-8306-1455-9,
$10.95.

Automation of Reasoning

1, Classical Papers on Compu-
tational Logic, 1957-1966, Jorg
Siekmann and Graham
Wrightson, eds. New York:
Springer-Verlag, 1983; 544
pages, 17 by 25 cm, hard-
cover, ISBN 0-387-12043-2,
$35.

Automation of Reasoning

2, Classical Papers on Com-
putational Logic, 1967-1970,
Jorg Siekmann and Graham
Wrightson, eds. New York:
Springer-Verlag, 1983; 656
pages, 17 by 25 cm, hard-
cover, ISBN 0-387-12044-0,
$39.

BASIC for Microcom-
puters: Apple, TRS-80, PET,
Roger W. Haigh and Loren E.
Radford. New York: Van
Nostrand Reinhold, 1983;
352 pages, 20 by 24 cm, hard-
cover, ISBN 0-442-27843-8,
$22.45.

Beginner's Guide to Read-
ing Schematics, Robert J.
Traister. Blue Ridge Summit,
PA: Tab Books, 1983; 140
pages, 13 by 21 cm, soft-
cover, ISBN 0-8306-1536-9,
$8.95.

Beginning Programming
with Ada, James A. Saxon
and Robert E. Fritz. Engle-
wood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-
Hall, 1983; 240 pages, 27.8
by 21.5 cm, softcover, ISBN
0-13-071688-X, $16.95.

CP/M Simplified, 1st ed.,
Jeffrey R. Weber. Cleveland,
OH: Weber Systems Inc.,
1982; 318 pages, 21.5 by 13.8
cm, softcover, ISBN 0-
938862-05-9, $13.95.

Clean Slate Word Process-
ing for the TRS-80, Henry
Melton. Indianapolis, IN:
Howard W. Sams & Co.,
1983; 384 pages, 1 5 b y 23 cm,
spiral-bound, ISBN 0-672-
22005-9, $17.95.

The Complete Guide to
Video, Martin Clifford. In-
dianapolis, IN: Howard W.
Sams & Co., 1983; 344 pages,
13.5 by 21.5 cm, softcover,
ISBN 0-672-21912-3, $15.95.

Computer-Based Training,
A Guide to Selection and
Implementation, Greg
Kearsley. Reading, MA:
Addison-Wesley, 1983; 216
pages, 17 by 24.5 cm, hard-
cover, ISBN 0-201-10333-8,
$29.95.

Computer Basics, Hal
Hellman. Englewood Cliffs,
NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1983; 48
pages, 18.5 by 24 cm, hard-
cover, ISBN 0-13-164574-9,
$8.95.

Computer Communication
Techniques, E. G. Brooner
and Phil Wells. Indianapolis,
IN: Howard W. Sams & Co.,
1983; 144 pages, 15 by 23 cm,
softcover, ISBN 0-672-21998-
0, $15.95

The Computer Primer, A
Complete Guide for Gifted
Beginners, Ann Cavanaugh.
New York: Trillium Press,
1983; 496 pages, 20 by 27 cm,
softcover, ISBN 0-89824-046-
8, $12.95.

From Baker Street to
Binary, Henry Ledgard, E.
Patrick McQuaid, and An-
drew Singer. New York:
McGraw-Hill, 1983; 288
pages, 15 by 22.5 cm, soft-
cover, ISBN 0-07-036983-6,
$10.95.

A Guide to Programming
in Level II BASIC, Bruce
Presley. New York: Van
Nostrand Reinhold, 1982;
266 pages, 22 by 28 cm, soft-
cover, ISBN 0-442-25892-5,
$12.95.

The Handbook of Micro-
computer Interfacing, Steve
Leibson. Blue Ridge Summit,
PA: Tab Books, 1983; 261
pages, 19.5 by 23.5 cm, soft-
cover, ISBN 0-8306-1501-6,
$14.95.

The Home Video Hand-
book, 3rd ed., Charles Ben-
singer. Indianapolis, IN:
Howard W. Sams & Co.,

1982; 394 pages, 13 by 20.5
cm, softcover, ISBN 0-672-
22052-0, $13.95.

How to Make Your Small
Computer Pay Off, Gary
Gagliardi. Belmont, CA: Life-
time Learning Publications,
1983; 304 pages, 16.5 by 23.5
cm, softcover, ISBN 0-534-
97926-2, $15.95.

Integrated Circuits Applica-
tions Handbook, Arthur H.
Seidman. New York: John
Wiley & Sons, 1983; 704
pages, 17 by 24 cm, hardcover,
ISBN 0-471-07765-8, $39.95.

Introducing the Unix Sys-
tem, Henry McGilton and
Rachel Morgan. New York:
BYTE Books/McGraw-Hill,
1983; 576 pages, 15 by 23 cm,
softcover, ISBN 0-07-045001-
3, $18.95.

Introduction to Satellite
TV, Chris Bowick and Tim
Kearney. Indianapolis, IN:
Howard W. Sams & Co.,
1983; 144 pages, 13.5 by 21.5
cm, softcover, ISBN 0-672-
21978-6, $9.95.

Learning with Logo, Daniel
Watt. New York: BYTE
Books/McGraw-Hill, 1983;
384 pages, 21 by 28 cm, spiral-
bound, ISBN 0-07-068570-3,
$19.95.

Measurement and Tuning of
Computer Systems, Domenico
Ferrari, Giuseppe Serazzi,
and Alessandro Zeigner.
Englewood Cliffs, NJ:
Prentice-Hall, 1983; 544
pages, 18.5 by 24.5 cm, hard-
cover, ISBN 0-13-568519-2,
$35.

Microcomputer Programs
in Print, Owen C. Schultz, ed.
Roanoke, VA: Postroad
Press, 1983; 208 pages, 21.5
by 28 cm, softcover, ISBN 0-
912691-01-8, $19.95.

Microcomputers Can Be
Kidstuff, Anna Mae Walsh
Burke. Rochelle Park, NJ:
Hayden Book Co., 1983; 192
pages, 17 by 24.5 cm, soft-
cover, ISBN 0-8104-5202-2,
$8.95.

Numerical Methods for the
Personal Computer, Terry E.

Shoup. Englewood Cliffs, NJ:
Prentice-Hall, 1983; 254
pages, 15 by 22.5 cm, soft-
cover, ISBN 0-13-627208-8,
$18.95.

Programming in Ada,
Richard Wiener and Richard
Sincovec. New York: John
Wiley & Sons, 1983; 368
pages, 16.5 by 24.5 cm, hard-
cover, ISBN 0-471-87089-7,
$22.95.

Secrets of Better BASIC,
Ernest E. Mau. Rochelle Park,
NJ: Hayden Book Co., 1983;
320 pages, 17.5 by 24.5 cm,
softcover, ISBN 0-8104-6254-
0, $14.95.

TRS-80 for Kids from 8 to
80, vol. 1, Michael P. Zabin-
ski. Indianapolis, IN: Howard
W. Sams & Co., 1982; 144
pages, 21 by 28 cm, softcover,
ISBN 0-672-22046-6, $9.95.

Third Caltech Conference
on Very Large Scale Integra-
tion, Randal Bryant, ed.
Rockville, MD: Computer
Science Press, 1983; 444
pages, 16 by 23.5 cm, hard-
cover, ISBN 0-914894-86-2,
$36.95.

The UNIX* Operating Sys-
tem, Kaare Christian. New
York: John Wiley & Sons,
1983; 336 pages, 17 by 24.5
cm, hardcover, ISBN 0471-
87542-2, $24.95.

Using Micro-Computers in
Business, 2nd ed., Stanley S.
Veit. Rochelle Park, NJ: Hay-
den Book Co., 1983; 192
pages, 15 by 23 cm, softcover,
ISBN 0-8104-6257-8, $12.95.

The Video Production
Guide, Lon McQuillin. In-
dianapolis, IN: Howard W.
Sams & Co., 1983; 384 pages,
21.5 by 28 cm, softcover,
ISBN 0-672-22053-9, $28.95.

Video War, Stephen
Manes. New York: Avon
Books, 1983; 256 pages, 17.5
by 10.5 cm, softcover, ISBN
0-380-83303-4, $2.25.

The VisiCalc Program
Made Easy, David M. Castle-
witz. Berkeley, CA: Osborne/
McGraw-Hill, 1983; 224
pages, 18.5 by 23 cm, soft-

640 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

Lyco Computer Marketing & Consultants

toll free 800-233-8760

TO ORDER

CALL US

.327-1824

TEXAS INSTRUMENT
DRIVE $255.00

13 inch
ICOLOR TV

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Single Side DD (10) $21.75

Double Side DD (1 0) $26.75

WABASH

Single Side SD (10) $19.75

Single Side DD(10) $23.75

Double Side DD (10) $32.75

CERTRON CASSETTES

CC-10 12 for $15.99

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INNOVATIVE CONCEPTS

Disk Storage (holds 10).... $4.95
Disk Storage (holds 15).... $9.95
Disk Storage(holds50). ... $26.95
ROM Storage (holds 10)... $19.75

for ATARI
COMPUTERS

AT88S1 $299,001

AT88S2 $535.00

AT88SIPD $CALL$

RFD40SI $399.00

RFD40S2 $689.00

RDF44SI $489.00

AT88 DOUBLER BOARD $1 39.00

MONITORS

Amdek Color I $275.00

Amdek 300 Green $1 49.00

Amdek 300 Amber .... $149.00
GORILLA GREEN $88.00

SAVE

on these
in-stock

PRINTERS

CITOH

GORILLA GX1 00 $1 85.00

PROWRITER 851 . . . $339.00

PROWRITER II $659.00

8600B $1025.00

STAR WRITER $1 099.00

PRINTMASTER $1 499.00

EPSON

RX-80 $SAVE$

RX80FT ON

FX80 In-Stock

FX100 EPSON

MX80FT PRINTERS

MX100 $$CALL$$

LETTER QUALITY

SMITH CORONA TPI $459.00

SANYO 5500 $649.00

DIABLO 630 $1719.00

GEMINI 10X
PROWRITER
NEC 8023...

$269.00
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CARDCO

J 5 Slot Expansion 64 $54.00

I Universal Cass. Int $29.75

I Printer Utility $19.75

I 6 Slot Expansion $79.95

3 Slot Expansion $24.95

Vic 20/64 Printer int $59.95

HES64

64Forth R $55.75

Hesmon R $29.75

TurtleGraphics R $49.75

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Attack of Mut Cam R... $34.75
Turtle Tutor R $29.75

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STAR MICRONTICS

GEMINI 1 0X $269.00

GEMINI 1 5X $CALL$

DELTA 10 $479.00

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Klndercomp

Story Machine —

Face Maker

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Delta Drawing

Shamus II c/d

.$21.75
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Proc

commodore

PARKER 20

rogger (ROM) $33.75

QBert (ROM) $33.75

Tutankham (rom) $33.75

PARKER BROTHERS

SuperCobra R $33.75

Astro Chase R $33.75

Frogger R $33.75

QBert R $33.75

Popeye R $33.75

RiskR $42.75

SPINNAKER

Story Machine R $26.75

Face Maker R $24.75

Kinderomp R $20.75

Fraction Fever R $24.75

Delta Drawing R $26.75

SSI

Battle of Shllo C/D $26.75

Tigers Inthe SnowC/D... .$26.75
Battle for Normandy C/D ..$26.75
Knights of the Desert C/D . $26.75

Cosmic Balance C/D $26.75

HES

Gridrunner R $27.75

Sword Point D $24.75

BRODERBUND

AED $24.75

Apple Panic D $23.75

Choplifter ROM $32.75

BUSINESS

Vlslcalc $159.75

Letter Perfect $89.75

Letter Perfect $89.75

Data Perfect $89.75

Text Wlzzard $49.75

Spell Wlzzard $64.75

File Manager $69.75

Home File Mgr $69.75

Bookeeper $119.75

CR.I.S $199.75

Home Accountant $59.75

Bank Street W $49.75

600XL $$$$$149.00

800XL...$CALL$

1 025 Printer $399.00

1020 Color Printer .$245.00

1 027 Printer $299.00

1010 Recorder $75.00

41 Recorder $75.00

81 Disk Drive $399.00

1 050 Disk Drive .... $335.00

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TO ORDER

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In PA 1 717-327-1824

or send order to
Lyco Computer
P.O. Box 5088
Jersey Shore, PA 17740

POLICY

In-stock items shipped within 24 hours of order. Personal
checks require four weeks clearance before shipping. No
depositonC.O.D. orders. Freeshippingon prepaid cashorders
within the continental U.S. PA residents add sales tax. All
products subject to availability and price change. Advertised
prices show 4% discount offered for cash, add 4% for Master
Card or Visa. DEALER INQUIRIES INVITED.

Circle 273 on inquiry card.

Circle 22 on inquiry card.

*&

&

How can your microcomputer tal
to an IBM mainframe?
CLEO.

The communications
features of the CLEO-
3270 Software packagilP
allows your microproces-
sor to emulate a cluster
of IBM terminal devices.
The CLEO software provides the cluster emulation and
makes the ASCII devices look like an IBM 3278 CRT and
3287 printer.

If your IBM mainframe doesn't support remote 3270
clusters, you need remote batch communications.
CLEO-3780 Software is your answer.

For full details contact Phone 1, Inc.. 461 North
Mulford Road. Rockford, IL 61 107: phone (815)
397-8110.

■CLEOm-

Books Received ,

cover, ISBN 0-931988-89-6,
$12.95.

The Word Processing
Book, Peter A. McWilliams.
Los Angeles, CA: Prelude
Press, 1983; 320 pages, 14.5
by 23 cm, softcover, ISBN
345-31105-1, $9.95.

Writing BASIC Adventure
Programs for the TRS-80,
Frank Dacosta. Blue Ridge
Summit, PA: Tab Books,
1982; 228 pages, 13 by 21 cm,
softcover, ISBN 0-8306-1422-
2, $9.95.

Your First Business Com-
puter, Peter Luedtke and
Rainer Luedtke . Bedford,
MA: Digital Press, 1983; 224

pages, 20.5 by 22.5 cm, soft-
cover, ISBN 932376-27-4,$15.
Your IBM PC, Lyle J.
Graham. Berkeley, CA: Os-
borne/McGraw-Hill, 1983;
592 pages, 16 by 23.5 cm,
softcover, ISBN 0-931988-85-
3, $16.95. ■

In the August 1983 issue
under Books Received, the
correct page count for In-
troductory Reading in Ex-
pert Systems by Donald
Michie should be 251
pages. We regret any mis-
understanding this error
may have caused.

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; in-
stead, this list is meant to be a monthly acknowledgment of
these books and the publishers who sent them.

BYTEs Bugs

If the keyboard contains
more than one blank space,
line 1750 will most likely re-
sult in an error. Tilgner sug-
gests adding GOTO 1730.
LEN (S$) will then be set to
its new value. Finally, K$,
S$, and T$ must be allocated
sufficient space at the begin-
ning of the program when
used with those BASICs in
which a string variable
beyond a set limit needs ex-
plicit dimensioning.

Dedicated to
Righting Wrongs

Jerry Pournelle accidental-
ly misinformed his readers as
to where to obtain the
DEDICATE/32 encryption
program. (See ''Interstellar
Drives, Osborne Accesso-
ries, DEDICATE/32, and
Death Valley/ 7 July 1983
BYTE, page 323.) The pro-
gram publisher and exclusive
supplier is Merritt Software
Inc., POB 1504, Fayetteville,
AR 72702, (501) 442-0914. ■

Bugs and Pointers

Two sharp-eyed readers
spied a pair of bugs snugly
hidden in Rinaldo F. Prisco's
article "The Bazeries Cylin-
der: A Cryptographic Chal-
lenge' ' (June 1983 BYTE,
page 352). Both Bradley R.
Mortensen and Bruno Tilg-
ner noticed that there are
two Vs and no Bs in DATA
statements 1830 and 1870
(listing 1). The second V in
each statement should be
changed to a B.

Tilgner, who translated the
program into Hewlett-
Packard BASIC, also offered
a few pointers for using the
program with those BASICs
where the loop variable is
tested on entry into the loop.
Currently, the first cylinder
will always be in the first
position. To change this, line
1210 should read

FOR J = LEN(K$)-lTO
1 STEP -1

642 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

Circle 365 on inquiry card.

WORLD CLASS PRINTER.

The Silver-Reed EXP 550.

Breaking the tape is this fully electronic daisy wheel printer from a world leader
in the manufacture of typewriters and computer peripherals. Designed to offer
the user precise control, the EXP 550 features carrier feed in units of 1/120
inch and forward/reverse paper feed in units of 1/48 inch. You run superb
letter quality hard copy quietly at 20 cps printing speed. Bi-directional printing
can include bold face, superscript and subscript. Most important, your
Silver-Reed EXP 550 is totally computer compatible. Interfaced with an appro-
priate host computer, it can print from sophisticated word-processing software
like WORDSTAR* at a surprisingly affordable price.

• Letter Quality • Bold Face/Superscript/Subscript

• Bi-Directional • Total Computer Compatibility

• Quiet Operation • Emulates the Diablo 1 61 0**

For more information, call 800/421-4191. In California, 800/252-7760.
Ask for the Printer Sales Division.

\&j See us at booth 4961-5064.

Fall '83

g?Si|VER-REED

SILVER-REED AMERICAJNC.

19600 Vermont Avenue • Torrance, CA 90502 • 213/516-7008

'WORDSTAR is a trademark of MICROPRO International Corporation
"Diablo is a trademark of XEROX Corporation

Circle 421 on inquiry card.

BYTE November 1983 643

WHERE IS IT?

Wherever it is, we want it. Maybe, just maybe, we're
searching for your program, but we'll never find it
unless you call us.

It has to be good, though. Because we're the
Software Guild", an organization devoted to finding
the very best microcomputer programs for packaging
and distribution under the Softsmith™ label. Hundreds
of titles have already been licensed to the Sof tsmith
library. But they're only the beginning. Our goal is to
have the best program in major categories on every

popular machine. Of course, we can't do it without you.

If you're a program author or publisher, The
Software Guild offers some distinct professional and
monetary advantages.

First, you devote your time to what you do best:
programming. You can leave the manufacturing,
packaging, documentation, distribution and customer
service to us.

Second, our revolutionary retail merchandising
system will put your program before the public through
the normal computer and software stores, plus record
outlets, department stores, book shops, and more
places where software has never before been available.

644 BYTE November 1983

m m

■ m.

A

J ; |1ltf'HJ

" -%,y :

,r *"*

Ink -fclK

1

TEN.

Third, is royalties. Wider distribution means more
substantial royalties. And, your Software Guild
royalties start to accrue when the dealer makes his pur-
chase in quantity, so you aren't left waiting while
money trickles in.

Fourth is flexibility. We do not insist on the
exclusive rights to your program. You can deal with
other publishers and distributors, or market your pro-
gram yourself, while it is in Sof tsmith distribution.

We know you're out there, working and dream-
ing, and we want to help make your dream come true.
Our full staff of professional evaluators are waiting to
review your best-seller.

So call us, wherever you are.

Contact Regina Roberts at (41 5) 487-5200.

Or write:

The Software Guild

2935 Whipple Rd.

Union City, CA 94587

The Software Guild"

(415)487-5200

BYTE November 1983 645

What's New?

PRODUCTS FOR THE IBM
PERSONAL COMPUTER

Double Capacity Quietly

The P.C. Horizons bus-
expansion chassis, the PC-
XTRA, can double the ca-
pacity of the option-
adapter board in the IBM
Personal Computer (PC).

The PC-XTRA increases
the IBM PC's capacity to
ten option slots with its six
expansion slots, power
supply, direct extension,
and without extra noise.

The addition of all

special options is possible
without filling the plug-in
and back-panel spaces and
without hardware or soft-
ware modifications.

The retail price of PC-
XTRA is $680. It is avail-
able from P.C. Horizons,
Inc., 200 North Tustin
Ave., Santa Ana, CA
92705, (714) 953-5396.
Circle 650 on inquiry card.

Communications

The Ideacomm 1200, a
plug-in card offering fast,
reliable communications
for the IBM PC, is offered
by IDE Associates. A
300/1200 bits-per-second
integral modem, it has an
RS-232C interface that can
be used as a serial port.

Card to Plug-In

The speed is automatically
selected by the card,
which costs $545. Contact
IDE Associates Inc., 7
Oak Park Dr., Bedford,
MA 01730, (617)
275-4430.
Circle 661 on inquiry card.

Videotex Decoder

A software product for
the IBM PC and compati-
ble computers acts as a
videotex decoder enabling
microcomputers to access
videotex and Telidon ser-
vices. It costs $280; in
Canada it is $350. For an
extra $50 Microstar will
update the software to re-
flect changes in videotex-
protocol standards. Con-
tact Microstar Software
Inc., 687 Mansfield Ave.,
Ottawa, Ontario K2A
2T5, Canada, (613)
722-7426.
Circle 744 on inquiry card.

Lease Software
Annually

Plan Trac is a time-,
resource-, and cost-analy-
sis software system for
strategy planning that
provides critical path
method (CPM) schedul-
ing. It is user controlled,
menu driven, and can
nandle systems of up to
12,500 bodies. It provides
the project manager with
CPM-network planning,
analysis (time, resource,
and cost), progress report-
ing, network drawing,
and interfacing.

Plan Trac is not sold; it
is offered on an annual
renewable-license basis. It
runs on IBM PC-DOS,
Radio Shack TRSDOS,
and CP/M-based systems.
For details, contact Com-
puterline Ltd., 95 Merry-
mount Rd., Quincy, MA
02169, (617) 773-0001.
Circle 651 on inquiry card.

Manage
Projected Costs

The PC/MIS (Project
Cost/Management Infor-
mation System) provides
the project manager with
project-planning, schedul-
ing, budgeting, and per-
formance-monitoring
capabilities. It runs on the
IBM PC and other com-
puters using PC-DOS, MS-
DOS operating systems,
and CP/M-based systems.
The user can test and
evaluate cost implications
of alternative labor com-
binations and can track
cost-plus-fixed fee, unit-
rate, and lump-sum con-
tracts. It also features
built-in audit routines that
check time-sheet and dir-
ect-expense data entries
for consistency regarding
project budgets. A demon-
stration package is avail-
able for $95, which can be
applied to a total cost of
$895. Contact Davis and
Associates Inc., 1655
Peachtree Rd. NE, Atlan-
ta, GA 30309, (404)
875-0793.
Circle 660 on inquiry card.

Colorful Printing

Color-printing software
tools from Application
Techniques' Rainbow
Writer family make it easy
for IBM PC owners who
have a color printer to
produce color output us-
ing their existing applica-
tion software.

The Rainbow Writer
Color Screen Grabber
($99) lets you capture,

646 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

Announcing

The best 6502 Assembler in the World

ORCAIM

Now. The kind of high-level support
you'd only expect to find on a main
frame.

ORC A/M (Hayden's Object Relocat-
able Code Assembler for Micros)
lets you develop sophisticated
applications with the speed and ease
of a high-level language, yet retain
the control and efficiency that only
assembly language can give.

Here's what ORC A/M gives you:
The Assembler

Macro language features:

o Conditional assembly of source and
macro files

o Separate source and macro files

o Nestable macros

o Parameter mid-string and string
search functions

o Symbolic parameter assignment

o Numeric, string, and boolean type
parameters

o Parameter subscripting

o Global communication between
macros

o Macro expansion loop control

o Count, length and type parameter-
attribute functions

Extensive Macro Libraries

Memory Constant Declarations:

o Integer
o Character
o Four-byte Integer
o Hexadecimal
o Floating Point

Relocatable object module
generation

Fast assembly directly to disk

Program segmentation:

o Selectively assembly individual

subroutines
o Global and local scope of symbols

The Linker

Produce executable binary files
from relocatable object modules

Link routines from library files

Link subroutine re-assemblies

! Define a new origin for previously
assembled code

Invoke at assembly time or by
command

Subroutine libraries:

o Floating point and

double-precision routines
o Transcendental functions
o Hi- and lo-res graphics
o Multiple-precision integer math
o Input and output

The Editor

Co-resident screen editor:

o Global search and replace

o Block move

o Entry of non-keyboard characters

Supports lower case adapters and

shift-key modification

80-column: horizontal scrolling with
40-column displays

The System

Monitor: transparent control of
system from one command level

Extended Disk Commands:

o File copy
o File undelete
o Catalog sort
o Wildcard filenames

Disk ZAP: Built-in disk sector
editor

Optimized DOS 3.3 compatible
operating system

Operating system interface:

Supports a variety of configurations
User-modifiable to allow linkage of
custom drivers for peripherals

64k RAM supported, 48k required

This unique array of features and
functions speaks for itself: the
power of ORCA is unsurpassed.

All features are documented clearly
and extensively. Source listings for
the subroutine and macro libraries,
as well as the operating system, are
included.

ORCA. If you're serious about
developing 6502 software, it's the
one to have.

Available from your local dealer, or

call:

800-343-1218

(In MA call 617-937-0200)

ORCA/M: 21609

Apple II or He disk, 48k, DOS 3.3

Two drives and 64k recommended

Introductory

^$99.95

$149.95

After September 30, 1983

ORCA/M is now also the
best 65C02 assembler,
supporting all 27 new
opcodes. New hardware
support includes the He
80 column board and
disk emulators for the
Legend™ 128K card and
He extended memory card.

Circle 208 on inquiry card.

HARDEN SOFTWARE

BYTE November 1983 647

What's New?

edit, save, recall, rotate,
and print color-graphic
images produced on the
IBM PC adapter. It sup-
ports the Integral Data
Systems' Prism Printer,
the Transtar 315 color
printer, the IBM Graphics
Printer, Epson Graftrax
printers, and Okidata
printers.

The Rainbow Writer
Color Text Formatter

($149) enhances existing
word processors to sup-
port color text, inter-
character proportional
spacing, and merged color
graphics for Prism print-
ers. For details, contact
Application Techniques
Inc., 80 Townsend St.,
Pepperell, MA 01463,
(617) 433-5201.
Circle 664 on inquiry card.

Interactive-Control Workstation

A general-purpose in-
terface bus (GPIB) for the
IBM PC, the GPIB-PC is
unique due to its small size
(a half-size slot in the IBM
PC-XT), its high speed
(300K bits per second), an
NEC 7210 controller chip,
and software.

The new IEEE-488 inter-
face converts the IBM PC
into an instrumentation
workstation complete
with software. The inter-
active-control program is
used to program GPIB
devices to measure system
performance, debug ap-

plication programs, and
locate malfunctioning
devices on the GPIB. The
transfer of large data files
is possible with an IBM
PC DMA controller. The
circuit card can perform
high-speed transfers of
300K bits per second be-
tween the GPIB and the
IBM PC memory. Com-
plete with documentation,
the unit costs $385. Con-
tact National Instruments,
12109 Technology Blvd.,
Austin, TX 78759.
Circle 652 on inquiry card.

ISM

:_ J

The Color Biz
PC Saver

Protect your IBM PC
disk drives from environ-
mental contaminants such
as smoke, dust, and li-
quids with this rectangular
card that covers the flop-
py-disk openings. A full-
color command summary

is printed on the PC
Saver. It retails for $9.95
and is available from the
Color Corp., 208 North
Berkshire, Bloomfield
Hills, Ml 48013, (800)
521-0793.
Circle 659 on inquiry card.

A Data-Acquisition
Family for the PC

TheDT2801 Series from
Data Translation provides
a full line of plug-in data-
acquisition and control
boards for the IBM PC, in-
cluding upgraded high-
speed, high-resolution,
16-bit, and analog-to-digi-
tal versions. A high-speed
version of the DT280 1 , the
DT2801A, offers 12-bit
throughput rates of up to
27,500 samples per sec-
ond. The DT2805/5716
(low-level input) and the
DT2801/5716 (high-level
input) provide full 16-bit
analog-input resolution
based on eight differential
input channels with soft-
ware-programmable gain.
TheDT2801 is $1345. The

16-bit boards are $2170
for the DT2801/5716, and
$2270 is the price for the
DT2805/5716. For infor-
mation, contact Data
Translation, 100 Locke
Dr., Marlboro, MA
01752, (617) 481-3700.
Circle 655 on inquiry card.

hgl

fei

HI

IB "

5l

BS?^^^tL^c

Hip

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fcjf^rt

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648 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

Maxell Floppy Disks

The Mini-Disks
with maximum quality.

Dealer inquiries
invited. C.O.D's
accepted. Call
FREE (800) 235-4137.

PACIFIC EXCHANGES

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San Luis Obispo. CA 93401.
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MANUFACTURER'S WARRANTY

I Prices are the lowest available.

Model Qtv. 1 Qtv. MO

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'Additional quantity discounts available.

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capacity at a nominal cost increase.

Shugart-
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FDD100-8
FDD200-8

• No other company
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extra charge.

• All warranty work is accomplished at the manu-
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• We ship from existing inventory.

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Printer Cables

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Circle 512 on inquiry card.

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Circle 391 on inquiry card.

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• Data Handling Program

Code conversion available. TRS-80 pack
age soon. ADDMASTER CORP. 416 Juni
pero Serra Dr., San Gabriel, CA 91776 *
213/285-1121.

Circle 10 on inquiry card.

CP/M CROSS

SOFTWARE

for the NS16000

INCLUDES:

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CORPORATION

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Circle 436 on inquiry card.

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extra. Quantity discounts available. Ask for our catalog.
PRICES SUBJECT TO CHANGE.

Circle 455 on inquiry card.

Circle 142 on inquiry card.

Circle 332 on inquiry card.

What's New?

Ariel Real-Time
Spectrum Analyzer

The RTA 331 is a »/» -oc-
tave real-time audio-fre-
quency spectrum analyzer
for the IBM PC that plugs
into a single expansion
slot. By dividing the audio
spectrum into 31 third-
octave bands for 20 Hz to
20 kHz, it interactively
displays the relative amp-
litudes of each frequency
band. More than 20 sec-
onds of audio can be
stored in 512K bytes of
memory. Assembly-lan-

guage subroutines handle
high-speed operations and
are accessed from BASIC.
Other features include an
on-board pink-noise gen-
erator, digitally controlled
gain, user-defined weight-
ing, and more. The RTA
331 sells for $649.95 from
the Ariel Corp., Suite 84,
600 West 116th St., New
York, NY 10027 , (212)
662-7324.
Circle 657 on inquiry card.

Display Waveforms
on Your Monitor

Wave Display is a soft-
ware package for the IBM
PC that can display multi-
ple waveforms captured
by a data-acquisition sys-
tem. The acquired data
can be hexadecimal, octal,
or decimal and is imme-
diately stored on the disk
drive. The data stream
displayed on the screen
can be 5 1 2 through 4K bits
in the horizontal resolu-
tion with a maximum of
12 bits vertically. It pro-
vides automatic readouts

of frequency and voltage
levels, signal averaging,
and supports hard copy to
dot-matrix printers. Wave
shapes can also be created
by using any text editor or
word-processing software
or by programming
BASIC. The package costs
$99.95 and is available
from Epic Instruments
Inc., 551-G Foster City
Blvd., Foster City, CA
94404, (415) 574-9081.
Circle 658 on inquiry card.

PC-Path,
CPM for the PC

PC-Path is a critical
path method (CPM)
scheduling program for
the IBM PC that can han-
dle up to 500 activities per
network. Node numbering
is fully random. The
reports that are available
include data edit, calen-
dar, summary, schedule,
and bar chart. PC-Path is
designed to work with any
project manager who
needs to control small to
medium projects using
CPM scheduling capabili-
ties. It costs $500 and is
available from Viplan, 823
Bradwell, Houston, TX
77062, (713) 486-4718.
Circle 665 on inquiry card.

Three in One
For the IBM PC

CP + combines three
products in one software
package. Features include
a computer-aided instruc-
tion tutorial on the basic
operations of a personal
computer, an English-lan-
guage front-end interface
suitable for new users, and
a package of file-manage-
ment utilities. It includes a
menu-building facility
called START + .

It is available for the
IBM PC and other selected
MS-DOS-based systems
including the Victor 9000
and the T\ Professional.
The retail price of the
16-bit version is S200.
Contact Taurus Software
Corp., 3685 Mt. Diablo

Blvd., Lafayette, CA
94549, (415) 283-7222.
Circle 663 on inquiry card.

IBM Mass Storage

Three formatted con-
figurations of 5-, J0-, and
20-megabyte hard-disk
subsystems are available
for the IBM PC and the
DEC Rainbow 100.

Mass storage is over 5
times the speed and up to
135 times the capacity of a
floppy disk. A hard disk,
controller card, host-inter-
face card, power supply,
external enclosure, and
cabling comprise the hard-
ware included with the
system. Each system is
equipped with software
support for PC-DOS 2.0
or CP/M 80-86 and a util-
ities package that includes
MEMDISK 2.0.

The 5-megabyte hard-
disk subsystem is $1595,
the 10-megabyteis $1795,
and the 20-megabyte is
$1995. Contact Chrislin In-
dustries Inc., Computer
Products Division, 31352
Via Colinas #102, West-
lake Village, CA 91361,
(213) 991-2254.
Circle 654 on inquiry card.

Fast Backup
for the IBM PC-XT

The backup subsystem
for the hard-disk version
of the IBM PC, Sysgen Im-
age includes a controller,
drive electronics, and a
cassette-tape drive. It is
software-compatible with
either PC-DOS or

650 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

We've got
A.C. Nielsen's number

DHL. # 1 Worldwide Courier Express now makes
time-critical deliveries overnight throughout the U.S.

While other companies were
still hand-counting bags of mail,
A.C. Nielsen Jr. was finding new
ways to gather vital marketing
information for America's business
via computer.

And today Nielsen can depend
on DHL to help stay ahead of
competition.

"For overnight deliveries of time-
critical data anywhere in the U.S.,
I can count on DHL— their figures
speak for themselves," says Nielsen,

More on-time deliveries to
more places around the world
than any other express courier.

Service to 97% of the
"Fortune 500"

30,000 locations.

Like Nielsen, DHL has spent mil-
lions on state-of-the-art equipment

and technology to stay ahead.

DHL uses 727s, Learjets,
helicopters and its large fleet of
trucks to speed urgent documents
and packages on their way
—all across America.

Service this fast and reliable
makes businessmen like Nielsen
feel, "DHL is the next best thing to
taking it there yourself."

In today's business world, any-
thing less than the best isn't good
enough.

That's why Nielsen says,
"DHL rates with me."
For information, call your local office

of DHL Worldwide Courier Express.

NEXT BEST 7MNG TO TAMNG/T THERE YOURSELF

©1983 DHL Airways Inc.

Circle 139 on inquiry card.

What's New?

CP/M-86. It performs
complete archival backup
of information on the PC-
XT's hard disk at the rate
of 2.5 megabytes per min-
ute. Storage capacity is 20
megabytes. Two backup
modes are Preserve, which
backs up data from an in-
dividual disk volume and
restores the data on an in-
dividual disk volume in an
image fashion, and File-
save, which allows in-
dividual files or groups of
files to be saved from the
hard disk to the streaming
tape and vice versa. The
price is $995. Contact
Sysgen Inc., 47853 Warm
Springs Blvd., Fremont,
CA 94539, (415)490-6770.
Circle 656 on inquiry card.

Electronic Catalog
Full of PC Supplies

One 5/4 -inch, single-
sided disk provides instant
access to menu-driven in-
formation about a wide
range of IBM PC-compat-
ible products such as pe-
ripherals, software (home,
business, education, and
entertainment), books,
supplies, and accessories.
IBM guarantees quality
and satisfaction.

The Electronic Catalog
for IBM Personal Com-
puter Owners is $3 and is
available from Interna-
tional Business Machines
Corp., POB 3148, Wall-
ingford, CT 06494, (800)
IBM-2468; in Alaska and
Hawaii, (800) 526-
2484.
Circle 653 on inquiry card.

Relay is a communi-
cations-software package
that can simultaneously
send and receive mes-
sages or files between IBM
PCs while printing locally.
It can also communicate
with mainframe hosts and
operate as an APL ter-
minal. In addition to inter-
PC communications, Relay
enables access to corn-

Relay Can Send,
Receive, and Print

puter-service bureaus such
as Dow Jones, Compu-
Serve, and the Source,
other mainframes, and
other PCs. It retails for
$ 149 and is available from
VM Personal Computing
Inc., 60 East 42nd St.,
New York, NY 10165,
[2\2] 697-4747.
Circle 662 on inquiry card.

PRINTERS

Extended Character
Set Printer

The Compucorp 32/40
ECS (Extended Character
Set) is a daisy-wheel print-
er that can accommodate
scientific- and technical-
typing applications as well
as word processing with-
out changing printwheels.
Other printwheels offered
by Compucorp contain up

to 192 characters and will
accept additional user-
constructed characters.
The 32/40 ECS sells for
$3295 and is available
from Compucorp, 2211
Michigan Ave., Santa
Monica, CA 90404, (213)
829-7453.
Circle 678 on inquiry card.

Matrix Printers Built
for Heavy Duty

The PLP-8 series of 80-
and 132-column matrix
printers is designed for list-
ing, invoicing, labeling,
and letter printing. Both
printers incorporate a

heavy-duty 9-needle head
to print 1 - to 6-part forms
at speeds as high as 270
cps. Head travel is 27 inch-
es per second, and the
tractor-feed line advance
requires 35 milliseconds.
Standard equipment in-
cludes a parallel interface
and adjustable tractor
feeds. Sixteen form lengths
are front-panel selectable
with 32 positions of ver-
tical and horizontal tabs.
Perforation-skip is switch-
selectable. Print features
include 9 by 7 characters
with true ascenders and
descenders as well as un-
derlining. Character gener-
ation is EPROM-based.

A serial interface that ac-
cepts data rates ranging
from 1 10 to 9600 bps, cur-
rent loop, Xon/Xoff, and
DTR data restraint is avail-
able. The 80-column
PLP-8 costs $675, and the
132-column version is
$895. Quantity and OEM
discounts are offered.
Contact Practical Automa-
tion Inc., Trap Falls Rd.,
Shelton, CT 06484, (203)
929-5381.
Circle 677 on inquiry card.

Letter-Quality
Printer for the PC

The Model 2050 is a
new member of the Spin-
writer family that is fully
compatible with the IBM
PC and its application soft-

652 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

Heart ofTEXAS

COMPUTER SYSTEMS

Toll Free 1-800-433-5184 Texas 1-817-274-5625

CORVUS

HARD DISK DRIVES Complete from $1649

Single and multiuser HARD DRIVES for all brands of computers
One or several computers can share A HARD DISK.

TCS DRIVE CABINET isindustrial grade heavy guage metal, safety fused, and comes
with gold plated external connector with extender cable.

1 DRIVE in Cabinet 2 DRIVE Double Cabinet

40 track single sided $199 40 track single sided S399

80 track (dual sided 40 track) . . S299 80 track (dual sided 40 tracks) . S599

160 track (dual sided 80 track $399 160 track (dual sided 80 tracks) $799

1 DRIVE Double Cabinet Drives in cabinets come assembled

40 track single sided $259 an * tested with power supply Order

80 track (dual sided 40 track) . . $349 cable se P arate| y'
160 track (dual sided 80 track) . $449

BARE DRIVES ONLY 1cn , L , H , A A nn , l#ienAll

160 track (dual sided 80 track) SCALL

40 track single sided $165 8 inch Slimline sgl/dbl sided $CALL

80 track (dual sided 40 track) SCALL Winchester Hard Drives 5 Meg . $399

CALL IF YOU FIND A LOWER PRICE ON DRIVES

PERCOM

Hard Drives supporting both DOSPLUS and LDOS

5 Megabytes of storage $1390

10 Megabytes of storage $1690

15 Megabytes of storage $1990

20 Megabytes of storage $2490

PRINTERS

■ I a PRINTER CABLES AND

■ ■k ^^ ■fc^D // INTERFACES AVAILABLE

Call for current pricing

PRINTERS

* 100-120-160 CPS * SuperScript-Subscript

* Bidirectional Logic Seeking * Underlining

' Friction and Tractor * Backspacing Doublestrike

* 9X9 Dot Matrix ' 5. 6. 8 1/2. 10. 12 and 17 Pitch

* True Decenders ' Programmable Line Spacing

* High Res-Bit Image Block Graphics * SIX (6) MONTH WARRANTY
GEMINI 10X (9 Inch Carriage, 1 20cps) Friction and Tractor ..... SCALL

GEMINI 15 (15 Inch Carriage, 100cps) Friction and Tractor $CALL

GEMINI 15X (15 Inch Carriage, 120cps) Friction and Tractor. . . . SCALL

DELTA 10 (10 Inch Carriage, 160cps) Friction and Tractor SCALL

STAR Printers can be interfaced with most computers on the markettoday, such as:
Apple II. lie. Ill / IBM PC / Osborne / Heath Kit H89 / TRS-80 Model I. II. 111.4.12. 16. 100

Zenith Z89.Z90.Z1 00/ TI99/4A / Kaypro / Atari 400.800 / Commodore 64.Vic 20
CALL FOR OUR LOW PRICES

Smith-Corona* TP-I

LOW COST LETTER QUALITY DAISY WHEEL PRINTER

Your choice PARALLEL or SERIAL Interface

List Price $895 $$g§ $CALL

TCS has the LOWEST PRICES on IN-STOCK PRINTERS!
DOT MATRIX PRINTERS LETTER QUALITY PRINTERS

EPSON RX/FX SILVER REED/BMC (I6cpa)

C ITOH B510/TEC/PMC BROTHER/COMREX/BMC (16cps)

DMP 100 DMP 2100 (160/ wp100cp«)

DMP 200 R S DAISYWHEEL II (40cps)

DMP 400 DWP4lO(25cp»)

DMP 500 C ITOH F-10 (40 CPS)

DMP 2100 NEC 3520/1530/3550

ANADEX 9501 -A NEC 7710/7730

CENTRONICS 352/353

OKIDATA

IBM

TRS-80 equipment comes with original 90 day Manufacturer's Limited Warranty.

MODEL 12 and MODEL 16

MODEL 12. 1 drive SCALL

MODEL 12. 2 drives SCALL

TCS MODEL 12 version. 2 Tandon drives (like the original) S2995

MODEL 16B... Support up to 6 users. Run your whole office with
hard disk capabilities for about $1000 per user!

MODEL 16B. 1 drive SCALL

MODEL 16B. 2 drives SCALL

Model 12 and Model 16 Accessories

128K memory board (256K Max ) $629

128K extra memory chips (RS) $269

128K extra memory chips (TCS) $189

Xenix Microsoft Multi-user Basic $269

Xenix Accounting Software SCALL

Xenix Multiplan Spread Sheet Software $263

MII/12 to M16 multi-user upgrade kit $1339

DT/1 Video Terminal $629

MODEL IV

MODEL IV, 16K Cassette $825

MODEL IV. 64K. 2 drives. RS-232 SCALL

Model III Color Computer

All Radio Shack equipment is shipped from our store
in Brady, Texas

320K Bytes Tandon Disk Drives

QUADBOARD 64k - 256k memory, clock, serial,

BMC RGB Ultra Hi Res Color Monitor

HARD DISKS

SCALL

parallel $279

$449

from $1390

TCS Model IV, 64K, 2 Disks

Systems come with 180 Day Warranty

$1499 0&.\ $1699

With standard 40 track Q Q-2^ With 2 dual headed 40

double density drives n 3 track double density drives

Over 340.000 bytes. Over 730,000 bytes

Enhanced Model IV Operating System Enhanced Model IV Operating System

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.

" 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 & Instructions $249

2 Controller, Power Supply, Hardware & one 40 track Tandon Drive $429

3 Controller Power Supply, Hardware, two 40 track Tandon Drives $598

3a Kit 3 but with two 80 track drives (dual sided 40s) $791

3b Kit three but with two 160 track drives (dual sided 80s) $989

TCS MODEL IV DISK EXPANSION KITS

11 Controller. Power Supply. Mounting Hardware, one40 Track Tandon Drive $479

12 Controller. Power Supply, Mounting Hardware, two 40 Track Tandon Drives $649

12A Kit 12 but with two 80 Track Tandon Drives $629

12B Kit 12 but with two 160 Track Tandon Drives $849

DAVONG HARD DRIVES APPLE DISK DRIVES

5 Megabytes of storage . from $1295 High quality slimline drives

10 Megabytes of storage $CALL l st J d '' ,ve w/controller $279 I

9 y a 2nd drive only $229

15 Megabytes of storage SCALL Totally compatible with all apple software

Networking systems for multiuser hard

disks Tape and cartridge back up systems ^ ^^ A I

are alsoavailable for IBM PC. APPLE II, and Ja V.//A l_ L.

APPLE III ~

Heart ofTEXAS

COMPUTER SYSTEMS

P.O. Box 1327 Arlington, Texas 76004-1327

Toll Free 1-80O433-5184 Texas 1-817-274-5625

Circle 469 on inquiry card.

What's New?

ware. It attaches to the
IBM parallel printer port
and prints normal text at a
speed of 20 characters per
second. Forms up to 16
inches wide can be ac-
commodated. Print thim-
bles can hold up to 128
characters and can print
two typefaces or a full-
character alphabet plus

numbers, sub- and super-
scripting, and special sym-
bols that include interna-
tional and graphics char-
acter sets. The unit sells for
$1250 and is available
from NEC Information
Systems Inc., 5 Militia Dr.,
Lexington, MA 02173,
[617) 862-3120.
Circle 676 on inquiry card.

PERIPHERALS

Protect

The Wire Tree from Net-
worx is a four-outlet fil-
tered power source to pro-
tect personal-computer cir-
cuitry and memory from
voltage spikes, surges, and
radio-frequency interfer-
ence. It also permits con-
trol of total-system power

Circuitry

from a single, illuminated
on/off switch. The price of
the Wire Tree is $69.95,
and it is available from
Networx, 203 Harrison
Place, Brooklyn, NY
1 1237, (212) 821-7555.
Circle 669 on inquiry card.

Cut Interference

A surge suppressor/
noise filter protects sensi-
tive computer equipment
by isolating it from equip-
ment interaction and from
damaging high-voltage
spikes and AC-line noise
and hash. It can handle up
to 2000-amp spikes and a

maximum load of 1875
watts. It comes with three,
four, or eight outlets and
can plug into any 125-V
AC, I5-amp outlet. Con-
tact Indus-Tool, 325 West
Huron St., Chicago, IL
60610.
Circle 675 on inquiry card.

T-Switches,
Two in One

A Mini-T-Switch from In-
mac enables users to con-
figure computer systems in
a limitless number of ways
while reducing by half the
number of modems and
printers required. For ex-
ample, one switch allows
two microcomputers alter-
nate access to a common
printer. The rack-mount-
able module combines
two T-switches that en-

able two peripherals to
share a common I/O (in-
put/output) port. The Mini-
T-Switch is guaranteed for
one year. Price is $ 125 to
$230 depending on con-
figuration. Contact Inmac,
Department 127, 2465
Augustine Dr., Santa
C\s^, CA 95051, (800)
547-5444; in California,
(800) 547-5447.
Circle 671 on inquiry card.

654 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

Last year our fire protection systems
kept the heat off a lot of business owners.

OH A F&HWAl- A

muc,

<£.

yJ

".OWAWGZ& Of A Flf^ IN A
fagf&tifc A?& FFACVCAM Nil—

£&S£

© Field Enterprises, Inc., 1933

WHY CO&& IT $N&A< \A¥&
PFA&Ott B*&Tti IN H£^£?

It's sheer wizardry the way Fenwal's suppression
systems spot fire and snuff it out instantly. Our systems
use the fastest way known of stopping fire, Halon 1301.
It's perfectly clean and people-safe. That keeps down-
time to an absolute minimum.

We've been building and perfecting our systems for
more than 20 years. There are thousands installed
around the world. Because Fenwal manufactures all its
own major system components,
you get a system with components
built to work together and backed
by single source responsibility.

FENWAL

Plus the attention of a local factory trained wizard who's
knowledgeable in cost efficient system configuration.

Whatever you want to protect— valuable documents,
computer rooms, communication centers, control rooms,
switching rooms, anything at all that you can't afford to
be without— we can do the job.

For the name of your local Fenwal wizard,
look in the Yellow Pages under "Fire Protection," or

contact the Castle at (617) 881-2000.

Fenwal Incorporated,

Ashland, MA 01721.

A Division of Kidde, Inc.

Circle 187 on inquiry card.

BYTE November 1983 655

What's New?

Dual Video,

ID Systems Corporation
has introduced the ID-200,
a family of very high-reso-
lution graphics terminals
that offer dual-display ar-
chitecture, infinite color-
graphics patterns, NTSC
compatibility, zoom, pan,
and other features. The
\D-200 Series has a 1280
by 480 pixel resolution
with a display-writing rate
of up to 1 .25 million pixels
per second. Eight win-
dows can be displayed at
once. The terminal's dual-
video generator permits

Dual Display

split images to be dis-
played on separate moni-
tors. The ID-200 has 128
downloadable fonts that
allow user-created charac-
ters and 1 6 levels of zoom.
It also has a palette of 8 or
16 fundamental colors
with ]0 77 user-selectable
graphics-pattern elements.
The price Is $4000. Con-
tact ID Systems Corp.,
4089 Leap Rd., Hilliard,
OH 43026, (614) 876-
1595.
Circle 668 on inquiry card.

Master

PC Master, a multifunc-
tion I/O (input/output)
card from the Vista Com-
puter Company, provides
a host of features for the
IBM PC, PC XT, and com-
patibles. Included are one
parallel printer port, two
asynchronous serial ports,
real-time clock/calendar
with nickel-cadmium bat-
tery, joystick A/D (analog
to digital) input port, and
Votrax speech synthesizer

Your PC

with amplifier and pitch
and volume controls, all
on a single card. Software
support includes a RAM
disk emulator, print
spooler, Votrax subrou-
tines, and real-time clock
utilities. Contact Vista
Computer Co. Inc., 1317
East Edinger Ave., Santa
Ana, CA 92705, (714)
953-0523.
Circle 745 on inquiry card.

Reduce Costs
of Development

Solarcom Technology
has introduced an 8085A
microcomputer board that
Is STD bus-compatible and
designed to reduce prod-
uct- and system-develop-
ment costs. The SCMT-85
includes an 8155-type
2048-bit static MOS RAM
with I/O (input/output)
ports and a timer. This sin-
gle chip contains a
256-word by 8-bit RAM,
two programmable 8-bit
ports, a programmable
6-bit I/O port, and a 1 4-bit
binary -programmable
counter/timer. The
SCMT-85 also includes an
ADC0809 analog-to-dig-
ital converter (ADC). The
SCMT-85 sells for $194.
Contact Solarcom Tech-
nology Inc., POB 4715,
Hayward, CA 94544,
(415) 489-3141.
Circle 673 on inquiry card.

Color the
Commodore 64

Bytes & Pieces has
developed a Color Shar-
pener that solves the
color-resolution and inten-
sity problems of the Com-
modore 64. The electronic
unit does not require sol-
dering, wiring, or opening
of the computer because it
plugs into the 64. The
price Is $ 18.95 and it Is
available from Bytes &
Pieces, 550 North 68th St.,
Wauwatosa, W\ 53213.
Circle 674 on inquiry card.

Infrared
Touch Terminal

For its touch capability,
the Touch Information
Display (TID) uses arrays
of infrared light-emitting
diodes (LED) and photo-
transistor detectors around
the periphery of the

screen. Outputs result
when criss-crossing beams
of infrared light are inter-
rupted. Because no screen
overlay or mechanical
switches are involved, the
optical approach \s said to

656 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

AP-PEEL©

Price
B 40. 00

U.S.

NEW CONTROL FOR YOU APPLE 2 + '

AP-PEEL - Reprograms the reset key
to give you complete control over
operation.
AP-PEEL

- Protects disks from possible
damage on start-up.

- Reset allows choice of entry to one
of 5 modes of operation.

- Exit 'locked-in' programs to view any
memory on screen.

- 'Page' through memory to look for
key words in games.

- Make changes in memory at any
time.

- Eliminates use of power switch to
re-boot on 'locked-in' programs.

- Installed or removed in seconds.

A MUST FOR APPLE 2 + * OWNERS
MG J Co. Checkor Money Order

88 Wellington Ave. Allow 30 day delivery

VICTOR, B.C.
CANADA V8W4H6 *TM Apple Computer

STARTING YOUR OWN

BUSINESS?

The former General Counsel of
California Computer Products, Inc.
(CalComp) is now in the private
practice of law, concentrating in

COMPUTER BUSINESS LAW

including

Corporations

Partnerships

Contracts

Licenses

Leases

Software Protection

Distribution Agreements

Vendor Agreements

Import/Export
Business Litigation

Law Offices of
WILLIAM L. BARBER

One Almaden Boulevard, Suite 313

San Jose, California 951 I 3

(408) 295-6800

GET CASH FOR
USED HARDWARE

We provide a marketplace by
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total equipment value. No fee to
buyers!

For immediate response and com-
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THE TRADE BROKER, INC.

P.O. Box 1194

Mercer Island, WA. 98040

l-(206)-232-7709 S

Circle 294 on inquiry card.

Circle 479 on inquiry card.

SMITH-CORONA

Memory Correct III Messenger

Printer & Typewriter

• RS232 Serial Or
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• Multiple Pitch 10, 12, 15

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Circle 86 on inquiry card.

Circle 87 on inquiry card.

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Circle 434 on inquiry card.

Circle 89 on inquiry card.

FOR YOUR APPLE,
RADIO SHACK
IBM PC,
OSBORNE ETC.

DISKETTES-5V4 IN.

3M MEMOREX

SSDD $2.10Ea./50 $2.20 Ea./ 100

DSDD $2.85 Ea./50 $3.00 Ea./100

HARD DISC SUBSYSTEMS

5MB 10MB 15MB

APPLE $1,350. $1,500. $1,700.

IBM $1,350. $1,550. $1,750.

PRINTERS

FACIT 4510 P AND S $450. Ea.

PROWRITER8510P $395. Ea.

PROWRITER 1550P $695. Ea.

TRANSTAR 315 $515. Ea.

We carry Daisy Wheel Printers, Floppy Disc Drives,
Monitors, Terminals. Expansion Boards, Software,
Ribbons, Printwheels, Etc.

lUct-Clicm

Met-Chem International Corporation ua= ==^
2911 Dixwell Avenue, Hamden. Conn. 06518
Phone: (203) 248-3212 or 1-800-638-2436

Circle 291 on inquiry card.

What's New?

be more reliable than tech-
niques that rely on capaci-
tive or membrane screens.

The TID's 12-inch diag-
onal amber-phosphor
screen displays 24 lines of
80 characters each. Up to
648 active touch areas
can be of any size or
shape and are set up using
a menu-driven routine
stored in ROM.

An Intel 8085 micropro-
cessor and associated
memory handle both ter-
minal and touch-panel
functions in the TID. It
functions as a standard
ASCII (American Standard
Code for Information Inter-
change) terminal that
emulates the cursor-
addressing functions of
the ADM-3A from Lear-
Siegler. The TID is $ 1 400
and is available from Elec-
tro Mechanical Systems
Inc., 801 West Bradley
Ave., Champaign, IL
61820, (217) 359-7125.
Circle 670 on inquiry card.

Ready to Run

A robotics-development
subsystem for the Apple II
and He consists of a plug-in
interface board, a dual-axis
driver board, and two size
23 (50 oz.-in.) stepper
motors. The A6 T/D inter-
face board plugs into the
Apple ll/lle expansion slot
and generates software-
controlled pulses that drive
stepper-motor translators.
The board can receive in-
put pulses from rotary en-
coders or similar position-
measuring devices. Posi-
tioning software enables
users to run and develop a

two-axis motion-control
system. The price is $365.
Contact Rogers Labs,
2710 South Croddy Way,
Santa Ana, CA 92704,
(714) 751-0442.
Circle 672 on inquiry card.

SOFTWARE

Larger Documents
Can Join the Race

A text processor,
Sprinter-2, is designed to
meet the demands of pro-
ducing books, reports,
manuals, and other large
documents.

Built-in text-formatting
commands include auto-
matic footnote placement
and numbering, multi-
column formats, and
header- and footer-line
capabilities. The processor
also includes automatic
numbering of chapters,
sections, and pages. You
can define one-word
instructions and carry out
any sequence of the com-
mands. A text file can be
printed without modifica-
tion on any of the sup-
ported printers in any type
style; the optional spelling
checker ($ 125) is an ex-
pandable 40,000-word
dictionary, and all popular
daisy wheels are sup-
ported (Diablo 630 and
1600, NEC, Qume, and
more). Sprinter-2 is written
in Pascal and is available
for any computer using
the Softech Micro-system
p-System. Sprinter-2 costs
$350 and includes a users
manual. Contact Scenic
Computer Systems Inc.,
14852 Northeast 3 1st
Circle, Redmond, WA
98052, (206) 885-5550.
Circle 688 on inquiry card.

Access to Dow Jones

Teleminder is said to pro-
vide complete, automatic,
and efficient access to the
Dow Jones News/Retrieval
database. With Tele-
minder, database users can
retrieve news and quotes
on up to 360 companies
with a single keystroke.

Teleminder is available
for 64K-byte Apple II and
He, 128K-byte Apple Ills,
and IBM PCs. Teleminder
connects to Dow Jones,
recalls when you last got
news, scans and retrieves
news updates since that
session, loads the informa-
tion onto a disk, and dis-
connects. News and stock
quotes can be printed for
review. For the Apple III
and IBM PC, it's $325.
Contact Teleware Inc.,
POB 729, Pine Brook, NJ
07058, (800) 225-0076; in
New Jersey, (201) 882-
0466.
Circle 776 on inquiry card.

Collector Picks Up
Loose Strings

The Collector removes
unused strings from Radio
Shack TRS-80 Model l/lll
BASIC programs. Produced
by Modular Software Asso-
ciates, the Collector takes
the place of the TRS-80's
ROM garbage-collection
routine, which sometimes
causes the keyboard to
lock. The Collector is said
to reduce these delays by
as much as 95 percent.

The Collector requires
500 bytes of memory and

2 bytes for each active
string. It is supplied on a

3 5 -track single-density
Model I formatted disk. It
costs $24.95, plus $2.50
shipping, and comes with
a manual and demonstra-
tion program. Order it
directly from Modular Soft-
ware Associates, 209 1 8th
St., Huntington Beach, CA
92648, (714) 960-6668.
Circle 777 on inquiry card.

A Big

Frogger, the popular ar-
cade game, can now be
played by one or two
players on Atari 400/800
and 1 200XL computers. In
this fast-action game frogs
must hop across a busy

Splash

highway and over a rag-
ing river before they are
safely home. Details are
available from Parker
Brothers, 50 Dunham Rd.,
Beverly, MA 019 15.
Circle 701 on inquiry card.

IBM PC Matrix
Manipulation

Matrixpak is a set of
matrix-manipulation rou-
tines for use on an IBM PC
equipped with the Intel
8087 math coprocessor.
Supporting seven data
types (word, short, long,
and binary-coded decimal

integers; short, long, and
temporary real numbers),
the package can use all
available memory to oper-
ate on large matrices.

Written in assembly lan-
guage, the package
modules are designed to

658 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

WHY PAY MORE
COMPARE THESE PRICES

MC-P APPLICATIONS

BRINGS SOFTWARE & HARDWARE
AT UNBEATABLE PRICES

fa

SOFTWARE

LIST OUR
APPLIED SOFTWARE TECHNOLOGY

VersaForm $389 $252

ASHTON TATE

Financial Planner 700 452

BPI ACCOUNTING SYSTEMS

GL/AP/AR (Each) 395 285

FOX & GELER Quick Code .. 295 1 84

HOWARD SOFT

Real Estate Analyzer II 195 135

LATTICE C Compiler 700 435

LIFETREE Volkswriter 195 129

METASOFT Benchmark 499 375

MICROSTUFF Crosstalk 195 129

MICROPRO

Word Star w/Applicard 495 349

MICROSOFT

Flight Simulator (IBM) 50 35

Flight Simulator (Apple) .... 29

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Personal Investor 145 98

PEACHTREE

Peach Pack (AR, AP, GL) .. 595 325

SATELLITE SOFTWARE

WordPerfect 495 325

SOFTWARE PUBLISHING

Pfs: File

Apple 125 85

IBM 140 95

Pfs: Report 125 85

SOFTWORD SYSTEM

Multimate 495 315

SORCIM SuperCalc II 295 185

SYNPSE File Manager 150 97

WOLF Move-It 199 125

VISICORP

Visicalc 250 169

Visifile (Apple) 250 187

Visifile (IBM) 300 225

VisiSchedule 300 225

VisaWord w/free VisiSpelL 375 285

LOTUS 1-2-3
$32900

WORD STAR PRO
$44900

DBASE II
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EDIX/WORDIX
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MULTIPLAN

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HOME ACCOUNTANT

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BANK STREET WRITER

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TANDON T100-2
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OKIDATA 92

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AMDEX COLOR II

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Hayes Stack Chronograph

(RS-232) $249 1 85

Hayes Stack Smart Modem

(RS-232) 289 219

Smart Modem 1200

(RS-232) 699 511

ADVANCED LOGIC SYSTEM (Apple II)

Z-Card 169 115

Printer Mate (Parallel) 99 55

CP/M Card (W/ CP/M 3.0) 399 315

MICROSOFT

Softcard (Apple) 345 259

Ram Card (Apple) 100 75

64K Ram Card (IBM) 350 249

MPC PERIPHERALS (Apple)
Parallel Interface Card

(w/Cable) 90 68

NOVATION

Apple - Cat II 389 275

212 Auto Cat 695 595

Smart-Cat 103/121 595 445

Smart-Cat 103 249 187

PERSONAL COMPUTER PRODUCTS

Applicard 6 Mhz 375 280

KRAFT & TG Joystick

IBM 70 49

Apple 65 45

CDC DISK DRIVE 265

VERBATIM DISC

S/S D/D 10 Pk 49 28

AMDEK MAI BOARD 599 495

ELECTRONICS PROTECTION DEVICES

Lime 90 63

Peach 98 69

QUADRAM

Quadboard 64K 395 295

Quadlink 680 525

MEMORY CHIP SET

(64K/9 chips) 95 65

PRINTERS

Mennesman Tally MT 160L 798 669

NEC 7730 RO Parallel 2595 2295

MONITORS

Amdek 12" 310A 230 189

Quadchrome 17" 695 525

Princeton Graphics 795 519

CALL FOR OTHER SOFTWARE & HARDWARE PRICES

"International Dealer Enquiries Welcomed"

MC-P APPLICATIONS

111 W. St. John St., Suite 307

San Jose, CA 95113 Phone (408) 293-3360

Telex: 294207 MCPA UR

HOURS: 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. — Mon. - Sat.

(Phone Orders Only on Sat.)

TERMS: All-prices subject to change. Cashier's check/ MO/
Bank Transfer. Allow time for company or personal checks to
clear. Prices reflect cash prepaid discount. VISA/ MASTER
CARD /COD /PO's =3%. California residents add sales tax.
SHIPPING: $4 per item for UPS surface ($8 for Blue Label);
Monitors $20, Printers $25, within continental USA.

What's New?

be called as subroutines
from a user program; the
routines can be linked into
code generated by call-by-
reference BASIC, Pascal,
and FORTRAN compilers,
such as Micro Ware's
RTOS-based compilers, as
well as other assembly-
language programs. Con-
tact Micro Ware, POB 79,
Kingston, MA 02364,
(617) 746-7341.
Circle 679 on inquiry card.

Highly Integratable
Software

A Total Management
Planning (TMP) package
includes f\\/e integrated
programs with an unstruc-
tured database capability,
a menu-driven fully struc-
tured database manager,
and single-command trans-
fer.

The TMP Freeform
($225) stores and retrieves
information using up to 9
electronic index cards, a
built-in screen editor, and
search keys.

The TMP Manager
($595) is a structured data-
base manager using ran-
dom file structures with
multiple index files for fast
information access. You
can define, maintain, and
manipulate databases us-
ing select, sort, and merge
on fields and subfields,
and print horizontal- and
vertical-oriented reports
and mailing and price lists.

The TMP Calc ($295)
has an update mode that
provides the correct results
regardless of the data's
location on the spread-
sheet. Printer output is for-

matted to avoid wrap-
around, and 1 3-digit preci-
sion is supported.

The TMP Writer (price
not set) is a full-featured
word processor support-
ing fixed, proportional,
and smart word-process-
ing printers. It provides full
control of headers, footers,
pagination, and viewing
for easy proofing. It also
has a document file/
retrieve system with cross-
indexing usually found in
dedicated word pro-
cessors.

The TMP Front End
(price not set) provides
you with the power to in-
tegrate any or all of the
TMP packages into a com-
mon operating environ-
ment. For details, contact
the United Software Co.,
Suite 232, 9726 East 42nd
St., Tulsa, OK 74 145, (918)
622-4800.
Circle 681 on inquiry card.

ing and billing-form re-
quirements without repro-
gramming, and set up rou-
tines to reconfigure the
system to fit new provider
environments.

MMAS is implemented
in Pascal so it is transfer-
able and timely. It also sup-
ports remote data-entry
stations that can operate
autonomously or online.
For information, contact
Systemetrics Inc., 104
West Anapamu, Santa
Barbara, CA 93101, (805)
963-1268.
Circle 680 on inquiry card.

Streamline Medical
Office Procedures

The McGraw-Hill Medi-
cal Accounting System
(MMAS) is a full-function
accounting, billing, and in-
formation-management
package for any health-
care facility.

Functions include ac-
counts payable and receiv-
able, payroll, and general
ledger. All modules are ful-
ly integrated, menu-
driven, and feature error
trapping. Changes are
easy to make as the data-
base is updated in real
time. Users can redefine
their own data screens,
adapt to changing report-

Handle 1 500 Projects

Pertmaster lets users
manage up to 1 500 activi-
ties with 29 resources per
activity using the Project
Evaluation and Review
Technique (PERT) or the
critical path analysis (CPA)
method. You can produce
bar charts and histograms
on standard character
printers with a line capaci-
ty of at least 132 charac-
ters. Pertmaster is compati-
ble with most CP/M,
MP/M, PC-DOS, or MS-
DOS 64K-byte operating
systems with hard or flop-
py dual-disk drives.
Analysis is high speed; a
full network can be up-
dated in less than 10 sec-
onds. The menu-driven
package with 9 selection
operations costs $695 and
is available from Westmin-
ster Software Inc., Building
4, Suite 245, 3000 Sand
Hill Rd., Menlo Park, CA
94025, (415) 854-1400.
Circle 683 on inquiry card.

Learn BASIC Alone

The New Step by Step
package for Apple II com-
puters provides 20 hours
of instruction using voice,
animation, and graphics.
Teach yourself BASIC in-
structions, library func-
tions, subroutines, screen
formatting, program logic,
floating-point notation,
and one-dimensional ar-
rays. Each lesson is fol-
lowed by a summary, ex-
ercises, quizzes, and final
tests. Two disks, two
backup disks, four cas-
settes, and a workbook
are included for $89.95.
Contact Program Design
Inc., 95 East Putnam Ave.,
Greenwich, CT 06830,
(203) 661-8799.
Circle 684 on inquiry card.

Game from Chris
Crawford et a I

Excalibur is a complex,
multiple-screen simulation
game of the kingdom of
Camelot. In this one-
player game, you must
learn to rule wisely using
economics, diplomacy,
magic, military strategy,
and the loyalty of friends
and enemies to reach your
goals. Use a joystick to

660 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

CompuShack

PRICES AND AVAILABILITY SUBJECT TO CHANGE WITHOUT NOTICE
ALL RETURNED MERCHANDISE SUBJECT TO A 20% RESTOCKING FEE.

ADD 10% FOR NET TERMS

PRICES GOOD IN U.S. ONLY.

PRICES REFLECTED IN THIS

SECTION ARE LOWER THAN FRANCHISE STORES.

Special
of the
Month!

IBM PC- COMPLETE LINE

IBM

PC System includes 64K IBM-PC with two
320KB Floppy Disk Drives, Controller.
Color Graphics Card. Monitor. All for
only $2599.00

LOTUS 1-2-3 SOFTWARE $459

EAGLE II

Computer System $1795

TAVA PC

Desk Top, IBM PC Compatible Computer, runs
DOS 2.0. DOS 1.1, and CP/M 86® ... $995

AST RESEARCH

IO Plus-Parallel & Serial Port. Clock
Calendar W/Bat. back-up. Superdrive.
Superspool $ 199.00

Combo Plus— 256K, Parallel & Serial Port. Clock
Calendar W/Bat. back-up. Superdrive.
Superspool $499.00

Mega Plus— 512K, Parallel & Serial Port Clock

Calendar W/Bat. back-up $999.00

QUADRAM

Quad Board - 256K. Parallel Port, Serial
I/O Clock Calendar with battery backup

$599.00

512K Ram with Serial I/O $799.00

HERCULES GRAPHICS CARD
This card gives you 720x350

graphics $499.00

BIG BLUE $479.00

MAYNARD SANDSTAR SERIES
Multifunction Card $95.00

Floppy Disk Controller . $225.00

Memory Card $189.00

Add-On Memory Module $99.00

Parallel Port Module $75.00

Serial Port Module $95.00

Clock Calendar Module $75.00

Games Adapter Module $59.00

HARD DISK SYSTEMS FOR IBM
AND APPLE

HARD DISK SYSTEM FOR IBM PC

256K IBM PC. 360KB Disk Drive, FDC.
10 MB Hard Disk w/controller. Cabinet controller
& software, Color Card, Monitor $3999.00

MONITORS

AMDEK

300A . . . $199.00 I . .

300G . . . $169.00 II. .

310A $199.00 III .

IV

$349.00

$699.00

$399.00

$1199.00

NEC

JB I201M $169.00

JC I212M $335.00

JC 1203 . $755.00
JB 1260 . .$139.00

PRINCETON GRAPHICS SYSTEMS

High Res. Color CALL

FLOPPY DISK DRIVES

SHUGART

SA400 SS/SD
SA450 DS/DD . . .

TANDON

TM-100-1 SS/DD .
TM-100-2 DS/DD .
TM-100-4 DS/DD .
TM-848-1 SS/DD .
TM-848-2 DS/DD

SIEMENS

FDD 100-5

$169.00
$239.00

CALL

CALL

$359.00

$425.00

$499.00

$159.00

DISK DRIVES

For IBM PC

Tandon 100-2 CALL

Shugart SA-455 Slimline 320KB $250

PRINTERS

DAISY WHEEL PRINTERS BY DIABLO
Model 620

132 Column/20CPS $899.00

Model 630

API/40 CPS Letter Quality $1499.00

Model 630
ECS/API-40CPS

Multi-Lingual $1899.00

Dalsywrlter Dalsywheel

Printer $1175.00

Epson FX-80 CALL

Epson FX-100 CALL

NEC
SPINWRITER

SEC

7710-1
7715-1
7730-1
7720-1

$2095 3510 $1495

$2295 3515 $1495

$2095 3530 $1695

$2695 3550 $1995

7725-1 $2695 PC8023A .

$ 595

STAR MICRONICS

Gemini 10 CALL

Gemini 15 CALL

SMITH CORONA ffgff

TP-1 parallel $579.00

TP-1 serial $579.00

C-ITOH

GX-1 00 (50 CPS Dot Matrix) $249.00

8510 $469.00

1550 (15") $699.00

F-10 (40 CPS, Letter Qual.) $1395.00

F-10 (55 CPS, Letter Qual.) $1695.00

OKIDATA

82A $429.00

83A $699.00

84AP parallel $999.00

84AS serial $1099.00

92A $525.00

93A $899.00

IDS PRISM

Prism 132 (B & W)
Color

$1395.00
CALL

brother brothec

HR-1 A parallel $769.00

HR-1 A serial $869.00

DX-15 $599.00

Tractor feed option $135.00

SILVER REED

Printer $699.00

APPLE lie CiPf^KZ ®

Computer System Controller. Two Disk Drives,
Monitor $1699

OTHER PRODUCTS

FOR APPLE

Special of the Month!

100% Compatible Disk drive for APPLE 11+ and
APPLE lie. Runs DOS, CPM®. Pascal software.
SLIMLINE DRIVE $269.00

TAVA PRODUCTS FOR APPLE

TAVA CORP.
DATA DRIVE

Cooling System and
Power Monitor ....

Joystick

80 Column Card . . .

$59

$49

$149

HAYES MICROCOMPUTER
PRODUCTS

Micromodem II 300 baud $299.95

Smartmodem 1200 baud $529.95

PERSONAL ACCOUNTANT

Software for your Apple He and Apple 11+

$199.00

EPD PRODUCTS

Lemon Surge Protector $49.95

Lime Surge Protector $79.95

Peach Surge Protector $89.95

Orange Surge Protector $129.95

Plum Surge Protector $48.95

CompuShack

COMPUSHACK FRANCHISES
AVAILABLE

WHERE ELSE CAN YOU FIND
PRIVATE LABEL PRODUCTS
NO ROYALTIES
DISCOUNT PRICES
FULL SERVICE & SUPPORT?

ONLY AT COMPUSHACK S
NEW FRANCHISE!

Circle 101 on inquiry card.

(714) 261-1000

FRANCHISE INQUIRIES WELCOME

16861 ARMSTRONG. IRVINE. CA 92714

HEAOOUARTERS/TELEX: 181667-ANSWER BACK: COMPDSHACK IRIN

'IBM is a registered trademark of IBM Corporatfon

•APPLE is a registered trademark of Apple Computers. Inc.

"CP/M and CP/M86 are registered trademarks of Digital Research. Inc.

PRODUCTS AND PRICES NOT AVAILABLE
AT ALL STORES

ALL FLOPPIES REPAIRED QUICKLY AT LOW COST

CALL FOR STORE
LOCATION

What's New?

move around the Round
Table room, the treasury,
and to Merlin's lair. With
Merlin's help you can see
into locked treasuries as
well as the minds of foes.
A floppy-disk version for
the Atari 400/800 and
1200 costs $29.95. Con-
tact Atari Program Ex-
change, 1 265 Borregas
Ave., POB 427, Sunny-
vale, CA 94086.
Circle 682 on inquiry card.

Encyclopaedia
Britannica Software

Parents can provide
their children with basic
vocabulary, reading, and
word-processing skills
with 12 programs de-
signed for Apple com-
puters from the Encyclo-
paedia Britannica Educa-
tional Corporation. The
learning spectrum ranges
from first words to master-
ing words. SAT-prepara-
tion exercises are included.
A manual accompanies
the set, which costs
$24.95 to $49.95 when
purchased individually
and ranges from $43 to
$ 1 1 5 when purchased in
combinations. Contact En-
cyclopaedia Britannica Ed-
ucational Corp., 425
North Michigan Ave.,
Chicago, IL 60611.
Circle 699 on inquiry card.

More Graphics
for the TRS-80

A high-resolution
graphics package for Pas-
cal 80 lets you use Pascal
with high-resolution

graphics in TRS-80 Model
III and Model 4.

Simple graphics rou-
tines, Pascal turtle graph-
ics, a character-generator
printer, and demonstration
programs are included.
Features include set. reset,
and point commands for
640 by 240 pixels (picture
elements), line draw and
erase commands, and
graphic and test com-
mands to switch between
high- and low-resolution
screens.

The package requires
Pascal 80 and the Radio
Shack high-resolution
graphics board. It sells for
$39.95 and is available
from New Classics Soft-
ware, 239 Fox Hill Rd.,
Denville, N J 07834, (201)
625-8838.
Circle 685 on inquiry card.

A More Compatible
Kay pro II

Uniform is a set of two
programs produced by
Micro Solutions that
allows the user to read,
write, and format disks for
other CP/M-based com-
puters, thus increasing the
Kay pro II 's compatibility
to include 1 5 other
machines.

The first program, INIT-
DISK, allows formatting
and the second, SETDISK,
selects the desired format
for drive B on the Kaypro
11. One copy is $49.95 and
is available from Micro
Solutions Inc., Software
Products Division, 125
South Fourth St., DeKalb,
IL60115, (815) 756-3421.
Circle 689 on inquiry card.

Connect Tl
To Smart CRT

Octacomm/PC is a smart
teletype-emulator program
that permits the Texas In-
struments Professional
Computer to connect to a
smart CRT terminal and in-
teractively execute pro-
grams on another compu-
ter. It uses the standard
asynchronous interface
board and an RS-232C ser-
ial interface. Octacomm/PC
allows the remote compu-
ter to clear the screen, pos-
ition the cursor, and use
line-drawing graphics. The
$125 unit requires 128K
bytes of memory and a Tl
synchronous/asynchro-
nous board. For informa-
tion, contact Houston
Computer Services Inc.,
Suite 512, 6001 Savoy,
Houston, TX 77036, (713)
972-1006.
Circle 700 on inquiry card.

Learn Morse Code

Owners of the TRS-80
Color Computer and
TDP-100 can learn the in-
ternational Morse Code
with a package called the
Morse Code Teacher. The
first in a series, it is de-
signed for the beginner
and features three practice
routines to familiarize and
increase copying or audi-
tory-recognition speed up
to five words per minute. It
requires 1 6K bytes of RAM
and Extended Color
BASIC. It is available on
cassette from Cynwyn,
Suite 2F, 4791 Broadway,
New York, NY 10034,
(212) 567-8493.
Circle 690 on inquiry card.

More for Less

A new line of affordable
programs (at less than
$20) for CP/M operating
systems is available for en-
tertainment, educational,
statistical, communication,
computer language, and
utility purposes. Many disk
formats are supported. For
a catalog, contact Quest
Software, Suite \00, 9
North Main, Lombard, IL
60148, (312) 953-2099.
Circle 702 on inquiry card.

Accounts Payable
for the Tl PC

An accounting package
for the small-business or
professional person, BPI
Accounts Payable, lets
you choose between two
accounting methods, cash
or accrual.

Two open fiscal periods
can be maintained for the
accrual method and three
options are available for
paying checks you can
also print. Double-entry
accounting automatically
reports debits and credits
to the proper accounts
without reentering; gen-
eral-ledger-account
prompts appear on the
screen as you enter data.

Accounts Payable from
BPI can stand alone or can
interface with BPI General
Accounting, Job Cost,
and Inventory Control sys-
tems. It requires a Tl Pro-
fessional Computer and
two floppy-disk drives or
one floppy-disk drive and
a Winchester hard-disk
drive. Versions are avail-
able for the Apple II, Com-
modore 8032, and Digital
Equipment DECmate \\

662 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

What's New?

computers. The price is
S395. Contact BPI Sys-
tems, 3423 Guadalupe,
Austin, TX 78705, (512)
454-2801.
Circle 686 on inquiry card.

Construction Aided
by Software

Running on any Unix-
based operating system,
the Micos I Software Series
for Construction Cost
Management assists the
manager in controlling
and managing all con-
struction costs. It features
a composite database of
over 15,000 construction
items that shows both cur-
rent and historical costs for
labor, material, and equip-
ment. The databases can
be automatically updated
to reflect the local
economy through trade/
commodity factors. Micos I
information is available
from Constech Inc., 8615
Freeport Parkway, POB
610663, DFW Airport, TX
75261, (214) 257-1186.
Circle 687 on inquiry card.

Under the Bubble

The PC-DOS Bubble is a
product that integrates
microcomputers and host
computers into a data-pro-
cessing network. The Bub-
ble from Datalex enables
applications software writ-
ten in the p-System to run
in a PC-DOS operating
system as \f it were native
to that environment. One
can initiate from and ter-

minate to, PC-DOS with-
out requiring a separate
bootstrap operation, enabl-
ing access and read or
write in both p-system and
PC-DOS files from within
the p-System. The Datalex
Bubble is available from
the Datalex Company,
Suite 406, 650 Fifth St.,
San Francisco, CA 94107,
(415) 541-0780.
Circle 697 on inquiry card.

Micromentor Helps

The Micromentor Learn-
ing System adapts to any
student's individual learn-
ing rate while it teaches a
variety of subject data-
bases such as language
arts for the middle grades
and SATplus, French,
Spanish, Hebrew, and bio-
logy for older students.
The system uses adaptive-
reinforcement techniques
to enhance and evaluate
students' progress. It re-
quires the Apple \\ and one
or two disk drives. The
program is $ 125, and the
subject databases range
from $30 to $50. For de-
tails, contact Cardinal Soft-
ware Inc., 96 Blueberry
Lane, South Hamilton, MA
01982, (617) 468-4702.
Circle 695 on inquiry card.

Recover Erasures

Unera recovers erased
files in CP/M-based com-
puters and is 3\/3\\3b\e in
disk formats that include
Osborne, North Star,
Heath/Zenith, Kay pro,
Televideo, and more.

File recovery is guaran-
teed \f Unera is used

promptly after erasure; yet
even \f other data has
been written to the disks,
Unera will recover what it
can by recognizing wild-
card characters. It supports
recovery of multiple files in
a single operation, allows
disk changing, and can be
used in both single- and
multidrive systems. The
technical accuracy of this
program is enhanced be-
cause it recovers only the
required directory con-
tents, thus maintaining the
integrity of the disk.

The package sells for
$29 and includes docu-
mentation. Contact
Compu-draw Software
House, 1227 Goler House,
Rochester, NY 14620,
(716) 454-3188.
Circle 691 on inquiry card.

Read Like the Wind

Super Speed Reading is a
program for the Apple \\, \\
Plus, and We that teaches
you to read as many as
3000 words per minute or
more, increasing your
reading rate up to 10
times.

This program contains
graphics and uppercase
and lowercase in regular,
medium, and boldface. It
keeps user records auto-
matically, displays in-
dividual progress reports,
and provides comprehen-
sion exercises. The $ 1 49
price includes two disks
and a 130-page manual.
For details, contact
Magnum Software, 21115
Devonshire St., Suite 337,
Chatsworth, CA 91311,
(213) 700-0510.
Circle 693 on inquiry card.

Enhance CP/M-based
Word Processors

Magicbind can do more
than boldface, underline,
accent, and super- or sub-
script. It provides over 60
print-formatting functions,
text-editing, and file-
processing capabilities. It
spaces proportionately,
automatically footnotes
and numbers chapters,
paragraphs, and articles,
automatically handles
short lines, prints multi-
columns, and formats flex-
ible page headings and
footings. You can preview
text on a video screen to
check page breaks and for-
mat errors before printing.
Magicbind can produce
clean copy for mailings,
customized wills, con-
tracts, and other legal
documents. With docu-
mentation, the price is
$250. Contact Computer
Editype Systems, 509
Cathedral Parkway !0A,
New York, NY 10025
(212) 222-8148.
Circle 703 on inquiry card.

Print Color
From the Apple

The Color Printer pro-
vides an easy, low-cost
method of producing full-
color printouts using an
Epson MX-80 printer with
Grsftrsx and an Apple-
compatible computer. Col-
or Printer allows the user
to print any image from
Apple's high-resolution
screen. The package in-
cludes an unprotected
DOS 3.3 disk, four colored
Epson ribbon cartridges,
and full documentation. It
costs $69.95 and is avail-

November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. 663

What's New?

able from Enhanced Soft-
ware Products Inc., POB
1 78, Wantagh, NY 1 1 793,
(516) 799-2679.
Circle 696 on inquiry card.

Manage Inventory
with Any Report

An inventory-manage-
ment system, Infotory,
from SSR Corporation is
available for the Victor
9000 on both floppy- and
hard-disk drive systems. Its
capacity is up to 50,000 in-
ventory items with 36
fields of information each.
It features a built-in data
management/report writer
called Anyreport, giving
the user unlimited flexibil-
ity in designing and saving
custom reports to fit speci-
fic requirements. Infotory
costs $425 for a floppy-
disk format and $575 for a
hard-disk format. For de-
tails, contact SSR Corp.,
1600 Lyell Ave., Roch-
ester, NY 14606, (716)
254-3200.
Circle 692 on inquiry card.

Financial Modeling
On the Move

A financial-modeling
program for professionals
and managers called Su-
percomp-Twenty is trans-
portable across the Digital
family from PDP-1 Is to
VAXes.

Available for the Digital
Professional 300 Series,
Supercomp-Twenty fea-
tures a Help key, a tutorial,
and formatting flexibility
with column width, label-
ing, and a user-defined dis-
play. Program functions

include financial, mathe-
matical, conditional, and
statistical abilities. Two
data-access modes link
Supercomp-Twenty to
many database and
graphics programs.

It requires a Professional
300 Series with P/OS-disk
or hard-disk operating sys-
tems and sells for $395.
Contact Access Technol-
ogy Inc., 6 Pleasant St.,
South Natick, MA 01760,
(617) 655-9191.
Circle 694 on inquiry card.

MASS STORAGE

TC 1000 Drivette

A double-sided micro-
floppy-disk drive provides
one megabyte of storage
capacity on a 3/4 -inch
microfloppy disk. Al-
though it is one-fourth the
size of 5'/4-inch disk drives
and one-half the weight, it
offers 60 percent of the
power consumption. The
TC 1 000 gives users twice
the capacity of a 500-kilo-
byte drive at about a 30
percent increase in cost.
The TC 1000 is plug- and
data-compatible with stan-
dard double-sided (80
tracks per side), double-
density, 96-track-per-inch,
5/4 -inch drives. Plug and
data compatibility allows
users to download
double-sided, 5/4 -inch
software packages to the
unit's 3/4 -inch disks with-
out modification. The TC
1000 is available for $295
in evaluation quantities.
For details, contact Tabor
Corp., Lyberty Way, West-
ford, MA 01886, (617)
692-2535.
Circle 706 on inquiry card.

Color-Coded Disks

The jackets of double-
density floppy disks in
both 5/4- and 8-inch for-
mats are available from
Professional Publications
in five prime and five
pastel colors. Use the col-
ors to identify different
jobs, days of the week,
typists, or any relevant
category. Disks carry a
1 5-day trial money-back
guarantee as well as a life-
time-replacement policy.
Contact Professional Publi-
cations, POB 199, San
Carlos, CA 94070, (415)
593-9119.
Circle 705 on inquiry card.

Seagate's ST425

A 3-platter, 25.52-
megabyte, 5/4 -inch Win-
chester hard-disk drive
uses a temperature-com-

pensation servo for in-
creased track densities-
along with a conventional
stepper motor for read/
write head positioning.
The drive operates at an
average access time of 60
milliseconds (msec) and
track-to-track access time
of 16.5 msec. Track den-
sity is increased from 345
to 480 tracks per inch,
yielding a capacity of 4.25
megabytes on each of the
six data surfaces. It is com-
patible with industry-
standard ST506 control-
lers. The ST425 media is
oxide-coated, and the
transfer rate is 5 megabits
per second. In quantities
of 500, the ST425 is
$1090. Contact Seagate
Technology, 920 Disc Dr.,
Scotts Valley, CA 95066,
(408) 438-6550.
Circle 707 on inquiry card.

COMMUNICATIONS

And the
Password Is:

The Password is a light-
weight, 300-/1 200-bps
modem with auto dial and
answer. It is compact
enough to be mounted on
the back of a computer
using Velcro. The circuitry
uses only 1 2 integrated cir-
cuits. At 1200 bps, three

or four typewritten pages
per minute can be pro-
cessed. The Password sells
for $449. For information,
contact U.S. Robotics Inc.,
1 123 West Washington
Blvd., Chicago, \L 60607,
(312) 733-0497.
Circle 726 on inquiry card.

664 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

What's New?

Interface with Apple

The Interfacer by Data-
Cue provides Apple U
owners with a serial-com-
munications port. The port
supports synchronous/
asynchronous communi-
cations and the RS-232C
and RS-422 electrical stan-
dards. The Interfacer also
has two complete parallel-
printer ports. It comes with
software drivers for print-
ers as well as a terminal
emulator for communica-
tions with remote com-
puters. It costs $95. For
details, contact Data-Cue,
5696 Hwy 43 1 S, Browns-
boro, AL 35741, (205)
883-2933.
Circle 724 on inquiry card.

Pronet Networks
Three Units

A multitasking network
system for the Apple \\
called Pronet has been in-
troduced by SWI Inter-
national Systems. Many
people can use the net-
work that runs under the
AROS operating system
(compatible with Apple
DOS 3.3) and the p-Sys-
tem UCSD version 4. 1 .
TurboDOS should be
available soon for either
the PCPI or Microsoft Z80
cards. A starter system for
networking three com-
puters costs $656. SWI
plans to offer an IBM PC
network with the p-Sys-
tem followed by MS-DOS
and TurboDOS. For de-
tails, contact SWI Interna-
tional Systems, 7741 East
Gray Rd., Suite 2, Scotts-
dale, AZ 85260, (602)
998-3986.
Circle 728 on inquiry card.

Infonet for All

The Infonet network,
which works in more than
1 50 national metropolitan
areas and almost 50 cities
around the world, has
entered the communica-
tions market. Formerly
confined to customers of
Computer Sciences Cor-
poration's remote-com-
puting service, now any-
one can transmit informa-
tion between desktop
computers and remote ter-
minals in branch facilities.
More than 1 50 nodes are
interconnected over
130,000 miles of leased
terrestrial circuits as well as
satellite links. Connect-
time fees are $4 per hour
for speeds up to 1 200 bps;
data-volume charges are 4
cents per 1000 characters
for up to 1200 bps. Con-
tact Computer Sciences
Corp., 650 North Sepul-
veda Blvd., El Segundo,
CA 90245, (213) 615-
0311.
Circle 729 on inquiry card.

Small Modem
Can Transmit

The Small Wonder is an
SR 1 20 Async Line Driver
modem from Data-Control
Systems. The SR 1 20 mea-
sures 85 by 1 33 by 45 mil-
limeters and can transmit
one mile over unloaded
metallic circuits at 19.2
kbps. Longer distances are
possible at lower data
rates. The SR 120 con-
forms to Bell Publications
#43401 and #41028. The
price is $165. Contact
Data-Control Systems,
1455 Research Blvd.,
Rockville, MD 20850,
{301 ) 279-8700.
Circle 727 on inquiry card.

Modem Adapts,
Stores, and Dials

Cermetek Microelec-
tronics has introduced In-
fomate 212A, a micropro-
cessor-based Bell 2 1 2A-
type modem that fits on a
standard telephone. It
automatically adapts to
the host's communication
parameters and minimizes
system-integration prob-
lems. Features include
automatic dial, answer,
speed select, and parity
select, and automatic or
manual selection of pulse
or tone dialing. Its non-

volatile memory can store
up to fifty-two 32-digit
telephone numbers or log-
on messages for database
access. Advanced dialing
commands such as dial
last number and dial until
answered are provided.
The Infomate 212A costs
$595. For details, contact
Cermetek Microelectronics
Inc., 1308 Borregas Ave.,
POB 3565, Sunnyvale, CA
94089, (408) 734-8150.
Circle 723 on inquiry card.

The Scotsman III com-
presses data at a two-to-
one ratio, doubling the
capacity of existing phone
lines and allowing com-
munication links to oper-
ate at twice the normal
speed. Because it doubles
the throughput of a high-
speed data link, it allows a
19.2 kbps (thousand bits
per second) data stream to
be transmitted using a con-
ventional 9600-bps
modem. It contains a built-
in four-channel multiplexer
and is compatible with
most asynchronous, bisyn-

Compress Data
Twice as Fast

chronous,

X.25, SDLC,
and HDLC protocols. The
units are fully compatible
with the standard RS-232C
serial and V. 24 interfaces.
A cyclic redundancy check
(CRC) is used to detect er-
rors between data-com-
pression units. Extensive
diagnostics are built in,
and statistical data can be
used for network optimiza-
tion. The price of the unit
is $5000. Contact Racal-
Vadic, 1525 McCarthy
Blvd., Milpitas, CA 95035,
(408) 946-2227.
Circle 719 on inquiry card.

November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. 665

What's New?

The Short-Range
Modem Family

RAD Computers has in-
troduced a new family of
short-range modems that
are packaged in a plastic
connector cover and do
not need an AC power
supply. The three models
available are the SRM 6D,
a 1 9. 2-kbps asynchronous
modem with a range of up
to 35 km (9 km at 9600
bps with 24-gauge wire);
the SRM 6A, which is
tra nsf ormer-isolated from
the line and 19. 2-kbps
asynchronous with a
range of up to 20 km (6
km at 9600 bps); and the

SRM 6S, which has line-
transformer isolation, data
ratesfrom 1 .2- to 19. 2-kbps
synchronous with a range
of up to 28 km (8 km at
9600 bps). To install, plug
the modem into the com-
puter or terminal connec-
tor. The unit prices are $60
for the SRM 6D, $95 for
the SRM 6A, and $ 1 30 for
the SRM 6S. For details,
contact RAD Computers
Ltd., POB 13161, Tel Aviv
61131, Israel; Tel: (03)
494511; Telex: 35517.
Circle 721 on inquiry card.

Reach Out and
Transfer

The Reach 2.0 Modem
and File Transfer program
from the Software Tool-
works is capable of auto-
matic programmed inter-
actions with remote host
systems. Reach 2.0 lets
you dial a remote system
using an auto-dial modem
such as the Hayes Smart-
modem, log in automati-
cally, read mail, send mes-

sages, and log off, all with-
out operator intervention.
It runs on the Heath/
Zenith H-89/Z-89/Z-90
computers and sells for
$19.95. Contact The Soft-
ware Toolworks, Suite
1118, 15233 Ventura
Blvd., Sherman Oaks, CA
91403, (213) 986-4885.
Circle 716 on inquiry card.

Link Ranges 20 Miles

An RS-232C link, the
Radiomodem is a low-
cost, wireless, hand-held
transceiver that operates
on professional FM-radio
communications chan-
nels. It can exchange data
at up to 600 bps full- or
half-duplex to provide
medium-distance data
links. It comes with a stan-
dard DB-25 connector and
operates from either 1 1 V
AC or 12 V DC. Typical
link ranges of 15 to 20
miles can be extended to
25 miles o\/er level terrain.
Voice communications
can also be conducted
o\/er the same link. Con-
tact Ritron Inc., 148 West
Carmel Dr., POB 1998,
Carmel, IN 46032, (317)
846-1201.
Circle 720 on inquiry card.

NEC Offers
Two Modules

NEC Information Sys-
tems has introduced two
modules for the NEC Ad-
vanced Personal Com-
puter (APC). Coaxxsys-
86/3270 and the SNA/
SDLC-86/3270 (Systems
Network Architecture/Syn-
chronous Data Link Con-
trol) allow the APC to con-
nect to an IBM mainframe.
Both run on the CP/M-86
operating system and use
a standard serial port.

The Coaxxsys-86/3270
combines a printed-circuit
board that plugs in to the
APC bus with a software
program running on
CP/M-86. The hardware
connects to the same co-
axial cable that connects

an IBM 3278 terminal to
either an IBM 3274 or
3276 controller.

The SNA/SDLC board
and 3270 SNA software
allow the APC to emulate
an IBM 3276 Remote Con-
trol/Unit Display Station
where, using a synchro-
nous modem, the user can
connect the APC \/\a tele-
phone lines to the IBM
host computer. Both will
be available soon: the
SNA/SDLC-86/3270 for
less than $500 and the
Coaxxsys-86/3270 for less
than $1000. For further
details, contact NEC infor-
mation Systems Inc., 5
Militia Dr., Lexington, MA
02173, (617) 862-3120.
Circle 7 1 7 on inquiry card.

Link Up
the Easy Way

Advanced Micro Tech-
niques has made CP/M-
based computer link-up
more accessible with
Telex, TWX, telegram,
cablegram, mailgram, In-
focom, and Easy Link,
Western Union's store-
and-forward message ser-
vice with a communica-
tions-software package
called Micro ez LNK. Be-
cause it automatically for-
mats and addresses Telex
messages, you won't
need to type complex
sign-on messages or ad-
dresses on-line. Micro ez
LNK can empty your elec-
tronic mailbox by receiv-
ing and storing messages
on disk without attention
from office personnel. It
supports many terminals,
8-bit CP/M-based compu-

666 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

What's New?

ters, and common mo-
dems. Soon it will support
the IBM PC, the DEC Rain-
bow, and other 1 6-bit ma-
chines. The price is $150.
Contact Advanced Micro

Techniques, 1291 East
Hillsdale Blvd., Suite 209,
Foster City, CA 94404,
(415) 349-9336.
Circle 725 on inquiry card.

Modem for
Radio-downloading

A receive-only modem,
the AM FM Loader, de-
signed for reception of
computer data from com-
mercial radio stations, is
compatible with Bell 103
(300-bps) signals and will
also operate at speeds of
up to 4800 bps. Computer
programs are downloaded
only when the listenership
is low, to comply with li-
censing requirements of
radio stations and cable

operations around the
country. Jo install, plug in
one cable to the radio's
audio-outputjack; another
cable, terminated in a
DB-25 connector, plugs in-
to the serial port. For fur-
ther details, contact the
Microperipheral Corp.,
2565 152nd Ave. NE,
Redmond, WA 98052,
(206) 881-7544.
Circle 718 on inquiry card.

Osborne
Then the

Two advanced commu-
nications-software pack-
ages, Cycom 1 and 2, are
available from Cypher
Communications Technol-
ogy. Versions are available
now for the Osborne 1
and will soon be available

First,
Others

for the TRS-80, Apple 11
IBM, and DEC personal
computers.

Both packages feature
automatic access and file
transfer. The Cycom 1
manages electronic mail,
file transfer, conversation,

and dumb-terminal emula-
tion. The Cycom 2 con-
verts an Osborne 1 into a
secure, encrypted commu-
nications terminal when
used in conjunction with
the Cypher Communica-
tions National Bureau of
Standards Data Encryption

Standard encryption chip.
Cycom 1 costs $120;
Cycom 2 costs $450. Con-
tact Cypher Communica-
tions Technology Inc.,
1600 Research Blvd., Suite
105, Rockville, MD 20850.
Circle 730 on inquiry card.

'%4

mw *m mnmm

M icropr ocessor-based
Videotex

The Sceptre Videotex
Terminal from American
Bell combines with a color-
TV set and a telephone
with modular wiring to
form a system for access-
ing and interacting with a
videotex database. Ad-
vanced videotex features
and a self-contained, high-
speed communications
link join the separate con-
trol unit with a wireless
keypad to create a com-
plete system. The encryp-
tion/security feature is
useful for banking at home
or private transactions.
The QWERTY layout con-
tains 42 alphanumeric
keys, 10 control keys, 8

programmable-function
keys, and a wireless in-
frared beam that links it to
the control unit. For com-
munications, a 212A-type
originate-only synchro-
nous/asynchronous
modem is used at a data
rate of 1200 bps. The
NAPLPS (North American
Presentation-Level Pro-
tocol Standard) protocol is
supported in 7- and 8-bit
versions. The unit sells for
$900. Contact American
Bell Consumer Products, 3
Park Ave., 31st Floor,
New York, NY 10016,
(212) 689-2612.
Circle 715 on inquiry card.

User-oriented Test
Set on Site or Away

The Phoenix Model
1500 Comit is a light-

weight, portable commu-
nications-interface test set.

November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. 667

What's New?

The Comit tests modems,
multiplexers, printers, and
terminals, and it incorpor-
ates a 28-key keyboard
and an 80-character liquid
crystal display with all
functions selected via sin-
gle keystrokes or a menu
of options. Synchronous
and asynchronous modes
operate for all standard bit
rates through 19.2 kbps
(thousand bits per second)
with synchronous rates
extended to 72 kbps. The
format of an asynchro-

nous data stream can be
evaluated for bit rate, char-
acter size, parity, and
number of stop bits. The
Model 1 500 can be driven
by a modem that allows
for distance gauging and
unattended real-time re-
mote testing and control
of all functions. The Comit
lists for $2145. Contact
Phoenix Microsystems
Inc., POB 4206, Hunts-
ville, AL 35802, (205)
881-2173.
Circle 722 on inquiry card.

SYSTEMS

Two in One
and a Language

A 64K-byte personal
computer, the Orange +
Two uses dual Z80A and
6502 microprocessors and
the company's EuroROM
feature to read, write, and
work with Apple software
as well as CP/M-based
programs. CP/M 3.0 and
Orangeforth-83, a deriva-
tive of the FigFORTH lan-
guage, are both resident in
the ROM and available on
disk. The built-in disk-drive
controller directs two
Apple-type drives. Also in-
cluded are a cassette inter-
face, joystick port, color

graphics, and ASCII key-
board with a numeric key-
pad. The Orange + Two
retails for $1095. Contact
Orange Plus Computer
Systems, 23801 Calabasas
Rd., Suite 2050, Calabasas,
CA 91302, (213) 999-
5210.
Circle 738 on inquiry card.

Serif Type
from Wordtronix

The Serif Word Process-
ing Machines are intended
to appeal to first-time users

because typing functions
are the same as typewriter
operations. The Serif line
uses a Z80A-based proces-
sor operating at 4 MHz
with 64K bytes of RAM.
An additional 1 6K bytes of
RAM are used for screen
refresh, and 4K bytes of
ROM are used as a boot-
strap loader. The adjust-
able, high-resolution
15-inch screen provides a
57-line by 85-column dis-
play. Operator text uses
45 of the 57 lines; 3 lines
are for system/operator
dialogue; and 9 lines are
for menu and help mes-
sages. Up to ]00 pages of
on-line text can be stored
with 5 1/4 -inch floppy disks.
The slim keyboard is de-

tachable. The Serif 1
comes with one disk drive;
two drives are available
with the Serif 2. The Type-
righter 20 is a typewriter-
quality daisy-wheel printer
that operates at 200
words per minute or 20
characters per second
(cps); the Typerighter 35
operates at 35 cps. Type-
right I is accompanying
software that provides
standard letter-oriented
typing features, and Type-
right II offers enhanced
features for document-
oriented word processing.
For details, contact Word-
tronix, 9950 West 74th St.,
Minneapolis, MN 55344,
(612) 941-0400.
Circle 736 on inquiry card.

Toshiba's 16-bit
High-Res Computer

Toshiba America Inc.
has introduced a 16-bit
IBM-compatible computer
called the T300 Personal/
Business Computer. The
1 2-inch green monitor
and the 14-inch 8-color
monitor both display 80
characters by 25 lines with
a resolution of 650 by 500
addressable dots. Color
graphics, a detachable
keyboard with 30 user-de-
fined keys, an Intel 8088
microprocessor, 1 92K
bytes of RAM, and 640K-
byte disk drives are a few

of the features that pro-
vide versatility. The stan-
dard operating system is
MS-DOS with T-BASIC16;
the optional operating sys-
tems include CP/M-86
with CBASIC-86. Two
models are available that
house single- or double-
disk drives, but both con-
tain integrated Centronics
and RS-232C serial-com-
munications ports and
seven expansion slots. For
details, contact Toshiba
America Inc., Information
Systems Division, 2441
Michelle Dr., Tustin, CA
92680, (714) 730-5000.
Circle 740 on inquiry card.

PUBLICATIONS

Books for the IBM PC

Several books designed
for owners of the IBM PC
have been published by
John Wiley & Sons. Two

668 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

What's New?

of the titles include PC
DOS: Using the IBM PC
Operating System and
CP/M for the IBM. Both
books are written by Ruth
Ashley and Judi N. Fer-
nandez and each one
costs $14.95. Leroy Finkel
and Jerald Brown's book
IBM PC: Data File Pro-
gramming sells for
$14.95, and Richard
Conklin's book PC Graph-
ics: Charts, Graphs,
Games and Art sells for
$15.95. Contact John
Wiley & Sons, 605 Third
Ave., New York, NY
10158.
Circle 750 on inquiry card.

A Personal Guide

Osborne/McGraw-Hill
announces a book by Lyle
Graham called Your IBM
PC: A Guide to the IBM
Personal Computer. It is
written for both beginning
and experienced computer
users. A functional over-
view of hardware and
software, step-by-step op-
erating instructions, and
an introduction to IBM
BASIC programming are a
few of the main attrac-
tions for the novice. For
more experienced users,
Graham covers PC-DOS,

CP/M-86, advanced IBM
BASIC programming, color
graphics, and sound.
Chapters include trouble-
shooting, appendixes, and
problem-definition pro-
cedures. The 400-page
book costs $16.95. Con-
tact Osborne/McGraw-
Hill, 2600 Tenth St.,
Berkeley, CA 94710, (415)
548-2805.
Circle 751 on inquiry card.

Fundamentals
of the IBM PC

Inside the IBM PC:
Access to Advanced Fea-
tures and Programming
Techniques by Peter Nor-
ton covers the fundamen-
tals behind the brains of
the PC, how PC-DOS
works, the service routines
provided by ROM, a glos-
sary, and an introduction
to Pascal. The 288-page
softcover book costs
$19.95. The book/disk
combination costs $79.95,
and the disk alone is $65.
All are available from
Robert J. Brady Co.,
Bowie, MD 20715, (301)
262-6300.
Circle 752 on inquiry card.

Computer Literacy
A Must

As a key issue to suc-
cessful office-automation
planning, The Directory of
Office Information Sys-
tems stresses the benefits
of training employees to
develop computer aware-
ness for personal as well as
corporate goals.

The 300-page reference
and buyer's guide also
supplies the reader with in-
formation on practical
reference tools needed for
selecting the appropriate
equipment, software, and
services for specific office
situations. Quick-glance
comparison charts, per-
sonal-business computers,
word-processing soft-
ware, and typesetting/in-
terface systems are dis-
cussed. A few of the chap-
ters cover office systems,
personal computers, soft-
ware, system I/O, commu-
nications, and service bur-
eaus, and an index organ-
izes it all. The book costs
$34.95 and quantity dis-
counts are offered. Con-
tact Information Clearing
House Inc., Department
OIS, 500 Fifth Ave., New
York, NY 10110, (212)
354-2424.
Circle 753 on inquiry card.

TLC for Educators

TLC, or Teaching,
Learning, Computing, is a
magazine-style educator's
guide to personal com-
puting. It focuses on peo-
ple whose contributions to
computing have been in-
tegral to its success. Topics
covered are special educa-
tion, an administrator's
planner, and essays as
well as book reviews, a
calendar, and answers to
computer queries. Sub-
scriptions are $24 a year.
Contact TLC, Data Learn-
ing Tower, POB 9159,
Brea, C A 92621.
Circle 754 on inquiry card.

Tesla's Inventions

An autobiography that
reveals Nikola Tesla's
struggle to harness power
and perfect the electric
motor using Niagara Falls
has been rereleased. My
Inventions is available in
paperback with a new in-
troduction by Ben Johns-
ton, Tesla's biographer.
Copies are $7.95. Contact
Hart Brothers Publishing,
Department N, POB 205,
Williston, VT 05495, (802)
879-4670.
Circle 755 on inquiry card.

Announcing anew
videotapedshort co

UNIX

from Cobratki Suite Universitv
ten half-hour color lectures.

m, _

A First for
Unix Users

A short course on Unix
from Colorado State Uni-
versity covers more than
60 of the most frequently
used Unix commands in
10 half-hour videotaped
lectures. It teaches viewers
how to build their own
commands and provides a
working knowledge of the
versatility of the Unix oper-
ating system. For details,
contact W. L Somervell
Jr., Engineering Renewal
and Growth Program, Col-
orado State University,
Fort Collins, CO 80523,
(800) 525-4950.
Circle 757 on inquiry card.

November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. 669

What's New?

Trlannual Medical
Software Directory

Medical Software Infor-
mation Service (formerly
Medisoft) produces a Med-
ical Software Directory
that contains programs
written by physicians and
information on publica-
tions and services related
to computers in the prac-
tice of medicine. Some of
the programs included are
for practice management,
intensive-care units, educa-
tion in the hospital, pathol-
ogy, psychiatry, ultra-
sound in obstetrics, and
nuclear and emergency
medicine. Subscriptions
are $80 a year for three
issues. Contact Medical
Software Information Ser-
vice, Route 3, Box 6744,
Twin Falls, ID 83301.
Circle 756 on inquiry card.

Self -paced Tutor/
Training Course

Computer Tutor Cor-
poration offers a self-
paced, self-teaching guide
that combines a book with
a disk for the IBM PC and
the Apple \\ Plus and He
computers. Courses in-
clude Multiplan, Wordstar,
Visicalc, Supercalc, and
two parts of Lotus's 1-2-3.
Course data is loaded and
saved on formatted disks.
Each training course costs
$39.95. Contact Compu-
ter Tutor Corp., 23 Central
St., Wellesley, MA 02181.
Circle 768 on inquiry card.

The Latest Functions
For New Buyers

Microprocessor-Micro-
computer Technology is a

book written by Frederick
F. Driscoll that provides
readers with a working
knowledge of microcom-
puter functions by focus-
ing on the 8080A, the
6800, and the 6502 micro-
processors. For each pro-
cessor, there is a ready-to-
use instruction set, pro-
grams with explanations,
and a description of basic
operations and functions.
The author shows how to
use the microprocessors in
conjunction with the
8255A peripheral interface
and the 6821 peripheral-
interface adapter. Other
detailed instructions ex-
plain how to design, load,
test, debug, and docu-
ment programs, and how
to use flowcharts, subrou-
tines, and machine, as-
sembly, and high-level lan-
guages. The book also dis-
cusses microprocessor ar-
chitecture, BASIC instruc-
tion sets, addressing
modes, and semiconduc-
tor memories. It costs
$29.95. Contact Van Nos-
trand Reinhold, 135 West
50th St., New York, NY
]0020 f (212) 265-8700.
Circle 760 on inquiry card.

Visicalc for Students
or Engineers

Visicalc for Science and
Engineering describes
how to use the "what-if"
spreadsheet program for
technical applications that
include mechanics, optics,
mathematics, statistics,
electronics, civil engineer-
ing, systems control, and
communications. Written
by Stanley Trost and
Charles Pomernacki, the

book includes more than
50 ready-to-run scientific
and engineering programs
for Visicalc allowing a
reader with only a slight
familiarity with Visicalc to
solve technical problems.
The illustrated book costs
$13.95. Contact Sybex
Inc., 2344 Sixth St.,
Berkeley, CA 94710, (415)
848-8233.
Circle 761 on inquiry card.

Computers
Serve Businesses

The Critic's Guide to
Microcomputer Software

by Phillip Good, editor of
the CPA Micro Report,
provides accountants with
separate versions for the
IBM PC, CP/M-based com-
puters, or Apple com-
puters. Reviews in all the
volumes are based on the
hands-on appraisals of the
author and his staff and
contain recommendations
for spreadsheets, word
processors, database
managers, productivity
analyzers, tax packages,
and legal-billing software.
Each book costs $12.95.
Contact the Chilton Book
Co., Radnor, PA 19089,
(800) 345-1214.
Circle 763 on inquiry card.

How to Sell
Your Software

A free booklet advises
how to successfully sell
the software you create
on your personal compu-
ter. The eight-page book-
let explains how to obtain
national directory listings,
how to price a new soft-
ware product, locate an
advertiser, write a user's
manual, and operate a
successful mail-order fulfill-
ment service. Contact
ATC Software, Route 2,
Box 448, Estill Springs, TN
37330.
Circle 773 on inquiry card.

Learn by Using
Fig FORTH on Atari

Forth on the Atari-
Learning By Using is a

book devoted to Fig-
FORTH applications on
Atari computers. It in-
cludes graphics and sound
using the game ports for
control applications and
I/O programming in
FORTH, and a mailing list
in FORTH using virtual
memory techniques. The
1 16-page book costs
$7.95. Contact Elcomp
Publishing Inc., 53 Red-
rock Lane, Pomona, CA
91766, (714) 623-8314.
Circle 775 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 infor-
mation might be of interest to the personal computing experi-
menters and homebrewers who read BYTE, we print it in some
form. We openly solicit releases and photos from manufac-
turers and suppliers to this marketplace. The information is
printed more or less as a first-in first-out queue, sue ject to oc-
casional priority modifications. While we would not knowing-
ly print untrue or inaccurate data, or data from unreliable com-
panies, 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.

670 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

Apple Country Ltd. has your Number for

ROCK BOTTOM PRICES

*Ki

1-800-222-2602

MONITORS

AMDEK COLOR I PLUS 299.95

AMDEK COLOR II 439.95

AMDEK COLOR II PLUS 449.95

AMDEK COLOR III 369.95

AMDEK COLOR IV 749.95

AMDEK VIDEO 300 (GREEN) 134.95

AMDEK VIDEO 300 (AMBER) 149.95

AMDEK VIDEO 310 (AMBER) 164.95

BMC 12AU 12" GREEN 89.95

BMC 12EUN 12" GREEN 139.95

BMC AU9191U 13" COLOR 299.95

BMC 1401 13" RGB COLOR 349.95
BMC AU9191MU 13" RGB IBM 629.95

COMMODORE COLOR MONITOR 269.95

COMREX 13" COLOR W/SOUND 294.95

COMREX 12" HI-RES AMBER 149.95

COMREX 12" HI-RES GREEN 139.95

COMREX 12" HI-RES YELLOW 144.95

ELECTROHOME 9" GREEN 129.95

ELECTROHOME 12" GREEN 149.95

ELECTROHOME 13" RGB IBM 379.95
ELECTROHOME 13" RGB COi,OR 369.95

GORILLA 12" GREEN 89.95

NEC 12" GREEN SCREEN 154.95

NEC 12" ECONO GREEN 109.95

NEC 12" LO-RES COLOR 299.95

NEC 12" AMBER SCREEN 164.95

NEC 12" COLOR - IBM 539.95

PRINCETON GRAPHICS HX-12 489.95

QUADCHROME RGB FOR IBM 527.95

SAKATA 13" COLOR 264.95

SAKATA 13" RGB COLOR 519.95

SAKATA SUPER RGB MONITOR 719.95

SAKATA 13" GREEN 104.95

TAXAN 12" GREEN 124.95

TAXAN 12" AMBER 129.95

TAXAN RGB VISION I 294.95

TAXAN RGB VISION III 494.95

ZENITH 12" GREEN 99.95
ZENITH RGB COLOR MONITOR 579.95

USI 9" AMBER MONITOR 129.95

USI 9" GREEN MONITOR 119.95

USI 12" GREEN MONITOR 139.95

USI 14" LO-RES COLOR 289.95

MODEMS

ANCHOR MARK I (RS-232) 79.95

ANCHOR MARK II (ATARI) 79.95
ANCHOR MARK III ( TI99/4A) 99.95

ANCHOR MARK V (OSBORNE) 94.95

ANCHOR MARK VI (IBM PC) 199.95

ANCHOR MARK VII (RS-232) 109.95

NOVATION J-CAT 10 4.95

NOVATION 212 AUTO CAT 579.95

SMARTCAT 212 (1200 BAUD) 429.95

SMARTMODEM 300 BAUD 194.95

SMARTMODEM 1200 BAUD 484.95

SMARTMODEM 1200B - IBM 449.95

PRINTERS

AMDEK 2 DIGITAL PLOTTER 1074.95

ANADEX DP-9501A 1319.95

ANADEX DP-9925A 1549.95

ANADEX DP-9629A 1429.95

ANADEX WP-6000 2199.95

ANADEX WP-6000 TRACTOR 144.95

CENTRONICS 352DP 1799.95

COMREX CR-1 DAISY WHEEL 729.95

DAISEYWRITER 2000 1129.95

DIABLO 630R155 1784.95

EPSON FX-80 W/TRACTOR LOW! I

EPSON RX-80 LOW! !

EPSON FX-100 F/T LOW!!

GEMINI 10X LOW! !

GEMINI 15 LOW! !

GEMINI STX-80 LOW! 1

GORILLA BANANA PRINTER 189.95

IDS MICROPRISM 479.95

IDS PRISM 132 1299.95

IDS PRISM 132C - COLOR 1499.95

JUKI 6100 PRINTER (P) 549.95

MANNESMANN TALLY MT160L 779.95

MANNESMANN TALLY MT1602 1289.95

MANNESMANN TALLY MT1802 1499.95

NEC 3550 SPINWRITER-IBM 1754.95

NEC 8023 PRINTER 459.95
NEC 8025 120 CPS 136 COL 719.95

OKIDATA MICROLINE 80 339.95

OKIDATA PACEMARK 2350P 1999.95

OKIDATA PACEMARK 2350S 2199.95

OKIDATA PACEMARK 2410P 2329.95

OKIDATA PACEMARK 2410S 2499.95
OKIDATA TRACTOR 80,82,92 49.95

OKIDATA 82A W/GRAPHICS 449.95
OKIDATA 83A W/GRAPHICS
OKIDATA 84P
OKIDATA 84S
OKIDATA 92
OKIDATA 93P
OKIDATA 93S
OLYMPIA TYPEWRITER/PRINT 819.95
PANASONIC KX-P1090
PRINTMASTER (DAISY)
PROWRITER I PRINTER
PROWRITER II PRINTER
C ITOH 8600BP
QUME SPRINT 11/40+
SANYO PR5500 DAISY WHEEL 579.95

SILVER-REED DAISY WHEEL 799.95

SMITH CORONA TP-1 499.95

STARWRITER DAISY WHEEL 1099.95

TOSHIBA P-1350 1649.95

TRANSTAR 315 COLOR 449.95

TRANSTAR 130 18CPS 729.95

TRANSTAR 140 40CPS 1229.95

EPSON SERIAL (RS-232) 134.95

GRAFITTI CARD 84.95

GRAPPLER + 119.95

MICROBUFFER II 16K 194.95

PKASO INTERFACE 129.95

WIZARD BPO 16K 129.95

WIZARD SOB 16K 179.95

OTHER PRINTERS AVAILABLE

COMPUTERS

COMMODORE 64
COMMODORE 1541 DRIVE
ATARI 600XL
ATARI 800XL
IBM PC El XT
COLUMBIA VP PORTABLE
COLUMBIA COMPLETE SYS.

IBM-PC COMPATIBLE SYSTEM
128K, 2-DS/DD DRIVES, KEYBOARD
AND COMPLETE SOFTWARE PACKAGE

CORVUS CONCEPT MC68000 $4999

256K, 8" FLOPPY DRIVE

COMPLETE SOFTWARE PACKAGE

BI-DIRECTIONAL 8-1/2X11 SCREEN

CORVUS CONCEPT 512K $5895

CORONA DESKTOP PC LOW! I

IBM-PC COMPATIBLE SYSTEM

128K 2-DS/DD DRIVES, KEYBOARD

COMPLETE SOFTWARE PACKAGE

CORONA P0RTA8LE PC LOW! !

EAGLE PC 128K SYSTEM

KAYPRO II

NEC APC-H01

NEC APC-H02

NEC APC-H03

NEC APC-WPS1

PIED PIPER I 1074.95

Z-80 PORTABLE COMPUTER

INCLUDES 64K RAM & 1MB DRIVE

SOFTWARE INCLUDES:

CP/M & PERFECT SERIES

SANYO WBC-1100 1529.95

TELEVIDEO 16-BIT DESKTOP

128K 8088 5MHZ DUAL 360K DRIVES

INCLUDES CP/M $3499.95

TELEVIDEO 910 TERMINAL 594.95
TELEVIDEO 925 TERMINAL 7 89.95
TELEVIDEO 970 TERMINAL 1199.95

XEROX 820-11 $2899

ZENITH Z-120 ALL-IN-ONE

BUILT-IN GREEN SCREEN

DUAL DRIVES SPECIAL $2999.95

APPLE //e NOW AVAILABLE

PLEASE CALL FOR OUR LOW PRICE

FRANKLIN ACE 1000 W/COLOR LOW!!
FRANKLIN ACE 1200 SYSTEM LOW!!
ROMAR II (APPLE CLONE) 549.95

DISKETTES

ELEPHANT DISKETTES SS/SD 16.95
ELEPHANT DISKETTES SS/DD 19.95
ELEPHANT DISKETTES DS/DD 25.95

EASY-80 80 COL VIDEO CARD

FULLY VIDEX COMPATIBLE

WORKS WITH WORDSTAR, dBASE,

SUPER-TEXT-PRO, BASIC, CP/M,

PASCAL. SPECIAL INTRO PRICE

4TH DIMENSION DRIVE+CTRL 289.95

4TH DIMENSION DRIVE-ONLY 199.95

HAYES MICROMODEM II 259.95

KENSINGTON SYSTEM SAVER 64.95

RANA ELITE I W/CTRL-CARD 359.95

RANA ELITE II W/CTRL 509.95

RANA ELITE III W/CTRL 649.95

SOFTCARD (Z-80 CARD) 234.95

MICRO-SCI A2 W/CTRL-CARD 319.95

ASCII EXPRESS PRO 89.95

BPI GENERAL ACCOUNTING 294.95

DATASTAR ( REQ Z-80) 194.95

dBASE II (REQ. Z-80) 449.95

INFOSTAR (REQ Z-8 0) 319.95

REPORTSTAR (REQ Z-80) 239.95

SENSIBLE SPELLER 84.95

SPELLSTAR (REQ Z-80) 164.95

SUPERCALC (REQ Z-8 0) 189.95

SUPER-TEXT PRO 40/80 69.95

VISICALC 3.3 174.95

WORDSTAR W/APPLICARD 324.95

LOTUS 1-2-3 LOW!!

dBASE II 429.95

FRIDAY 199.95

HOME ACCOUNTANT PLUS 99.95
QUADLINK APPLE EMULATOR 489.95

SMARTCOM II 89.95

MICROSOFT MOUSE 134.95

PEACHTEXT 5000 SER.9 259.95

PERFECT WRITER 189.95

VISICALC 256K 179.95

CBASIC COMPILER 399.95
MULTI-TOOL WORD W/MOUSE 339.95

VERSAFORM 259.95

Q-BASE 139.95

WORDSTAR 3.24 349.95

INFOSTAR 349.95

COMMODORE 64

CALC RESULT ADVANCED 119.95

CARDCO PARALLEL INTERFACE 64.95

CHOPLIFTER 34.95

DATA20 Z80 VIDEOPAK 224.95

DATASETTE RECORDER 64.95

FORT APOCALYSE

FROGGER

HES MODEM I

HOME ACCOUNTANT

JAWBREAKER

JUMP MAN

GRIDRUNNER

PHAROH'S CURSE

HESMON

SCRIPT 64

VANILLA PILOT

VIC/64 SWITCH

We will try to meet or beat any advertised price!
CALL US. . . WE CAN HELP! 1-800-222-2602

For technical assistance, order status and California calls (619) 765-0239

Apple Country, Ltd., P.O. Box 1099, 2602 Washington St., Julian, Calif 92036 Jfc

Terms : We accept American Express. No extra charge for Visa/ MasterCard, Cashiers Check, S^**'

personal check (allow 2 weeks to clear) Shipping & Handling: 5% ($5 min.); APO FPO Alaska m/* f /£

Hawaii & Monitors 5% ($10 min.) Foreign orders 15% ($15 min.) All items are new with / />„^v

manufacturer's warranty. Prices are subject to availability & change without notice. Purchase order m ^*\_\*
must include check. California residents add 6% sales tax. Send $1 (good toward first purchase) *" r ^fri _ ■ ,r
new fall catalog. \^

Apple Country. Ltd. is a DISCOUNT MAIL ORDER HOUSE for the micro computer industry ^*S
and is a California corporation not affiliated with Apple Computer Inc. Apple is a trademark of Apple Computer Inc.

Circle 31 on inquiry card.

COW
CGB.

Circle 78 on inquiry card.

MAJOR EXPANSION AT MINOR EXPENSE

Why pay more for top quality peripherals and accessories when our prices are consistently among the lowest anywhere? Expand your
system and shrink your cost. We invite you to compare prices, then call us.

MICROSOFT
For IBM PC

9913

0113

0213

0313

993B

033B

SALE PRICE

... 64K card $235.81

. . . 128K card 353.71

... 192K card 471.50

. . . 256K card 589.53

. . . 64K system card 266.13

. . . 256K system card 425.99

9937 mouse 131.38

0013 64K ram chips 117.90

For APPLE II, II + , He

2304 softcard system 232.44

2312 softcard system plus 423.50

2313 ramcard 67.33

2223 multiplan el. wrksheet 185.28

9B04 softcard prem. system 468.25

234B prem. softcard He 333.50

VIOEX SALE PRICE

ULT-00 ultraterm $273.92

VT-500 videoterm 50.HZ 201.64

VT 501 videoterm 50.HZ Softswitch 224.55

VT-502 videoterm 50. HZ Softswitch inver 230.55

VT-600 videoterm 60.HZ 201.64

VT-601 videoterm 60.HZ Softswitch 223.32

VT-602 videoterm 60.HZ Softswitch inver 230.55

VT-SPA000 . . . switchplate 13.73

PS-000 paral, ser. I/O card 165.50

MODEMS

01 HAYES....

02 HAYES....

03 HAYES....

04 NOVATION.

05 NOVATION.

06 NOVATION.

07 NOVATION.

08 NOVATION.

09 NOVATION.

stack chronograph

SALE PRICE
$194.77

stack smartmodem

smartmodem 1200

225.40

551.25

cat

dcat

autocat

jcat

smartcat 103/213

smartcat 103

159.25

175.17

638.22

118.64

473.76

198.30

VT-'

DYSAN DISKET

10411

104/1D

104/2D

3740/1

3740/1D

374012

3740/2D

TES

5.25".ss.sd

5.25".ss.dd

5.25".ds.dd

SALE PRICE

$ 31.85

33.68

39.81

8".ss.sd

8".ss.dd

8".ds.sd

33.07

41.03

41.03

8".ds.dd

47.77

hoxes of 1 each

MISC. ITEMS
644-0100....
644-0110....
644-0120...
7654

lemon surge protector

SALE PRICE
$ 45.33

orange surge protector

111.42

lime surge protector

71.27

system saver (APPLE)

66.15

ORDERS ONL Y
1NCAL. 809-821-6662

800-858-4810

INFORM A TION
(21 3 J 559-0596

COMMERCIAL BUSINESS SUPPLY

2858 S. ROBERTSON BLVD. LOS ANGELES, CA 90034

Phone orders accepted on Visa and Mastercard only. Add 3% for credit card use. California residents add 6.5% sales tax. No C.O.D. Actual shipping
and handling charge added to all orders. Prepaid orders as follows: Money orders or cashier's check — merchandise shipped upon receipt. Personal
checks must clear before shipping. 20% restocking fee. Prices and availability subject to change.

evil

-back issues for sale

1976

1977

1978

1979

1980

1981

1982

1983

Jan.

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

S3. 70

May

S2.00

S2.75

S2.75

S3.25

S3.25

S3. 70

S3. 70

June

S2.00

S2.75

S2.75

S3. 25

S3. 25

S3. 70

S3.70

Circle and send requests with payment to:
BYTE Back Issues
P.O. Box 328
Hancock, NH 03449

Please allow 4 weeks for domestic delivery
and 8 weeks for foreign delivery.,

name

address

city

state zip

1976

1977

1978

1979

1980

1981

1982

1983

July

S2.00

S2.00

S2.75

S2.75

S3.25

S3.25

S3. 70

S4.25

Aug.

S2.00

S2.75

S2.75

S3. 25

S3. 70

S4.25

Sept.

S2.75

S2.75

S2.75

S3. 25

S3. 70

S4.25

Oct.

S2.75

S2.75

S3. 25

S3. 25

S3. 70

S4.25

Nov.

S3. 25

S3. 25

S3. 70

Dec.

S2.75

S2.75

S3. 25

S3. 25

S3. 25

S3.70

The above prices include postage in the US.
Please add $.50 per copy for Canada and
Mexico; and S2.00 per copy to foreign coun-
tries.
D Check enclosed

Payments from foreign countries must be
made in US funds payable at a US bank.

□ VISA □ Master Card
Card # Exp __

Signature

672 BYTE November 1983

DETACHABLE INSERT

Satisfying Your Personal And Professional Computer Needs Since 1975

ir

®

GUARANTEED*

°" 10UH MONEH1ACK!

Computer Products

Inside:

S-100 BOARDS

UP
TO

67%

OFF

A CCESSORIES FOR APPLE II

'o

fT\

IF

UP
TO

%

OFF

9

®

ACCESSORIES FOR IBM PC

s 5 1 %

OFF

ffl

lb

D

DISK DRIVE For APPLE

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-431010 Standard Disk II size $199.00 I

MSM-431030 Controller only $60.00 |

HALF-HEIGHT DRIVE For APPLE

Totally Apple compatible. Works with all Apple I
software and controllers. Fasterandquieterthanmost |
other drives, yet only half the size!
MSM-581010 Half-height $199.95 |

SUPER DISKETTE SPECIAL!

We bought out a major manufacturer's overstock,
and we are passing the, savings on to you! Single sided I
double density, package of ten
MMD-5120103 Apple diskettes $18.95 |

CP/M 3.0 CARD For APPLE— ALS

The most powerful card available for your Apple!

6 MHz, Z-80B, additional 64K RAM, CP/M 3.0 I
plus, 100% CP/M 2.2 compatibility, C Basic, CP/M I
gr aphics.300%fasterthan any other CP/M for Apple |
One year warranty
CPX-62810A ALS CP/M card $299.00

Z CARD For APPLE— ALS

Two computers in one, Z-80 and 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 $139.00 I

80 COLUMN CARD

80 column x 24 line video card for Apple II addressable I
25th status line, normal/inverse orhigh/low video. 128
ASCII characters, upper and lower case, 7x9 dot
matrix with true descenders, CP/M, Pascal and
Fortran compatible,40/80 Hz, 40/60 column selection |
from keyboard. Best 80 column card!

IOV-2450A Viewmax80 $139,95 1

IOV-2455A Visicalc/Easywriter P reboot $24.95 |

16K RAM CARD For APPLE II

Expand your Apple II 64K, use as language card, full
one year warranty. Why spend $175.00?
MEX-16700A Save over 115.00 $49.95

I PRINTER CARD & CABLE
For Apple. Standard Centronics parallel interface for
Epson, Okidata, C. Itoh, Gemini, NEC, Comrex, etc.
Includes printer cable and supports graphics
IOP-2100A Printer card & cable $49.95
FAN/POWER CENTER For APPLE
Cooling fan for your overheated Apple II, II+, or Me;
also includes power switch and two switched outlets
with voltage protection circutry
SYA-1520A Applefan $59.95

GRAPPLER PLUS— Orange Micro

The ultimate parallel printer graphics interface card |
with many new features, now at a new low price!
IOP-2300A Grappler Plus $119.95 |

BUFFERED GRAPPLER PLUS

Combines the flexibility of the Grappler + with the I
convenience of the Bufferboard, all on a single board
IOP-2320A Buffered Grappler+ $175.00 ]

BUFFERBOARD— Orange Micro

Add up to 20 pages of text output buffering to your j
| existing Grappler + board
IOP-2310A Bufferboard $135.00 |

I ASIO— SSM/TRANSEND

RS232 serial I/O board for Apple, works with printers I
or modems. 1 1 to 9600 baud. DOS, CP/M and Pascal |
l compatible
IOI-2052A ASIO $119.95 [

A488— SSM/TRANSEND

| Allows Apple II, lie, II+ to operate as an inexpensive I
IEEE 488/GPIB instrument controller. Comes with |

I cable
IOX-7488A A488 $339.95 II

APPLE PROTOBOARD— VECTOR |

Ideal for developing customized I/O circuits for your
Apple — gold plated edge connector; power and
ground planes
VCT-4609 Apple Protoboard $22.95

j MICROMODEM II— HAYES

| The standard in direct-connect, plug-in modems for |

l Apple. 110-300 baud, FCC approved

| IOM-2010A Micromodem II $259,951

SYNCHRONOUS SERIAL
INTERFACE— CCS

I Synchronous RS232 serial interface board for Apple. [
IOI-2030A Limited Quantity $99.95 |

SERIAL INTERFACE— CCS

I RS232 asynchronous interface for Apple. 75 to 9600 |
I baud, full handshaking signals. CCS 7710-01
IOI-2020A Limited Quantity __ $119.95 |

PARALLEL INTERFACE— CCS

Parallel printer or general purpose parallel interface j

board for Apple

IOI-2040A Limited Quantity $69.95 |

A To D CONVERTER— CCS

1 3% digit BCD Analog-to-digital converter for

I Apple. HURRY! limited quantity!

I IOA-2010A A to D converter $94.50

DUAL 8-inch DISK DRIVES

Up to 2 Megabytes for your Apple, two double density
8 inch slimline disk drives, cabinet, power supply,
cable, controller, and software. Compatible with DOS,
CP/M, Pascal, and IBM 3740 formats

1 MEGABYTE SUB SYSTEM

2 MEGABYTE SUB SYSTEM

.$1195.00

.$1395.00

COOL STACK For APPLE

System stand and organizer with cooling fan. Holds
Apple II, two disk drives, monitor, and software.
Constructed from heavy duty 16 guagesteel. Sentry II
is anti-theft model with locks forentiresystem and all
componets. A standard with most school districts!

SYA-1505A Cool stack $79.95

SYA-1506A Sentry II $159.95

SYA-1507A Sentry II w/power guard $229.95

ULTRATERM— VIDEX

Revolutionary video support for the Apple— allows
display of up to 4096 characters (128 x 32, 132 x 24,
160 x 24, or 80 x 48). Complete firmware support for
BASIC, Pascal, and CP/M. For Apple II, II + . He and III
IOV-2250A Ultraterm . $295.00

ACCELERATOR II
SATURN SYSTEMS

Uses high speed 6502 processor and 64K on board
memory to run any Apple program 3'/ 2 times faster
than standard Apple! Also works on Franklin, Basis
CPX-82010A Accelator II $499.00

I 8088 COPROCESSOR— PCPI

| Similar in concept to Z80 cards for Apple, but uses
8088. the same microprocessor used in IBM PC.
Complete with MSDOS and MBASIC
CPX-88088A PCPI 88 card $459.95

I ARITHMETIC PROCESSOR— CCS

The CCS 781 1 C is a high speed arithmetic processor
board designed to increse throughput of your Apple
in computation-intensive programs. Uses AMD 9511
math processor chips
CPX-90811A Limited Quantity $269.95

128K RAMBOARD
SATURN SYSTEMS

J Adds 128K to your Apple for Monster memory!
MEX-12801 128K $389.00

KOALA PAD— KOALA TECH.

A touch sensitive pad that functions likea joystick or
mouse, allowing you to move the cursor around the
screen with the touch of a finger. Complete with

software

SYA-1518A Koala Pad

. $99.95

PLACE ORDERS TOLL FREE! SEE PAGE 8 FOR ORDERING INSTRUCTIONS

Inside California Los Angeles Area

(800) 262-1710 (213) 973-7707

Continental USA
(800)421-5500

JADE Computer Products 4901 West Rosecrans Avenue, Hawthorne, California 90250

SIX PAK PLUS— AST

Up to384K RAM, clock calendar with battery back up,
serial port, parallel printerport.gameport.superdrive
and super spool software included FREE'

MEX-38064A 64K C.S.P $289.95

MEX-38256A 256K C.S.P $489.95

For Game Port Option Add $39.95

MEGA PLUS— AST

Upto512K RAM, clock calendar with battery back up,
2 serial ports, parallel printer port, game port, super
drive and superspool software included FREE!

MEX-51064A 64K C. 1 serial $269.95

MEX-51000S Second serial port option $39.95

MEX-51000P Printer port option $39.95

MEX-51000G Game port option $39.95

For Each Additional 64K RAM Add $49.95

COMBO PLUS II— AST

Up to256K of RAM, clock with battery back up. serial
port, parallel printer port, superspool software
included FREE!

MEX-25064A 64K C.S.P $269.95

MEX-25256A 256K C.S.P $419.95

I/O PLUS II— AST

Up to 2 serial ports, parallel printer port, game port,
clock calendar with battery back up. super drive and
superspool software included FREE!

IOI-7500A Clock & 1 serial port $129.95

IOI-7500P Printer port option __^ . $39.95

IOI-7500S Second serial port option $39.95

IO1-7500G Game port option . $39.95

QUADBOARD I— QUADRAM

Up to 256K RAM. serial port, parallel printer port,
clockcalendar. RAM disk and printer spoolersoftware

MEX-41064A 64K Quadboard $279.95

MEX-41256A 256K Quadboard $399.95

QUADLINK— QUADRAM

Allows IBM PC to run Applesoftware. Includes inter-
face card and software to allow your IBM PC to run
both AppleDOS and PC DOS
CPX-50500A Quadlink $495.00

SYSTEM CARD— MICROSOFT

From the authors of MS-DOS— up to 256K RAM . serial
port, parallel printer port, clock calendar, plus RAM
drive disk emulation, print spooler, time utilities, and
terminal emulation software. DOS 1.1 or 2.0
compatible

MEX-16064A 64K system card $279.95

MEX-16256A 256K system card $429.95

MONTE CARLO CARD— MBI

Upto 512K RAM, clock calendar, parallel printer port,
serial port. GT model has dual port joystick adapter

MEX-55064Q 64K Monte Carlo Quatro $299.95

MEX-55064A 64K Monte Carlo GT $349.95

HI-RES COLOR MONITORS

Only the best Quadchrome or Princeton HX-12.690 x
480 resolution. 16 brilliant colors, special .31mm dot-
pitch tube, includes FREE! cable

VDC-241301 Quadram Quadchrome $469.95

VDC-241401 Princeton Graphics HX-12 $499.95

NEC or AMDEK, popular RGB monitors for your
IBM PC

VDC-652000 NEC JC 1203 RGB $599.95

VDC-801320 Amdek Color II $439.95

HERCULES GRAPHIC CARD

Two pages of ultra-high resolution text and graphics
720 x 348, compatible with Lotus 123, Visicalc,
dBase II, etc. Includes parallel printer port
IOV-5010A Hercules Graphic Card $359.95

PLANTRONICS COLOR PLUS

Up to 16 colors, 80 characters, biplanar technology.

includes parallel printer port

IOV-6010A Plantronics Color Plus $379.95

QUADCOLOR I & II

Quadcolor I delivers standard IBM PC color and
graphics, add Quadcolor II and hi-resolution (640 x
200) color graphics are possible

IOV-4010A Quadcolor I basic board $234.95

IOV-4020A Quadcolor II add on $229.95

NOW! BETTER THAN EPSON

Okidafsnew plug-n-play ROMS for Ok i 92 or Oki 93
printers are fully IBM PC compatible! 412 ASCII
characters, full graphics, complete Epson emulation,
and near letter quality printing not available
with Epson

PRM-43092 Okidata 92 160 cps $479.95

PRM-43093 Okidata 93 160 cps $795.95

PRA-43086 Plug-n-play for 92 $49.95

PRA-43087 Plug-n-play for 93 $49.95

WCA-2536A IBM PC to Oki or Epson cable $32.95

NEC 3550 LETTER QUALITY

Only full IBM PC compatible letter quality printer

available— why settle for less

PRD-35501 NEC 3550 orinter $1799.95

MORE PRINTERS
ON PAGES 5 & 8

HAYES SMARTMODEMS

300 and/or 1200 baud direct connect, auto answer-
auto dial, pulse or touch tone, auto baud rateselection
1200Bis a plug-in board for IBM PC only and includes
Smartcom II FREE!

. $399.95
. $475.00
. $199.95
_ $79.95

IOM-5550A 1200B with Smartcom II

IOM-5500A Smartmodem 1200 _I

IOM-5400A Smartmodem 300

SFP-5500550M Smartcom II

64K RAM UPGRADE For IBM PC

High speed RAM upgrade kit with parity (error

detection) and one year warranty

MEX-64100K 64K kit for IBM PC $49.95

THE BEST SOFTWARE For IBM PC

ciBASE II Bes: Data base

SFP-11 21 0100M AsMon-T*. DBASE „ __ $4M 95

SS 74™!^' word ?'°^°<

PROPACK 1 MiCr ° Pr ° W ° rd «" $299.95

VISIFILE Besi Data base mde*

SFP-14101080M W S ,C^S e $19995

' s^^oo 6 -' -C -r :, - $i29 - 95

SFP-162010100 Microsoft "■■»-■
| FLIGHT SIMULATOR R P c

MICROSOFT MOUSE

Tandon TM-100-2 double-sided, double-density
320K disk drive. Original equipment drive on IBM PC

MSM-551002 Full size Tandon $224.95

MSM-991004 Half-height 320K drive $199.95

DISKETTES For IBM PC

High quality 320K double-sided, double-density
diskettes, certified to be absolutely error free. Box of
ten, warranteed for one year

MMD-5220104 With FREE! plastic box $24.95

MMD-5220101 Verbatium Datalife $34.95

$394.95

33201 0100 Ml

light <

lator $39_c

'icrosoft fHght Simulator $39

THE BEST MOUSE

From Mouse Systems. Optical mouse with no moving
parts — nothing to wear out, includes software and is
compatible with all major software packages— a
guaranteed best buy!
SYX-14100A Mouse Systems mouse $249.95

MICROSOFT MOUSE

Mechanical mouse from the folks that wrote your
PC's operating system. Includes software and cables
SYX-16100A Microsoft mouse $149.95

PLACE ORDERS TOLL FREE! SEE PAGE 8 FOR ORDERING INSTRUCTIONS

Continental USA Inside California Los Angeles Area

I (800)421-5500 (800)262-1710 (213)973-7707

JADE Computer Products 4901 West Rosecrans Avenue, Hawthorne, California 90250

^m m

Better than USI, Better than Am dek!
BEST MONITORS AVAILABLE!

| Ultra-high resolution, up to 22 MHz. 1000 lines per
inch, amber or green phoshpor, FREE! tilt and swivel

I base, US manufacturer

VDM-881220 12" green 22 MHz $149.95

VDM-881210 12" amber 22 MHz $149.95

VDM-880920 9" green 18 MHz $139.95

t-880910 9" amber 18 MHz $139.95

TAXAN MONITORS

18 MHz 800 lines per inch, ideal for 80 column
operation

VDM-821210 12" Amber $139.00

VDM-821220 12" Green $139.00

TAXAN RGB VISION

Apple and IBM compatible RGB color. Both of these
units feature an 18 MHz bandwidth linear video
amplifier. The RGB-Vision I has 380 lines horizontal
resolution; the super high-resolution RGB-Vision III
has630 line resolution

VDC-821210 RGB-Vision I .

VDC-821230 RGB-Vision III __

VDA-821210 IBM PC cable

VDA-821220 Apple III cable

VDA-821200 Apple II card & cable

VDA-821230 Apple lie & 80 Column card

. $369.00
. $649.00
_ $19.00
_ $19.00
. $129.00
. $179.00

TAXAN COLOR MONITOR

Composite color monitor with audio. 1 3-inch/400 line

screen

VDC-821205 Color monitor

12-inch GREEN— ZENITH

15 MHz, 40 or 80 column

VDM-201201 12" green

. $399.00

$94.95

SMART TERMINAL— TTX

The new TTX 3000 is an intelligent, economical, full-
feature terminal designed to be expanded into a full
computer. It has more features and is priced lower
than similar units from ADDS, LSI, Hazeltine, and
Televideo. Inadditionto all the built-in features, there
is also space inside the unit for a 6 x 12 inch single
board computer, and provisions for mounting two
half-height 5'/ 4 inch disk drives (and sufficient power
supply current to run the add-ins). The detached key-
board features 95 keys, with numeric keypad and 10
function keys. Screen is designed to tilt and swivel
for comfortable viewing. Emulates TV 925
VDT-461201 TTX-3000 $469.00

SMARTMODEM— HAYES

Sophisticated direct-connect auto-answer/auto-dial
modem, touch tone orpulsedialing. RS232C interface
programmable

IOM-5500A Smartmodem 1200 $475.00

IOM-5550A 1200B for IBM PC $399.95

IOM-5550A Smartmodem 300 $199.00

IOK-1500A Hayes Cronograph . ___ $199.00

IOM-1100A Micromodem 100 $349.00

IOM-2010A Micromodem II $259.00

1200 BAUD SMART CAT
NOVATION

103/212 Smart Catand 103 Smart Cat, 1200 and 300
baud, built-in dialer, auto re-dial if busy, auto answer/
disconnect, direct connect, LED readout displays
mode analog/digital loopback 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

J-CAT MODEM— NOVATION

1/5 the size of ordinary modems, Bell 103, manual or
auto-answer, automatic answer/orginate, direct
connect, built-in self-test, two LEDs and audio beeps
provide status information
IOM-5261A Novation J-Cat $119.00

SMART BUY IN MODEMS
SIGNALMAN

Direct connect, low cost, high quality, and state-of-
the-art features. Includes FREE! subscription to the
Source

MARK I Universal 300 baud, automatic originate/
answer selection, RS232C

IOM-5600A 300o RS-232

MARK II 300 Baud for Atari with 850 intf.
IOM-5660A 300h fnr Atari

MARK III 300 Baud for Tl 99/4A RS-232
IOM-5640A 300o for TI99/4A

$79.95
$79.95
$79.95

MARK VI 300 Baud for IBM PC, autOTanswer,
auto-dial, plug-in modem board with full com-
munications software included FREE!

IOM-5630A 300 Baud IBM card $159.95

MARK VII Universal 300 baud, auto-answer, auto-
dial RS-232 modem
IOM-5610A Deluxe RS-232 300b $149.95

NEW! MARK XII

NEW! MARK XII New Universal 1200 Baud auto-
answer, auto-dial modem with all the popularfeatures
of the Hayes Smartmodem 1200
IOM-5620A 1200B deluxe modem $399.95

NEW! 1200 Baud— US ROBOTICS

Auto-dial, auto-answer designed specifically for use

with S-100 systems. 300 or 1200 baud. Full or half

duplex, with auto mode and auto speed select; direct

connect

IOM-6000A 1200 baud modem $399.00

MICROBUFFER

PRACTICAL PERIPHERALS, INC

The stand-alone Microbuffer is installed in-line
between virtually any computer and printer.
Microbuffer II fits into any Apple expansion slot
(except slot zero), the Microbuffer II for the Apple II
has on-board firmware to do graphics dumps and
control text formatting. Epson Microbuffer mounts
easily in the existing auxiliary slot directly inside the
Epson

Stand-alone Mlcrobuffers

IOP-2500A Parallel. 32K $249.95

IOP-251 0A Parallel, 64K $299.95

IOP-2520A Serial. 32K $249.95

IOP-2530A Serial. 64K $299.95

;

Mlcrobuffers for Apple II
IOP-2560A Parallel. 16K
IOP-2570A Parallel. 32K
IOP-2580A Serial. 16K _
IOP-2590A Serial, 32K _

Mlcrobuffers for Epson Printers

IOP-2540A Parallel, 16K

IOP-2550A Serial. 8K

. $139.95
. $139.95

MICROFAZER— QUADRAM

The Microfazer stand-alone printer butters are
available in any configuration ot serial or parallel
input, with serial or parallel output. All are expandable
up to 64K of memory (about 30 pages of 8'/ 2 x 11 text);
the parallel-to-parallel version is expandable to 512K
Copy and pause feature included
Parallel/Parallel

IOP-26008 8K List 169.00 $139.95

IOP-26032 32K List 225.00 $164.95

IOP-26128 128K List 445.00 $269.95

Serial/Parallel

IOP-27008 8K List 199.00 . . $169.95

Serial/Serial

IOP-28008 8K List 199.00 $169.95

IOP-28032 32K List 220.00 $199.95

Parallel/Serial

IOP-29008 8K List 199.00 $169.95

PLACE ORDERS TOLL FREE!
Continental USA Inside California

(800) 421 -5500 (800) 262- 1 71

SEE PAGE 8 FOR ORDERING INSTRUCTIONS

Los Angeles Area

(213)973-7707

JADE Computer Products 4901 West Rosecrans Avenue, Hawthorne, California 90250

Circle 522 on inquiry card.

V

Okidata 92A shown with
| optional tractor mechanism.

COMREX CR-II

Best buy in letter quality printers. NEW! from Com rex!
full featured letter quality printer, FREE! 5K buffer,
logic seeking bi-directional printing, boldface
proportional spacing, double-strike, backspace,
underline, true super script and sub script, drop in
daisy wheel cartridge

PRD-11101 CR-II parallel $495.00

PRD-11102 CR-II serial $589.95

PRA-11100 Tractor option $99.95

PRA-99700 Cut sheet feeder $189.95

PRA-11115 Keyboard option ^$179.95

BEST PRINTER! BEST PRICE!

EPSON

Circle 523 on inquiry card.

SEE PAGE 8
FOR DETAILS!

PRINTER PALS— FMJ

Desktopprinter stand and paper rack. Fitsall printers

PRA-99080 10" printer pal List 39.95 $29.95

PRA-99100 15" printer pal List 49.95 $39.95

PRA-99700 For letter quality List 69.95 $49.95

PRINTER CABLES

Standard cables for Epson. Okidata. or any
Centronics type printer

WCA-3636A Centronics to Centronics
WCA-2536A IBM to Centronics

WCA-3634A Cent to 34 pin socket

WCA-3635A Cent to 34 pin card edge

CNX-136 Cent connector solder.

CNX-236 Cent conn IDC __

. $24.00
_ $32.00
. $24.00
. $24.00
_ $8.95
_ $9.50

UNIVERSAL PRINTER STAND

Free standing deluxe printerstand with chrome plated
paper catch. Universal mounting for all 15-inch
carriage dot matrix and letter qualtiy printers. List
price $129.95 31 lbs
FRN-9000 Deluxe printer stand $69.95

LAZER-PERF PRINTER PAPER

Continuous form fanfold paperwith clean-perf edges
on all sides. Finish size 8'/ 2 x 11, box of 1000 sheets,
20 lb stock

PRA-91921 1000 sheets .

$14.95

380Z By DTC

Based on the same quality mechanism as the Comrex
printer, the 380Z contains electronic enhancements
that allow it to print at speeds up to 32 CPS. Other
features inlude a 48K buffer, proportional spacing,
and Diablo 1640/1650/630 compatible protocol.
Comes with printwheel, ribbon and users manual.
Serial, parallel. and IEEE488interfacesstandard.One
yearfactory warranty

PRD-11300 380Z printer ____^^ $1095.00

PRA-11000 Tractor option $159.00

PRA-11200 Cut sheet feeder $699.95

Cable Please specify computer $4J.95

STARWRITER F10

High speed letter quality printer. 40 CPS daisywheel,
sleek low-profile design (6-inch high). Extensive
built-in word processing functions, up to 15-inch
paper width. Uses standard Diablo style printwheels,
low noise for office environments. Centronics or serial
interface versions available

PRD-22010 F10/parallel .

.$1125.00

SILVER REED EXP-550

Economical daisy wheel printer with 200 words pet
minute (18 CPS), full 15-inch platen, Diablo 630
protocol, 10, 12, 15 pitch or proportional printing. Very
quiet, very reliable; a bargain in the under$1000. letter
quality printer market

PRD-52001 Parallel, List 895.00 $669.00

PRD-52002 Serial, List 995.00 $775.00

PRA-52000 Tractor. List 159.95 $129.00

REGULAR FAN-FOLD PAPER

PRA-91911 9y 2 x 11, 1000 sheets

PRA-90511 14 x 11, green bar 1000 .

$11.95
$14.95

OKIDATA— MICROLINE 92 & 93

160 CPS. true correspondence quality printing, full
graphics, IBM PC compatible (optional), handles
single sheet as well as fan-fold paper, professional
design construction and quality

PRM-43092 Oki 92 parallel List 699.00 $479.95

PRM-43093 Oki 93 parallel List 1199.00 $795.95

PRA-43181 2K serial board $115.00

PRA-43086 IBM PC ROMS for 92 $49.95

PRA-43087 IBM PC ROMS for 93 $49.95

PRA-43080 Extra ribbon (2) _________ $9.95

PRA-43088 Tractor for Oki 92 $54.95

MICROLINE 82, 83, & 84

120 CPS (82, 83) 200 CPS (84), industry standard
printers, serial and parallel interfaces, true lowercase
descenders, handles single-sheet as well as fan fold

PRM-43082 Oki 82 List Price 599.95 $379.95

PRM-43083 Oki 83 w/ FREE! tractor $625.95

PRM-43084 Oki 84 parallel List $1399.00 __ $925.00

PRM-43085 Oki 84 serial List 1499.00 $995.00

PRA-43081 2K serial board $159.95

PRA-43080 Extra ribbons 82/92, 83/93 $9.95

PRA-43088 Tractorfor Oki 82 $54.95

GEMINI 10X& 15

Star Micronics— up to 120 CPS. full graphics, friction
and tractor feed. Epson FX-80 comoatible

PRM-66010 Gemini 10X

PRM-66015 Gemini 15

PRA-66200 Serial board. G-10. G-15 _

PRA-66202 Serial board, G-10X

SAVE

SAVE

. $85.00

SAVE

NEW! DELTA 10

160 CPS, up to 16K buffer, serial and parallel inter-
faces, graphics friction and tractor. FX-80 compatible
PRM-66120 Save $150.00

J

'$

Veife^

VERBATIM DATALIFE

Critical ANSI certification diskettes. Warranteed for 5
years, hub rings standard on minidiskettes. All tracks
certified on 8-inch diskettes; full surface on 5% inch
diskettes

5 1 / 4 " (packaged w/plastic storage box & hub ring)

VERBATIM VEREX

High quality, sensibly priced, 1 year warranty,
exceeds all ANSI specifications. All tracks certified

5V 4 "

MMD-5110100 SS. DD soft sector $24.95

MMD-5110110 Apple compatible $24.95

MMD-8110100 SS SD soft sector .
MMD-8220100 DS DD soft sector _
Available only in boxes of ten

$27.95
$38.95

MMD-5120101
MMD-5220101
MMD-5140101
MMD-5240101

SS DD soft sector .
DS DD soft sector .
SS QD soft sector _
DS QD soft sector

8" (soft box, no hub ring)
MMD-8110101 SS SD soft sector .
MMD-8120101 SS DD soft sector .
MMD-8220101 DS DD soft sector .
Available only in boxes of ten

_ $26.50
- $34.95
. $46.50
. $59.95

. $29.50
. $38.95
_ $47.50

VERBATIM OPTIMA

BETTER THAN DYSAN! Warranted for 17 years. Over
70 million revolutions average life. All Optima
diskettes are full-service diskettes, extra heavy-duty
jacket material provides superior protection and
longer life
5%" - Soft Sector

MMD-5120102 SS DD $47.95

MMD-5220102 DS DD $59.95

8" - Soft Sector

MMD-8120102 SS DD

MMD-8220102 DS DD _

Available only in boxes of ten

$59.95
$69.95

JADE Computer Products 4901 West Rosecrans Avenue, Hawthorne, California 90250

**^::-

8 inch DISK DRIVES

SIEMENS FDD 100-8 Single sided, double density

MSF-201120 $179.00 ea 2 for $175.00 ea

SHUGARTSA801R Single sided, double density

MSF-10801R $355.00 ea 2 for $349.00 ea

SHUGART SA-851R Double sided, double density

MSF-10851R $459.00 ea 2 for $455.00 ea

QUME DT-8 Double sided, double density

MSF-750080 $479.00 ea 2 for $459.00 ea

TANDON TM 848-1 SS DD thin-line

MSF-558481 $369.00 ea 2 for $359.00 ea

TANDON TM 848-2 DS DD thin-line

MSF-558482 $439.00 ea 2 for $435.00 ea

NEC FD1165 DS DD thin-line

MSF-851165 $450.00 ea 2 for $440.00 ea

NEC FD1164 SS DD thin-line

MSF-851164 $360.00 ea 2 for $350.00 ea

5% inch DISK DRIVES

TANDON TM 100-1 SS DD 48 TPI

MSM-551001 $225.00 ea 2 for $195.00 ea

SHUGART SA 400L SS DD 40 track

MSM-104000 $209.00 ea 2 for $199.95 ea

TANDON TM 1 00-2 DS DD 48 TPI

MSM-551002 $229.00 ea 2 for $225.00 ea

MPI B52 DS DD 48 TPI can be substituted for CDC

MSM-1 55200 $275.00 ea 2 for $270.00 ea

MPI B51 SS DD48TPI

MSM-155100 $209.00 ea 2 for $199.00 ea

MPI B91 Single sided, Quad Density 96 TPI

MSM-1 55300 $285.00 ea 2 for $275.00 ea

MPI B92 Double sided Quad density 96 TPI
MSM-155400 $400.00 ea 2 for $390.00 ea

5y 4 " CABINETS/POWER SUPPLY

END-000216 Single cab w/power supply .
END-000226 Dual cab w/power supply

$69.95
$85.00

S-1 00 CPU SPECIAL!

SSM CB-2, 2/4MHz Z-80A CPU, 2 EPROM sockets,
extended address lines, all lines buffered, use with or
without front panel. HURRY! limited quantity.

CPU-30300K Kit (List Price 299.95)
CPU-30300A A & T (List Price)

. $159.95
. $199.95

DUAL SLIMLINE SUB-SYSTEMS

From JADE. Handsome vertical cabinet with scratch
resistant baked enamel finish, proportionally
balanced air flow system, quiet cooling fan, rugged
dual drive power supply, powercables, powerswitch,
line cord, fuse holder, cooling fan, all necessary hard-
ware to mount two 8-inch slimline disk drives.
Does not include signal cable

Dual 8-Inch Slimline Cabinet

END-000820 Bare cabinet $59.95

END-000822 A & T w/o drives .

. $164.95

Dual 8-Inch Slimline Sub-systems

END-000843 Kit w/2 SS DD drives $869.00

END-000844 A & T w/2 SS DD drives $879.00

END-000845 Kit w/2 DS DD drives $1060.00

END-000846 A & T w/2 DS DD drives $1099.00

DISK SUB-SYSTEMS JADE

Handsome metal cabinet with proportionally
balanced air flow system, rugged dual drive power
cable kit. power switch, line cord, fuse holder, cooling
fan, nevermar rubberfeet, all necessary hardware to
mount two 8-inch 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" Sub-Systems— Singat Sided, Double Density
END-000423 Kit w/2 Siemens FDWOSDs _ $579.00
END-000423 A & T w/2 Siemens FD100-8Ds $595.00

END-000433 Kit w/2 Shugart SA-801Rs $939.00

END-000434 A & T w/2 Shugart SA-801 Rs $969.00

8" Sub-Systems— Double Sided, Double Density

END-000426 Kit w/2 Qume DT-8s $1229.00

END-000427 A & T w/2 Qume DT-Bs $1249.00

END-000436 Kit w/2 Shugart SA-851 Rs _ $1199.00
END-000434 A & T w/2 Shugart SA-851 Rs $1219.00

DISK DRIVE POWER SUPPLY

Sufficient current to power up to three 8-inch disk

drives

PbD-206A List price $149.00 $89 95

RAM BOARDS ON SALE!

64K EXPANDORAM II

Our all time best selling RAM board!

MEM-64633A A & T List Price 799.95 $295.00

ONLY $250.00 each For 4 or more

64K DYNAMIC RAM BARE BOARD

Design your own S-100 64K RAM board using
inexpensive 4116 chips and TTL chips. Includes low-
noise, four layer PC board and assembly manual with
theory of operation. HURRY! limited quantity and at
this price we can not support or guarantee these
boards

MEM-99730B Bare board

ONLY $15.00 each for 4 or more

$24.95

THE BUS PROBE

Best selling inexpensive S-100 diagnostic analyzer

TSX-200B Bare board — , $59.95

TSX-200K Kit $179.95

TSX-200A A & T $199.95

I/0-4 SSM MICROCOMPUTER

Twoserial I/O ports plus two parallel I/O ports
IOI-1 010 A A & T $245.00

I/0-5 SSM MICROCOMPUTER

Two serial and three parallel ports, 1 10-19. 2K baud
IOI-1015A A & T $289.00

INTERFACER 4 COMPUPRO

Three serial, one parallel, one Centronics parallel

IOI-1840A A & T $389.95

IOI-1830C CSC $495.00

I/0-8 SD SYSTEMS

Full compliance with IEEE 696 standards, operates as
a Bus Slave. Available with 8 Async parts of 4 Async
and 4 Async ports, up to 1 Megabit/sec in
synchronous mode. Real time clock with battery back-
up. One year factory warranty

IOI-1510A 8 Async ports $589.95

IOI-1 520A 4 Sync/4 Async $669.95

ULTRA-VIOLET EPROM ERASERS

Inexpensive erasers for industry or home

X ME -3 100 Spectronics w/o timer

XME-3101 Spectronics with timer

X ME -3200 Logical Devices

. $69.50
$94.95
$49.95

PB-1 SSM MICROCOMPUTER

2708, 271 6 EPROM board with on-board programmer
MEM-99510A A & T wl manual $219.00

PROM-100 SD SYSTEMS

2708, 2716, 2732 EPROM programmer with software
MEM-99520A A & T with software $219.95

DISKETTE STORAGE BOXES

Clear plexiglass storage boxes for up to 75 diskettes

MMA-505 Holds 75 5 l / 4 " diskettes $19.95

MMA-508 Holds 50 8" diskettes $29.95

SINGLE BOARD COMPUTER

NEW! ADC SUPER SIX

First 6 MHz S-100 single board computer to support
banked CP/M 3.0 featuring 128K RAM, 6 MHz Z-80B,
DMA cont. DART. PIO. CTC, double-density disk
controller, up to 4K of Eprom. IEEE 696 compatible, 6
MHz super slave boards also available for networks

CPC-30860A 64K super six $749.95

CPC-30862A 128K super six $799.95

SFC-52502000F CP/M 3.0 for super six $349.95

SFC-55622000F Turbo-DOS single user _ $249.95

PLACE ORDERS TOLL FREE! SEE PAGE 8 FOR ORDERING INSTRUCTIONS

Continental USA Inside California Los Angeles Area

(800) 421-5500 (800) 262-1710 (213) 973-7707 orc^omnquhy-n,.

JADE Computer Products 4901 West Rosecrans Avenue, Hawthorne, California 90250

THE BIG Z— JADE

2 or 4 MHz switchable 2-80 CPU board with serial I/O
accommodates 2708. 2716. or 2732 EPROM, baud
rates from 75 to 9600

CPU-30200B Bare board w/manual $35.00

CPU-30201K Kit w/manual $179.95

CPU-30201A A& T $199.00

SBC-200 SD SYSTEMS

4 MHzZ-80A CPU with serialandparallel I/O, 1 K RAM
8K ROM space, monitor PROM included
CPC-30200A A & T $298.95

SBC 300 SD SYSTEMS

Self-contained S-100 Z80 microcomputer, 4/6 MHz,
64K RAM with parity; 2 to 16K of PROM, 24 bit
addressing, fully complies with IEEE 696 standards.
It can function as a permanent Bus Masteroras Slave.
Two fully programmable serial channels with
handshaking; full SASI port. One year factory
warranty

CPC-30304A SBC 300, 4 MHz, A & T $619.95

CPC-30306A SBC 300, 6 MHz, A & T $689.95

CPU-Z COMPUPRO

2 or 4 MHz Z80A CPU, 24 bit addressing

CPU-30500A 2/4 MHz A & T $279.95

CPU-30500C 3/6 MHz CSC $374.95

8085/8088 COMPUPRO

Both 8 and 16 bit CPUs standard 8 bit S-100 bus, up
to 8 MHz, accesses 16 MegaBytes of memory

CPU-20510A 6 MHz A & T ^$389.95

CPU-20510C 6/8 MHz CSC $497.95

ISO BUS— JADE COMPUTER

Silent, simple and on SALE! A better motherboard
19 MHz 6 Slot (5y A " x 8%")

MBS-061B Bare board $22.95

MBS-061K Kit $39.95

MBS-061A A & T $49.95

10 MHz 12 Slot (9%" x 8%")

MBS-121B Bare board

MBS-121K Kit

MBS-121A A & T __

$34.95
. $69.95
. $89.95

6MHz 18 Slot (14%" x 8%")

MBS-181B Bare board

MBS-181K Kit

MBS-181A A & T

_ $54.95
_ $99.95
_ $139.95

BEST S-100
MODEM BOARD!

Auto-dial, auto-answer designed specifically for use
with S100 systems. 300 or 1200 baud. Full of half
duplex, with auto mode and auto speed select; direct
connect

IOM-6000A 1200 baud modem

. $399.00

DOUBLE D— JADE COMPUTER

High reliability, double density disk controller with
on-board Z-80A, auxilliary 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 & Tw/hdwr& sftwr man $325.00

SFC-59002001F CP/M2.2 with Double D _ $99.95

2422 DISK CONTROLLER— CCS

5 1 /," or8"doubledensitydiskcontrollerwith on-board
boot loader ROM, FREE! CP/M 2.2 and manual set
IOD-1300A A & T with CP/M 2.2 $338.00

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 seperator, vectored interrupts. CP/M
2.2 & Oasis compatible control/diagnostic software
PROM included

IOD-1160A A & T with PROM

SFC-5509047F CP/M 3.0 with VF-II

. $344.95
„ $80.00

VERSAFLOPPY N/696

Fully compatible with IEEE 696 standards, phase-
locked loop data seperator. CRC error checking.
Reads/writes IBM 3740 and system 34 formats, con-
current support of any combination of 4 5 1 /," or 8"
drives. Single or double sided drives supported single
or double density. One year factory warranty

IOD-1170A Versafloppy 11/696 A & T $349.95

SFC-55009157F 8" banked CP/M 3.0' **$75.00

SFC-55009157M 5%" banked CP/M 3.0* _ "$75.00
SFC-55009159F 8" unbanked CP/M 3.0* _ **$75.00
SFC-55009159M 5 1 /»" unbanked CP/M 3.0' "$75.00
"configured for Versafloppy II/696 & SBC 300
"price S75.00 if ordered with Versafloppy II,
price if ordered separtely is $199.95

VERSAFLOPPY III— SD SYSTEMS

Winchester and floppy controller in a single board!
Full compliance with IEEE 696 standards, controls up
to three floppy drives and three 5 1 /," Winchester
drives. Data may be transfered under DMA or
programmed I/O control. One year factory warranty

IOD-1180A Versafloppy III A & T $759.95

SFC-55009257F 8" banked CP/M 3.0' _ "$129.00
SFC-55009257M 5 1 / 4 " banked CP/M 3.0' "$129.00
SFC-55009259F 8" unbanked CP/M 3.0* "$129.00
SFC-55009259M 5 1 /," unbanked CP/M 3.0' "$129.00
'configured for Versafloppy III & SBC 300
"price $129.00 if ordered with Versafloppy III.
price if ordered separately $199.95

HIGH SPEED S-100
VIDEO SPECIAL!

Memory mapped S-100 video board with graphics,
64K x 16 high speed screen update, full upper/lower
ASCII character set, selectable video attributes.
HURRY', quantity limited
IOV-1051A List Price 299.95 $99.95

Circle 525 on inquiry card.

THE ULTIMATE IN ^_

s-ioo m£2l

RAM BOARDS! •**"^
JADE'S NEW

256K STATIC PERMA-RAM
SEE PAGE 8 FOR DETAILS!

64 STATIC RAM
JADE COMPUTER

Usesnew2K x 8 static RAMs, fully supports IEEE 696
24 bit extended addressing, 200ns RAMs, lower 32K or
entire board phantomable. 2716 EPROMs may be
su bbed for RAMs, any 2K segment of upper8K may be
disabled, low power typically less than 500ma

MEM-99152B Bare board $49.95

MEM-99152K Kit less RAM $89.95

MEM-32152K 32K kit $169.00

MEM-56152K 56K kit $225.00

MEM-64152K 64K kit $265.00

Assembled & Tested _ add $30.00

EXPANDORAM III

SD Sysyems ExpandoRAM III is a high density S-100
memory board utilizing the new 64K x 1 dynamic RAM
chips. It allows memory sizes of 64K, 128K or 256K all
on a single S-100 board

MEM-65064A 64K . $398.95

MEM-65128A 128K $464.95

MEM-65192A 192K $524.95

MEM-65256A 256K . $589.95

EXPANDORAM IV— SD SYSTEMS

State-of-the-art: full compliance with IEEE 696. 256K
using 64K dynamic RAM chips. Up to 1024K using
256K dynamic RAM chips, parity check, error
detection and correction optional. Supports both 8
and 16 bit data transfers. One year factory warranty

MEM-66256 ExpandoRAM IV w/parity $975.95

MEM-67256 ExpandoRAM IV w/EDC $1675.95

ISOBAR

The ISOBAR looks like a standard multi-outlet power
strip, but contains surge suppression circuitry and
built-in noise filters, plus a 15 amp circuit breaker

EME-115105 4 receptacle $59.95

EME-115100 8 recptacle $69.95

PLACE ORDERS TOLL FREE! SEE PAGE 8 FOR ORDERING INSTRUCTIONS

Continental USA Inside California Los Angeles Area

(800) 421-5500 (800) 262 1710 (213) 262-1710

JADE Computer Products 4901 West Rosecrans Avenue, Hawthorne, California 90250

FAST SERVICE, FULL SUPPORT, AND LOW LOW PRICES SINCE 1975
SATISFACTION GUARANTEED— OR YOUR MONEY BACK!

AUTHORIZED

EPSON

DEALER!

RX-80

«150

OFF

FX-80

WE'VE GOT THE BEST PRICES

ON THE WORLD'S BEST SELLING PRINTERS

CALL US!

ALSO IN STOCK!
MX-80FT
RX-80FT
MX-100

FX-100

PRICES TOO LOW
TO PUBLISH
CALL US TOLL

Sale Price Based on Epson List Prices of 9/20/83.

NEW! 256K STATIC RAM BOARD
With Battery Back-up!

PERMA-RAM

New! from Jade Computer

• Up to 256K of low-power CMOS STATIC RAM
(using 8K x 8 RAM chips)

• Up to 64K of low-power CMOS staic RAM
(using 2K x8 RAM chips)

• 8 or 16 bit data transfers

• Optional on-board battery back-up circuit

• Meets of exceeds all real IEEE 696-1983
specifications

• Operates in standard 16 bit address bus using
on-board bank-select feature

• Operates in extended24 bit address bus as a 64K or
256K block

• On-board "crowbar" overvoltage protection circuit
guards memory chips against damage

• Highest quality four layer PC board with ground and
power planes, allows high-speed, low noise
operation

• One year warranty on assembled and tested boards

The PermaRarrv" is the first of a new generation of
products designed by JADE specifically for the new
IEEE 696 S-100 bus standards. It's versatile design
allows it to be used with two different types of static
RAM chips, for memory configurations up to 256K.
With the optional on-board battery back-up circuit,
data in thePermaRam-f-can be retained for years with
the computer powered down (oreven with the board
removed from the computer).

For further versatility, the board can transfer data in 8
or 16 bit formats, and is compatible with both 16 bit
standard and 24 bit extended addressing schemes.
For added security, the board is protected from
overvoltage damage caused by short circuits or failure
of voltage regulation components.
The PermaRam , •' is built around a high quality four-
layer printed circuit board incorporating power and
ground plane construction, assuring high speed and
low noise operation, and all PermaRanv« boards
purchased from JADE as assembled and tested units
carry a one year warranty

Orders are being accepted for priority delivery
in January 1984

MEM-90000K Kit w/no RAM $199.95

MEM-90640A 64K A & T, SP* $395.00

MEM-90641A 64K A & T, LP' $595.00

MEM-91064A 64K/256 A & T, LP' $695.00

MEM-91128A 128K/256A& T, LP' $962.00

MEM-91192A 192K/256 A & T, LP' $1228.00

MEM-91256A 256K/256 A & T, LP' $1495.00

MEM-91900K Battery option, Add-on $89.95

MEM-91900A Battery option, installed $89.95

MEM-90000D Manual only $19.95

*SP denotes standard-power RAM chips; on board
battery back up is not appropriate for these chips-
consult JADE for optional off board battery back up
schemes.

LP denotes ultra low power RAM chips which can be
backed up by on board battery for up to 10 years

We accept cash, checks, credit cards, or purchase orders from qualified firms and institutions.
Minimum prepaid order $15.00 California residents add 6 1 / 2 % tax. Export customers outside the US or Canada please
add 10% to all prices. Prices and availibility subject to change without notice. Shipping and handling charges
via UPS Ground 50C/lb. UPS Air $1.00/lb. minimum charge $3.00

4901 West Rosecrans Ave., Hawthorne, California 90250 circle 526 on inquiry card.

125

Hanilwcllcorp

74S00

4962 EL CAMINO REAL. SUITE 119 • LOS ALTOS. CA 94022
(415)962-9265* TLX 171947 HANDWELL LTOS » 1-(800) 821-3628^

7400

7400
7401
7402
7403
7404
7405
7406
7407
7408
7409
7410
7411
7412
7413
7414
746
7417
7420
7421
7422
7423
7425
7426
7427
7429
7430
7432
7437
7438
7439
7440
7441
7442
7443
7444
7445
7448
7447
7448
7450
7451
7453
7454
7459
7460
7470
7472
7473
7474
7475
7476
7479
7480
7482
7483
7485
7486
7489
7490
7491
7492
7493
7494
7495
7496
7497
74100
74107
74109
74116
74121
74122
74123

19
22
22
22
22
23
2.35
235
26
23
22
.29
29
.39
59
29
29
.22
35
29
29
29
.29
25
45
23
29
25
.29
.29
19
79
57
95
95
.79
.79
65
.79
.19
19
19
19
25
23
29
.29
34
34
.38
34
4 60
.49
95
55
65
35

1 75
.39

57
.45
45
69
.65
69

2 90
2 90

32
.37
1.95
29
39
59

74125
74126
74128
74132
74136
74139
74 141
74142
74143
74144
74145
74147
74148
74150
74151
74152
74153
74154
74155
74156
74157
74158
74159
74160
74161
74162
74163
74164
74165
74166
74167
74170
74172
74173
74174
74175
74176
74177
74179
74180
74181
74 182
74184
74185
74186
74188
74190
74191
74192
74193
74194
74195
74196
74197
74198
74199
74221
74251
74273
74276
74279
74823
74284
74285
74290
74298
74365
74366
74367
74368
74390
74393
74490

DIP SWITCHES

4 Position
5Posilion
6Posilion
"Position
8Positi»n

85
90
90
90
95

SOUND CHIPS

76477

76489

AY3-8910

AY3-8912

MC3340

2.95
8.95
9 95
12.95
1.49

39

.44

.59

69

75

95

79

295

2.95

295

.62

1,95

1.20

1.09

67

.67

.67

1 19
78
78
.69

1.65

2 49

89

.87

.87

.87

1.20

1 95

1.69

4 75

.79

.89

.85

.75

.75

1.34

.75

1.75

.75

2.25

225

9.95

390

1.15

1.15

.85

.85

.85

68

85

.85

1.39

1.39

1.19

.95

1 05

1.89

.75

1.40

390

3.90

1 25

95

68

68

68

68

1 45

1 90

1.90

74LS00

74LSO0

74LSii

74LS02

74LS03

74LS04

74LS05

74LS08

74LS09

74LS10

74LS11

74LSJ2

74LS13

74LSU

74LS15

74LS20

70LS21

74LS22

74LS26

74LS27

74LS28

74LS30

74LS32

74LS33

74LS37

74LS38

74LS40

74LS42

74LS47

74LS4B

74LS51

74LS54

74LSSS

74LS73

74LS74

74LS7S

74LS76

74LS78

74LS83A

74LS85

74LS86

74LS90

74L592

74LS93

74LS95

74L596

74LS107

74LS109

74LS113

74LS1I4

74LS122

74LS123

74LS124

74LS125

74LS126

74LS132

74LS136

74LS138

74LS139

74LSM5

74LS148

74LS151

7<1LS153

74LS15.1

7.1LS155

7,ll_SlS6

74LS157

7.1LS158

MLS16O

7-ILS161

74LS133

74LS241

74LS280

74LS299

74LS339

1 19
1 35

1 25

1 49

79

79

1 70

1 19

99

85

75

1 05

1 15

65

1 69

2 90
2 00

74LS162
74LS163
74LS164
74LS165
74LS166
74LS168
74LS169
/4LS170
74LS173
74LS174
74LS175
74LS181
74LS190
74LS191
74LS192
74LS193
74LS194
74LS195
74LS196
74LS197
74LS221
74LS240
74LS242
74LS243
74LS244
74LS245
74LS247
74LS248
74LS249
74LS251
74LS253
74LS257
74LS258
74LS259
74LS260
74LS261
74LS266
74LS273
74LS275
74LS279
74LS283
74LS290
74LS293
74LS295
74LS293
74LS324
74LS347
74LS348
74LS352
74LS353
74LS363
74LS365
74LS366
74LS367
74LS368
74LS373
7'1LS374
74LS375
7.JLS377
74LS385
74LS38G
74LS390
74LS393
74LS395
74LS399
74LS424
74LS668
7.1LS670
74LS378
74LS379
74LS381
74LS640
74L5645
74LS690

1 05
1 05
1 19

89
2?0
1 15
1 15

1 15

1 69
\ 69
1 69

1 49

2 20
l 10
1 10
1 19
1 40
1 40

2 95

65

2 49

4 40
59
99

1 19
1 <5
1 95
1 95

1 49
69

195
1 95

1 70

2 35
2 95

1 75

2 29
1 95

1 95

2 95
2 95
2 95
1 50

Tel: 1-(800)-821-3628

Z80 SERIES

8000 SERIES

8200 SERIES

6800 SERIES

CALL FOR
PRICE

MOS PROMS

2708

2758

2716

2716-1

TMS2516

TMS2716

TMS2532

2732

2732-250

2732-200

2764

2764-250

2764-200

TMS2564

MC68764

27128

3 95
5 95

3 95
5 95
5 50

7 95
5 95

4 95

8 95
11.95

8.95
10.95
16.95
12.95
39.95
25.95

S-RAM

2101

5101

2111

2112

2114

2114-25

2114L-4

2114L-3

2114L-2

2147

HM61 16-4

HM6116-3

HM6116-2

HM6116LP-4

HM6116LP-3

HM6116LP-2

l/l

1.95

3 95

249

2.99

3 9 95

8

10.95

8

12 95

8

1345

8

13 95

4 95

4.75

4 95

8 95

5 95

6 95

10.95

74S00

74S02

74S03

74S04

74S05

74S08

74S09

74S10

74S11

74S15

74S20

74S22

74S30

74S32

74S38

74S40

74S51

74S64

74S65

74S74

74S86

74S112

74S113

74S114

74S124

74S133

74S134

74S135

74S136

74S138

74S139

74S139

74S140

74S151

74S153

74S157

74S158

74S160

74S174

74S175

74S188

74S194

74S195

74S196

74S240

74S241

74S242

74S243

74S244

74S251

74S253

74S257

74S258

74S260

74S280

74S287

74S288

74S373

74S374

74S387

74S471

74S472

74S473

74S474

74S475

74S570

74S571

74S572

74S573

74S940

74S941

74S132

74S161

74S163

74S181

74S189

74S225

74S283

74S289

39

43

45

52

52

49

49

42

42

42

42

42

42

49

1.19

49

42

46

46

69

72

72

72

72

3 69

.54

66

1 15

1 69

1 29

1 29

1 29

73

1 29

1 29

1 29

1 29

2 79
1 49
1 49
2.69
1 89
1.89

1 89

2 75
275
2 99
2 99
2 99
1 35

1 35
1.29
1.29

75

2 79
2 99

2 55
3.10

3 10
2 75
7 95
7 95
7 95
9 95
9.95
5.75
5.75
8.95
895
2.90
2 90
2 15
2.95
315
2 15
2.95
7.75
4.15
3.95

Miscellaneous

6502

68000

8748

8255-5

82S123

82S129

82S131

93422

93L422

93425

93427

D2125AL-2

D2104

AY5-3600

6810

8304

4.95
49.95
24.95
5.95
2.55
2.99
3.99
8.95
9.95
395
8.95
3.95
1.95
12.95
3.95
3.95

LINEAR

DRAM

LM301CN

LM304H

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

.35

1 98
1.89
3.25

29

.98
1.49
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

16 RAM CARD

Compatibiewith:
DOS 3.3. CP M.
Visicalc. PASCAL
1YR. WARRANTY

$ 39. J

IN-LINE
PRINTER BUFFER

FOR ANY COMPUTER

ANY PRINTER j

*64K Byte
'Parallel to Parallel
'Parallel to Serial
'Serial to Parallel
'Serial to Serial

Model BF64S s 225. 00

For single computer

single printer

Model BF64M '395. 00

For multi-computer

single printer
Allow up to four
computers

Share one printer

MULTIFUNCTION BOARD

WITH MEMORY, I/O

CLOCK

FOR IBM P/C
CALL FOR LOWEST PRICE

SPEEDY EPROM

PROGRAMMER

FOR APPLE II

PROGRAMMING

2716, 2732, 2764, 27128,

2532, 2564

IN 30 SECONDS $ 99. 00

Applell/lle
Compatible $ 175. 00
Disk Drive

CONTROLLER
CARD $44,95

SUPER COOLING

FANS FOR APPLE

WITH SURG

IBMMEMORY
EXPANSION KIT

IBM 64K $52.95
(9 Pes 64 K RAM)

LOGIC PROBE

WITH MEMORY

FUNCTION

s 22. 95

32 758khz
1 Omhz

1 8432
20

2 097152
24576

3 2768

3 579535
40
50

50688
5 185

5 7143
60

6 144
6 5536
80
100

10 738635
12 00

14 31818

15

16

17 430

18

18 432
20
22 1184
32

1.75
3.95
3.95
295
2.95
2.95
295
2.95
2.95
2.95
2.95
2-95
2.95
2.95
2.95
2.95
2.95
2.95
2 95
2.95
2.95
295
2.95
2.95
2 95
2.95
2 95
2 95
2.95

TMS4027

UPD411

MM5280

MK4108

MM5298

4116-300

4116-250

4116-200

4116-150

41 16-120

21 18

4164-200

4164-150

1 99

3.00

. 3 00

1 95

1 85

8 11 75

8 11.95

8 12.95

8 14.95

8-29.95

4 95

5,95

6 95

HighQuality
Diskettes

5V4" SS/SD 15/Box

5 1 /4" SS/DD 17/Box

■ • 5V. 4 ' DS/DD 27/Box

80 Column Dot Matrix
Printer

CP-80byC.T.I.
80cps parallel interface
graphics printing compatible
with EPSON MX80FT

SALE PRICE s 299. 00

TERMS: For shipping include $2 for UPS Ground or S3
for UPS Blue Label Air. Items over 5 pounds require
additional shipping charges. $10 minimum order.

1-(800) 821-3628

IS Hanilwcll

| 4962 EL CAMINO REAL, SUITE 119 • LOS ALTOS, ( f

i(415) 962-9265 • TLX: 171947 HANDWELL LTOS i

corp

Circle 207 on inquiry card.

BYTE November 1983

673

Circle 448 on inquiry card.

CHECK SUNTRONICS NEW LOW PRICES ~Z1 J^SS 3ZSi
Apple Compatible Products General Products General Products- cont. S-100 Products

195

AFDC-1 Floppy Disk Drive $"7Qi

Controller / 5J

Runs DOS 3.3 with any standard Shugart
compatible 5Va" disk drive. (2 drives each
card)

$7Q00

ASCII KEYBOARD A&T / %/

Plug in compatible with Apple II, has shift-
lock, underscore, [ I and back slash
characters.

BMC DISK DRIVE and CONTROLLER
for APPLE II
BAL500 Disk Drive 5VV SS/DD

1 00% Apple II compatible 269.00

Controller for above 79.00

APPLE Connector 50 pin 3.50

Apple Prototype Board.

Double Sided
glass with gold
plated Apple and
General Purpose
terminals. Con-
tains matrix of 17 x 63 solder plated donuts
on .15" x .1" spacing. Great for 14, 16, and 24
pin I C's. SUN-722 7.95

Apprate PROM Blaster 119.00

"ALS" 80 Column Card 159.00

"ALS" 2-CARD (Z80 CPU) 149.00

API Apple Parallel Printer Interface card.
Centronics Compatible $45.00

Mitsubishi Disk Drives, 5V*" and 8" Slim

5W Thin DSDD 40 Track 310.00

8" Thin DSDD 80 Track 450.00

D SKETTE SALE

5 1 /4" Diskettes

SS/DD (100% certified)

DS/DD (100% certified)

10 up
1.75
2.50

100 up
1.55
2.30

Video Monitors

SAMWOO GREEN 9" 18MHz $115.00

SAMWOO AMBER 9" 18MHz 119.00

SAMWOO GREEN 12" 18MHz 124.00

SAMWOO AMBER 12" 18MHz 127.00

Composite video I/O. 750 lines resolution.
75/10K ohm impedance.

BMC 13" COLOR monitor for your home
computer/video game display. Offers 350 x
350 resolution with 400 dots at the center.
9191U 13" Color 249.00

BMC 13" RGB COLOR monitor offers state of
the art RGB for the IBM PC with 690 x 240
resolution and latest in TTL level technology.

9191MU 13" RGB Color '... .445.00

Note: Please add $10.00 shipping and hand-
ling for the video monitors.

BMC PRINTERS

BX-80 dot matrix printer with 80 cps,
9x7 print head. Quiet, reliable
and priced for entry level SOCQGO

end-user ^Q%7

PB401 16 cps letter quality bi-directional
daisy wheel printer. 132 cpl with cassette
type ribbon 731 .00

BMC PB101 16 cps letter quality bi-
directional daisy wheel printer. 132 charac-
ters per line with cassette type ribbon. 2K
buffer and opt tractor feed. Available in
serial and parallel 718.00

EPROM & RAM SUPER SALE

P/N Description 8-24 25up

2716 (450nS) 3.95 3.95

2732 (450nS) 4.40 4.40

2532 (450nS) 4.40 4.10

2764 (28 pin) 5.95 5.95

2114L-2 (200nS) 1..62 1.62

4164 (in stock) Call Call

6116P-3 (150nS) 6.10 5.75

Mother Boards & Card Cages

SLOTS BareBd KIT A&T w/CAGE

6 $12.00 $37.00 $52.00 $77.00
8 16.00 48.00 73.00 108.00

12 22.00 68.00 103.00 143.00

10MHz, No termination. Includes power in-
dicator and wiring for muffin fan. Uses OK
connector for solderless installation and re-
moval of power & reset lines.

$iccoo

64KSM A&T without RAM .. . I %J*J

64KSM A&T w/64k RAM (32-61 16's). 339.00

S-100 Board Uses 6MHz 61 16's. V 2 A max.
power, Bank Select plus Extended Address-
ing allow for multi-memory board set-up. 4
independent 16K Blocks make easy use with
multi-user systems. Any 2K RAM may be
replaced by 2716 EPROM.

SBC-880 Z80A CPU, A&T $169.00

SBC-880 Z80A CPU, Kit 149.00

4M Hz Z80A CPU boards with Serial/Parallel Po rts.

UFDC-1 Floppy Controller, A&T 245.00

UFDC-1 Floppy Controller, Kit 225.00

The UFDC-1 Floppy Controller uses the

WD1795 chip which runs either

and/or 8"/5Va" Disk Drives.

CLOCKCALENDAR A&T 115.00

CLOCK CALENDAR Kit 95.00

This S-100 Clock Calendar Board has

4 interrupts, Time, Day of Week

and Battery Backup.

S-100 Edge Connector 100 pin 3.95

S-100 Prototype Board

Double Sided
glass with gold
plated, numbered
S-100 terminals.
Matrix of 25 x 78
fer * solder plated do-
nuts on .15" x .1" spacing. Locations for
headers and regulators. Great for 14, 16, and
24 pin IC's.

STORE HOURS: MON.-FRI. 9:00am to 6:00pm SATURDAY 10:00am to 5:00pm

^^~ vTeoi % k di j u u /a ono Mailorder— Min. Order$10. Visa or MasterCard (please include expiration date). Add $2.00 (shipping and handlit

~pr 1ZBZ1 Crenshaw Blvd., Hawthorne, CA 90250 first 3 pounds plus .50 for each additional pound to your order. CA residents add Calif, sales tax.

SUNNY LOW LOW COST

POWER SUPPLIES

(LINEAR & SWITCHING)
FOR S-100, DISK DRIVES

S.=*'3iSS§a3*S'-S*:>. : ?■:

S-100 & DISK POWER SUPPLIES

ITEM +5V OVP

12 SLOT & 2 FLOPPY

5A

NO. 806 & NO. 516 Mainframes Kit 1, 2 & 3 for S-100 R2, R 3 for 2 Drives (Floppy& Hard)

OPEN FRAME, ASSY. & TESTED, 6 OUTPUTS, ADJU. & FUSES PROTECT.
-5V +24V(OR +12V) +8V ±16V SIZE W x D x H PRICE

1A

5-7A PEAK

13A

3A

10" x 6" x 5"

105.95

(1 Floppy & 1 Hard Disk)
6 SLOT & 2 FLOPPY

°3

S4 6 SLOT & 2 FLOPPY 4 A 1A 4-5A PEAK 8A 3 A 8W x 5" x 4%" 95.95

DISK POWER SUPPLIES: open frame, assy. & tested, regulated, adjustable & fuses protect.

ITEM IDEAL FOR +5V OVP -5V +24V(or+12V) +8V Unreg. + 12V SIZE W x D x H PRICE

Ro

R1
R 2

*3

2 x 8" SLIMLINE
2 x 8" or 2 x 5V4 M DISK
x8"(or5 1 /4 ,, )FLOPPYl

[3;

[or

2.5A
4A
6A
6A

1A
1A
1A

2.5A - 5A Peak
3A-5APeak
6A - 8A Peak
6A-8APeak

2A

1A

or 1 x Floppy & 1 x Hard]
AC & DC POWER CABLES WITH CONNECTOR FOR 2 DRIVES 8.00

S-100 POWER SUPPLY KITS (open frame with base plate, 3 hrs. assy, time)

(IDEAL FOR)

5" x 4" x 4"
8" x 4" x 33/4"

10" X 4 7 /8" x 3 3 /4"

9" x 6V4" x 4 3 /e"

51.95
56.95
71.95
85.95

S^forS-KX^Drives

SHIPPING FOR EA. PWR SUPPLY: $5.50 IN CALIF.;
$8.00 IN OTHER STATES;$18.00 IN CANADA.
FOR EA. TRANSFORMER: $5.00 IN ALL STATES;

ITEM

+ 8V

-8V

+ 16V -16V +28V

KIT1

15 CARDS

15A

KIT 2

20 CARDS

25A

KIT 3

DISK SYSTEM

15A

2.5A

2.5A

3A

3A

3A

3A

SIZE: WxDxH
12" x 5" x 4*/e"
12"x5"x47e"
13V2" x 5" x 4 7 /e"

+ SHIPPING $18.00

PRICE
54.95
61.95
69.95

1A 3A 3A 5A

6 SLOT MAINFRAME assy & tested only $399.95

EACH MAINFRAME (ITEM NO. 806 OR 516) CONTAINS: EMI FILTER • FUSE HOLDER • AC POWER CORD • POWER SWITCH & INDICATOR •
RESET SWITCH • 4V 2 " COOLING FAN • S-100 BUS 6 SLOT CARD CAGE • (110/220 VAC, 50/60 HZ) POWER SUPPLY FOR DISK DRIVES & S-100
SLOTS • 2 EA. DC POWER CABLES WITH CONNECTOR AND MOUNTING HARDWARE FOR DISK DRIVES • 9 EA. CUT-OUTS; 7 FOR D825
CONNECTOR, 1 FOR 50 PIN CONNECTOR & 1 FOR CENTRONICS • CUSTOM FINISH & LOGO-LESS • COMPACT SIZE • LIGHTWEIGHT, 28 LBS.
ITEM #806 FOR 2 EA. 8" THINLINE FLOPPY (TANDON TM648-1 & 848-2 OR EQUIV.), OR ONE HARD DISK, POWER SUPPLY;+8V78A, ± 16V/3A,
+ 5V/5A OVP, -5V/1A & 24V/5A. SIZE: 12"(W) x 19.5"(D) x 9.8"(H).

ITEM #516 FOR 2 EA. 5'/V FLOPPY (TANDON TM-100 - 1, 2, 3, 4 OR EQUIV.), OR ONE 5'A" FLOPPY & ONE SW WINCHESTER HARD DISK
(TANDON TM 600-2, 3 OR EQUIV.), POWER SUPPLY: +8V/8A, ±16V/3A OVP, +5V/6A OVP, -H2V/6A, 8A PEAK. SIZE: 13.75"(W) x 19.5"(D) x 7"(H).

$12.00 IN CANADA. CALIF.

DEALER

INQUIRIES

INVITED

RESIDENTS ADD
6.5% SALES TAX.

No. 806 &

No. 516 Mainframes

^0

_ MAILING ADDRESS:
[ramp] P.O. BOX 4296

I TORRANCE, CA 90510

TELEX: 182558

SUNNY INTERNATIONAL

(TRANSFORMERS MANUFACTURER)

(213) 328-2425 MON-SAT 9-6

SHIPPING ADDRESS:
22129V2 S. VERMONT AVE
TORRANCE, CA 90502

674 BYTE November 1983

Circle 446 on inquiry card.

Do You Run Your Business
or Does It Run You?

The biggest headache you may be facing
these days is getting better control of
your business. Tracking unpaid bills,
sending out second billings, monitoring
which salesman sold how much and to
whom, keeping track of inventories,
and on and on.

There's a remedy. It's
called VersaForm ... the
business database.

VersaForm is a powerful
database designed
specifically for busi-
ness, but based on the
simplicity and
convenience of your •
familiar business
forms.

Ifyou can fill out
a business form,
you can create
a database.

VersaForm starts with
your existing forms
and procedures. As
you copy your forms
onto the screen, Versa-
Form automatically

creates a database for you. It records and
saves information from Purchase Orders,
Invoices, Job Estimates, Disbursement
Ledgers. . . maybe even a few things
you're not recording that you should be.

VersaForm is an electronic file cabinet
that will store all this information, yet
have it at your fingertips when you need
it! It's designed with a non-technical
user in mind, so you can concentrate on
streamlining your business with none
of the usual database headaches.

Adapts to your business . . .your way.

With VersaForm you don't have to
completely re-orient your staff. It fits
right into the way you're doing business
now. Only now your operations will be
completed more efficiently and with
electronic speed.

• A doctor in Moulton, Texas, posts
his patient billing and completes his
medical insurance forms with
VersaForm.

' A small college in Wheat on, Mary-
land, uses VersaForm to create tuition
invoices, class lists, accounts

receivable, and accounts payable.
' A computer supplies company in
Mountain View, California, twites
payables checks and does expense
distribution with
VersaForm.

• A roofing company in Green Bay,
Wisconsin, computes job estimates,
contracts, invoicing, and tracks actual
costs with VersaForm.

• A manufacturer in Beaver Falls,
Pennsylvania, uses VersaForm to build
his company's parts records, and
generates "where-used" lists.

VersaForm has the power to do these
jobs and more because it's designed
especially for business. It can also
calculate taxes and prices, and can
look up discounts, so you don't
have to. VersaForm will even
print on your own pre-printed
forms.

Pull information
together fast.

Pulling information
together from paper
files can be time-
consuming and
frustrating. Why make
it tough? VersaForm
puts vital reports like
sales analyses, over-
due payables, open
purchase orders, and
alphabetical employee
lists at your finger-
tips. Minimum effort,
maximum results.

All in one
easy-to-use,
integrated package.

VersaForm provides a screen
formatter, a data entry program, a data-
base, a report generator and a forms
printer. And you can purchase prede-
signed Templates for standard jobs like
Purchasing, Invoicing, and Expense
Journals. VersaForm is the all-in-one
business productivity tool. Ask for a
demonstration at your computer dealer.
Or contact us directly.

If you want to know more, send in this
coupon. We've got a lot to tell you about.

Name

Company

Address

State

Zip

Type of Business

Mail to: Applied Software Technology
170 Knowles Drive
Los Gatos, California 95030
(408) 370-2662 121-c

For use with the Apple II, He and III, and the IBM PC and compatibles*

Circle 474 on inquiry card.

Serial ^1 ■lllllll ■ ^ Parallel

Convert What You Have
To What You Want!

•RS232 Serial
' 8 Baud Rates
* Latched Outputs

' Centronics Parallel
' Handshake Signals
' Compact 3tf X 4% X VA

No longer will your peripheral choices be limited by the type
of port you have avallablel Our new High Performance 700
Series Converters provide the missing link. Based on the
latest In CMOS technology, these units feature full baud
rate selection to 19.2K, with handshake signals to maximize
transfer efficiency. Detailed documentation allows
simplified installation. Order the Model 770 (Ser/Par) or
Model 775 (Par/Ser) Today!

only*89. 95

Connector Option S10.00
t. CA Residents e% tix

1601-BPineStreet UPSShlpplng$3.00

Pott Offico Box 2233
Oxnenj.Celilom it 33030

CALL (805) 487-1665 or 487-1666 JgJ
For FAST Delivery

CHIPS &

DALE

THE INFLATION FIGHTERS!

4116

200ns

8/S12.00

4116

150ns

8/S13.75

2114L

300ns

8/S12.00

2114L

200ns

8/$ 13.00

4164

200ns

$5.50 each

4164

150ns

$5.95 each

6116

150ns

$5.20 each

6116

200ns

$4.85 each

6116LP

150ns

$5.85 each

1791

Disk Controller

$20.00 each

1771

Disk Controller

$16.75 each

Z80A.Z80ACTC

$3.50 each

Z80A P10

$4.00 each

8251A

$4.00 each

8255

$4.25 each

2716-1

5V 350ns

8/S4.25 $5.00 each

2716

5V 450ns

$3.35 each

2732

5V 450ns

$3.85 each

2532

5V 450ns

8/$4.25 $5.00 each

2764

5V 300ns 28 pin

$5.95 each

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 $3.50. FOB Bellevue. WA. for all else.
Washington state residents add 7.9% Sales Tax.

CHIPS & DALE

10655 N.E. 4th St., Suite 400

Bellevue, WA 98004

1-206-451-9770

SEND FOR OUR FREE

1983 PARTS CATALOG

THOUSANDS OF SURPLUS

ELECTRONIC PARTS,
SUPPLIES AND DEVICES.

ALL ELCCTROIIKS CORP.

905 S. Vermont Ave.

P.O. Box 20406

Los Angeles, Cal. 90006

igfr iii#> hi#- 4wn -#111 ^ii

Circle 179 on inquiry card.

Circle 70 on inquiry card.

Circle 16 on inquiry card.

THE CLONER EPROM DUPLICATOR *69. 95

Copy SIMPLE STAND ALONE OPERATION
2716 BUILT IN POWER SUPPLY
ONTO DOUBLE PROGRAM CYCLE
2732 DIP SWITCH PERSONALITY .
NO MODULES TO BUY
LED INDICATOR • RUN & RESET BUTTONS

STORE
SEVERAL
PROGRAMS
ON SAME
CARTRIDGE*
SCREEN PHOMPfS
STORES BASIC OR
MACHINE PROGRAMS

BOARD CONTROLLER
DOCUMENTATION $24.95

S OR MORE
$19.95 ea.

PLAY OVER THE
PHONE OR LOCAL

VIC TO VIC OR CM

NO CONNECT CHARGES

REUSABLE CARTRIDGES

PRnPRSMMFR 7TH FLEET '29.95
PROGRAMMER send messages'

*79. 95 USER FR.ENOLY SINK ENEMY SHIPS

*4g 95 ; SPY MODE

MIGHTY 5 S£TH,Nes

5 FULL SERVICE EXPANSION CONNECTORS

WORKS WITH *ROG.A!D
&V-MQN

NO MEMORY
EXPANSION
REOUIREO

LOW

COST SOFTWARE CONTROL OF BLOCK ENABLE LINES

DUAL RESET SWITCHES: RESET VIC OR MIGHTY 5

IGOLO CONNECTORS) USES SEVERAL GAMES OR RAM CARDS AT ONCE

these and other fine products available from:

QUEUE PRODUCTS

(373) 84*6666
BOX 1655 / DEARBORN, Ml 48121

- DEALER /NQUfRY REQUESTED - #2B

C LANGUAGE
PROGRAMMERS

c -systems
C COMPILER
c-window™

The complete c language source level

program testing and debugging tool.

• Single step bye 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 1M is a support package for
the c-systems C COMPILER for

8O86/8O88 based systems.

Contact:
c-systems

P.O. Box 3253

TM c-systems

Fuller-ton, CA 92634
714-637-5362

ANALOG** DIGITAL
DIGITAL** ANALOG

CONVERSION MODULES

SOFTWARE
CAIN CONTROL

vnpliffr - custom board test - S-100 - 2 t<

ixoble high and low inputs

Prom 1 to 1024 - ] ( A - wnpie and hold c

8-chonnel differential -
Ihinh '"-"iracy - proc

12-bit - sample and hold amplifier

analog to digital

For additional details about the AD-100-a 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

Circle 59 on inquiry card.

Circle 63 on inquiry card.

Electronic

Circuit

Analysis

• AC and DC analysis

• Very fast, optimized machine language

• Worst case, sensitivity analysis

• Sweep component values

• 64 Nodes

• Compare circuits

• Log or linear sweep

• Full file handling

• Full editing, error trapping

• Frequency response, magnitude and phase

• Complete manual with examples

• Transmission lines

• Complex y parameters

• Available for CP/M, MSDOS, TRSDOS

• Price - $150.00

Tatum Labs

P.O. Box 698

Sandy Hook, CT 06482

(203) 426-2184

Scotch Diskettes

Rely on Scotch* diskettes to keep your valu-
able data safe. DependableScotch diskettes
aretested and guaranteed error-free. The low
abrasivity saves your read/write heads.
They're compatible with mostdiskette drives.

(800)235-4137

Dealer Inquiries
Invited

IBM PC, APPLE, etc. .

SHARING AND SWITCHING PROBLEMS?
GILTRDNIX HAS THE SOLUTION!

Q Q ^

Printer 1 Printer 2 Modem or

Dot Matrix Letter Quality Other Peripheral

MANUAL UNITS AUTOMATIC UNITS

2-6 Ports OR 2-7 Ports

Selecto-Switch Auto-Switch

Serial (RS 232)/Parallel (Centronics)

LOW COST ADD-ONS FROM THE MAIN
f^/% MANUFACTURER

CJ&Giltronix

1/vJ 3? 80 Fabian Way. Palo Alto. CA 94303
(415)493-1300

Circle 459 on inquiry card.

Circle 347 on inquiry card.

Circle 201 on inquiry card.

OEM

THE ORIGINAL BIG BOARD"

• INDUSTRIAL - BUSINESS - SCIENTIFIC

SINGLE BOARD COMPUTER KIT!

Z-80 CPU! 64K RAM!

(DO NOT CONFUSE WITH ANY OF OUR FLATTERING IMITATORS!)

4i

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£5

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a.

THE BIG BOARD PROJECT: With thousands sold worldwide and over twoyears of fieldexperience, the Big
Board may just be one of themost reliable single board computers available today.Thisisthesamedesign 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.

*279

00 (64K KIT

** *• DAcm i/n

**

BASIC I/O)

FULLY SOCKETED!

FEATURES: (Remember, all this on one board!)

SIZE: 872 x

13 3 A 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.

Z-80 CPU

Running at 2.5 MHZ. Handles all 4116 RAM refresh and supports Mode 2
INTERUPTS. Fully buffered and runs 8080 software.

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 BaudRateGenerator. 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 Int.
Price for all parts and connectors: $39.95

FLOPPY DISC CONTROLLER

Uses WD1771 controllerchipwitha TTL Data Separator for enhanced reliability.
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 — $99.95
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 for 5139.00.

DOUBLE DENSITY ADAPTER BOARD — $149.95 (A&T)

Requires no cuts or MODS to an existing Big Board. Givesupto670Kstorageon
a single sided 8 in. diskette. With software to patch your CP/M* 2.2.

PFM 3.3 2K SYSTEM MONITOR

The real power of the Big Board lies in its PFM 3.3 on board monitor. PFM commands include: Dump Memory, BootCP/FvT.Copy, Examine, Fill Memory, Test Memory, Go To,
Read and Write I/O Ports, Disc Read (Drive, Track, Sector), and Search PFM occupies one of the four 2716 EPROM locations provided. Z-80 Is a Trademark of Zilog.

Digital Research Computers

(OF TEXAS)
P.O. BOX 461565 • GARLAND, TEXAS 75046 • (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. Balance UPSCOD. Add $4.00shipping.

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.

BYTE November 1983 677

64k Static RAM for
S-100 (I EEE-696) Systems

The fully static design makes it easy to
interface Seattle Computer's 64k Static
RAM board with a variety of CPU and
DMA devices in IEEE-696 systems.
High-speed (85 ns) RAM chips enable
operation to 10 MHz with no wait states.
Board can be used as either 8- or 16-bit
wide memory. 48k, 32k, and 16k OEM
versions are available.
Single Qty: $495.00
Call: 1-800-426-8936
Dealer and OEM inquiries are invited.
Seattle Computer Products, Inc.
1114 Industry Drive, Seattle, WA 98033

AFFORDABLE

pastel P i- it, 5 ilmer/^j.rfkv?

. expansion bus," -v v'Y.:-; *

■ :'■. controller G hard disk

8 r ►...*.$

Compete Kit: {;?'ms., -;^'i i'r-
M6&&E Enclosure with power supply,
:: ■■ ■ fan .. fiiter, 4 slot card cam; .

$249.00

fcr CPMCO, IBr<> PC, fi:5-i'0

?.n*l Arr/?c M ro' ip.'itj s

> - I .

, : 'IPS<nU-N-jr,w.,n. {Jiv, -' *.* j

California r^sKte'i'c; rvK< 6.5 ,"-. \zx

P1WQ Educational

Li?lv " m P uter (714)553.0133

P.O. Box 1 6 11 5 • Irvine, CA 927 1 3

S-100 COLOR GRAPHICS!

THE ORIGINAL TMS9918A GRAPHICS BOARD

• Field proven board meets IEEE-696 standard: fully socketed
with solder masks silkscreen and gold contact fingers

• Prioritized display with backdrop and pattern planes plus 32
sprite planes: each pixel in a plane can Be colored or transparent

• Three graphics and one text display mode: maximum graphics
resolution is 256H x 192V in 16 colors

• Composite video output

• Onboard 16K RAM is separate trom system memory

• Vertical retrace interrupt for real time clock capability

• CM wait states tor use with last MPUs

• All board options are DIP switch selectable

• Professional quality documentation wilh BASIC demonstration
programs and Ti's TMS9918A manual

• Exclusive Graphics Editor
available on 8" SSSD

CP M-compaltble diskette $1 89.95*

(AST)

MicroDynamics

ORDER DESK
Corporation 1-800-237 8400 ext 440

6363 Poplar Ave • Suite 105 Technical Inquiries
Memphis. TN 38119 19011-682-4054

'Price includes MICROSPRITE witn documentalion Graphics
Editor diskette - S9.95 Manual - S19 95 Bare board - S59.95
UPS ground — S2.00. UPS air-S4 00. COD-SI 50 Foreign
add S15 00. VISA & MC welcome, TN add 6%

DEALER AND OEM INQUIRIES INVITED

Circle 412 on inquiry card.

Circle 171 on inquiry card.

Circle 305 on inquiry card.

LOOK!

SYSTEMS

Dec Rainbow 100 $3345

CompuPro 816A 3927

MD2 w/terminal 1442

LTR QLXY PRINTER

Daisywriter 2000 $1042

Nee 3550 1065

Qume Sprint 11/40 1335

Juki -call-

DOT MATRIX PRINTERS

C. Itoh 8510 AP $386

Epson FX.MX.RX -call-

Okidata 92 442

Gemini 10, 15 -call-

PDP-U Microcomputer
for under $ 475.

Digital's Til Evaluation Module. The
ideal, low-cost microcomputer.

Send for a free brochure: Digital
Equipment Corporation, 77 Reed Road,
HL2-1/E10, Hudson, MA 01749. Or call
800-225-9222. In AK, HI, and Canada,
617-568-5707.

Digital Equipment Corporation l'J03

has you
covered

- PC SPECIAL -
CUSTOM CRAFTED COVERS
Set of covers for PC or XT with Mon-
itor, Keyboard, and Printer. Regular
$53.90, Byte PC Special until 30
Nov. ,545.95 plus52.50 shipping &
handling. State color: Lt. blue or
tan. Covers for most computing
equipment. _ „ t .

Call or write for

free brochure with

many other designs.

P.O. Box 24449 Dept.B • Dayton, Ohio45424

(513)236-9923

Dealer Inquiries Invited

Circle 504 on inquiry card.

Circle 145 on inquiry card.

Circle 138 on inquiry card.

SMAL/80

; 2MAL/80

Assembler •

; HL=M(PTR);

LHLD PTR •

DE=9;

LXI D,9 •

• HL=HL+DE;

DAD D

• IF A-L EQUAL

CMP L •

THEN

jnz li :

I A=A-14

su i i4 :

: ELSE

jmp L2 :

A=L;

LI: MOV A,L :

I M(BC)=A;

L2:STAX B •

New! Z-80 version (runs on 8080's):
$175. 8080 version only: $150. Macro-
processor only: $75. Available on
CP/M disks. Add $4 for shipping.
Complete tutorial text: "Structured
Microprocessor Programming"
(Publ; Yourdon Press) $20 plus $2
shipping. Send for your free button
and literature or try the Ultimate
Demo: SMAL/80 is Guaranteed!

Chromod Associates,

1030 Park Ave., Hoboken, N. J. 07030
Telephone: (201) 653-7615

Computer
Covers

Tailored to protect your investment

For IBM-PC, APPLE II, APPLE II
Keyboard and Monitor, Commodore
64, Apple Disk Drives, and Epson
Printers. Available in Nylon (tan)
and some in genuine leather (tan).

Computer Covers: $23.95 up
Disk Drive Covers: $16,95 up
Printer Covers: $20.95 up

Dealer inquiries invited.

Write for free Brochure
and Price List.

Oxford Intl., Inc.
6829 Convoy Court
San Diego, CA 92111
619-573-0112

SAVE 507.

on BASF

/qualimetncA

LIFETIME GUARANTEE
DISKETTES

Dealer inquiries invited

SyQ" Soft Sector Box/10

54974 1 side/dbl dens $22.30

54980 2 sides/ dbl dens $30.80

54986 1 side/quad 96 tpi $29.40

54992 2 Sides/quad 96 tpi $37.80

O Soft Sector

54998 1 side/sgl dens $25.20

54021 1 side/dbl dens $26.60

54061 2 sides/dbl dens $34.30

Checks-viSA-MC-C.O.D./Add $2 snipping

Call or write for our discount catalog.

LYBEN COMPUTER SYSTEMS

27204 Harper Ave., St. Clair Shores, Ml 48041
Phone: (313) 777-7780

Authorized Reseller
Information Processing Media

BASF

Circle 72 on inquiry card.

Circle 346 on inquiry card.

Circle 271 on inquiry card.

MICROSOFT

APPLESOFTCOMPILER

BASIC COMPILER

SYSTEMCARD64K(IBM)

FORTRAN (IBM)

MOUSE

MULTIPLAN (ALL FORMATS)

MULTITOOL/FIN STMT

SOFTCARD (APPLE)

PREMIUM SOFTCARD (lie)

109.99
239.99
229.99
239.99
129.99
1 64.99
69.99
229.99
329.99

Novation

BiS

I APPLE CAT II

295.99 1

APPLE CAT212

595.99 1

AUTO CAT 212

579.99 1

D-CAT

159.99

EXPANSION MODULE

34.99

FIRMWAREROM

25.99 I

J-CAT

104.99 1

SMART CAT 103

169.99 1

SMART CAT 103/21 2

429.99 1

QUADRAMi

1 APIC (APPLE ///PARA)

129.99

1 512+(64K)

259.99

1 IPIC (IBM PARA)

89.99

I MICROFAZERP/P8K

139.99

QUADBOARD(64K)

279.99

1 QUADCHROME MONITOR

499.99

QUADCOLORI

239.99

1 QUADCOLORII

219.99

1 QUADLINK

549.99

apple

MicroPro

ALSCPM3.0 299.99

BANK ST. WRITER 44.99
I BPI{GL.AP,AR,PAY,INV) 299.99

l COPY 11 PLUS 22.99

I d BASE II 429.99

DEADLINE 29.99

FINGERPRINT 44.99

MINER 2049ER 31.99

MICROMODEM II 254.99

MICROSCIA-2DRIVE 229.99

MTNCPS 144.99

MTNEXPCHASIS 529.99

MTN MUSIC SYSTEM 289.99

SCREENWRITER II 89.99

SUSPENDED 29.99

TG JOYSTICK 46.99

VISICALC 169.99
VISICALCADV (lie ONLY) 279.99

VISIFILE 169.99

VfSILINK 169.99

VISISCHEDULE 219.99

VISITREND/PLOT 219.99

WILDCARD 109.99

WITNESS 29.99

WIZARDRY 32.99

WORD HANDLER II 49.99

ZORKI, II, Ml 24.99

16K RAM CARD 39.99

CALCSTAR

89.99

DATASTAR

179.99

INFOSTAR

299.99

MAILMERGE

149.99

REPORTSTAR

209.99

SPELLSTAR

149.99

STARINDEX

119.99

SUPERSORT

149.99

WORDSTAR

239.99

WORDSTAR PRO

419.99

ALPHA PLOT
APPLE MECHANIC
BEAGLE BASIC
DOS BOSS
DOUBLE TAKE
FLEX TEXT
FRAME-UP
PRONTO DOS
1 TIPDISK#1
TYPEFACES
UTILITY CITY

^^■^

ontinental

HOME ACCT(A, AT, TRS 80)

44.99

HOME ACCT(OSB)

59.99

HOME ACCT(IBM)

99.99

FCM (APPLE)

65.99

FCM(IBM)

84.99

PROP. MANAGEMENT

299.99

CPA(GUAP.AR, PAY)

1 59.99

TAX ADVANTAGE

39.99

ATARI SOFTWARE 1983

14.99

APPLE SOFTWARE 1983

14.99

APPLE GRAPHICS

14.99

I APPLE WRITER PRE-BOOT 18.99

I CHARACTER ROMS

24.99

I ENHANCER II

99.99

I FUNCTION STRIP

34.99

§ INVERSE VIDEO

19.99

1 PSIO

169.99

1 SOFTSWITCH

19.99

1 ULTRATERM(132COL)

299.99

1 ULTRATERM PRE-BOOTS

SCALL

1 VIDEOTERM(80COL)

199.99

1 VISICALC PRE-BOOT

32.99

ASTMEGA + 2 64K

439.99

ASTSIXPAK + 64K

359.99

d BASE II

429.99

CDEXTUTORIALS

57.99

COPY II PC

22.99

DEADLINE

29.99

FLIGHTSIMULATOR

32.99

HAYES 1200B MODEM

469.99

IBM ENCYCLOPEDIA

59.99

LOTUS 123

349.99

MASTER TYPE

34.99

MILLIONAIRE

49.99

MINER 2049ER

31.99

Vi HGT DS/DD DRIVE

229.99

PERFECT WRTR/SPELL

269.99

PFSFILE

89.99

PFS GRAPH

79.99

PFS REPORT

89.99

PFS WRITE

89.99

PLANTRONICSCOLOR+

389.99

PRINCETON RGBMON

489.99

QUICKCODE

229.99

STATE OF THE ART

SCALL

VISIWORD

269.99

VOLKSWRITER

119.99

WITNESS

29.99

WIZARDRY

42.99

ZORKI, II, III

24.99

POTPOURRI

I BROTHER/DTC RIBBONS

2.99

I BROTHER/DTC DSYWHLS

19.99

I FAN W/SURGE (APPLE)

49.99

FLIP FILE (STORES 75)

17.99

Vi HEIGHT APPLE DRIVE

229.99

KOALA PAD (AP/IBM)

99.99

LIBRARY CASE (STORES 10) 1.99

MX &FX80 RIBBONS

4.99

MX &FX 100 RIBBONS

8.99

1 OKI82.83.GEMINI RIBBONS 3.99

[ POWER STRIP W/SURGE

24.99

I SHIFT KEY MOD

9.99

I VERBATIM SS/DD (10)

24.99

| VERBATIM SS/DD (100)

235.99

IQ3FT &SORCIM EDUCATIONAL

[JOYSTICK

44.99]

I JOYSTICK (AT)

14.99

I PADDLES

31.99

| QUICK-VIS

14.99 |

USI

Pi 1 9" GREEN
Pi 2 12" GREEN
Pi 3 12"AMBER
Pi 4 9" AMBER

109.99

139.99
149.99
129.99

I SPELLGUARD

119.99

1 SUPERCALC

99.99

J SUPERCALC 2

167.99

I SUPERWRITER

179.99

ACCELERATOR 499.99

NEPTUNE (80 COL + RAM) 499.99
SATURN 128K (APPLE) 399.99
TITAN 64K (IBM) 529.99

BUMBLE GAMES

29.99

DLM

SCall

EDUWARE

SCall

FACE MAKER (A, IBM)

24.99

GAME SHOW (MASTER)

29.99

GERTRUDE'S PUZZLES

29.99

JUGGLES RAINBOW

21.99

KINDERCOMP(A, IBM)

20.99

34.99

MICRO MOTHER GOOSE

29.99

ROCKY'S BOOTS

34.99

SNOOPER TROOPS(A, IBM)

29.99

STORY MACHINE

24.99

| WORD ATTACK (IBM)

3499

KENSINGTON
MICROWARE

SYSTEM SAVER

• Surge Suppression

• Dual Outlet

• U.L. Listed

• Fits Apple
Stand

$65

PRINTERS

■

BROTHER HR1

699.99

EPSON (ALL MODELS)

SCall

GEMINI 10X

299.99

GEMINI 15

429.99

OKI DATA 82 A

379.99

OKI DATA 92

529.99

dJu€

380 Z

48K BUFFER; 32 CPS;
GRAPHICS, DAISY WHEEL
Tractor

1099.99

',,.'.■ . ,,.; . ....:.,, '■"■"". M .

No Charge For Credit Cards
Prices Subject To Change
Software Sales Are Final
Min. $4.00 Shipping Charge
Purchase Orders Call First

CO M PUTE R MAIL ORDERS & RETAIL STORE

qiaa/ni I KIT 860 S. Winchester Blvd.

DIoLrUUlM I San Jose, CA 95128

n D f\ ni'l^TO (408) 985-0400 Orders Only

TnUUUU I v> (408) 985-0401 Sales & Tech. Asst.

HOURS: MON-FRI 8AM-5PM - SAT & SUN 1 0AM-5PM

Circle 96 on inquiry card.

'.■:■'■' :.-, :■','.■■.::.■ ... .'.,.' '. ■ . " ' ."....' .. .'.

■:.-■:■■■. ,-'::,.':.'.'■:':.' .:..,..

" ' .

.; : .r:::::i;K:Slrf:&SO:v:\v& : '

BYTE November 1983

679

Apple ll/lle®

Industrial Control
Plug-In Boards

(SOFTWARE INCLUDED)

Opto-lsolated 16/32 I/O Board

• Individually Configurable fflOflLT

• Compatible with SSR Modules \/yjl

• Opto-lsolated Interrupt Inputs ▼ tl ' u

2 Axis Stepper Motor Interface

$195

• Positioning Control

• Pulse Counting/Timing

• Frequency Measurements

ROGERS LABS (714)751-0442

2710 S. Croddy Way, Santa Ana, CA 92704

Scotch'

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

North Hills Corporation

3564 Rolling View Dr.

White Bear Lake, MN 55110

1-800-328-DISC

MNCall Collect 1-612-770-0485

I APPt

X^ The Ac

APPLEWARE, BMC

The Apple Users Group

Software Library Bonanza

At truly affordable prices!

Far the first time en|oy your

Apple to its fullest capacity.

using specially packed disks

with over GO outstanding

programs each.

[not available from any othersource]

Each packed disk includes an extensive variety of

interesting, useful and entertaining programs

indispensable to all computensts 1 Each mixed category

packed disk includes

BUSINESS • EDUCATIONAL • DATA BASE • GAMES

UTILITIES • SCIENCE • MUSIC • GRAPHICS . FINANCE

Library Disks I, II and III are mixed categories Dedicated

disks are

• GAMES • UTILITIES - GRAPHICS - INTEGER •

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY. Each packed disk is

available for only S59.95 each.

WHY PAY MORE?

Order direct from this ad and Save up to S150. Buy
Library Disks I, II and III and get a special bonus disk
FREE over 260 programs lor $1 79 95 + $3
shippmq For the best value, receive all 9 disks featuring
over 60D of our best programs for only 65 C each
lor a package price of only $389 Postage Pad 1
NEW Biismess • Professorial • Executive Package (enahimq
you to bring your business to SS Highest level of eflcency) also
available, circle Readers Service Card for our complete catalog

For Orders Only Call now
TOLL FREE: 1-800-327-8664
Florida: 1-305-987-8665

Compatible with II.

VISA

II Emd , and Franklin Ace (For 3 3 DOS)

Circle 396 on inquiry card.

Circle 32 on inquiry card.

The Statistician

CPM IBM-PC
TRS-DOS XENIX

Multiple Regression

Stepwise

Ridge

All Subsets

Backward Elimination
Time Series Analysis
Descriptive Statistics
Transformations

* Survey Research

* Nonparametrics

* X-Y Plots

* ANO/A

* Random Samples

* Data Base

* Search & sort

* Hypothesis tests

Please call TOLL FREE
1-800-334-0854 (Ext. 814)

a

for more information

or write:

Quant Systems

Box 628

Charleston, SC 29402

VISA-M/C Accepted

NEW GENERATION OF

INTELLIGENT PAL/EPROM

PROGRAMMERS- FOR THE

NEW BREED OF ENGINEERS

Circle 379 on inquiry card.

S5 EPROMs • ROM EMULATION

DIGITAL MEDIA
3178 GIBRALTAR AVENUE
COSTA MESA, CA 92626

Circle 148 on inquiry card.

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

PACIFIC
EXCHANGES

100 Foothill Blvd.
San Luis Obispo. CA
93401. InCal. call
(800)592-5935 or
,(805)543-1037

Circle 347 on inquiry card.

APPLE II COMPATIBLE DISK DRIVES

Mitac AD-1 only $189.00

Controller Card 8 65.00

Just Plug in and Run

VERBATIM

5% " Diskettes SS DD Soft

per box of 10 8 23.55

HARD DISKS FOR APPLE and IBM

Mitac AD-lOO 20 MB only. .81395.00

TELEVIOEO

910 $429.00

925 8659.00

950 8859.00

MONITORS
Mitac 12" 20 MHZ

Green 8115.00

Amber 8115.00

IBM PC COMPATIBLE DISK DRIVES
NationalJA-551-2 l hHT 8205.00

OZtecKInc. visa/mc A«*p*d

1400 Coleman Ave. Suite E-25

Santa Clara, CA 95050

(800) 222-6677

in Calif. (408) 980-9987

TeleVideo DEALERS

• Fast Dump/Restore

over 600k per disk $60

•Type Ahead with Print Screen

64 Character Type Ahead Buffer $60

• 3270 & 2780/3780 Bisync Communications

from Phone 1 &Batech $700 & $300

• TurboDDS for TeleVideo Start at $225

• BIOS & Formatting for 802H

use all 20 MB $150

• 8" Disk Drive for 802 Computer

Drive & Software $1,100

• RM Cobol™ for TurboDDS

Full System $525

RunTime $175

• Standby Power System

200VA-400VA800VA As low as $363

RM/COBOtfis a registered trademark of

Ryan-McFarland Corp.

GP/M®is registered trademark of Digital Research, Inc.

TurboDOS is a registered trademark of Software 2000, Inc.

PLUS OTHER GOOD TELEVIDEO STUFF!

COGITATE, Inc.

SPECIALISTS IN UNIQUE TELEVIDEO SOFTWARE

24000 Telegraph Road, Southfield, Ml 46034
(313)352-2345

VISA/MASTER CARD Accepted

FAST

Factory
Floppy Disc
Drive
Repair

Specialists in the repair of:

Shugart
Tandon
PerSci
PerSci, Inc.

12624 Daphne Avenue
Hawthorne. CA 90250
(213)777-7536

TWX 910-321-4448

Circle 23 on inquiry card.

Circle 75 on inquiry card.

Circle 358 on inquiry card.

Hewlett Packard ¥fw%

Write or call for prices. Ak/^JB

SPECIALS

on INTREGATED CIRCUITS

6502

7.45 10/6.95 50/6.55 100/6.15

6502A/6512A

8.40 10/7.95 50/7.35 100/6.90

6520 PIA

5.15 10/4 90 50/4.45 100/4.15

6522 VIA

6.45 10/6.10 50/5.75 100/5.45

6532

7.90 10/7.40 50/7.00 100/6.60

2114-L200

2.45 25/2 30 100/2.15

2716EPR0M

4.45 5/4.20 10/3.95

2532 EPROM

5.90 5/5.75 10/5.45

6116 2KX8 CMOS RAM 6.45 5/6.20 10/5.95

4116 RAM

8 for 14

4164 RAM

6.50

Zero Insertion Fore

B24pinSocketJScanbe) 2.00

Anchor
Automation
Signalman
Modems

FREE SOURCE MEMBERSHIP WITH SIGNALMAN

All Signalman Modemsare Direct Connect, and include cables
to connect to your computer and to the telephone. Signalman
Modems provide the best price-perlormance values.

Dealer and OEM Inquiries invited
Volksmodem |79)

RS232 or Atari Cable for Volksmodem
Mark I RS232 (99)

Mark VI tor IBM Personal Computer (279)

Mark VII Auto Dial/Auto Answer (159)

Mark XII Smart Model 1200/300 (399)

59
9

59
179

89
295

DC HAYES Smartmodem

DC Hayes Smartmodem 1 200/300

219

529

PROM QUEEN for VIC 170

Apple Emulator for Commodore 64 Call

STAT Statistics Package for C64 95

Solid Oak 2 Level Stand for C64 or VIC 29

C64/VIC Switch (networking) 125

BACKUP V1.0 tape copier for C64 or VIC 20

CARDBOARD/6 Motherboard - VIC 64

CARDBOARD/5 Motherboard - C64 56

CARD PRINT G Printer Int. with Graphics 72

CARD PRINT B Printer Interface— C64/ VIC 40

CARDBOARD/3S Motherboard - VIC 32

CARDCO C64/VIC Calculator Keypad 32

CARDRAM/16 RAM Expansion - VIC 50
Complete CAROCO Line in stock
CIE and VIE IEEE Interfaces in stock

MAE Assembler forC64 -f- CBM 89

APPLE— FRANKLIN ITEMS

KRAFT Apple Joystick

Kraft Apple Paddle Pair

SPINNAKER Software in stock

Broderbund Saftware in stock

16K RAM Card for Apple

Multiplan— Microsoft

Solid Oak 2 Level Stand for Apple

Serial Card for Apple

MCP RAM/80 column card for lie (AP/TXT)

Z80 Softcard and CP/M (Microsoft)

RANA Elite I with Controller

Parallel Printer Interface/Cable

Microtek interfaces in stock

Apple Dumpling with 16K Buffer

Grappler + Interface

Kraft Products for Apple in stock

DC Hayes Micromodem II

PFS: File

PFS: Report

Videx 80 Column Card

Hayden Software for Apple 20% OFF

Apple Blue Book

40

30

59

185

29

99
139

235

389

79

160

129

299
95
95

209

19

Qcommodore

See us for Personal, Business, and Educational
requirements. Educational Discounts available.

PEfSCANI $245 base i price

Allows you to connect up to 30 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 $100 each.

COMPACK/STCP

$115

Intelligent Terminal Package for PET, CBM. C64

Includes ACIA Hardware / STCP Software

fiWEH^ """"69

Realize video quality equal or better than composite monitor
using standard color TV.

SCREEN MAKER 80 1 Column Adapter for C64 145

Provides big screen capability for business applications.

GENESIS Computer Corp

VIController (for C64 as well) 50

combine with BSR modules for home or business control

35
139

COMSENSE Remote Sensing Adapter for C64 orVIC
COM VOICE Synthesizer for C64 or VIC

includes software for test to speech, pitch, etc.
COM CLOCK Real Time Clockwith battery backup
VIC 20 Products and Software h stock
Thorn EMI Software UMI Software

ABACUS Software HES Software

16K RAM for VIC 64 Vanilla Pilot

VICTORY Software for VIC and C64

Street Sweepers (VIC)
Night Rider (VIC)
Annihilator
Adventure Pack II
Educational Pack I
Strategy Pack I

Kongo Kong (VIC)

Cosmic Debris (VIC)

Adventure Pack I

Metamorphosis

Trek

Grave Robbers

45

27

16
12
16
11
12
12

PAPER CLIP Word Processor 109

ORACLE Data Base from Batteries Included 1 25

Super BusCard from Batteries Included 1 79

Commodore 64 Programmers Reference Guide 16

MicroChess for C64— 8 levels of play 1 9

excellent graphics and color
SPINNAKER Software C64, Apple. IBM, Atari

Computers First Book of PET/CBM 1 1

C64 or VIC SWITCH 125

POWER ROM Utilities for PET/CBM 78

WordPro 3-1-/64 with Spellmaster 85

Word Pro 4 + - 8032, disk, printer 295
SPELLMASTER spelling checker for WordPro

VISICALC for PET, ATARI, or Apple 189

PET-TRAX PET to Epson Graphics Software 40

SM-KIT enhanced PET/CBM ROM Utilities 40

Programmers Toolkit - PET ROM Utilities 35

EASY CALC for C64 65

PET Spacemaker II ROM Switch 36

COPYWRITER Word Processor for C64 69

2 Meter PET to IEEE or IEEE to IEEE Cable 40

Dust Cover for PET, CBM, 4040, or 8050 8
CmC Interfaces (ADA1800, ADA1450, SADI in stock)

Programming the PET/CB M (Compute!) — R. West 20

Compute! First Book of VIC 11

OMNICALC (HES) 79

HES MODEM with Software 65
HES Software and Hardware in stock
UMI products in stock

FiexFHe for PET/cbW C64 $110

Database, Report Writer with calculations, Mailing Lists.

FORTH for PET/CB4 full FIG model — -"cargill/Rr ley $50

Metacompiler! or FORTH for independent object code 30

KMMM PASCAL IV.1 for PET/C64

EARL for PET/CBM Disk-based ASSEMBLER

95
65

Super Graphics — BASIC Language Extensions 45

Fast machine_language graphics routines for PET/CBM

RAM/ROM for PET/CBM 4K $75 8K $90

Commodore Public Domain Software for C64 75

DISK
SPECIALS

Scotch (3M) 5" ss/dd
Scotch (3M) 5" ds/dd
Scotch (3M) 8" ss/sd
Scotch (3M) 8" ss/dd

We stock VERBATIM DISKS

Write for Dealer and OEM prices.

Sentinal 5" ss/dd 10/1.90 50/1.85 100/1.80

Sentinal 5" ds/dd 10/2.55 50/2.50 100/2.45

We stock Dysan disks

10/2.20 50/2.00 100/1.95

10/3.05 50/2.80 100/2.75

10/2.30 50/2.10 100/2.06

10/2.85 50/2.70 100/2.65

Wabash 5" ss/sd
Wabash 5" ss/dd
Wabash 8" ss/sd

10/1.60 50/1.55 100/1.45
10/1.90 50/1.85 100/1.75
10/2.00 50/1.95 100/1.85

We stock MAXELL DISKS

Write for dealer and OEM prices.

Disk Storage Pages 1 for $5 Hub Rings 50 for $6
Disk Library Cases
Head Cleaning Kits

8"— 3.00
11

5"— 2.25

CASSETTE TAPES— AGFA PE-61 1 PREMIUM

C-10 10/ .61 50/ .58 100/ .50

C-30 10/ .85 50/ .82 100/ .70

DATASHIELD BACKUP POWER SOURCE 265

Battery back up Uninterruptible Power Supply with surge and
noise filtering. The answer to your power problems.

Zenith ZVM-1 21 Green Phosphor Monitor 95

Zenith new color and monochrome monitors in stock

MultiPlan — IBM or Apple 185

Quadboard for IBM available

Peachtext 5000 Software Package 219

PFS Software for IBM and Apple in stock

VOTRAX Personal Speech System 280

BMn°*91 Color Monitor 199

BM. ,^A 12" Green Monitor 85

Oynax (Brother) OX- 1 5 Daisy Wheel Printer 469

Itoh Prowriter Parallel Printer 379

Panasonic 1090 Printer with Correspondence Mode 279

USI CompuMOD 4 R F Modulator 39

Daisywriter 2000 with 48K buffer 1050

Many printers available (Gemini- Star, Brother, OKI, etc.)

We Stock AMDEK Monitors

AmdekDXY-100 Plotter 590

A P Products 15% OFF

Watanabe Intelligent Plotter 990 6-pen 1290

BROOKS 6 Outlet Surge Suppressor/Noise Filter 54

We stock Electrohome Monitors

Synertek SYM-1 Microcomputer 189

ALL BOOK and SOFTWARE PRICES DISCOUNTED

Panasonic 12" Monitor (20 MHz) with audio
Panasonic CT-1 60 Dual Mode Color Monitor

129
245

USI Video Monitors— Green or AMBER 20 MHz likes.
Dealer and OEM inquiries invited

ft/urn I data

systems

HERO 1 Robot (factory assembled) 2145

229 Terminal (DEC and ADM compatible) 680

ZT-1 D InteL Terminal with Serial Port 340

Z1 DO 1 6-bit/8-bit Systems in stock CALL

We stock entire Zenith line.

215-822-7727

252 Bethlehem Pike
Colmar, PA 1891 5

Circle 5 on inquiry card.

A B Computers

ATARI"

SPECIALS

WE STOCK ENTIRE LINE— write for prices.
SPINNAKER and Bmderbund Software in Stock.

WRITE FOR CATALOG. Add $1 .50 per order for United Parcel.
We pay balance of UPS surface shipping charges on all prepaid orders
(add extra for mail, APO/FPO, air). Prices include cash discount.
Regular prices slightly higher. Prices subject to change.

BYTE November 1983 6&1

*SDSDDBD

PC- LINK

DEC VT1 00® TERMINAL

EMULATOR

• A full featured DEC VT1 00* terminal
emulator on IBM PC/XT.

• Transfer text files between host and IBM
PC/XT.

• Very easy to use. Complete user
documentation.

• To use PC-LIN Kprogram, the PC needsto
have at least one disk drive, IBM DOS
IBM monochrome or color display, a
RS232 port, telephone modem or direct
connect.

• Support baud rate up to 1200 baud.

• $60.00 +$5^00 for shipping & handling.

SCREENWARE CORPORATION

P.O. BOX 3662

NASHUA, NH 03061-3662

Tel. 603-888-4074

V/SA

dnmo.^d IQUCO'I

B Dysan

mfCORPORATiON

Solve your dfec proUen. buy 100% furface
tBtrd Oyaan ftokr"— AO ordov ■hipped
from *odc within 24 hour*. Call tofl FREE
(800) 23S4137 lor price* and ktfrwmMTknv
VWa and Matter Can) accepted.

PACIFIC
EXCHANGES

100 Foothill Blvd.
San Luis Obispo. CA
93401 (InCal. call
(805) 543-1037.)

R T L

Relocatable ^m^*±
Threaded 51SO

Language

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.

Circle 347 on inquiry card.

Circle 397 on inquiry card.

i ST ANMVm$AM

CHRISTMAS SPMAL

f&ip&c

DECEMBER H>, ! 3 ■ V.

w.

^

GARDEN OF EDEN

COMPUTERS
714-841-4994

HAYES 1200BD

SMARTMODEM . . .469.00

OKIDATA 92P 449.95

WORD HANDLER 44.95

GEMINI 10X 279.95

av DELTA 10 499.95 j

■ •■« aaMBaaa * ■ • ■ ■■

infoPROBE

a powerful data base program for
scientific and commercial research

• no programming required

• menu driven completely interactive

• selected lists, summaries, statistics, bar

charts and scattergrams

• powerful selection facilities to extract

pertinent information

• publication quality graphs on HIPLOT plotters

• up to 300 items/record with 32767 records

PRICE: $445

30-day satisfaction guarantee
Demo diskette and user's manual: $35

(credited toward purchase)

F0R:IBMpc, CP/M, RT-11, TSX

Centre Computer Consultants, P.O. Box 739
State College, PA 16801. (814) 237-4535

DISKETTES

3M Scotch' BRAND

AT SUPER LOW PRICES

WE WILL SHIP YOUR ORDER

WITHIN 24 HOURS AND WE PAY

THE SHIPPING CHARGES

fff

COD ACCEPTED
DEALER INQUIRIES INVITED

CALL TOLL FREE
800 922-8193

IN CALIFORNIA
800 468-1068

Tayco Business Forms
Computer Supplies

Post Office Box 605
Newbury Park, CA 91320

Circle 196 on inquiry card.

Circle 289 on inquiry card.

Circle 462 on inquiry card.

II PROMPT DELIVERY! and

[| TRY TO BEAT THESE IC PRICES: |]

DYNAMIC RAM

64K 200 ns $ 5.40

64K 150 ns 5.62

64K 120 ns 6.06

16K 200 ns 1.56

EPROM

27128 300 ns $19.20

2764 250 ns 5.99

2732 450 ns 3.89

2732A-2 200 ns 7.70

2716 450 ns 3.31

H ■ 2532 450 ns 4.60

STATIC RAM

6264P-15 150 ns $38.00

6116P-3 150 ns 4.79

6117P-3 150 ns 4.20

MasterCard VISA or UPS CASH COD

Factory New, Prime Parts

S MICROPROCESSORS UNLIMITED

8 2-1.000 South Peona Ave /Q1Q\ OC7 AQfil

I BEGGS OK 74421 n l» IB) ^Of-HUDI

Prices subject to change Please expect higher prices on some parts due to
world wide shortages Call lor volume prices Subject to available quantities
Shipping & Insurance extra. Cash discount prices shown Federal Express (it
S599i

of looking for reliable
Source of Supply?

mm

from Looking???

about
QUALITY??

DISKETTES +
RIBBONS +
ACCESSORIES

Call Bob Kelly Now. . .
Kelly Computer Supplies

1811 Carl St. -St. Paul, MN 55113

Toll Free ... 800 - 447 - 2929

MN Res. Call Collect. . .612/644-9030

3M SCOTCH DISKETTES

When it comes to quality software
for microsystems, DYNACOMP delivers:

STOCK MASTER (APPLE): $59.95

The Systems ... Apple Atari Canon Commodore
Compustar CP/M Franklin H/Z-100
IBM PC Kaypro Morrow NEC North Star
Osborne SuperBrairt Timex TRS-80

The Software ...

ADVENTURE BUSINESS CARO GAMES EDUCATION

ENGINEERING GAMES HOME FINANCE INVESTING

LANGUAGES SCIENCE TAX PLANNING UTILITIES

Name brand diskettes: $1 9.95/10 (SS, SDw/hub ring).
Includes FREE plastic storage box. Add $2.00 shipping.

CALL OR WRITE FOR A FREE CATALOG

DYNACOMP, INC.

1427 Monroe Avenue, Rochester, N.Y. 14618

Telephone: (716) 442-6960

Circle 309 on inquiry card.

Circle 253 on inquiry card.

Circle 162 on inquiry card.

Radio Shack's TRS-80 Model 100-

A Big Gift That Comes in a Small Package

V

America's First Preprogrammed, Ready-to-Run Truly Portable Computer!

The Micro Executive Workstation™. The TRS-80
Model 100 is one present that can be used by any execu-
tive — anywhere! This is a true portable computer that
works on batteries or optional AC adapter. It's small
enough tofiteasily in a briefcase, yet powerful enough to
serve as a desktop microcomputer. And it requires no
"extras" to get started.

Ready to Use. Turn on Model 100 and five built-in man-
agement programs— plus your own files— are instantly
listed on its eight-line by 40-character liquid crystal dis-
play. The full-size typewriter keyboard and the powerful
editing functions of Model 100's personal word process-
ing program make it a breeze to jot down notes or write
letters and reports. Model 100 also works as an appoint-
ment calendar, address book, phone directory, plus a

telephone auto-dialer. You can even write your own
BASIC programs.

A Portable Terminal. With Model 100's communications
program and built-in auto-dial modem, you can access
national information services, such as CompuServe® and
Dow Jones News/Retrieval®. Or connect Model 100 di-
rectly to another computer — micro, mini or mainframe —
using the RS-232C interface. Model 100 also includes a
parallel printer port and a cassette tape interface.

Available Nationwide. You don't have to go out of your
way to buy this gift! You can get the 8K Model 100 (Cat.
No. 26-3801 , $799) or the 24K Model 100 (26-3802, $999)
at any Radio Shack Computer Center, participating store
or dealer near you.

Radio /hack

The biggest name in little computers

A DIVISION OF TANDY CORPORATION

Prices apply at participating Radio Shack stores and dealers. CompuServe is a registered trademark of CompuServe, Inc. Dow Jones News/Retrieval is a registered trademark of Dow Jones & Co., Inc

Circle 386 on inquiry card.

History will record as a profound irony

that the most powerful word processing package

ever created for the IBM® Personal Computer

wasn't created by IBM.

LEADING EDGE.

Leading Edge Products Inc., Fortune 1300 Division, 21 Highland Circle, Needham Heights, Mass. 02194 {$00) 343-3436 (617) 44 L >-67&2
Headquarters and Retail Division, 225 Turnpike Street, Canton, Mass. 02021 (800) M 5-68 J 3 (617) 828-8150

*IRM i? a registered trademark «>l International Buslnew Machine Cnrpurntion.

See US at Booth #3327

©COflHMI/Rill '83

November 28-December 2, 1983
Circle 261 on inquiry card.

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BYTE'S BOMB is your direct
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DISK DRIVES FOR IBM PC

Double Sided/Double Density 320KB $225
HARD DISK FOR IBM PC
5MB $1399 10MB $1599 15MB $2199
MEMORY BOARDS

AST MULTIFUNCTION $299

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QUADRAM 256K MULTIFUNCTION . . . $399

HERCULES CARD $499

QCS BIG BLUE CARD $479

HAYES

SMARTMODEM 300 BAUD $239

SMARTMODEM 1200 BAUD $559

MONITORS

PQS COLOR MONITOR HX-12 $499

AMDEK, NEC MONITORS AVAILABLE . CALL

APPLE He STARTER SYSTEM $1599

DISK DRIVE FOR APPLE II & He . . . $219

PRINTERS

BROTHER HR-1 $750 HR-15 $499

OKIDATA 82A. $499 83A $699

84A $999 93A $959

GEMINI 10 . . . $359 15 $529

NEC 3510 . . $1499 3550 $1899

7710 $2075

EPSON RX80 . $379 FX80 $599

MX80 $449 MX100 $649

HAYES SMARTMODEM 300 BAUD . . . $239
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VISICALC $199 MULTIPLAN . . $199

LOTUS 1-2-3. . $359 WORDSTAR . . $329

SUPER CALC II $199 MAILMERQE . . $179

WORD PERFECT $349 EASY WRITER $129

TAVA PC

Desk Top, IBM PC Compatible Computer, Runs
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COMPUTER FOST INC.

22102 CLARENDON ST. STE. #1
WOODLAND HILLS, CA 91367
(213) 999-1041

DELIVERIES TWO TO FOUR WEEKS AVERAGE
ALL SHIPMENTS ARE CASHIERS CHECK ONLY.
PRICES SUBJECT TO CHAQE WITHOUT NOTICE.
SHIPPING AND HANDLING EXTRA

Circle 102 on inquiry card.

BYTE November 1983

683

Heath
Users

Double Your
5%" disk storage
capacity without adding a drive.

Get twice as much from your H88 or
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floppy disk controller, in conjunction
with your 5%" drives, for example,
expands memory capacity from 256
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And it handles single and double-
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Ol

C.D.R. Systems Inc.
Controlled Data Recording Systems Inc.
7210 Clainnont Mesa Blvd., San Diego, CA 92111

(619) 560-1272

GteCSfiCaO'™ and

your

HAVE THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS—

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SUPER DEAL: UTILITY package that
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Random Access, Inc.

P.O. Box 2094
Bloomington, IN 47402

(812) 339-5854

DataStar is a trademark of MicroPro Int.
CP/M is a trademark of Digital Research.

RIBBONS

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PRICE PRICE

PER PER

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Anadex 9500

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C. Itoh Starwriter F-10 ....

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TO ORDER CALL (313) 569-3218 or

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S0UTHFIELD, MICHIGAN 48075

Circle 67 on inquiry card.

Circle 389 on inquiry card.

Circle 161 on inquiry card.

CONVERSE S COMPUTER

AT LASTl A FULL IMPLEMENTATION oftheoriginal ELIZA program is
now available torunonyour microcomputer!

Created at MIT in 1966. ELIZA has become the world's most 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— and her remarks are
often amazingly appropriate!

Designed to run on a large mainframe. ELIZA has neverbefore been
available to personal computer users except in greatly stripped down
versions lacking Ihe sophistication which made the original program so
fascinating.

Now. our new microcomputer version possessing the FULL power 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 SOURCE PROGRAM for
only S20additioi)al.

Order your copy of ELIZA today and you'll never again wonder how to
respond when you hear someone say. "Okay, let's see what this com-
puter of yours can actually do!"

ELIZA IS AVAILABLE IN THE FOLLOWING FORMATS:

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE RESEARCH GROUP

921 North La Jolla Avenue. Dept. B

Los Angeles. CA 90046

(213)656-7368 (213)654-2214

MC. VISA and checks accepted

VISA

HEXADECIMAL DESK CLOCK

Solid mahogany timepiece represents the
time in base sixteen. Features include:
handrubbed finish, gold tone characters
and hands, and a quartz movement
accurate to within 10 seconds per month.
Clock measures 4V2 in. square, can
be hung (bracket included), and runs for
over 1 year on a standard AA battery.
An attractive addition to the work area of
any computer professional or hobbyist.
Only $18.95 plus $1 .50 shipping & handling.

PA residents add 6% sales tax.
Please allow 3-5 weeks for delivery.
Send check or money order to:

DXBXTXMB

P.O. Box 403, Ambler, PA 19002

upcpipeune

r-i i i t o •"=

Low, direct prices • Fast, direct service

2532-450 $ 4 28

2716-450 3«

2732-450 399

2764-250 716

4164-150P 479

4164-200 490

6116-P3 430

6116-LP-3 4»o

Add S2 95 shipping to all orders 2.6% for credit card orders

OEM • Quantity discounts available • PO.s on

approval • C.O.D. OK • Credit cards • FL lesidents

add 5% tax • All new, no surplus, no seconds

C Prices subject to change.)

4920 Cypress St., Suite 100, Tampa, FL 33607

InFL, and for info., call 8 13-875-0299

FOR ORDERS ONLY. 800-237-891

_ 8AM-5PM EDT

Circle 34 on inquiry card.

Circle 150 on inquiry card.

Circle 184 on inquiry card.

COMPUTER W TECHNOLOGY

SAGE IV computers use the 68000 CPU,
come with UCSD p-System, PASCAL, Macro
Assembler, Multi-user system, Word proc-
essor, Spreadsheet, 1 year warranty.
Available SAGE configurations include:

1 640K floppy & 256K RAM $3120

2 640K floppies & 256K RAM $3760
1 floppy, 256K RAM, 6mb Hard disk $5840
1 floppy, 1 mb RAM, 1 8mb Hard disk $8000

As software developers and authorized
SAGE dealers we offer customer support.

MARITIME !

ASSOCIATES

(503) 929-2552

6660 Reservoir Road Corvallis. OR 97333

&TDK

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 (InCal. call
(805)543-1037)

6809

Single Board Computer

RAM, EPROM, real-time 'clock, watchdog \ ■ ■ A-
timer, 44-pin 4.5" * 6.5 " PCB
EXPANSION MODULES: RAM, EPROM, CMOS
RAM/battery, analog I/O, serial I/O,
parallel I/O, counter/timer, IEEE-488,
EPROM programmer, floppy disks,
cassette, breadboard, keyboard/display.

Lafayette, IN 47904
1 317-742-8428

Circle 282 on inquiry card.

Circle 347 on inquiry card.

Circle 510 on inquiry card.

■VII

IBM PC-COMPLETE SYSTEM

VERY SPECIAL PRICE

PC System includes 64KIBMPC with two Disk Drives,
Controller, Color Graphics Card, Monitor. . . . $2590

SPECIAL OF THE MONTH!!

IBMPCW/64K, 360KB Disk Drive, FDC, Color Graphics
Card, Monitor, 10MB Hard Disk W/Controller, Cable,
Software, Matrix printer, Cable, all for only . . $3990

TAVA PC

Desk Top, IBM PC Bus compatible, runs DOS 1.1, 2.0,
CP/M86& $990

EAGLE II

Computer System $1770

DISK DRIVES FOR IBM PC

Tandon 100-2

Slimline DS/DD 320KB

SMITH CORONA

TP-1

$520

STAR MICRONICS

Gemini 10

Gemini 15

CALL
CALL

NEC SPINWRITER

7710-1 .
7715-1 .
7720-1.
7725-1.
7730-1.

$2050
$2200
$2500
$2500
$2050

3510

3515

3530 ....
3550 ....
PC8023A

$1450

. $1450

$1650

$1950

$550

HARD DISKS FOR APPLE AND IBM

CALL

$240
$250

MONITORS

AMDEK

300 A $190.00 /

300G $160.00 //

310A $190.00 ///

IV

NEC

IB 1201M $160.00 JC 1203

JC 1212M $330.00 JB 1260

PRINCETON GRAPHICS SYSTEMS

Hi-Res Color

PRINTERS
C-ITOH

$340.00

$690.00

$390.00

$1190.00

$750.00
$130.00

$490

GX-100 .
8510....
F-10 . . .

$240 1550 $690

$460 F-10 $1290

$1690

DAIS Y WRITER 2000 CALL

OKIDATA

82A $440 84 A

83A $690 92 A

93 A

$975
$575
$970

MEMORY BOARDS

MONTE CARLO CALL

TECMAR CALL

AST

10 Plus. Five function Card $199

Combo Plus. 4 function card. Fully pop. 256K . $490
Mega Plus. Fully pop. 512K $990

AST SIXPAK 384K CALL

QUADRAM

Quad Card. Fully pop. 256K $500

QUADLINK CALL

BIG BLUE $470

HERCULES Graphics Card $490

MAYNARD SANDSTAR SERIES

FDC 5 1/4 & 8"

Multifunction Card

Memory Card

$220

$90

$180

EPSON

FX-80

BROTHER

HR-1

DISK DRIVE FOR APPLE

Slimline, or Standard

$190

. CALL FX-100 CALL

DX-15

SILVER REED

Printer

$750
$570

$690

PERSONAL ACCOUNTANT Software for your
Apple He and Apple II +. ... $90

APPLE He

Computer System, Controller, Two Disk Drives,
Monitor $1590

■*■■'

631 E. First St., Tustin, CA 92680

PRICES AND AVAILABILITY SUBJECT TO CHANGE WITHOUT-NOTICE

1714)838-9100

APPLE is a trademark of Apple Computers. Inc.

IBM is a trademark of IBM Corp.

CP/M86 is a trademark of Digital Research. Inc.

Circle 531 on inquiry card.

BYTE November 1983 685

EACH

P.C.B.

$199

59

S 19

139

29

PERIPHERALS FOR
APPLE AND IBM(PC)

ONE YEAR WARRANTY ON ALL ITEMS
ALL PRODUCTS BUILT fN U.S.A.

APPLE/SHUGART DRIVE |5W)
DISK CONTROLLER (ODS 3.2-3.3)

80 COLUMN CARD

(VIOEX EQUIVALENT)
132 COLUMN CARD (11+ OR lie) 269 59

(ULTRATERM EQUIVALENT)
80 COLUMN WITH 64K RAM 129 28

(FOR lie ONLY)
PRINTER INTERFACE WITH 16K 169 29

T064KBUFFERAND GRAPHICS

(APPLE DUMPLING EQUIVALENT)
MULTI-FUNCTION CARD 149 32

(PARALLEL SERIAL, BSR. CLOCK)

(PRINTER GRAPHICS ROM!!!) 29

Z80 SOFTCARO (11+ AND He) 99 29

(MICROSOFT EQUIVALENT)
IBM(PC) BARE P.C.B. -- 175

5V«" FLOPPY DRIVE ENCLOSURE 1 7

COLORADO COMPUTER PERIPHERALS
THE P.C.B. COMPANY

R.R. 6, BOX7-D GOLDEN. CO 80401

(303)278-7172

FOR USE WITH MOST MICRO COMPUTERS

APPLE ATARI COMMADORE TEXAS INSTRUMENTS TRS-00 ..

f] PAYMENT ENCLOSED $_

.' Add

SI 00 per order for ptstaqe and handling Out
side USA add $2.50 per unit ordered, send US
funds only □ Visa PJ MasterCard

P.O. BOX 7008
jm ROSEVILLE. Ml 48305

I *^FhJni l»u 1-800-732-0614

F; PENGIIN

PfMHM<l.S

Michigan Residents Add 4%

Daisy Wheel Printer

Letter Quality MP-100

• 12/14 CPS ^

• 10. ,12. ,15.,
Pitch

• 96 Characters
Printer Wheel

• Bi-directional
Printing #%#%«■

• Standard Parallel rnflC
Interface ViJSjO

• Dynax DX- 1 5 Daisy Wheel 1 3 cps ... SCALL

• Silver Reed EXP 550 Daisy Wheel $595

• Brother H R-1 Daisy Wheel 1 6 cps $695

• Daisywriter 2000 w/48K $1095

• C. Itoh F-10 40cps $1195

• Qume Sprint 1 1 Daisy Wheel 40 cps . . $1395

MICRO MART

8764 Complex Dr., San Diego, CA 92123
«83E (619)268-0169

Circle 76 on inquiry card.

Circle 300 on inquiry card.

MEMOREX

SAVE 50%

ON DATA RELIABLE DISCS

Dealer inquiries invited

d/ii Specify Soft

D 74 10 or 16 Sector Box/10

3481 1 side/dbldens $22.30

3491 2 sides/dbl dens $30.70

3504 1 side/quad 96 tpi $30.00

3501 2 sides/quad 96 tpi $39.30

8n
Specify Soft or 32 Sector

3062 1 side/sgl dens $22.10

3090 1 side/dbl dens $28.90

3102 2 sides/dbl dens $33.80

Cnecks-vTSA-MC-C.O.D./Add $2 snipping
Call or writefor our discount catalog.

LYBEN COMPUTER SYSTEMS

27204 Harper Ave., St. Clair Shores, M 1 48041
Phone:(313)777-7780

CERTIFIED 100% ERROR-FREE

Circle 272 on inquiry card.

DISK DRIVES

(For PC, Mod I, III & IV)

Tandon TM55-2 $229

Tandon TM100-1 $189

Tandon TM100-2 $229

Tandon TM1 00-4 $339

CDC 9409 $239

Case and PS $ 45

PC EXPANSIONS

MAYNARD

Disk Controller $162

Sandstar Series call

QUADRAM

Quad board (64K) S269

AST

Six Pak Plus: 64K SPC S269

Mega Plus: 64K & SC S269

I/O Pius (SC) S114

2nd S or P or Game S 35

64K CHIPS

Set of nine $ 55

EPSON

RX80, FX80, FX1 00 call

VLM Computer Electronics

10 Park Place • Mornstown. NJ 07960
(201 ) 267-3268 Visa, MC. Check or COD.

LQQK at these prices!

HAYES Smartmodm . . 300-S209; 1200-S489
HAYES 1200B $455*, Smartcom II .... 90*
AMDEK Color I-S289; Color II .... 425*

AMDEK310A 12" Amber 185*

AMDISK Disk Drive 574 DSfcHT.. .. 250*

EASTSIDE Wildcard Copy Device 105

MAXELL MD 1 (100s) $255; MD 2 379*

MICROSOFT Word & Mouse 399*

MONTE CARLO GT $345*; Quatro 320*

NEC Printer 7710-$1925; 3550 1705*

SATURN Titan Combo Card 64K 540*

*ForlBMPC

Payment: Money Order. Cashier's Check. Bank Wire;
Personal Checks— Allow 2 weeks clearance. COD's:
Cash Certified Checks only. N.Y Res.: Add 8Vd% S.T

Add S4. shipping charge on all orders.
Please include phone number

MICRO MYSTIQU6

73-20 183rd St., Flushing. N.Y. 11366
(212) 454-6190

Call or write for additional specials, for
Apple, from Videx, Microsoft, Saturn, etc.

Circle 498 on inquiry card.

Circle 302 on inquiry card.

RAM DISK

that

REMEMBERS

for IBM PC, XT and
PC Compatibles

Introducing the Solid Disc card
with memory that remembers —
even when power to your com-
puter goes off.

On-board battery backup keeps
the 128KB CMOS RAM (expand-
able up to 256KB) aliveforovera
month.

ThoughtWare Corporation

Five Research Drive

Ann Arbor, Ml 48103

(313)761-9347

MULTIBUS, NETWORK and REAL TIME
SYSTEM USERS

Turn the IBM PC into a real time system and MULTIBUS look alike
with cost effective interface adapters from TlAC.

MEMORY/TBX ADAPTER

Adapter holds three Intel SBX modules and up to 256k of EPROM
Eight memory sockets are configurable for 2764, 27128 or 27256
EPROMs and one 2k *8 EAROM

TBX 355

Dual channel asynchronous RS-232 SBX module Uses one SiiX
slot Interrupt driven software drivers available (of DOS and RMX

$249

ARCNET /MEMORY ADAPTER

Token passing Local Area Network interface fully compatible with
DATAPQInTS ARCNET at the link layer Nonvolatile memory
expansion up to 224k provided by seven 28 pin sockets

ROIHIH CHOS11H IS XII

t IIML AWL 11 AfldNS

TERMS VISA. MC. check or money order
Dealer inquiries welcome

TlAC MANUFACTURING, INC.
70 Williams Street, Port Moody, B C .
Canada V3H 2R5 (6*W) 461-1626

JLTIBUS $831 RMX/tfrt»I, IBM PC/ISM ARCNET /OWE)

SAVE MORE

THAN EVER ON

3M Scotch

DISKETTES!

$-|95 $070

^ r ■ SiE, 51/4- DSDD ~ J -2-21
| Oty 20 < 7 <*5) — ^^Qty. 20

5V«" SSOD-96TPI (746) $2.89 ea.

5V<" DSQD-96TPI (747) $3.95 ea.

(Specify soft. 10 or 16 sector.)

8" SSSD (740) $2.07 ea.

8" SSOD (741) $2.54 ea.

8" DSDD (743) $3-30 ea.

(Specify soft or 32 sector.)
Lifetime Warranty!

3M HEAD CLEANING KITS $23.00

Save even more on quantity orders!

Minimum Order: 20 diskettes. Add $3.00 shipping

per 200 diskettes. C.Q.D. charge $1.65 additional.

Visa • Mastercard • Checks

For fast service, call

DISK WORLD!

Nationwide: 1-800-621-6827

In Illinois: 312-944-2788

Suite 4806 • 30 E. Huron Slreet • Chicago. Illinois 60611

Authorized Distributor
Information Processing Products

Circle 470 on inquiry card.

Circle 472 on inquiry card.

Circle 154 on inquiry card.

HARDWARE

AST M>Q«plu»" Card

P/N MG064 (64K, S, C)

Utt

ACP

395

$279

•CombocMuB"* Card

P/N MC-064SPC (64K. S. P. C)

395

279

•PC I/O Plua II- Card

P/N I/O (C. S)

165

115

•"SIX PACK"

P/N SP064SPC {64K. S. P. C)

299

COEX Extender Card

40

29

Prototype Card

69

35

HERCULES

Hercules Graphic Card
MOUSE SYSTEMS Mouse for IE

359

3M

269

MICROSOFT

Mouse plus Multitool Word

Call

ORCHID

Hi-Res Graphics Adaptor

395

339

PERSYST Spectrum (64-256K)

P/N SP64, (64K. Clk, S, P)

319

PLANTRONICS Color plus™ Card
QUADRAM Quadboard (64-256K)

399

P/N Q64. 64 K w/4 functions

395

279

QuadLink Apple Card

680

599

Quadboard 64K

279

Microfazer Print Buffer MP-64

190

Quadchrome (Hires RGB)

488

QuadLink (IBM to Apple)

525

RIXON PC212A Modem I/O

596

449

SSM Transmodem 1200

479

USi Multidisplay Card

299

VISTA "Multicard-" (exp. 64-256K)

P/N V-064 (64K, Clk. S. P)

395

229

P/N V-256 (256K, Clk. S, P)

695

399

•"Maxlcard "" (up to 576K)

P/N V-576-64K

249

P/N V-576-576K

729

•"PC Master" (10 I/O)

495

329

•"PC Extender" (up to 1 I/O)

249

199

•"Dlakmaater"

299

199

•6" ThlnHne Dual Floppy
•V1200 6.2 Cartridge Drive

Call

999

PRINTERS

COEX 80F/F 80cps

$299

$199

DYNAX Daisywheel

525

SILVER REED

EXP500 132 Column

649

STAR MICRONICS - NEW!

Gemini 10X 120cps

399

319

Gemini 15 15"

599

469

EPSON FX80

699

549

FX100

895

749

BROTHER HR-1/BMC

1195

895

DAISYWR1TER

1495

1295

TTX Daisywheel
NEC Spin writer 3550
IBM PC to Pa rallel Cable

549

1875

39

MONITORS

AMDEKCORP

300 Green 12"

$199

$155

310 Amber 12"

210

175

Color I Composite/Hitachi

399

339

Color II RGB Hi-Res

899

695

BMC

12" Green

129

89

PRINCETON GRAPHICS

RGB IBM Lookahke

700

545

DISKETTES

DYSAN SV<" SS SD 10/S55

$38

DYSAN 5'A" DS SD 10/65

48

IBM5'/4"SSSD 10/60

43

IBM5WSSDD 10/65

47

VERBATIM 525-01 SS 10/45

23

VERBATIM 550-01 DS 10/55

34

MAXELL MD1 SS 10/50

29

MAXELL MD2 DS 10/60

39

Flip Storage Box 5W (80 disks)

BU IK SP ECIAL SS 10/25

19

19

With Sleeve and Box 100/195

149

MORE IBM GOODIES

COMPUCABLE

\ Keyboard & Drive Covers (set)
CURTIS

$19

PC Pedestal

$80

64

PGS or Quadchrome Adaptor

10

Vertical PC System Stand

20

IBM Mono Extension Cable

50

44

Keyboard Ext. Cable (3-9)

34

EPD PROTECTION DEVICES

The Lemon (Surge Protector)

43

The Peach (Surge Protector)
The Orange (with EMI/RFI)

68

122

The Lime

76

INTEL 8087 IC

199

KOALA PAD

99

KRAFT Joystick IBM

70

40

RAM EXPANSION

16K Motherboard (16 IC's)

19

64K Memory Exp. (9 IC's)

50

TIME SHARE SERVICES

COMPUSERVE Subscription
SOURCE Subscription

MODEMS

HAYES

Smartmodem 300

$210

PC Modem Software 1 3 (above)

49

' Smartmodem 1200

525

PC Software 1.4C (above)

79

| Smartmodem 1200B

445

\ Smartcom II

79

Smartmodem to IBM Cable

25

SOFTWARE

dBASE II

$ 399 00

Condor

$ 389 00

SuperCalc

$ 99 00

SuperCalc 2

$ 1 79 00

Multiplan

$ 1 89 00

Wordstar

$ 299 00

Lotus 1-2-3

Call!

T. K. Solver!

Call!

Flight Simulator

$4500

Context MBA

Call!

Computer

Inovations

C86C Compiler

$ 369 00

Copy II Plus

$ 32 00

Visiword

$ 289 00

Digital Research

Pascal MT + 86 $295.00

Concurrent CP/M 86 260.00

CBASIC86 149.00

Plus More Great

Software Values

In Our

1983 Catalog!

Send For

Your Copy NOW.

iiiiiiiitiiiiifii 1

If You're Thinking IBM PC"

READ THIS!

COEX Combocard II

* 64K to 256K RAM

* ASYNC Serial Port

* Clock/Calendar w/Nicad Backup

* Parallel Printer Port

* RAM Disk Software

* Spooler Software

64K , $ 229
256K - $ 399

00

Zero "K" Version Available Only $199.00

PLUS! . . .with Purchase of either
Memory card above

SUPERCALC ™ only $89.00 (195.00 value)

Disk Emulator FREE

Print Spooler FREE i

ACP PC "FEATURE OF THE MONTH"

1. DISKM ASTER". Disk Controller for IBM PC or XT adds both 5 '/<" and 8"

floppy drives. Complete with Software. Same card can also handle List ACP
the Amlyn 6.2 Mb Cartridge Add-on Subsystem $299 $199

2. VISTA 1200 with DISKMASTER" $999

3. M&R "SUP'R EXTENDER""'. IBM PC & XT Expansion Chassis with (6) Slots, Power
Supply and Fan. Your price!!! only $439.00. You cannot afford to live without-one.

DISK DRIVES

TANDON 100-2

PC Compatible • Double Sided

$23900

QUME142v 2 High

PC Compatible • Double Sided

$

00

TERMS: MO. Cashiers Check. Bank Wire Personal checks ,..„ __„__ „ _ „ „_„ . . „. „„

allow 2 weeks tor processing In cUdeDnvers License and credit MAIL ORDER: P.O. BOX 1 7329 IrVIRC, CA 92713

card #s Visa. AMEX.CB add 3% service charge. Add 3%, «.,.«« C j-

shipping & handling or $2.50, whichever is greater. Add 10% tor Retail: 1310 t. EQinger, Santa Ana, CA 92705

loreignordersorUS Parcel Post. Include Telephone number. NO (714) 558*8813

COOs. Prices subject to change without notice. Some items

subject to prior sale. We reseive the right to substitute manu- 542 }fl. Trimble, San JOSB, CA 95131

facturer . Retail prices may vary. We are not an authorized IBM MflD\ OAR 7A1 ft

dealer. IBM " trademark o» International Business Machines. («H») 94D- #U1 U

249

TOU. FREE

800-854-8230

no

910-595-1565

ri , 64K MEMORY + P.S.C

Circle 12 on inquiry card.

$249.00

300
BAUD

MODEMS

1200
BAUD

SIGNALMAN. . . Free hour on 'SOURCE'
300 BAUD direct connect $ 69

300 BAUD AUTO DIAL/ ANS $119

300/1200 AUTO DIAL/ANS $319

US ROBOTICS. . . 300/1200. . .MODEMS
'Hayes Compatible'
'Password' with cables, spkr $339

'Auto 212' dlxe $419

Satrix PRINTERS quauty

GEMINI lOx 120 cps graphics $289

PROWRITER 120 cps hi density $319

JUKI daisy wheel 18 cps $565

DAISYWRITER c/o 40 cps $999

cpm COMPUTERS ibm

Eagle II HARD DISKS Columbia P.C.

10 MB . . $1295 23 MB . . $1995 40 MB . . $2495
Televideo $CALL$ Eagle P.C.

IMAGE COMPUTERS

P.O. Box 1164, Cardiff, CA 92007
CALL TO ORDER: __ ^^
619 436-7669 M ws* VISA/MC

619 436-8317 l^HSi *■■■ ADD 3%

Smith-Corona TIM Daisy Wheel Printer

ti&

$439 00

UNBELIEVABLE!

» fully-formed charterers
• compatible wich most
microcomputers

■ serial or parallel interface
' choice of 10 or 12 CPt
models

Also for your TP-I letter quality printer—
the Smith-Corona Tractor Feed

■ Adjustable tractor widths

$13495

Tor continuous forms
• Quick, easy removal

Oil Collect

(214) 826-6521

FIGURE-LOGIC BUSINESS EQUIPMENT, INC.

6408 Gaston Avenue / Dallas. Texas 75214

APPLE COMPATIBLE

Disk Drive $150.00 ea.

Controller Card $35.00 ea.

Computer Case $55.00 ea.

Keyboard $70.00 ea.

Switching Power Supply . $49.50 ea.
Joystick $15.00 ea.

Prices for dealers in quantities of 25 or
more. End User Inquiries welcomes.

ELECTRADE CO.
(408) 946-2541

780 Trimble Rd. Suite 605
San Jose, CA 95131

Circle 222 on inquiry card.

Circle 188 on inquiry card.

Circle 540 on inquiry card.

$300.00

8/16 Bit Fast Static Ram

SR-64K RAM MODULE. 24 bit addressing. S100/
IEEE 696 compatible. (64K x 8} / (32K x 16). 10
MHz no wait states. Phantom option, upper
I6K bytes deselectable in 2K byte blocks, 1
year warranty.

TERMS: We accept checks or money orders.
Allow 3 weeks for personal checks
to clear. Delivery is from stock to 6
weeks. Add $5-00 per a board for
shipping. MA residents odd 57. soles
tax.

LBXICOMP DATA SYSTEMS

P.O. BOX 222
LEXINGTON. MA 02173
TEL. (617) 862-3088

******************************

APPLE HARDWARE

******************************

Wholesale

STOCK RETAIL SALE MIN.

NUMBER PRICE PRICE ORDER

AP101 16K RAM CARD S149 S39 10

AP102 80 COLUMN CARD 295 89 10

AP104 CLOCK/CALENDAR CARD 195 79 10

AP105 DISK-II DRIVE WO/CTRL CARD. 498 199 10

AP106 DISK-II CONTROLLER 150 45 10

AP107 JOY-STICK DELUX 49 19 10

AP109 LOWER CASE 45 19 10

APU0 PRINTER CARD (PARALLEL) ..... 150 45 10

APU1 RS-232 CARD (SERIAL) 195 79 10

AP112 SUP-R-MOD 39 19 10

AP114 Z-80 CARD 298 99 10

AP116 INTEGER CARD 150 49 10

AP117 EPROM WRITER CARD 279 119 10

AP118 128K RAM CARD (PSEUDO-DISK) 498 269 10 NEW

AP119 FORTH CARD 298 89 10 NEW

AP201 APPLE-II+ COMPAT. 48K KIT. . . 599 229 10

AP202 HARDCASE FOR AP201 (PLASTIC) 175 89 10

AP203 KEYBOARD FOR AP201 .139 69 10

AP204 POWER SUPPLY FOR AP201 120 68 10

AP205 APPLE 11+ COMPAT. 48KA&T. . . 599 349 10

AP206 APPLE 11+ COMPAT. 64K AfcT. . . 699 399 10 NEW

AP207 KEYBOARD FOR APPLE-H (DELUX) 169 89 10 NEW

AP208 POWER SUPPLY (DELUX) 139 79 10 NEW

AP301 TANDON TM-50-1 DISK DRIVE

(MECHAN.) 249 119 10 NEW

AP401 IBM PC COMPUTER 64K W/2

DRIVE. 3550 2195 5

******************************

PRICES WILL ICLOWCR fOK LARGCR QUANTITX OROf*
ALL PRICES SUBICCT TO CHASCC WITHOUT NOTXE

. K & R COMPUTER CO., LTD. .
V 1440PAQFIC COASTHWY., #104 7
. HARBOR CITY, CA 90710

(213) 530-2577

■ SEE OUR CATALOG FOR 8" DISKETTES

SAVE UP TO 50%

5'/« DISKETTES

SPECIFY SOFT. 10 or 16 SECTORS

•

wabash

s/io

S/50

s/too

•

SSDD(M13A411X)
DSDD(M14A411X)
DSDD-96TP1 (M16A411X)

control data

21.00

2900
4300

102.50
142.50
20900

199 00
279.00
41000

•

SSDD (CDC1242-00I
DSOO(CDC1244-00)

3M scotch

2200

3050

10600
147 00

210.00
290.00

•

SSDD (3M 744D-0)
DSDD (3M 745-0)
DSDO-96TPI (3M-747-0)

verbatim

2200
3100
45 00

109 00
15000
21200

213.00
295 00
399 00

•

SSDD<MD525-01)
DSDD(MD550-01)
DSDD-96TPI (MD557-01)

maxell

2520
3650
45 80

124 00
18000
22600

24500
355.00
44B00

•

SSDD(MAX-MD-IM)
DSDD(MAX-MD2-DM)
DSDD-96TPI (MD2-DDM)

dysan

26 50
3800
43 00

13000
IB 5.00
21000

25500
360.00
41000

SSDD (DYS 104-1D)
DSDD(DYS104-2D)
DSDO-96TPI (DYS204-2D)

35.00 172.00 34000
41 00 200.00 395.00
4850 240.00 475.00

CALL TOLL FREE 800-824-7888

(VISA. M.C.. COD. ORDERS ONLY) OPERATOR 906

T°*eatMt u VntlmUed '" Y "" 6 "

1741 SARATOGA fl\/€.. """

■ DEALER INQUIRIES INVITED

Circle 262 on inquiry card.

Circle 249 on inquiry card.

Circle 119 on inquiry card.

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)543-1037)

THE BURNER I/O

S100/IEEE696

Has a completeEPROM programmer, twoserial 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
bit output, input and statusflags • 4 direct 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, S354.95 • Programmer only,
S219.95 • I/O only. (2S+ P) S219.95 • Prog, and I/O.
S329.95 • MemorymanagementonlySl09.95.
Memory management may be added to programmer
or I/O for S25.00. All combinations are assembled and
tested. Delivery Stock Shipping: UPS surface S3.00,
UPSairS5.00.

EXTENDED PROCESSING

3861 Woodcreek Lane, San Jose, Ca. 951 17
(408) 249-8248

DO YOU WANT

HIGH-QUALITY

OR LOW COST

DISKETTES?

at MY Supplier, Inc. we offer you

both, with 3M Scotch Brand

Diskettes PLUS: Shipping within

24 hours and we pay the shipping.

MASTERCARD VISA C.O.D

We also carry: Ribbons, Labels, Binders,

Diskette Storage Equipment and more at

savings to you.

titt CALL TOLL FREE 800-4484016

** IN CA 800-556-6786

MY Supplier, Inc.

COMPUTER AND WORD PROCESSING SUPPLIES

348 No. Moorpark Road
Thousand Oaks, CA 91360

Circle 347 on inquiry card.

Circle 183 on inquiry card.

Circle 323 on inquiry card.

4Mb. FORMULA INTERNATIONAL INC. </-,

fci^ ^i 12603 Crenshaw Blvd., Dept. B, Hawthorne, CA 90250 ^^v^/

For information (213) 973-1921 • Orders Only (outside Calif.) (800) 672-8758

«%s •• a « am* ■' Pioneer of Low Cost
pinecom Apple* Compatible Computer

Compare These Features with Our Competitors:

• Powerful Utility Program

• 68-Key Upper & Lower Case Keyboard with Numeric Keypad

• 25 Pre-programmed Function Keys

• 2 Speed Auto Repeat Funtion

• 64K User Memory — expandable to 192K

• 5 A Switching Power Supply (1 10/220VAC)

• All ICs Are Socketed for Easy Service

• Nation-wide Dealer Network for Convenient Technical Support

And best of all, the price Assembled and Tested is just.

Now

with New

Improved

Keyboard!

545

00

SAVE MORE! BUY THE WHOLE SYSTEM

| STARTER SYSTEM

Pinecom Computer A&T
I 5Va" Disk Drive w/Controller
12" Green Monitor

795

00

INTERMEDIATE SYSTEM

Pinecom Computer A&T
I 2 ea 5 1 /V Disk Dr w/Contr. $
12" Amber/Green Monitor

960

00

BUSINESS SYSTEM

Pinecom Computer A&T

2 ea Slim-line Disk Drives
with Controller

80-Column Printer
with Interface

12" Amber/Green $

Monitor

1269

ADVANCED SYSTEM

Pinecom Computer A&T
2 ea Slim-line DD w/Contr,
16KRAM, Z80 CP/M and

80-Column Cards
80-Column Printer with

Interface & 16K Buffer
1 2" Amber or Green $

Hi-Res Monitor

1400

AP-II COMPUTER A&T

Apple Look Alike

48K User Memory

Supports Upper & Lower Case

100% Apple II* Compatible

$.

475

00

AP-II Computer Case Made with High Impact Plastic. Color and Shape Apple*
Compatible. Keyboard not included. $79.95 ea.

MICRO II COMPUTER A&T

100% Apple II + * Compatible

48K User Memory

Upper & Lower case Keyboard

With Numeric Keypad .

! 499

00

Micro-ll Case Upgrade your Apple* with this new Case! Comes w/Keyboard that
supports Upper & Lower Case plus numeric keypad. $179.95 ea.

AP-II MOTHERBOARD

Apple II +* Compatible
48K Memory Space
8 Expansion Slots

Bare Board $69.95 ea.

Assembled & Tested . . . .$295.00 ea.

Apple II Plus*
Compatible Keyboard

HEAVY DUTY SWITCHING
POWER SUPPLY

Output Voltages
+ 5V at 5.0Amp + 1 2V at 2.5Amp
- 5V at 0.5 Amp - 1 2V at 0.5Amp

95

Direct Replacement of Apple Keyboard

LSI Encoded Technology

Supports Upper & Lower Case

LB-3600N $79.95

Keyboard Case

Make your Apple* more flexible with a de-
tachable keyboard by using this Case and
our LB-3600 Keyboard . . . $35.00 ea

Only ,

»99

ea.

PRINTER by BMC

Parallel Interface (Centronics

Compatible) Standard
Microprocessor Electronics
80cps Bidirectional with Logic Seeking
96 Character ASCII
Adjustable Sprocket and Friction Feed

$25500

A Complete Line of Peripherals for
Pinecom, Micro-ll, AP-II & Apple II*

Autoterm 80-Col. w/Softswitch $99.95

80-Column Card 99.95

80-Column for Apple He* 49.95

Z80 CP/M Card (no software) 99.95

16K RAM Card 49.95

SEND ONE DOLLAR
FOR OUR DETAIL CATALOG - .

Inside California

Outside Calif. (incl. Mexico & Canada)

Overseas

Model BX-80 .

Shipping & Handling Charges

Under $50.00 Over $50,00

Purchase Purchase

10% 5%

15% 10%

25% 20%

Parallel Printer Interface

Buffer for Printer Interface (16-64K)

Serial Printer Interface Card w/Adj. Baud ,

Disk Controller

Disk Controller DOS 3.2/3.3 Auto Select. ,
EPROM Writer Card (2716/2732/2764) . . ,

85.00
85.00
85.00
65.00
75.00
75.00

Monitors!
Monitors!
Monitors!

BMC 12" Green (40/80 Col.). $ 85.00
BMC 12" Green Hi-Res 110.00

Zenith 12" Green Hi-Res...
BMC 12" Amber (40/80 Col.]
BMC 12" Amber Hi-Res ...

Zenith 12" Amber

BMC 13" Color

110.00
. 95.00
130.00 I
125.00
235.00

Minimum Order $10.00/Calif. Residents
add 6.5% Sales Tax. Phone Orders Accepted
on VISA or MC ONLY. NO C.O.D.'s. Prices sub-
ject to change without notice.

STORE HOURS

MON-FBI-10-7

SAT— 10-6

'Apple and Apple II are the trademark of APPLE COMPUTERS, INC.

Circle #191 for dealers. Circle #192 for all others.

\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. InCal. call
(800) 592-5935 or
(805) 543-1037.

FREE

SUBSCRIPTION

To our mail order computer
catalog, and bargain bulletin.

PLEASE CHECK READER
SERVICE NUMBER
SHOWN BELOW.

World's lowest mail order
prices.

H.L. Whitaker Co. Inc.
7603 Firestone Blvd.
Downey, CA 90241
213-566-3556

PROTECT YOUR SYSTEM

from POWER DAMAGE

l|l *

• Metal Oxide Varistor short circuits
transient high voltage "spikes" before
damage occurs

• Continuous ±5 nanosecond response
protection

• Handles common and differential mode
surges

• Prevents software "glitches" and
memory loss

• Reduces solid state equipment damage

• EMI and RFI noise suppression filters

• For 1 10 volt, 15 amp, 60 hz circuits

• Limited 5-year replacement warranty

Send check or money order for Solid State
Protectors @ 9.50 each plus .50 each for
postage and handling. (Ml residents add 4%
sales tax.):

Gates Marketing Co.
P.O. Box 2661

Ann Arbor, Ml 48106

PROTECTS STEREOS, TVS — ALL
SOLID STATE APPLIANCES!!

Circle 347 on inquiry card.

Circle 90 on inquiry card.

Circle 131 on inquiry card.

Best Prices On
TRS-80 Computers

Our 6th year of discounts

Ed or Joe McManus

Fgt. Prepaid. Save Tax.

Toll Free 800-23 1 -3680

Marymac Industries, Inc.

225 1 1 Katy Fwy., Katy

(Houston) Tx 77450

I -7 1 3-392-0747

Telex 774 1 32

See us in the Wall Street
journal every Tues., Wed., Thury

EPROM
PROGRAMMER

(5 voltoniyi
6, 32, 32A

'■ 2754

♦ Allows read, copy, verify

• Personality by jumpering

** r MiBl (805) 496-0981

U Jt ******* -»-#W W^WB

2509 THOitfAN* OAK-, RVO • MJttF > i ft

COMPUPRO SYSTEMS

CENTER

Sales and Service

We sell lo sophisticated users only, and support at that level. If
you are knowledgeable, we want your business. Our own
factory-authorized, or Xerox* third-party warranty and post-
warranty service.

C^^ Wide choice of lease/purchase plans
ompuPro

MORROW OE5IGN5

DECISION 1

PRINTERS. TERMINALS. SOFTWARE-WITH SYSTEMS
Wecater to professionals, gov't agencies, and corp. customers.

CostPlus

COMPUTERS

TERMS: Cash will oder

(Or2H!0/Net30AAA1 or
Fed /Slate P.O 2%lmo
carrying chg

Div of CPC Computers. inc

CALLUSlOAMto9PM

2P? ?^*?976 p.o. Box 6 1 1 4 • Birmingham, AL3525*€1 1 4

Call JaCK LOng Our bar* is 1st National ol Birmingham. (20 5) 32 6- 5 120

Circle 283 on inquiry card.

Circle 118 on inquiry card.

maxell

DISKETTES

The Diskettes With
The Lifetime Guarantee

516-543-6100
212-843-5775

(COLLECT CALLS ACCEPTED)

FREE

For every five
boxes of Disket-
tes ordered,
receive one FREEl
Diskette Head
Cleaning Kit. A
$30.00 Value

DAILY

(business products IKC.
1 1 10 Parkway Dr. 5.
1 Hauppauge, N.Y.
1 1 1 787

VISA. MasterCard

C.O.D. Accepted

OEM b Dealer

Inquiries Invited

$$ Printers $$

$$ WEWILLNOTBEUNDERSOL

Special Sale
Communications Pak

Hayes Smartmodem 300/1200

Hayes M icromodem II

Apple Cat II

.D$$

$499
279
282
129
89
139

289
435
575
75
239
269

J Cat

Anchor Mark I RS232

DISK DRIVES

Rana Elite I

Rana Elite II

Rana Elite III

Rana Controller w/drive

Apple Ace Mate (1 yr. warn)

Slim Teac 5%" (1 yr. warr.)

A COMPUTER SHOP

Dept. 345

3941-B South Bristol St.

Santa Ana, CA 92704

714-261-1383

ORDERS ONLY: (800) 824-2227

Attn: IBM P.C. USERS!

PeachText

5000

PeachText 5000 has arrived. A complete
personal productivity system for word
processing, financial modeling and simple
data-management. All at one price.

PeachText 5000 is available for a select
list of microcomputers: The IBM Personal
Computer™, the COMPAQ Portable Com-
puter™, the Texas Instruments Profes-
sional Computer™, and the Zenith Z-100™
Free 90 support from Peachtree S/W.

$299.95

only

AUTHORIZED
DISTRIBUTOR

Plus 10 FREE Diskettes

• Terms - Visa, M.C. or COD.

• Dealer Inquiries Invited

COMPU-MEDIA

SOFTWARE, INC.

159 Main St. S.I. N.Y. 10307

CALL TOLL FREE
1- BOO 248 2418

• m in N.Y. State 212-967 1700

Circle 123 on inquiry card.

Circle 103 on inquiry card.

Circle 511 on inquiry card.

TOLL-FREE

ORDERING:

800-222-8686

FOR TECHNICAL SUPPORT/

SERVICE / IN ARIZONA:

602-282-6299

PPT CUSTOM COMPUTER
lib I TECHNOLOGY

1 CRAFTSMAN COURT - BOX 4160 - SEDONA, ARIZONA 86340

Purchase your Hardware and Software directly from an OEM/Systems Integrator. Takeadvantageof our buying power! We
stock a full line of Board Level Components, Software, and Peripherals. Call for your needs. We'll give you the Lowest
Prices, and the Technical Support and Know-How we are quickly becoming well-known for. Satisfied Customers Nation-
wide! The Nations's Custom Systems House for Business, Education and Science. Call for a system quote.

• FOREMOST QUALITY • ADVANCED SUPPORT • REASONABLE COST •

OF PRIME INTEREST

Our prime interest at CCT is service and
support. We build and sell hundreds of
systems per year to the serious computer
market. We rigidly adhere to our strict
policy of reliable machines, and reliable
people behind them. We feel the Com-
puPro product line to be the state-of-the-
art of the computer industry.

THE CCT EXCLUSIVE WARRANTY

With any system we build, we provide,
in writing, an unconditional 12 month
direct warranty on the entire system, in-
cluding mainframe, boards, drives, power
supplies, cabling and peripherals! We of-
fer guaranteed 24 hour in-house repair
and/or replacement with just a toll-free
phone call. We can offer this, since we are
so sure of our level of quality and reliabili-
ty. It's great to know that in the event of a
problem, you're not out of business
waiting on service turnaround. We deliver!

Our various OEM contracts with all the
manufacturers of the components we in-
tegrate, allow us this unprecedented flex-
ibility. No factory O.K.'s necessary — just
getit running — NOWI

Wyse 100 terminal- 14" Green . . . $699

WS Prom Option - Installed $50

Mitsubishi 8" DSDD drives, full or half
height. Set-up FREE OF CHARGE .. $449

Okidata 82 $389/83 $619

84 .. $1029/92 .. $469/93 .. $779
AshtonTate dBASE IIS " or MD ... $299
Supercalc86-forCP/M86&MP/M .$99

Visual Terminals in stock Call

LearSieglerADM20 $499

Freedom 50 $499/100-$549

Hays Modem-$259 • Diablo 620-$1 029
We carry a full line of software in all
available formats at discount prices.

TECH TIP CORNER

dBASE II USERS - CUSTOM TERMINAL
KEYS! Implement your arrow keys;
emulate Wordstar edit commands - send
an SASEwith $2.00 - (ATTN : TTC). Tell us
your arrow key codes. We'll return easy,
detailed instructions to change almost
anything. It's beautiful — Pat. . .

PROFESSIONAL LEVEL BUSINESS SYSTEMS
STATE-OF-THE-ART QUALITY, PERFORMANCE, RELIABILITY

CCT ANNOUNCES:

OUR OWN IN-HOUSE ENGINEERED

CUSTOM COMPUPRO SYSTEMS

*

NIHUUUUIUHTrniUt

$3,399

CCT-1 - ENTRY LEVEL S* 10*0 BUSINESS SYSTEM

• Enclosure 2-Desk-20 Slot Mainframe • • CCT 2.4 Dual 8" Mitsubishi

• CPU 8085/88 - 6Mhz 8085/8Mhz 8088 • DSDD Drive System - 2.4 Megabytes • INTRODUCTORY PRICE:

• Disk 1 - DMA Floppy Disk Controller • • CP/M 80 - 2.2 LD/M - CCT Modified

• RAM 16 - 64K Static RAM - 12 Mhz • • All Cabling, Complete CCT Assembly,

• Interfacer 4 - 3 Serial/2 Parallel I/O • Testing, and Minimum 20 Hour Burn-in

RUNS ALL STANDARD 8" CP/M SOFTWARE - INCLUDES OUR EXCLUSIVE 12 MONTH DIRECT WARRANTY
CP/M MP/M NOTE: Each copy we furnish is CCT modified for the target system. M -Drive /H and hard disk drivers are furnished,
and the BIOS optimized for the fastest disk step rate, as well as terminal and printer compatibility.

• * CCT-2- THE FASTEST*MICROCOMPUTER IN THE WORLD!! * *

Enclosure 2-Desk • 90K Baud Parallel Terminal Board • 78 Key Professional Ergonomic Keyboard
CPU8086-10Mhz • Disk 1 • 512KM-Drive/H • High Resolution Amber Monitor. INTRODUCTORY PRICE:
128K- 16 Bit Memory • CP/M 86 -CCT Modified • CCT 2.4 Dual DSDD Drive System
lnterfacer3-8 • SS1 • All Cabling, Complete CCT Assembly, Testing, & Minimum 20 Hour Burn-in

RUNS ALLCP/M 86 SOFTWARE - ULTRA FAST - INCLUDES 12 MONTH DIRECT WARRANT
* * CCT-3- WMhzM System similar to above, with 128K RAM $6,699 * *

IIHUUUUrUHYKHIUfc

$6,799

We are the largest in the custom configuration of complete state-of-the-art S-100 systems, at package pricing, with integration,
burn-in and programming. We custom build CompuPro systems / hard disk systems for business applications. Call for Com-
puPro literature, CCT system configuration data and technical information. We can save you money!

• SUPER PRICES * COMPUPRO COMPONENTS * IN STOCK *

SYSTEM SPECIALS - ALL CCT A&T, BURNED IN: 81 6A-$4299 81 6B-$4999 81 6C-$6499

M-DriveCP/M-Blowout-$39 • Disk1w/CP/M-$449 • M-Drive/H-512K-$1149

CPU 8085/88-S319 • CPU8086/87-$579/10Mhz-$659 • CPU68K-$519/10Mhz-$639 • CPU-Z-$249

CPU 286-$1249/10Mhz-$1359 • Disk 1 -$369 • Disk 2-$599 • Disk 3-$599

RAM17(12Mhz)-$329 • RAM 16(12Mhz)-$359 • RAM 21 (128K)-$779 • RAM 22 (256K)-$1399

Interfacer 1 - $229 • Interfacer 2-$249 • Interfacer 3-5-$399/3-8-$459 • Interfacer 4-$349

System Support 1 -$299 • Enclosure 2-Desk-$599/ Rack-$649 • 20 Slot M otherboard-$210

CP/M80-$99 • CP/M86-$150 • MP/M8-16-$699 • CP/M68K-$279 • UNIX-SOON

86 Upgrade Kit: Consists of CP/ M 86, 64K Ram, System Support 1 , Cable - $749
Call for CSC Boards — New Releases — Operating System Mods/Updates

* PRICE BREAKTHROUGH *
Hard Disk Subsystems

CCT/Fujitsu 5V4" subsystem, includes Disk 3, custom
enclosure & power supply, all cabling, A&T, formated,
burned-in. Ready for any CompuPro or similar S-100
system: CCT-5(5.5Meg)-$1599

CCT-10 (11 Meg)-$1899 / CCT-20 (22 Meg)-$2299

? ? HARD DISK DECISIONS ? ?

Hard/Floppy Combinations

An exclusive CCT innovation. CCT/ Fujitsu/ Mitsubishi
ultra-system: 5V4 M hard disk next to a 1.2 Meg. DSDD
8" floppy. Includes Disk 3, custom horizontal enclosure
and power supply, all cabling, A&T, formatted, burned-
in. Will stand alone in any CompuPro system:
CCT-5/1-$2099 CCT-10/1-$2399 CCT-20/1-$2799

NEW DISK 3/5V4"HD SYSTEMS *

2.4 Megabyte Floppy Systems

CCT/ Mitsubishi 2.4 Megabyte Dual DSDD 8" system.
Includes custom horizontal enclosure, all cabling, A&T,
burned-in. This is the fastest system available: $1149
With stacked half-height drives: $1175

All Systems Carry Our Exclusive 12 Month Warranty.

Prices & availability subject to change. All products new, and carry full manufacturer's warranties. Call for catalog. Free technical help to anyone. We can configure boards & soft-
ware for your system. Plug-in and go. Arizona Residents add sales tax. CompuPro® Trademark — W.J. Godbout; CP/M® MP/M® Trademarks — Digital Research

Circle 122 on inquiry card.

BYTE November 1983

691

! ' £&

THANKSGIVING

SPECIALS OF THE MONTH

Okidata ML 92A

• 160 CPS

Very Close To Letter Quality

• Parallel
(Centronics interface)

$439.00

Franklin OMS
1200 System

Ace 1200 w/2 Drives
Wordstar & Ace Calc.
Parallel & Serial Ports

$1795

Franklin Ace 1000
Starter System

• Ace 1000 cpu

• 1 Disk Drive w/controller

• Green Screen Monitor

$1199

Printer Paper

500 Sheets

18 # Bond

$9.95

Princton Graphic
Monitor

PCS

IBM Copy

HX-12

Color Graphic Monitor

Tandon

TM 808-2

• 8" Disk Drive
• Slimline
DblSide/Dbl Density

1 for $350
2 for $325 ea.

New 90 Day warranty

Micro Sci

A-2 Disk Drive
Fully Apple Compatible

$209

Color Card for IBM

• 64K of Display Memory
- Monochrome Display &

Color Display

• Parallel Printer Port

Interface

• Light pen, Joystick or

Mouse

$395

Hayes 1200

• 1200 Baud
• RS232 interface

$499

Gemini 15

• 15" Carriage

• 100 cps

« Friction & Tractor Feed

IBM PC

•64K
1 Disk Drive
Color interface Board

$2395

Call for other Configurations

color composite
Monitor

BMC 9191

Amdek Color Compatible
Composite Video

$219

Software Publishing

PFS

$109

Printer cables

IBM & Kaypro

$29 ea.

viewMax 80 E

80 col Card for Apple II E
• N/64K of memory

• Expandable to 128K
• Fully Compatible

$479

$339

$129

we accept all P.O.'s from universities

CALL 800-847-1 71 8

we Offer More Than ' Low Prices!!!

SPECIALS CALL 800-847-1718

PERSONAL / PORTABLE SYSTEMS

Franklin

Ace 1 000 w/ Color Call

Acel200w/Drive Call

Apple

HE S 990

II E Starter System 1495

IBM

IBMPC64K Keyboard, 1 Drive $1995

IBMPCXT 4595

Call for all Configurations

Kaypro

Kayproll $1450

Kaypro 4 1850

KayprolO 2595

Columbia

1600-1 2 320KDrives $2395

Eagle

Eaglell $1895

APPLE, FRANKLIN

Accessories

Advanced Logic Systems

Cpm3.0Card S 299

ZCardCPMCard 139

Astar

RF Modulator , S 18

Gibson

L'gntpenforApplell&llE S 249

Kensington

SystemSaver/ Fan & Surge S 69

Micro Max

Viewmax80Ew/64KofRamExp.tol28K ..$ 129

Micro Soft Products

Softcardw/cpm S 239

16KCard 65

Premium Pack 469

Micro Tek

Raml6l6Kcard $ 49

Call for otner Microtek pricing

Kraft

Joystick S 42

Joystick(lBM) 45

videx

Videoterm S 209

ccs

Serial interface S 119

TC Products

Joystick S 39

Paddles 28

SelectaPort 38

LOW PRICED
Hi Quality DISKETTES

5%" Disks

SglSide/DblDensity $l7abox

DblSide/Dbl Density 27a box

8" Disks

SglSide/Dbl Density S28a box

DblSide/Dbl Density 34 a box

All Disks come w/Reinforced Hub,
5 yr warranty and not bulk packed.

Micro western

Smoked Plexiglass Diskette Tub Holds 80 ...$ 19
8"Version 26

IBM PC ACCESSORIES

5Va"&8" DISK DRIVES

MODEMS

Hayes Micro Computer

300BaudSmartModem $ 209

1200 Baud Smart Modem 499

Micro Modem ll 259

Micro Modem ll w/Terminal Package 279

Novation

J-Cat300Baud $ 119

AppleCatll 269

Ast Research

IO+ Serial port& Clock Calender S 119

Combo + 64K Serial, Parralel&c/c 269

Mega + 64K Serial c/c 269

SixPack+ 299

Maynard

FDC Disk Controller , $ 155

FDC/PPDiskControllerw/ par. port 205

FDC /SP Disk Controllerw/ser. port 225

Quadram

Quad Link S 495

Color Graphics Card 245

Tandon

TM 100-2 (320K Drive) S 225

Vi Disk Drive

Slimline Disk Drive S 205

Expansion Ram

4164.200NS 6ea.9forS 50

USI

Multi DisplayCard S 340

Siemans

FDD100-8D8"Sgl/DblDen S 169

Mitsubishi

2894-63Dbi/DblDen S 389

Shugart

SA801RSgl/DblDen S 355

SA851RDbl/DbiDen 469

Tandon

TM 100-1 160K S 160

TM100-2320K 225

TM 101-4 quad Density 339

TM 848-1 Sgl/Dbl Den 359

TM 848-2 Dbl/Dbl Den 435

Super 5

Sup-5 S 209

Controller 69

Rana Systems

Elite I S 249

Elitell 399

Elite III 499

•Add $89 for Controller

Micro Sci

A-2 $ 209

•Add $70 for Controller

Quentin Research

AppleMate S 219

Controller 60

5%" cabinets

SglCabinetw/pwr. supply S 55

Dual Cabinets w/pwrsupply 85

8" cabinets

Sgi Cabinets w/fan&pwr. supply 209

DualCabinetsw/fan&pwr.supply 259

DISK DRIVES
FOR APPLE & FRANKLIN

DISK DRIVE CABINETS

PRINTER ACCESSORIES

PRINTERS

C. ITOH

Gorilla-Banana, 50 cps $ 194

Prowriter85l0,l20cps 349

Prowriterlll550(l5 M ) 649

Prowriter l Serial 499

Prowriter ll Serial 695

Star\writerF-iO,40pu *1129

8600BP, 180 cps 999

PrlntmasterF-10-55 1405

Epson

RX-80(120cps) Call

MX-80FT(80cps) Call

FX-80(160cps) Call

FX-100 (15" Carriage) Call

NEC

PC8023A(100CPS) $ 399

PC8025 (15" Carriage) 699

Okidata

Microllne92P(160cps) $ 439

Microline92Sd60cps) 599

Microline93P(l60cps,l5") 779

Microline93S(160cps,15") 899

Microline82A (Par. & Serial) 379

Microline83A (15" Carriage) 599

Microline84P(200cps) 949

Microline84S(200cps) 999

Star Micronics

Gemini lOXd20cps) $ 294

Gemini 15 (100 cps) 339

Gemini 15X 489

Delta 10 449

Orange Micro

Grappler + $119

Grappler + 16KBufferExp.to64K 179

Buffer Board, works w/Grappler + 119

Fourth Dimension

ParallelCard & Cable Interface for Apple . . . S 49

Microtek

Dumpling GX Graphic Printer interface ...S 89
DumplingGXl6lnterfacew/l6KofBuf ... 149
Additional Buffering 16K 15

Cables

IBMtoPrinter S 29

Kayproto Printer 29

Osborne to Printer 29

USI

P1 1 (9" Amber HiRes) $ 130

PI 2 (9" Green HiRes) 120

PI 3 d2"AmberHiRes) 139

PI 4 (12 "Green HiRes) 130

BMC

12AU d2"Green) S 79

9191 ColorComposite 249

EUN (20MHZ) 134

zenith

ZVM123 (12" Green) (New) S 105

Amdek

300A S 149

310A 169

Colon composite 289

COlorllRGB 429

Princton Graphics

PGSHX12W/IBM Cable $ 475

Taxan

12 "Amber S 139

Circle 80 on inquiry card.

no Surcharge for credit cards

VIDEO DISPLAY MONITORS

800-847-1718

OUTSIDE CALIFORNIA

NEW RETAIL STORE:

11976 Aviation Blvd.
inglewood, CA 90304

MAIL ORDER:

P.O. Box 1936
Hawthorne, CA 90250

This Ad Supersedes All Others
(213)643-5188

All mercnandise new. we accept MC. Visa. Wire
Transfer. COD Call. Certified Check. P.O. s from
qualified firms, APO accepted. Shipping:
Minimum $4.50 first 5 pounds. Tax: California Res.
omv add 6' A., sales tax.

Prices Subject to Change

Mon.— Fri. 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
sat. & sun. 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

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
SN7442!,'
SN7443N
SM7444M
SN7445N
SN7446N
SN7447N
SN7448N
SN7450N
SN7451N
SN7453N
SN7454N
SN7459N
SN7460N
SN7470M

74LS00
74LS01
74LS02
74LS03
74LS04
74LS05
74LS0B
74LSG9
74LS10
74LS11
74LS12
74LS13
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
741S90

74S00
74S02
74S03
74S04
74S05
74S08
74S09
74S10
74S11
74S15
74S20
74S22
74S30
74S32
74S38
74S40
74S51
74S64
74S65
74S74
74S85
74S86
74S112
74S113

CA3010H
CA3039H
CA3046N
CA3059N
CA3060N
CA3065E
CA3080E

C04000
C04001
CD4002
C04006
C04007
CD4009
CD4010
C04011
C04012
CD4013
C04014
CD4015
C04016
C040I7
C04018
C04019
CC1020
C04021
CD4022
CD4023
C04024
CD4025
C04026
CD4027
CD4028
CD4029
C04030
CD4034
C04035
w (More In

SN7472N
SN7473N
SN7474N
SN7475N
SN7476N
SN7479N
SN7480N
SN7482N
5N7483N
SN7485M
SN7486M
SN7489N
SN7490N
SN7491M
SN7492N
SN7493N
SN7494N
SN7495N
SN7496N
SN7497N
SN74100N
SN74104N
SN74105N
SN74107N
SN74109N
SN74116N
SM74121N
SN74122N
SN74123N
SN74125N
SN74126N
SN74132N
SN74136N
5N74141N
SN74142M
SN74143M
SN74144N
SN74145N
SN74I47N
SN74148N
SN74150N
SN74151N
SN74152N
SN74153N
SN74154N
SN74155N

16 3.25
24 1.95
14 1,19

16 3.95
24 3.95
24 395

SN74156N
SN74157N
SN74160N
SN74161N
SN74162N
SN74163N
SN74164N
SN74165N
SN74166N
SN74167N
SN74170N
SN74172N
SN74173N
SN74174N
SN74175N
SN74176N
SN74177N
SN74179N
SN74180N
SN741B1N
SN74182N
SN74184N
SM74185N
SN74190N
SN74191N
SM74192N
SN74193N
SN74194N
SN74195N
SN74196N
SN74197M
SN74198N
SN74J99M
SN74221N
SN74251N
SN74276N
SN74279N
SN74283N
SN74284N
SN74285N
SN74365N
SN74366N
SN74367N
SN74368N
SN74390N
SN74393N

74LS92
74LS93
74LS95
74LS96
74LS107
74LS109
74LS112
74LS113
74LS114
74LS122
74LS123
74LS125
74LS126
74LS132
74LS133
74LS136
74LS138
74LS139
74LS151
74LS153
74LS154
74LS155
74LS156
74LS157
74LS158
74LS160
74LS161
74LS162
74LS163
74LS164
74LS165
74LS168
74LS169
74LS170
74LS173
74LS174
74LS175
74LS181
74LS190

74LS192 16

74LS193 16

74LS194 16

74LSI95 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

74LS365 16

74LS366 16

74LS367 16

74LS368 16

74LS373 20

74LS374 20

74LS375 16

741S386 14

74LS393 14

74LS399 16

74LS670 16

81LS95 20

81LS97 20

■/Ki.'na

74S114
74S133
74S134
74S135
74S136
74S138
74S139
74S140
74S151
74S153
74S157
74S158
74S160
74S174
74S175
74S1B8*
74S194
745195
74S196
74S240
74S241

74S242

74S243
74S244
74S251
74S253
74S257
74S258
74S260
74S280
74S287*
74S2B8*
74S373
74S374
74S387*
74S471*
74S472-
74S473*
74S474*
74S475"
74SS70'
74S571*
74S572*
74S573"
74S940
74S941

4.95
2.95

2 99
i %
■'. 85

CA3081N
CA3082N
CA3083N
CA308GN 14
CA30B9N 16
CA3096N 16

CA3130E
CA3140E
CA3160K
CA3162E
CA3189E
CA34D1N
CA3600N

CD4040 16

C04041 14

CD4042 16

CD4043 16

C04044 16

C04046 16

C04047 14

C04048 16

CD4049 16

CD4050 16

CD4051 16

C04052 16

C04053 16

CO4056 16

C04059 24

CD4060 16

CD4066 14

C04068 14

C04069 14

CD4070 14

C04071 14

CD4072 14

CD4073 14

CD4075 14

CO4076 16

CD4078 14

CO4081 14

C04082 14

C04093 14

CD4098 16

C04506 16

CD4507 14

C04508 24

CD4510 16

C04511 16

CD4512 16

C04514 24

C04515 24

C04516 16

CD4518 16

C04519 16

CD4520 16

C04526 16

C04528 16

C04529 16

C04543 16

CD4562 14

C04566 16

CD4583 16

C04584 14

CD4723 16

C04724 16

MC14409 16

MC14410 16

MC14411 24

MC14412 16

MC14419 16

MC14433 24

MC14538 16

MC14541 14

Part No.

CDP1802
MCSG502
MCS65Q2B
MC6802CP

\\i n ', <

INS8039N

INS8040N-6

INS807QN

INS8073N

P8085A

Z80-CTC

Z80-DAPJ

Z80-DMA

Z80P10

Z80-S10/0

ZBO-S10/1

ZBO-S10/2

/b< : ; i!i.-'f

Z80A

Z80A-CTC

ZBOADART

ZBOADMA

Z8OAPI0

ZBDAS10/0

ZBQA-SlO/1

zaoA-sio/2

Z80A-S10/S

Z80B

Z80BCTC

Z80BP1O

Z8001

28030
Z8036

MC6800

HC6B02CP

MC6809E

MCGH21

MC6828

■ ■ ■:.

MC6B50

MC6B52

MC6860

MC6862

MC688QA

MC68000L8

MC 684881'

MC68652P2

MC MBS 764
SY6S2?

;■.:..,. : •■
TMS'.'iDl
IMS8154

DP8212
0PS214
DP821R
DP8224

life:: ,>,
DP8228
DP823B
IHS8243
INS8245
IHS8246
INS824 7
IHS8248

DP8251
DPB253
0P8255
DPS2S7
0PB259
:/■:,',':,

DP8279

LWAO
DP8304
DP8307

;.•■•■:.■';.
0P8310
DP8311

INS1771-1

FD1791

FD1793

F01795

F01797

DS002SCN

DS0026CN
I MS 2651
MM5S167AfJ
MM58174AN
COP402N

COP402MN

C0P470N
IDM290UAJC

MICROPROCESSOR CHIPS

"Pins Function Prico

40 CPU 12.95

40 MPUw/Clock 5.95

40 MPU w/Clock at 3MH* 9.95

40 MPUw/Clock and RAM 7.95

40 MPU-8-bil(6MHi) 5 95

40 CPU-Sgl chip 8-bit (1 28 Ms. Ram) . ... 5.95

40 CPU(256bylesRAM) 9.95

40 CPU (64 bytes RAM) 29,95

40 CPU w/Basic Micro Interpreter ,..29.95

40 CPU 4.95

40 CPU 16-bit 5MHz 24.95

40 CPUB/16-bit 29.95

40 HMOS RAM I/O Port-Timer 6 95

40 HMOS EPROM MPU 24.95

I, Z80A, Z8DB, Z80DO SERIES

40 CPU{MK38BQN)(780C)2MH* . S3. 95

28 Counier Timer Circuit ... 3,95

40 Dual Asynchronous Rec /Trans . .10 95

40 Direct Memory Access Circuii , . 9.95

40 Parallel I/O interlace Controller . . 3.95

40 Serial I/O (TxCB and RxCB Bonded) 12.95

40 Senall/0 (Lacks DTRB) 12 95

40 Serial I/O; reksSYNt;;'. ;? -

40 Serial I/O 12.95

40 CPU(MK3880fJ-4)(7BQC-1)4MHz ...4.49

2B Counter Timer Circuit 4 35

40 Dual Asynchronous flee /Trans ...9.95

40 Direct Memory Access Circuit . 12.95

40 Parallel i/O Interlace Controller 3 95

40 Serial I/O [TxCB and RuCB bonded) 12 95

40 Serial I/O (Lacks DTRB) 12.95

40 Serial I/O (Lacks SYNC8) 12 95

40 Serial I/O 12.95

40 CPU(MK3880N-6)6MHi 9 95

28 Counter Timer Circuit 12 95

40 Parallel I/O Interlace Controller 12 95

48 CPU Segmented 44 95

40 CPU Uon-Segmenled . . 34.95

40 SerialCamm, Controller 44.95

40 Counler/Timer& Parallel I/O Unit .29.95

-6800/68000 SERIES

40 MPU 2.95

40 MPU with clock and RAM 795

40 CPU (IMH/j txturna i! .eking) ,..14.95
40 Peripheral Inter. Adapt (MC6820) . , .2.95
24 Priority Irituirupt Conirollfir , , ,,.15,95
24 1024x8-l)it ROM (MC6BA30-8) . 9.95
24 Asynchronous Comm. Adapter 3 95
24 Synchronous Serial Data Adapter .5.75
24 0-600bps Digital MODEM .7 95
24 2400bps Modulator , .12.95
16 Quad 3-siaie bus. trans (MCBT26I .2 25
64 MPU 16-Blt (BMHl) . .49 95
40 General Purpose Int Adapter 9 95
40 Multi Prolocol Comm Controller 24 95
28 Enhanced Prog. Comm Int 9 95
24 64K EPROM (450ns) 24 95
40 Peripheral Inter Adapter 7 95
8080A SERIES

40 CPU, 2.95

40 Synchronous Data Inleilaco(SlRC) 14.95

40 128 Byle RAM 16-Bit I/O 13.95

20 OclalD Flip Flop Tri-S1ale(74C3?4) 2 49

24 8-bit Input/Oulpul (74S412) 2.25

24 Priority Interrupt Conlrol . 2.95

16 Bi-Directional Bus Driver 1 95

16 Clock Generator/Driver 2,25

16 Bus Driver 2.25

2B System Cent. /Bus Driver (74S428) .3,49

28 System Controller (74S438) . .4.49

24 I/O Expander tor 48 Series 3 95
18 16-Key Keyboard Encoder (74C922) 4 49
20 20-Key Keyboard Encoder 1 74C923) 4 95

25 Display Controller (74C911) .8 95
28 Display Controller (74C9 12) 8.95
40 Asyn Comm. Element 10.95
28 Prog. Comm I/O (USART) 4.49
24 Prog Interval Timer 6 95
40 Prog. Peripheral I/O (PPl) 4 49
40 Prog DMA Control 5.95
2B Prog, Inierrupt Conlrol ... 6.95
40 Prog CRTConlrolier ,29.95
40 Piog. Keyboard/Display Inlortace .8.95
20 B-BIl Tfl-State Bi-Oirectional Trans. 3 95
20 B-bil Bi-Directionai Receiver 2 95
20 8-bit Bi-Dirccliona! Receiver 2.95

20 8-bit Bi-Dircctional Receiver 2.95

20 Oclai Latched Peripheral Driver . . .4.95

20 Octal Latched Peripheral Driver 4.95

— DISK CONTROLLERS

40 Single Density 16.95

40 Single/Dual Density (Inv.) .29.95

40 Single/Double Density (True) 29.95

40 Dual Densiiy/Side Select (inv ) 29.95

40 Dual Density/Side Select True . 29 95

— SPECIAL FUNCTION

8 Dual MOS Clock Driver (5MZ) . 2.49

& Dual MOS Clock Driver (5MZ) .195

28 Communication Chip 8.95

24 Microprocessor Real Time Clock 8.95

16 Micro. Compatible Time Clock 7 95

40 Microcontroller w/64-digil RAM .5.95

and Direct LED Drive

40 Microprocessor w/64-digit RAM ... 5,95

& Direct LED Drive w/N Buss Int.

20 32-seg VAC Fluor. Orvr. (20-plnpkg.} .3,25

28 Microprocessor Sequencer 7.95

B Prog Oscrllator/Divrder( 100Hz) . 1.95

DYNAMIC RAMS

Pari Ho. "Pins Prica

1103 18 1024x1 (300ns) 99

4027 16 4096x1 (2SOns) .....2,49

4116H-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

4I64N-150 16 65.536x1 (150ns) .6.95-8/49.95

4164N-200 16 65.536x1 (200ns) 5.95-8/44,95

MM5261 IB 1024x1 (300ns) 49-3/1.95

MM5262 22 2048x1 (365ns) 49-811.95

MM5270 IB 4096x1 (250ns) MK4096. .. 4,95

MM5280 Z2 4096x1 (200ns) 2107 , . . 3 95

MM5290-2 16 16.384x1 (150ns) .1.89-8/14 95

MM5290-3 16 16.384x1 (200ns) 1.69-8/1295

MM5290-4 16 16.384x1 (250ns) . . .1.49-8/10.95

MM5298-3 16 8192x1 (200ns) 1.69

STATIC RAMS

1101 16 256x1 (650ns) 1 49

2101 22 256x4 (4S0ns)fll01 2 49

2102 16 1024x1 (350ns) 89

21L02 16 1024x1 (450ns)L.P 1.49

2111 18 256x4 (450ns) 81 It 2.95

2112 16 256x4 (450ns) MOS 1.95

2114 18 1024x4 (450ns) 1.49-8/9.95

2114L 18 1024x4 (450ns)L.P 1.95 - 8/13.95

2114-2 18 1024x4 (200ns) 1 . 75 - 8/1 1 95

2114L-2 IB 1024x4 (200ns) LP 2 25-8/14.95

2J47 18 4096x1 (70ns) .... 4 95

214B IB 1024x4 (70ns) . . 4.95

TMS4045 IS 1024x4 (450ns) 3.95

5101 22 256x4 (450ns) CMOS . .. 2.95

MM5257 18 4096x1 (450ns) 4044 4.95

HM6116P-3 24 2048x8 (150ns) CMOS 5.95

HM6116-4 24 2048x8 (200ns)CMQS 4.95

HM&116LP-4 24 2048x8 (200ns j L P CMOS 5 49

HM6264P-15 28 8192x8 (150ns) CMOS 39.95

74S9 16 16x4 (50ns) 3101 2 25

74C920 22 256x4 (250ns) 3.95

74C921 18 256x4 (250ns) CMOS 3.95

74C929 16 1024x1 (250ns) CMOS (6501) 3 95

74C930 18 1024x1 (250n:.l

74S189 16 16x4 (35ns)93405 . . 1.95

74S200 16 256x1 (80ns) 93410 .. 3.95

74S206 16 256x1 (50ns)93411 . .3.95

74S289 16 16x4 (35ns) 3101 . 2.25

82S10 16 1024x1 (50ns)O.C (93415) 3.95

B2S25 16 16X4 (50ns)O.C. (74S289) .2.25

PROMS/ EPROMS

1702A 24 256x8 (lull 4.95

2708 24 1024x8 (450ns) 3 95

2708-5 24 1024x8 (550ns) SM00246 2.95

TMS2516 24 2048x8 (450ns}2716 5.95

TMS2532 24 4096x8 (450ns) NMC2532 6.95

TMS2564 28 8192x8 (450ns) 14,95

TMS2716 24 204Bx8 (450ns) 3 voltage 9.95

2716 24 2048xB (450ns) . 4 95

2716-1 24 2048x8 (350ns) 5.95

27160-5 24 2048x8 (550ns) 4 49

2732 24 4096x8 (450ns) 6.95

2732A-3 24 4096x8 (300ns) 21V 7.95

2732A-4 24 4096x8 (450ns) 21V 6,95

27320-4 24 4096x8 (550ns) 25V 5,95

27580A 24 1024x8 (450ns) 2.95

2764-4 28 8192x8 (450ns) 9 95

2764-3 2B 8192x8 (300ns) ... . 14,95

MCM68764 24 8192x8 (450ns) 24.95

27128 28 16.384x8 (450ns) 128K EPROM 59.95

74S1B8 16 32x8 PflOMO.C (6330- 1) .. .1.49

745287 16 256x4 PROM T.S. (6301-1) 1.95

745288 16 32x8 PROM T.S (6331-1) . , 1.95

745471 20 256x8 PROM T S (6309-1) 5.95

745472 20 512x8 PROM T S (6349-1) 4 95

745473 20 512x8 PROM C (6348) 4 95

745474 24 512x8 PROM I S (DMB7S296N) 4 95

745570 16 512x4 PROM C (6305) 2.95

745571 16 512x4 PROM TS (6306) 2 95

745572 18 1024x4 PROM DC 16352) 4.95

745573 18 1024x4 PROM T S (B2S137) 4 95
B2S23 16 32x8 PROM C (27S18) 2.95
B2S115 24 512x6 PROM T S (27S15) 9 95
82S123 16 32xB PROMTS (27S19) 2.95
82S126 16 256x4 PROM C (27S20) 2 95

825129 16 256x4 PROM T S (27S21) . . 2.95

825130 16 512x4 PROM C. (27S12) . 3 95
B2S1B5 18 2048x4 PROM T S. (TBP24SB1) 9.95
DM87S180N 24 1024x8 PROM C .(823180) . 9 95
DM87S181N 24 1024x8 PROM T S (B2S1B1) 9 95
DM87S184M 18 2046x4 PROM DC (82S184) . 9.95
DM87S185N IB 2048x4 PROM T S. (82SI85) ..9 95
DM87SI90N 24 2048x4 PROM C (82S 190) 14.95
DMB7SI91N 24 2048x8 PROMTS (82S191) .14 95

DATA ACQUISITION

DCIO Moslek DC/DC Converl +5V10-9V , 2 95

MC3470P IB Floppy Disk Read AMP System 4.95

MC1408L7 16 7-bil 0/ A Convener (DACOB07LCN) . t.49

MC1403L8 18 8-bit D/A Converter (DACOBOBLCN) 2 25

AOCOB03LCN20 8-bil A/D Converter (a 1/2LSB) 4 95

ADC0B04 20 8-bil A/D Converter (1LSB) 3,49

DAC0806 16 B-bil D/A Converter (0 78% Lin .)... 1,95

AOC0809 28 8-bil A/D Convener (8 Ch.Multl.) . 4.49

ADC0817 40 8-bil A/D Convener (16-Ch. Mulli } 9.95

DAC10O0 24 10-bit D/A Conv Micro Comp (0 05%) 7 95

DAC1008 20 10-bit D/A Conv Micro Comp (0,20%) 6 95

DAC1020 16 10-bitO/A Conv (0 05% Lin.) 7.95

DAC1022 16 10-bitO/AConv.(0 20% Lin.) 5.95

DAC1222 18 12-bilD/AConv,(0 20% Lin.) 6.95

LM334Z Consiant Current Source 1.19

LM335Z Temperature Transducer 1.40

LM399H Temp Comp. Prec Rel ( 5ppm/C e ) 5 00

At-5-1013A 40 30KBaudUart(TR1602) :, 3.95

QUALITY COMPONENTS AT
AFFORDABLE PRICES!

LOW PROFILE
(TIN) SOCKETS

19 10-99 100-up

14 f

8 pin LP
LP

16 pin LP
18 pin LP
20 pin LP
22 pin LP
24 pin LP
2B pin LP

SOLDERTAIL(GOLD)
STANDARD

14plnSG
16 pinSG

18 pin SG
24 pin SG
28plnSG
36plnSG
40plnSG

1.03

WW

SOLDERTAIL
STANDARD (TIN)

20 pin
24 pin
2B pin

WIRE WRAP SOCKETS
(GOLD) LEVEL #3

1j) 10-99 100up

6 pin WW
10 pin WW
14 pin WW

16 pin WW
IB pin WW
20 pin WW
22 pin WW
24 pin WW
28 pin WW
36 pin WW
40 pin WW

1.89

1.69

$10.00 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!

Spec Sheets — 30c each
Send $1.00 Postage for your
FREE 1984 JAMECO CATALOG
Prices Subject to Change

(MasterCard)

DT1050 — Applications: Teaching aids,
appliances, clocks, automotive, telecommunica-
tions, language translations, etc.

The DT105O is a standard DIGITALKER kit encoded with 137 separate
and useful words, 2 (ones, and 5 different silence durations. The
words and tones have been assigned discrete addresses, making it
possible to output single words or words concatenated into phrases
or even sentences. The "voice" output of the DT105O 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 OT1050 consists of a Speech Professor Chip, MM 54 104 (40- pin)
and two (2) Speech ROMs MM52164SSR1 and MM52164SSR2{24-pln>
along with a Master Word list 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. Incl. 2 ROMs and specs.

DT1057

$24.95 ea.

* Evaluation

ParlNo.

■IIISlMiJIILl

tIIIiJJJI

■ 'Pins Function

7045IPI

7045EV/Kir

7106CPL

FE02030

7106EV/KU*

7107CPL

7107EV/Kif

7116CPL

7201IUS

7205IPG

7205EV/Krf

7206CJPE

7206CEV/Ki1'

7207AIP0

7207AEV/Kif

7215IPG

7215EV/Kif

7216A1JI

7216CUI

7216DIPI

7217UI

7217AIPI

7224IPL

7226AIJL

7226AEV/Kit'

I300Q9 1983

CMOS Precision Timer

Stopwalch Chip. XTL

3Vj Digit A/D(LC0 Drive)

3% Digit LCD Oisplay Ior7106 & 7116

IC. Circuit Board. Display

3V!0igilA/0(LED0nve)

IC. Circuit Board. Display

3Y? Digit A/O LCD Dls. HLO

LowBatlery Volt Indicator

CMOS LED Slopwatch/Timer

Slopwalcti Chip. XTL

Tone Generalor

ToneGeneralor Chip, XTL

OsclllalorController

Freq. Counter Chip. XTL

4Func CMOSSlopwatchCKT

4 Func. SlopwalchCtiip. XTL

8 OigilUniv. CounlerC.A

8 Oigil Freq. Counter C.A

8 Digit Freq. Counter C.C

4 Digit LEO Up/Down Counter C.A. .

4 OigitLED Up/DownCounterC.C.

LC04'i'i Oigil UpCounterORI .

8 Digit Univ Counter

5 Function Counter Chip, XTL

2995
2495
19 95

. . 10 95
2995
. 74.95

INTERSIL Data Booknassp.) $9.951

74HC High Speed CMOS

74HC0O
74KCQ2
74HC03
74HC04
74HCU04
74HC08
74HC10
74HC11
74HC14
74HC20
74HC27
74HC32
74HC42
74HC51
74HC58
74HC73
74HC74
74HC75
74HC76
74HCB5
74KCB6
74HC107
74HC109
74HC112
74HCH3
74HC132
74HC137
74HC13B

74HC139 16 .9

74HC147 16 1.1

74HCI51 16 8

74HC153 16 .9

74HC154 24 2.4

74KC157 16 .8

74HC158 16 8

74HC160 16 1.2

74HC161 16 1.2

74HC162 16 1.2

74HC163 16 1.2

74HC164 14 1 2

74HC165 16 2.7

74HC173 16 1.6

74HC174 16 .1

74HCI75 16 .9

74HC192 16 1.3

74HC193 15 13

74HC194 16 IC

74HC195 16 1.C

74HC237 16 2.1

74HC240 20 l.i

74HC241 20 U

74HC242 14 1.S

74HC243 14 1.9

74HC244 20 1.S

74HC245 20 2.4

74HCU04 is unbuffered

74HC251
74HC253
74HC257
74HC259
74HC266
74HC273

74HC373

74HC374

74HC390

74HC393

/■ . ■

74HC534

74HC595

74HC668

74HC4002

74HC4017

74HC4020

74HC4024

74HC4040

74HC4060

74HC4075

74HC407B

74HC4511

74HC4514

74HC4538

74KC4543

20 289
14 3.95
20 2 39

20 2 39

20 2 39

16 3 95

20 3 19

24 3.79
16 2.39
16 3.49

^Programmable Array Logic (PALS)

PAD0H8 2D Octal 10-lnputAN0-0R GateArray (High Dutpul)

PAL12H6 20 Hex 12-lnpul ANO-ORGaleArray (High Output) .. .

PAL14H4 20 Quad 14-tnpul ANO-DRGale Array (High Dutpul) ...

PAL10L8 20 Octal 10-inpul AN0-0R Inverl 6aleArray(Low Output)

PAL12L6 20 Hen 12-lnput AN0-0R-lnvertGale Array(LowOutput)

PAL14L4 20 Ouad 14 Input AND-OR-lnverl Gate Array(LowOulput)

PAL16L8 20 Octal 16-tnpul ANO-OR-lnvertGate Array

PAL16RB 20 Octal teinpul Register AND-OR Gate Array

PAL16R6 20 Hex 16- Input Register AND-OR Gate Array

PAL16R4 20 Ouad 16- Input Register ANO-QR GateArray

I 30012 19B2 NATIONAL PAL Data Book(i76p) . .$5^951]

1355 SHOREWAY ROAD, BELMONT, CA 94002
11/83 PHONE ORDERS WELCOME — (415) 5928097 Telex: 176043

74C00
74C02
74C04
74C08
74C1Q
74C14
74C20
74C30
74C32
74C42
74C48
74C73

?■;;:,'-:

74C85
74C86
74CB9
74C90
74C93

HBBSE3

74C95
MC107
74C151
74C154
74C157
74C160
74C161
74C162

74C164
74C173
74C174
74C175
74C192
74C193
74C195

74C221
74C240
74C244
74C373
74C374
74C901
74C903
74C906
"4C^'
74C912
74C915
74C917
74C922
74C923
74C925
74C926
80C95
80C97

TL071CP B

TL072CP B

TL074CN 14

TL081CP 8

TL082CP 9

TL084CN 14

LM301CN 6

LM302H

LM304H

LM305H

LM307CN B

LM308CN 8

LM309K

LM310CN B

LM311CN • B

LM312H

LM317T

LM317K

LM318CN 8

LM319N 14

LM320K-5

LM320K-12

LM320K-15

LM320T-5

LM320T-12

LM320T-15

LM323K

LM324M 14

LM337T

LM338K

LM339N 14

LM340K-5

LM340K-12

LM340K-15

16

LM340T-5
LM340T-12
LM340T-15
LF347N 1
LM348N 1
LM350K
LF355N
LF356M
LM370N 1
LM373N 1
LM377N 1
LM380N 1
LM381N 1
LM382N 1
LM384N 1
LM386N-3
TL494CN 1i
TL496CP
NE531V
NE544N 1
NE550A 1
NE555V
LM556N 1
NE564N 1
LM565N 1
LM566CN
LM567V
NE570N 1
LM703CN
LM709N 1
LM710N 1
LM711N 1

LM723N
LM733N
LM739N
LM741CN
LM747N
LM748M
LM1310N
LM1458CN
LM1488N
LM1489N
LM1496M
LMtBOON
LM1871N
LM1872N
LM1877N-9 14
LM1889N
LM1896N
LM2002T
LM3189N
LM3900N
LM3905CN
LM3909N
LM3914N
LM3915N
LM3916N
RC4136N 14 1.2
RC4151MB a 1.9
RC4194TK 4.4

NE5532 B 2.4

NE5534 B 1.6

ICL8038B 14 3 I
LM13080M 8 1.1
LM13600N 16 1.1
MORE AVAILABLE

16 249
18 2 95
18 3 25

18 2.95
18 2.95
18 295

30003 1982 Nat. Linear Data Book [1952 nasi .511.95^,

694 BYTE November 1983

Circle 244 on inquiry card.

w

COMPUTER-PERIPHERAL SWITCHERS

Conned any number ol peripherals to a slag Is i/0 pari — use a single printer to sup-
port several microcomputers — use two or more printers lo support a single
microcomputer — access a modem from any ol several microcomputers — Ideal lor
demonstrating or comparing equipment. The Selecto-Switches are designed to
eliminate the unnecessar plugging & unplugging ot cables which connect printers.
terminals, or modems to various computers. By using a Selecto-Switch. you achieve
more elricient system operation, belter utilization ot peripherals & computer ports.
eliminate redundant hardware & reduce service calls 5 yr. limited warranly on all
Selecto-Switches. No power required. Size (inches): I0L x 7W x 3H. 2V? lbs.

RS232 SERIAL SELECTO-SWITCH

• Switches all lines of asynchronous data • Easy expansion of
serial ports • Connectors are female D825 type

PART HO. 0ESCR1PTIOH PRICE

GRS232-AB 2-Way Switch $139.95

GRS232-ABC 3-Way Switch $179.95

DB25 PARALLEL SELECTO-SWITCH

• TRS-80, Apple, and IBM compatible • Switches 24 lines (line
1 is ground) • Connectors are female D825 type

PART NO. DESCRIPTION PRICE

GP24-AB 2-Way Switch $139.95

GP24-ABC 3-Way Switch $179.95

CENTRONICS-STYLE SELECTO-SWITCH

• Switches all36 lines • Connectors are female Centronics

PARTNO. DESCRIPTION PRICE

GCENT-AB 2-Way Switch $199.95

GCENT-ABC 3-Way Switch $229.95

Micro-Logic Corp. ^--S" i -■
MICRO-CHARTS ^:| !: te

• Fully decoded data • Inslant access • 2-slded, totally comprehensive • Compact
SVjxII In. durable credit card plastic 'Perfect (or programmers & engineers

• Clear & concise tables (or: full instruction set, disassembly. ASCII, base conver-
sion, elfect ot Hags, compare vs. jump, interrupt structure, pinout. cycle times,
diagrams, bug notes. I much more...

PART NO. REFERENCE PRICE

ML-Z80 Z80CPU $5.95

ML-8080A 8080A/8085A $5.95

ML-6502 6502(65XX) $5.95

ML-8048 8048, Relatives $5.95

ML-7400 5400/7400 TTL Pin-Outs $5.95

BOOKS

30001 National CMOS Data Book (1961) S6.95

(640 pages) 74C, CLwOOQ, and AID Converters

30003 National Llnaar Data Book (1982) $11.95

(1376 pages) LM. LF, ADC, DAC. LH Series

30008 National Memory Data Book (1960) $6.95

(464 pages) RAMs, ROMs, PROMs, EPROMs Series

30009 Intersil Data Book(1983) $9.95

(1356 pages) Complete line.

30010 National Audiomadlo Handbook (I960) $5.95

(240 pages) Pre-Amps, AM, FM & FM Stereo. Power Amps

30012 National PAL Data Book (1982) $5.95

(176 pages) Application Notes, Linear Briels, etc.

30013 Zllog Data Bookd983) $7.95

(641 pages) Microprocessors and Support Chips

210830 Intel Memory Components Handbook (1983) $14.95

(798 pages) Contains all Application Notes. Article
Reprints, Data Sheets, and other design information
on Intel's RAMs, EPROMs, E'PROMs & Bubble Memories.

210844 Intel Microprocessors Peripheral Handbook (1983) . . $14.95
(1027 pages) Contains Data Sheets on all of
Intel's Microprocessors and Peripherals.

ATARI — COMMODORE

ATARI PADDLE

JSP $2.49/pair

COMMODORE PADDLE

CSP VIC20-C64 $3.95/paVr

TV GAME SWITCH

Used on Atari. Cosmet-
ically blemished. 100%
functional.

~ TGS-1 . . .$1.95ea.

J ameco Digital Thermometer Kit
GH5JI33353 ^ .

Dual sensors — switch
controls lor Indoor/outdoor
or dual monilorlng — can be
extended to 500 leet. Con-
tinuous LED .8* ht. display.
Range: -40"F to 199*F. -40'C
to 100'C. Accuracy ±1*
nominal. Calibrate For
Fahrenheit/Celsius.
-^- -' , """ — Simulated walnut case. AC

irrinn eon or wa " adapter included. Size:

JtJUU 5>dy.yb 6y,-Lx3VHx 1*/D.

Universal — _ Computer Keyboard Enclosures

"OTE" Biank Desk-Top Enclosures

are designed lor easy modilica-

lion High slrenglhepoxymolded

end pieces in mocha brown finish.

r s v Slldingrear/boltom panel for service/

•* componentaccess: Top/bolt, panels .080"

thick alum, alodine type 1200linisf (gold lint

color) lor besl pamt adhesion alter modilicalion.

Vented top & bollom panels lor cooling efliciency.

Rigid construction provides unlimited applications.

Assembly instructions included.

DTE-8 Panel Width 7.5' $24.95

DTE-11 Panel Width 10.13" S27.95

DTE-14 Panel Width 13.5' $29.95

DTE-20 Panel Width 19.25* $34.95

^_ DTE-22 Panel Width 21.375" $39.95

Serpen Scion Up. Scroll Down, rjh Dciot*. U'l. RigM.Up ana Down

JE614 Assembled end Tested $69.95

Switching Power Supply
for APPLE II, II+ and/te*

Part No. KHP4007

'APPLE

Extended 80 Column/64K RAM
Card for APPLE lie*

piuO Ins JE6W c»d inlo your APPLE and t

Mue»;ei6*K Dylei ol R

JE864 Assembled and Tested $149.95

Cooling Fan for APPLE I
II + and/te*

5 1 /T HALF-HEIGHT DISK DRIVES

FIT TWO DRIVES IN THE SAME SPACE AS ONE CONVENTIONAL 5'/<

TEAC FD55A

SINGLE-SIDED:

• 48 tpi

• 40 Tracks

• 250Kbytes
single-sided

■ Single/
double density

• Brushiess DC
direct-drive motor

• Low 5 W power
consumption

• Power req.:
+ 12VDC @ .3A
+ 5VDC @ ,55A

• 6 msec, track to track

• One year warranty

■ Size: Si"W x 1%'H x 8*D

• Weight: 3 lbs. 5 oz.

FD55A $249.95

COMPATIBLE WITH

TRS-80
IBM-PC

SHUGART SA455

DOUBLE-SIDED:

• 48 tpi

• 40 Tracks

• 500Kbytes
double-sided

• Single/
double density

• Brushiess DC
direct-drive motor

• Power req.:
+ 12VDC @ .75A
+ 5VDC @ .7A

• 6 msec, track to track

• Compatible with
SA400/450

„. „ • One year warranty

,hug.MSA455 . Size: 575 - w x ,. 63 . H x „. D

• Weight: 3.3 lbs.

SA455 $259.95

Keytronics 90-Key Keyboard

WITH SECURITY KEYLOCK SWITCH

• RFI shielded

• Cursor controls

• Numeric keyboard

• 6 bit Parallel

• Solid stale switches
■ 10 user-programmable keys

• Positive TTL Logic

• Size: 17"L x 8V."W x 2V-TH

Made tor Visual Technology, Ihis keyboard features: a security keylock {includes two keys) to guard against
unauthorized use; an 11-key numeric keypad; cursor controls; and 10 user-programmable keys. Electrical re-
quirements: +5VDC. Color (case): White. Color (keycaps): Black. Complete with case, keyboard assembly,
40-inch Interface cable, and schematics. Weight: 7 lbs.

Part No. KB270 $79.95 each

23 ,, Lx5 ) /l"Wx1-3/B"H

3'Lx 3'W x I'/i'H

MICRO SWITCH 85-KEY KEYBOARD

Pari No. 85SD18-1 S29.95 each

HI-TEK 14-KEY NUMERIC KEYPAD

SPST iwiiching. Charcoal grey keycaps. Mounted on printed circuit beard.

Pari No. K-14 S9.95 each

JE664 EPROM PROGRAMMER

8K TO 64K EPROMS - 24 AND 28 PIN PACKAGES

• Programs, validates, and chocks lor property erased EPROMs • Emulates PROMs
or EPROMs • RS232C Computer Interlace lot editing/program loading • Loads data
Inlo RAM by keyboard * Changes data In RAM by keyboard • Loads RAM Irom an
EPROM • Compares EPROMs lor content differences * Copies EPROMs • Power In-
put: 115V AC. BOH:. -^ 10W power consumption • Enclosure: Color-coordinated.
light tan panels w/molded mocha brown end pieces • Size: 15-5/B"L % BV<"0 i
3'A"H • Wt.: 5V. lbs.

JE664-A EPROM Programmer S995.00

Aasernoied & Tesled (Includes JM16A Module)

JE665 - RS232C TNTERFACE~OPTTO~N - The JE66S RS232C interface
Option implements computer access lo the JEG64s RAM Sample sotlware written in
BASIC provided tor TftS-80* Model I. Level H Computer. Baud rale: 9600 Word
Igth. 8 rjtls - odd parity Stop bits 2 Oplion may be adapted to other computers The
JE665 can be interlaced lo any compuler wiirt an RS232 port Inlormalion is also pro-
vided lor interlacing lo any CP/M system will an RS232 port.

JE664-ARS EPROM Programmer W/JE655 Option $1195,00

Assembled and Tested (includes JMI6A Module)

EPROM JUMPER MODULES - The JE6G4's JUMPER MODULE (Personality
Module) is a piug-m Module lhai pie-sets JE664 lor proper programming pulses lo
the EPRDM & conhnures EPROM socket connections for that particular EPROM.
P/N EPROM EPROM MANUFACTURER PRICE

JMOSA 2708

AMD. Motorola. National. Intel. T! (25V)

JM16A 27I6.TMS2SIS Intel, Motorola .National. NEC, Tl. (25V)

JM32A
JM32B
JM32C
JM64A

TMS2716

TMS2532

2732

2732A|21V)

MCM68764.

MCM68L764

2764

TMS2564

HN4BZ76-SG-4

Motorola. Tl (+ 5. -
Motorola. Tl(25Vl

AMD. Fujitsu. NEC, Hiiachi.lntel |25V]
Fujitsu. Intel (ZW)

Motorola (2W)

lnlel(2lV)

Tl (25V) .

$14.95
$14.95
514.95

UV-EPROM Eraser

8 Chips — 51 Minutes

1 Chip — 37 Minutes

Erases 2708, 2716, 2732, 2764, 2516, 2532,2564. Erases up lo 8 chips
within 51 minutes (1 chip In 37 minutes). Maintains constant exposure
distance of one inch. Special conductive foam liner eliminates static
build-up. Built-in safety lock to prevent UV exposure. Compact — only
9.00* x 3.70* x 2.60*. Complete with holding tray for 6 chips.

DE-4 UV-EPROM Eraser... S 79.95
UVS-11EL Replacement Bulb $16.95

IBM MEMORY EXPANSION KIT

SAVE HUNOREDS OF $$$ BY UPGRADING
MEMORY BOARDS YOURSELF!

Most of the popular memory boards allow you to add an additional
64K, 128K, 192K, or 256K. The IBM64K Kit will populate these boards
in 64K byte Increments. The kit is simple to install — just Insert the
nine 64K RAM chips In the provided sockets and set the two groups
of switches. Directions are Included.

IBM64K (Nine 200ns 64K RAMs) $49.95

EXPAND YOUR MEMORY

TRS-80 to 16K, 32K, or 48K

••Model 1 = From 4K to 16K Requires (1) One Kit
Model 3 = From 4K to 48K Requires (3) Three Kits
Color = From 4K to 16K Requires (1) One Kit

"Model 1 equipped with Expansion Board up to 48K Two Kits Required
— Dne Kit Required for each 16K ot Expansion —

TRS-16K3 *200ns for Color & Model ill S12.95

TRS-16K4 *250ns for Model I S10.95

TRS-BO Color 32K or 64K Conversion Kit

Easy to install kit comes complete with 6 ea. 4164-2 <200ns) 64K
dynamic RAMs & converslondocumentalion. Converts TRS-80 color
computers with E circuit boards. & all new color computers to 32K.
Minormodificalionsol32K memory will allow theuseof a 111 he64K of
the dynamic RAM providing you have a FLEX DOS operating system.

TRS-64K2 $44.95

POWER SUPPLY +5VDC @ 1 AMP REGULATED Transaction Tech

Output +5VDCO -A (also +30VDC|reg. Input 115 VAC 6 OH*. 2-lone (black /beige) sell-enclosed
case. 6 It. 3 cand. black power cord. 6'/rw i 7"D x 2V."H. Wl. 3 lbs. Data 'heel Incl.

PartNo. PS51194S $14.95 each

k

POWER SUPPLY +5V0C @ 3 AMP REGULATED Detuon

Input: 115VAC. 47-44flHz. Output: 5VDC Adjustable & 3 amp, 6VDC® 2.5 amp. Ad|u stable cur-
rent limit. Ripple & Noise: iMVrms. 5MVp-p- 2 mourning surfaces. UL recognized. Size:4'Wx
4'/Vl 1 2-7/t6"H - wl. 2 lbs. Data sheet included.
Part No. OPS-1 $29.95 each

POWER SUPPLY +5V0C @ 7.5 AMP, 12V0C @ 1.5 AMP SWITCHING

Input: 11SVAC, 50-BOHz (cf 3 arnp/230VAC, 5DHz (n 1.6 amp Fan volt./ power supply select swit-
chts|115/230VAC). Output: 5V0C(ffi7.6amp. 12VDC ®> 1.6 ar "
""'«3V."H.Wt.6lbs.

p. Btt. blk. pow.cord. 1VVWx

Part No. PS94V0S S39.95 each

5 1 /»" Mini-Floppy Disk Drive

FOR TR&fiO MODEL I COLOR COMPUTER

Features ande or double density Recording mode. FM

single. MFM double rjensrty Seek lime: 25msec. track lo

track. Power: +12V0C (±0.6V) 16A max., +5VDC

{±0.25V)Q8Arrax Unit as pto at lighl does not incl. case,

power supply, cables). 30-pg. data book incl Wt. 3'/i lbs.

Size:5V."Wx8"Dx3%"K.

PartNo. Limited Ouantlty! Price

FD200 $179.95

Single-sided, 40 (racks, 250K bytes capacity

FD250 $199.95

Double-sided, 35 tracks, 438K bytes capacity

POWER SUPPLY 4-Channol Switching - Apple Compatible

FOR USE AS AN EXTERNAL POWERSUPPLY FOR APPLE

Microprocessor, mini. computer, terminal, medical equipment and process controlapplications. In-
put 90-I30VAC 47-440H*. Oulpul: +5V0C® 5A. -5V0C@ IA; +12VOC @ 1A, -12V0C @ 1A.
Lineroo ±0.2%, Ripple: 30mV p-p. Load reg.: * 1% Overcurrent protection. Adj: 5V main out-
put ± 10% 6-3/8"L x 1-7/8"W 1 4-l5/16"H. Wl. V/» lbs.

Part No. FCS-604A S69.95 each

$10.00 Minimum Order — U.S. Funds Only
California Residents Add 6Va % Sales Tax
Shipping — Add 5% plus $1.50 Insurance

Send S.A.S.E. for Monthly Sales Flyer!

Spec Sheets — 30c each
Send $1.00 Postage for your
FREE 1984 JAMECO CATALOG
Prices Subject to Change

ameco

ELECTRONICS

1355 SHOREWAY ROAD, BELMONT, CA 94002
11/83 PHONE ORDERS WELCOME — (415) 592-8097 Telex: 176043

W: FLOPPY DISK DRIVE

Slerj225?

Shugart 801 R
compatible

• Single-Sided

• 77 Tracks

• 400/800K Bytes
Capacity

• Industry Standard

The FDO1006 6" Floppy Disk Drive (Industry Standard) features
single or double density. Recording mode: FM single, MFM double
density. Transfer rate: Z50K bits/sec. single density; 500K bits/sec.
double density. The FDD100 8 is designed to work with the single-
sided soft sectored IBM Diskette 1, or eq. disk cartridge. Power:
115VAC ® 50 60Hz, + 24VDC @ 1.7 amps max., +5VDC ® 1.2 amps
max. Unit as pictured above (does not include case, power supply, or
cables). Size: 6.55'W x 14*L x 4.5*H. Weighs 12 lbs. Incl. 96-pg,
manual.

PartNo.

Price

FDD100-8. .$1 69.95 ea.J

Circle 244 on inquiry card.

BYTE November 1983

695

DoKa

COMPUTER
PRODUCTS,
Inc.

ORDER TOLL FREE

538-8800

(CALIFORNIA RESIDENTS)

(800)
848-8008

TERMS: For shipping include
$2.00 for UPS Ground or $3.00
for UPS Blue Air. $10.00 mini-
mum order. Bay Area and Los
Angeles Counties add 6 1 /2%
Sales Tax, other California resi-
dents add 6% Sales Tax. We re-
serve the right to limit quantities
and substitute manufacturer.
Prices subject to change without
notice.

VISIT OUR RETAIL STORE

2100 De La Cruz Blvd.

Santa Clara, CA 95050

(408) 988-0697

DoKa

STATIC R

AMS

2101

256x4

450ns

1.90

5101

256x4

450ns

(cmos)

3.90

2102-1

1024 x 1

450ns

.88

2102L-4

1024x1 450ns

(LP)

.98

2102L-2

1024 x 1 1 250ns

LP

1.45

2111

256x4i450ns

2.45

2112

256x4

450ns

2.95

2114

1024x4

450ns

8/9.90

2114-25

1024x4

250ns

8/9.95

2114L-4

1024x4 450ns

(LP)

8/11.95

2114L-3

1024x4 300ns

(LP)

8/12.45

2114L-2

1024x4 200ns

(LP|

8/12.95

2147

4096x1 55ns)

4.90

TMS4044-4

4096x1 450ns

3.45

TMS4044-3

4096x1

300ns

3.95

TMS4D44-2

4096x1

200ns

4.45

MK4118

1024x8 250ns

9.90

TMM2016-200

2048x8 200ns

4.10

TMM2016-150

2048 x8

150ns

4.90

TMM2016-100

2048x8 100ns

6.10

HM6116-4

2048x8 200ns i (cmos)

4.70

HM6116-3

2048 X 8

150ns

(cmosl

4.90

HM6116-2

2048x8

120ns

cmos

8.90

HM6116LP-4

2048 x 8

200ns

(cmos (LP)

5.90

HM6116LP-3

2048x8

150ns

(cmos) (LP

6.90

HM6116LP-2

2048x8 120ns

(cmos|(LP)

9.95

2-6132

4096x8 (300ns) (Qstat)

33.95

LP = Low Power Qstat » Quasi-Static

DYNAMIC RAMS

TMS4027

4096x1 (250ns

1.95

UPD411

4096x1 300ns

2.95

MM5280

4096x1 (300ns

2.95

MK4108

8192x1 (200ns

1.90

MM5298

8192x1 250ns

1.80

4116-300

16384x 1 300ns

8/10.75

4116-250

16384x1 (250ns

8/10.95

4116-200

16384x1 (200ns

8/11.95

4116-150

16384 x1(150ns

8/13.95

4116-120

16384 x11120ns

8/28.95

2118

16384 xljl50ns

B

4.90

4164-200

65536 x1|200ns

5.90

4164-150

65536 x1(150ns

(5w|

6.90

5V = single 5 volt supply

EPROMS

1702

256x8 (1us)

4.45

2708

1024x8 (450ns

3.90

2758

1024X8 (450ns

m

5.90

2716

2048x8 (450ns

5v

3.90

2716-1

2048 x8 (350ns

m

5.90

TMS2516

2048 x 8 (450ns

(5vj

5.45

TMS2716

2048 x 8 (450ns

7.90

TMS2532

4096 x 8 450ns

I5 v )

5.90

2732

4096x8 450ns 1

M

4.90

2732-250

4096x8 (250ns

5v

8.90

2732-200

4096x8 (200ns

(5V

10.95

2764

8192x8 (450ns

(5v

9.90

2764-250

8192x8 (250ns

(5v

13.95

2764-200

8192 x 8 (200ns

(5v)

23.95

TMS2564

8192x8 (450ns

W(24 P ln)

16.95

MC68764

8192x8 (450ns

38.95

27128

16384 x 8Call

5v = Single 5 Vo

74LS0C

t Supply

Call

74LS00

.23

74LS173

.66

74LS01

.24

74LS174

.54

74LS02

.24

74LS175

.54

74LS03

.24

74LS161

2.10

74LS04

.23

74LS169

6.90

74LS05

.24

74LS190

.88

74LS08

.27

74LS191

.88

74LS09

.28

74LS192

.78

74LS10

.24

74LS193

.78

74LS11

.34

74LS194

.68

74LS12

.34

74LS195

.68

74LS13

.44

74LS196

.78

74LS14

.58

74LS197

.78

74LS15

.34

74LS221

.88

74LS20

.24

74LS240

.94

74LS21

.28

74LS241

.98

74LS22

.24

74LS242

.98

74LS26

.28

74LS243

.98

74LS27

.28

74LS244

1.25

74LS28

.34

74LS245

1.45

74LS30

.24

74LS247

.74

74LS32

.28

74LS248

.98

74LS33

.54

74LS249

.98

74LS37

.34

74LS251

.58

74LS38

.34

74LS253

.58

74LS40

.24

74LS257

.58

74LS42

.48

74LS258

.58

74LS47

.74

74LS259

2.70

74LS48

.74

74LS260

.58

74LS49

.74

74LS266

.54

74LS51

.24

74LS273

1.45

74LS54

.28

74LS275

3.30

74LS55

.28

74LS279

.48

74LS63

1.20

74LS280

1.95

74LS73

.38

74LS283

.68

74LS74

.34

74LS290

.88

74LS75

.38

74LS293

.88

74LS76

.38

74LS295

.98

74LS78

.48

74LS298

.88

74LS83

.59

74LS299

1.70

74LS85

.68

74LS323

3.45

74LS86

.38

74LS324

1.70

74LS90

.54

74LS352

1.25

74LS91

.88

74LS353

1.25

74LS92

.54

74LS363

1.30

74LS93

.54

74LS364

1.90

74LS95

.74

74LS365

.48

74LS96

.88

74LS366

.48

74LS107

.38

74LS387

.44

74LS109

.38

74LS368

.44

74LS112

.38

74LS373

1.35

74LS113

.38

74LS374

1.35

74LS114

.38

74LS377

1.35

74LS122

.44

74LS378

1.13

74LS123

.78

74LS379

1.30

74LS124

2.85

74LS385

1.85

74LS125

.48

74LS388

.44

74LS126

.48

74LS390

1.15

74LS132

.58

74LS393

1.15

74LS133

.58

74LS395

1.15

74LS136

.38

74LS399

1.45

74LS137

.98

74LS424

2.90

74LS138

.54

74LS447

.36

74LS139

.54

74LS490

1.90

74LS145

1.15

74LS624

3.95

74LS147

2.45

74LS640

2.15

74LS148

1.30

74LS645

2.15

74LS151

.54

74LS668

1.65

74LS153

.54

74LS669

1.85 J

74LS154

1.85

74LS670

1.45

74LS155

.68

74LS674

9.60

74LS156

.68

74LS682

3.15

74LS157

.64

74LS663

3.15

74LS156

.58

74LS684

3.15

74LS160

.68

74LS685

3.15

74LS161

.64

74LS688

2.35

74LS162

.68

74LS689

3.15

74LS163

.64

74LS783

23.95

74LS164

.88

81LS95

1.45

74LS165

.94

81LS96

1.45

74LS166

1.90

81LS97

1.45

74LS168

1.70

81LS98

1.45

74LS169

1.70

25LS2521

2.75

74LS170

1.45

6500

1MHZ

25LS2569

4.20

6502

. . . 4.90

6504

. . . 6.90

6505

. . . 8.90

6507

. . . 9.90

6520

. . . 4.30

6522

. . . 7.90

6532

. . . 9.90

6545

. . 21.50

6551

. . 10.85

2 MHZ

6502A . . .

. . . 6.90

6522A . . .

. . . 9.90

6532A . . .

. . 10.95

6545A . . .

. . 26.95

6551A .. .

. . 10.95

3 MHZ

6502B . . .

. . 13.95

6800

68000 . . .

. . 58.95

6800

. . . 3.90

6802

. . . 7.90

6808

. . 12.90

6809E . . .

. . 18.95

6809

. . 10.95

6810

. . . 2.90

6820

. . . 4.30

6821 ....

. . . 3.20

6828

. . 13.95

6840

. . 11.95

6843

. . 33.95

6844

. . 24.95

6645

. . 13.95

6847

. . 10.95

6850

. . . 3.20

6852

. . 15.70

6860

. . . 9.90

6862

. . 10.95

6875

. . . 8.90

6880

. . . 2.20

6883

. . 21.95

68047 ...

. . 23.95

68488 . . .

. . 18.95

6800

1MHZ

68B00 ...

. . . 9.95

68B02 . . .

. . 21.25

68B09E . .

. . 28.95

68B09 . . .

. . 28.95

68B10 ...

. . . 6.90

68B21 . . .

. . . 6.90

68B45 ...

. . 18.95

68B50 . . .

. . . 5.90

8000

8035

. . . 5.90

8039

. . . 6.90

INS-8060 .

. . 16.95

INS-8073

. . 23.95

8080

. . . 3.90

8085

. . . 5.90

8085A-2 .

. . 10.95

8086

. . 28.95

8087

. . CALL

8088

. . 38.95

8089

. . 88.95

8155

. . . 6.90

8155-2 . . .

. . . 7.90

8156

. . . 6.90

8185

. . 28.95

8185-2 . . .

. . 38.95

8741

. . 38.95

8748

. . 23.95

8755

. . 23.95

696 BYTE November 1983

Circle 158 on inquiry card.

8200

8202 23.95

8203 38.95

8205 3.45

8212 1.75

8214 3.80

8216 1.70

8224 2.20

8226 1.75

8228 3.45

8237 18.95

8237-5 20.95

8238 4.45

8243 4.40

8250 9.95

8251 4.45

8253 6.90

8253-5 7.90

8255 4.45

8255-5 5.20

8257 7.90

8257-5 8.90

8259 6.85

8259-5 7.45

8271 38.95

8272 38.95

8275 28.95

8279 8.90

8279-5 9.00

8272 6.45

8283 6.45

8284 5.45

8286 6.45

8287 6.45

8288 24.00

8289 48.95

Z-80

2.5 Mhz

Z80-CPU 3.90

Z80-CTC 4.45

Z80-DART 9.95

Z80-DMA 13.95

Z80-PIO 4.45

Z80-SIO/0 15.95

Z80-SIO/1 15.95

Z80-SIO/2 15.95

Z80-SIO/9 15.95

4.0 Mhz

Z80A-CPU 4.90

Z80A-CTC 4.90

Z80A-DART 10.95

Z80A-DMA 15.95

Z80A-PIO 4.90

Z80A-SIO/0 15.95

Z80A-SIOA 15.95

Z80A-SIO/2 15.95

Z80A-SIO/9 15.95

6.0 Mhz

Z80B-CPU 12.95

Z80B-CTC 12.95

Z80B-P1O 12.95

Z80B-DART 18.95

ZILOG

Z6132 33.95

Z8671 38.95

DISC CONTROLLERS

1771 15.95

1791 23.95

1793 25.95

1795 48.95

1797 48.95

2791 53.95

2793 . . . . ; 53.95

2795 58.95

2797 58.95

6843 33.95

8272 38.95

UPD765 38.95

MB8876 28.95

MB8877 33.95

1691 16.95

2143 17.95

UARTS

AY3-1014 6.90

AY5-1013 3.90

AY3-1015 6.90

PT-1472 9.90

TR1602 3.90

2350 9.90

2651 8.90

TMS6011 5.90

IM6402 7.90

IM6403 8.90

INS8250 9.95

INTERFACE

8T26 1.54

8T28 1.84

8T95 88

8T96 88

8T97 88

8T98 88

DM8131 2.90

DP8304 2.24

DS8835 1.94

DS8836 .98

VOLTAGE REGULATORS

7805T

.74

7905T

.84

78M05C

.34

7908T

.84

7808T

.74

7912T

.84

7812T

.74

7915T

.84

7815T

.74

7924T

.84

7824T

.74

7905K

1.44

7805K

1.34

7912K

1.44

7812K

1.34

7915K

1.44

7815K

1.34

7924K

1.44

7824K

1.34

79L05

.78

7PL05

.68

79L12

.78

78L12

.68

79L15

.78

78L15

.68

LM323K

4.90

78H05K

9.90

UA78S40

1.90

78H12K

9.90

C,T = TO-220

K =

= TO-3 L =

= TO-92

DIP SWITCHES

4 POSITION .

... .84

5 POSITION .

... .89

6 POSITION .

... .89

7 POSITION .

... .94

8 POSITION .

... .94

IC SOCKETS

1-99

100

8plnST

.12

.10

14plnST

.14

.11

16plnST

.16

.12

18 pin ST

.19

.17

20plnST

.28

.26

22plnST

.29

.26

24 pin ST

.29

.26

28 pin ST

.39

.31

40plnST

.48

.38

64plnST

4.20

call

ST = SOLDERTAIL

8 pin WW

.58

.48

14plnWW

.68

.51

16 pin WW

.68

.57

18plnWW

.98

.89

20 pin WW

1.04

.97

22 pin WW

1.34

1.23

24 pin WW

1.44

1.30

28 pin WW

1.64

1.44

40 pin WW

1.94

1.75

WW = WIREWRAP

16pinZIF

6.70

call

24 pin ZIF

9.90

call

28 pin ZIF

9.95

call

ZIF = TEXTOOL (Zero Insertion Force)

CRYSTALS

32.768khz . . .

. . 1.90

1.0 mhz ....

. . 4.90

1.8432

. . 4.90

2.0

. . 3.90

2.097152 . . .

. . 3.90

2.4576

. . 3.90

3.2768

. . 3.90

3.579535 . .

. . 3.90

4.0

. . 3.90

5.0

. . 3.90

5.0688

. . 3.90

5.185

. . 3.90

5.7143

. . 3.90

6.0

. . 3.90

6.144

. . 3.90

6.5536

. . 3.90

8.0

. . 3.90

10.0

. . 3.90

10.738635 . . .

. . 3.90

14.31818

. . 3.90

15.0

. . 3.90

16.0

. . 3.90

17.430

. . 3.90

18.0

. . 3.90

18.432

. . 3.90

20.0

. . 3.90

22.1184

. . 3.90

32.0

. . 3.90

RESISTORS

Va watts* carbon film all standard values

FROM 1 OHM TO 10 MEG OHM

50 PCS

. . 1.25
. . 2.00
. 15.00

100 PCS

1000 PCS

APPLE ACCESSORIES

80 Column Card

129.95

16 K Card

. 42.50
. 38.95
. 84.95

Power Supply .

RFMod

24.95
29.95

Joy Stick (Apple in

Paddles Apple .

. . 9.95

Z80Card ....

129.95

SCRG Switch-A-Slo

. 19.95

Paddle Adapple
Extend-A Slot . .

24.95

. 19.95

Disk Drive

224.95

Controller Card

69.95

5 1 /4" DISKETTES

ATHANA OR NASHUA

SSSD 18.95

SSDD 22.95

DSDD 27.95

PERISOFT

ACCESSORIES FOR APPLE II & He
ALL WITH 1 YEAR WARRANTY BY

PRINTERLINK

CENTRONICS
PARALLEL INTERFACE

• Simple to use — No configuring required
• Use with any Centronics printer — EPSON,

OKIDATA, etc.

• Includes Cable & Manual

$58°°

MESSENGER

SERIAL INTERFACE

• Connects to any RS-232 serial device

• 8 switch selectable drivers for printers,

terminals and modems

• Includes Cable & Manual

$98°°

TIMELINK

REALTIME CLOCK

• Applications in file management, word

processing, communications, etc.
• Exclusive Alarm Clock feature
• Battery recharges automatically

$83°°
NEWBUFFERLINK

ADD-ON PRINTER BUFFER
• No more waiting for printed output

• Connects easily to any parallel interface

• Expandable from 16K to 64K

$138°° (16K)

The Flip Sort™

The new Flip Sort™ has all the fine qualities of
the original Flip Sort™, with some added bene-
fits. Along with a new design, capacity has in-
creased 50%, to hold 75 diskettes and the
price is more reasonable than ever. $19.95 ea.

The Flip Sort Plus™

The Flip Sort Plus™ adds new dimensions to
storage. Designed with similar elegant lines as
the original Flip Sort™, in a transparent
smoked acrylic. The Flip Sort Plus™ has a stor-
age capacity of over 100 diskettes and has all
the outstanding features you have come to ex-
pect from the flip sort Family. 24.95 each

DoKqi

2100 De La Cruz Blvd.
Santa Clara, CA 95050

Circle 158 ort inquiry card.

BYTE November 1983

697

. SALES

• MADE IN USA • BUY FACTORY DIRECT •

DISK DRIVE SPECIALS
We've Lowered Our Prices

Offering A Complete Selection And. . .
THE LOWEST PRICES IN BYTE!

8" Shugart 801R SS/DD - The Industry Standard $355.00

8" Shugart 851R Double Sided 1 2 Meg - The Old Reliable 457.00

8" Qume Datatrak-8 DS/DD THE BEST" of the floppys 479.00

8" Mitsubishi Full Height Double Sided 1 Year Parts + Labor , . .445.00

8" Mitsubishi Thinline DS/DD 1 Year P+L Direct Drive 465,00

8" Tandon 848-1 Slimline SS/DD 600K BYTES D.C. Motor 355.00

8" Tandon 848-2 Slimline Double Sided 1.2 Meg. D.C. Motor 475.00

8" Siemens 100-8 SS/00 ON SALE NOW!!! But How Long? 169.00

5 V Mitsubishi Full height 96T.P.I DS/DD 750K M4852 295.00

5 V Mistubishi Slimline 96T.P.I. DS/DD 750K M4853 315.00

5V Tandon TM-100-1 SS/DD 48T.P.I 168K Apple Apple 199.00

5V Tandon TM-100-2 1.B.M. PC Add-on* DS/DD 48 T.P.! 259.00

5 V Tandon TM 100-4 DS/DD 96T.P.I. 750K 369.00

• WINCHESTER HARD DISKS •

5Vj " Miniscribe 5 Meg* Hard Disk ~ Affordable $695.00

5 V Miniscribe 10 Meg* Hard Disk - Twice the Space 850.00

5 V Miniscribe 16 Meg* Hard Disk - Best Buy 995.00

5'/j" Miniscribe 10 Meg* Thinline only Vh inches wide) 795.00

8" Quantum 20* Megabyte Winchester - Two Platters ... 1895.00

8" Ouantum 40* Meg Four Platter - Most Popular 2395.00

8" Quantum 85* Megabyte - Special Order on this Monster! . . 2895.00
8" IOMEGA 10- Meg* Removeable Disk Drive with SCSI Controlled Inter-
face Board Runs up to four drives , 1895.00

8" IOMEGA 10 Meg* Cartridge Drive - No Control Interface 895.00

8" 10 Meg* Removeable Cartridge Media #M-2000-5l ..,,,,. 50.00

• LAST MINUTE SPECIAL 111 Buy any Winchester hard disk drive above and get a
Western Digital hard disk interface board AT COST 1 OA/LV 295.00!

'Total storage space after lew matting.

California
Computer
Systems

YEAR END CLEARANCE SALE

SAVE $61.00
New CCS2066 64K Dynamic Memory

• 65,536 bytes of Dynamic RAM • Z-80/8080, S-100 compatible • Port bank/1 6 levels
of64K = system memory of 1024K • Independently addressed in 16K blocks • 200ns
access and data lines • Hysteresis drivers and receivers for high noise immunity and
minimal bus loading effects. Part #B-5000-50 ONLY $299.00

SYSTEM SALE

• 2422 Disk Controller

• CP/M Operating System

• 2719 2-Port RS-232 Serial

• 8-bit Parallel I/O

►

YEAR END

• 2300A Mainframe

• 2066 64K Memory

• 2810 Z-80A CPU

• All AC/DC & Data Cables

A powerful package at ONLY $1495.00

CCS CALSTAR SYSTEM

Now available and with FREE SOFTWARE: • Perfect Writer • Perfect Calc • Perlect Speller
and • Perfect Filer.

This powerful single box system includes: • Z-80 with 128K of RAM expandable to
256k • A networking interface • An SASI hard disk interface to add-on a Winchester

• CP/M 3.0 operating system • One parallel and two serial ports • Reads and writes
the IBM 3740 format (compatible with XOR) AND • Two double-sided double-density
8" floppy drives for 2.4 Megabytes of formatted storage AND • Will run two or more
8" or 5V4" floppys. Part #S-150005

ON SALE NOW
Regular £3205:00 — Our Price Only $2695.00

FANTASTIC SAVINGS!

$ 395

HELD OVER
ON THE ORIGINAL S-100 MOD

For engineers, hobbiests. and anyone who wants to save a bundle, the S1-M0D
is the answer. Full regulaledpower to run up to four floppy disks coupled with
a mamoth S-100 power supply and 12 slot bus, makes the S1-M0D an excep-
tional computer base. Single board design means no wiring from the power
suppply to the motherboard. This eliminates all ground loop problems associated
with other brands of mainframes who are forced to use termination. The S1-M0D
is being offered this month with a matching S-100-12 cabinet. Fan cooled, fused,
with reset and keylock the cabinet is also enamel painted and silk screened.
Four A.C. outlets are provided lor peripheral hookup and plenty ot cutouts
available for RS-232. Centronics + others. Our regular S225.00 price for the
S1-M0D and 250.00 price for our 12 slot cabinet is being SLASHED'
SPECIFICATIONS:

Unregulated
+ 5V@5A +8V@30A
+ 24V@3A +16V@6A
-5V@1A -16V @6A
Don't settle for those cheap 6 slot immitations you've seen elsewhere in this
mag. OWN THE BEST! XOR S-1 MOD and S-100-12 Cabinet .... .$395.00!

8" POWER

For Two 8" Floppys

+5VDC @ 4 Amps
+ 24VDC @ 3 Amps

-5VDC@1 Amp

only 59.95

*

ONLY
* UNIVERSAL POWER SUPPLY .

S-100 POWER

For 6 to 22 Slots

+8VDC @ 30 Amps
+ 16VDC @ 6 Amps
-16VDC rS 6 Amps

89.50

.69.95

DUAL DRIVE SUBSYSTEMS

'i

* * *Last Minute Specials* * *

* Pack of 10 SS/DD Diskettes $ 26.50

* Pack of 10 DS/DD Diskettes 36.50

* S-100 Card Extender (Kit Only) 12.50

* MACRO Assembler from Digital Research 80.00

* C-ITOH Starwriter F-10 Parallel 1 195.00

* BusinessMaster 8-Module

Business Accounting Package 495.00

* NEW • WordStar 3.3 w/New Manuals . 349.00

* 10 Foot RS-232 Serial Cable 29.00

* Set (8) 4116 16K x 1 Bit Memory Chips 14.95

i

HORIZONTAL OR VERTICAL

Fully Assembled and Tested Units

ONE YEAR P + L WARRANTY

On Shugart and Mitsubishi Subsystems

w/lwo Misubishi DS/DD Assem. + Tested 2.4 Meg $1170.00

w/lwo Shugart 801R SS/DD Assem. + Tested 1.2 Meg 975.00

w/two Shugart 851R DS/DD Assem. + Tested 2.4 Meg 1225.00

w/twoSiemans 120-8 SS/DD Assem. + Tested 1.2 Meg 675.00

w/two Qume DT-8 DS/DD Assem. + Tested 2.4 Meg 1250.00

Cabinet Assem. & Tested w/Power Supply and Aces 235.00

Cabinet Top and Bottom with Mounting Hardware 0/i/y 69.50

All cabinets A & T and subsystems include all AC/DC wiring and 50 pin data
cable except the horizontal model which includes the internal 50 pin cable and
requires an external 50 pin cable pari #C-6000-01 $ 25.00

5 1 /4" Subsystems - Cabinet - Power Supply - Drives - Cables

w/two 48TPI SS/DD includes all cables Assem. + Tested 495.00

w/two 48TPI DS/DD includes all cables Assem. + Tested .... 595,00
w/two 96TPI DS/DD includes all cables Assem. + Tested 695.00 ,

CUSTOMER SERVICE HOTLINE 1 - (714) 898-5525

QUALITY IN A SYSTEM PACKAGE

Word Processing — Text Editing — Programming — Education

The Reason: An industry standard S-100 bus to assure proven design and reliability, and will
provide years of "upgradeability" with NO fear of obsolescence. Our Z-80A CPU is used more
by OEMs for computers than any other CPU in the v/ortd. The CP/M operathg system is
also the most popular operating system around. Thes3. coupled with the 8" IBM 3740 format,
another industry norm, opeis the door to trxxjsands of available applications software packages
as well as being compatble with dozens of OEM systems.

The Computer: An 8" Mbro Manager (see opposite page) has 2.4 Megabytes (2.4 Mbytes

= 14 Apple drives or 7 IBM PC drives — we use 1WO) of formatted storage, doubte-sided,

doubl&density. Snail in size, only 9" x I8V2", but powerful

_________ in features: • Two RS-232 serial ports • Centronics

_______——--- __ <_f Para 1161 P° rt * 2Kbvte PROM monitor, Z-80A @ 4MHz.

1 B 64Kbytes memory bank selectable, software and a disk

" controller to provide formats in any byte/size sector — 128

9 to 1024 — single- or double-acted — single- or cduble-

■ I density — 8" or 5'A ". That's right! Hook-up a pair of

J 5 1 A " drives any time. The software and hardware comes

I | ;■ with the system. More features include: • Two separate

I a power supplies • 4-slot S-100 mother-board • Hard-

I i disk options • DC brushless drect drives • Fan-coded

,., I J chassis • ONE YEAR parts aid labor warranty. .

The Printer: The Okidata 82A data processing printer has
become a proven standard of reliability among all printers in ft's dass. And this is why: • RS-232
serial and Centronics parallel interface • 120 cps print speed • Bi-direclJonaJ 9 x 9 dot matrix
print head • 80 column to 132 column (condensed
print) • 64 block graphic shapes • Self-test
• Double-width and bold print. The list goes on
and on and so doss this teavy duty printer which
can run all day with no duty cycle limitations and
features a long-life print-heed that's wananteed for
one full year parts and labor, A tractor feed is
available for the 82A at ai additional $85.00

The Terminal: The XOR-50Q terminal might be confused with the Lear-Siegler ADM 3A/5 or
the ADDS Regent 25 or the Televideo 91Q

or even (lie Hazdtine 1420 but only because
the XOR-500 emulates all of Itiem with a flick
of three switches or programmed by the
keyboard. The speed is awesome at 19.2
Kilobaud when hooked up to an XOR Micro
Manager. How fast? let's compare with an
IBM PC, which is a 16-bit machine and
theoretically luns twice as fast as an 8-blt
XOR system

Total time from system turn-on to a user
prompt from the ceprating system (start-up
& edd-boot) XOR = 3.1 seconds - IBM
PC = 27.9 secaids. For addrional features
on the XOR-500 see the ad at right.

The Software: WordStar version 3.3 from
MicroPro International is a word processing and text editing package that currently ranks as
the #1 selling applications software package in the world. Write letters, manuals and books,
create forms, documents, flyers and yes, even used WadStar as a screen editor. Macro Assembler
from Digital Research is hcluded too, so you can edfl and re-assemble your BIOS, equate
tables, etc., and really mess up your diskettes. The CP/M operating system is also included
and two disks full of software utiles such as fast copy routines, memory test, diagnostics
tests, formats, auto printer drivers, help files, and more! AI software is accompanied by manuals.

The Warranty: ONE YEAR parts and labor on the Micro Manager including the drives. Six
months P & L on the terminal. One year P & L on the Okjdato pint head and 90 days on the rest.

The abo\e system package also ircludes eleven manuals, all necessaiy AC and DC cables,
harnesses. RS-232 serial caoles aid data cables.

IN STOCK NOW. All orders phones in by 1:00pm have GUARANTEED same day shipment.

Order Part #S-1500-04 $3295.00

SPECIALS

XOR 500

TERMINAL

SALE!

$49522

XOR 500: A new video display terminal featur-
ing • Screen tilt • Detached keyboard • 9
cursor control keys • 5 function keys • 7
screen attributes • 25th status line •
50-19. 2K baud • Column + filed tab * and
more • All these features with a futl 6 month
warranty make this terminal the best buy on
the market. RS-232 cable not included.
XOR 500 #T-1QOO-15 S495.00

5 Va" MITSUBISHI

5 V Half Height
Floppys. 48 or 96
T.P.I. These dou-
ble sided, double
density drives will
hold .5 and 1
megabytes unformatted - full one year parts and labor
warranty. The 48 T.P.I, drives are perlect for i.B M,
P.C. add-ons!

#D-1000-34 OS/DO 48 T.P.I. Thinline . $295.00
#D-1000-32 OS/DD 96 T.P.I, Thinline $315.00

698 BYTE November 1983

Circle 487 on inquiry car

ORDER TOLL FREE

i? EAST i? ir. WES7" ^

800-435-9357 800-854-8174

In III. (815) 485-4002

In Calif. (714) 898-1492

mmm micro

IVI/W. SALES

EflMS: We accept ViSA/MC, prepay, check or money order. Please allow personal checks two weeks to clear before shipment
5.00 handling charge on all orders under S50.00 15% restocking fee. All orders shipped via UPS unless otherwise specified.
,11 UPS C.O.D. orders ovef S100.00 require a Cashiers Creek. Our products carry a lull ONE YEAR Parts and Labor Warranty excluding
rives, printers and terminals which carry the fuli OEM factory warranty. PRICES SUBJECT TO CHANGE WITHOUT NOTICE.

t

• MADE IN USA • BUY FACTORY DIRECT •

* EAST • 11 Edison Drive, New Lenox, Illinois 60451

• V$E$T * 15392 Assembly Lane, Huntington Beach, GA 92649

CUSTOM COMPUTER SYSTEMS by XOR

Why do companies like l.B.M. Corp. Atari Corp., Mattel Elec, Kennedy Space Center, Edwards A.F.B., Motorola Corp.. Raytheon, and Pacific Technology buy product by mail from us? Maybe
it's our full 1 year parts and labor warranty on all XOR O.E.M. products. It could be our state of the art technology, or even the factory direct sales and service. We think it's our custom
computer systems with over 1000 possible configurations. If you don't see it advertised, call us today, chances are we CAN custom build the system YOU need.

* • MICRO MANAGERS: POWERFUL, PORTABLE, AND AFFORDABLE •

Don't be fooled by the system's
smali portable size. A full 64K of
memory with an industry standard
S-100 bus. Includes CP/M 2.2
and many utilities on two disks.
Addon aharddiskwhenyou need
more storage. "The software and
hardware that comes with each
5'/4 " system, is ready to run a pair
of 8" single or double sided flop-
pies, just plug in the 50 pin data
cable to the system — many other
configurations are available.'*

5Va" Z-80A 64K CP/M System

Dual Floppy 375K SS/DD 40 Track #5-1000-86 . . . S1445.00
Dual Floppy 750K DS/DD 40 Track #S-1000-87 . . S1595.00

Dual Floppy 1.5 Meg DS/DD 80 Track #S-1000-88 . . . $1645.00
System Chassis (Mo boards, drives. CP/M) #S-l000-84 S 425.00

a

Inexpensive but powerful, small
enough for portability, these mini
harddisk systems have a special
XOR interface to the S-100 bus
that leaves an S-100 slot open for
expandability. Choose from 5. 10.
and 16 megabyte sizes (6.5, 12.
+ 20 megabyte unformatted.) In-
cludes CP/M operating system.
One year parts and labor warranty.
Includes software and controller
for 8" floppys.

514 " Hard Disk with y 2 Height Floppys

• 5 Meg Hard Disk w/375 Floppy #S-1000-81 $2195.00

* 5 Meg Hard Disk W/750K Floppy #3-1000-90 $2345.00

• 10 Meg Hard Disk w/2 1.5M Floppy #3-1000-92 . . S2795.00

* 16 Meg Hard Disk w/2 1.5M Floppy #5-1000-93 . . $2895.00

Our most popular computer
features a 4 slot S-100 bus and 8"
industry standard format. Reads
and writes the IBM 3740 formal
as well as any byte sizesector. Ex-
pandable 9 Ves. add a hard disk or
cartridge subsystem when your
data base grows. You've probably
seen some "look-a-like" S-100
4-sfot systems lately, but they just
don't measure up the XOR 8"
Micro Manager

2.4 Meg DS/DD 8" CP/M System

System w/DuafSS/DD 1.2 Meg #S-1000-40 . S1795.00

System w/Dual DS/DD 2 4 Meg #S-l000-39 . . $1995,00
System w/NO Drives (Includes CP/M) #S-1000-71 $1195.00

System Chassis (No boards, drives. CP/M) #S-1000-70 $ 395.00

• THE BASIC PROFESSIONAL FLOPPY, HARD DISK AND TAPE BACKUP •

|H| I

i

t^i

.

II

m

*»»

2.4 Meg DS/DD 64K Z-80A CP/M System

Tms Industry Sancaro' -jomputer features a '£. slot motherboard. 30 amp power supply
2 senal RS-232 ports. Centronics parallel port ana CP/M software. The XOR disk controller
included will read and write the LB M 3/40 formal (8" CP/M standard) as well as R/W
single on double srded. single or double density, and any byte/size sector One year parts
and labor on the complete system *S-l000-36 $2345.00

*

20 Meg Winchester w/2.4 Meg Floppys

For the serious professional this system features the lamous S-100- 12 cabinet with XOR s
S1-M0D i2-slot motherboard The Ouanlum hard disk nastwo 10 Meg platters (A ano B.)
One ptailer can be "backed-up" on another, 2/DS/DO 1 2 floppys are used for software en-
try, copies, and back-up One year pans and labor #S- 10OO-63 $5275.00

20M H.D. with 17M Tape and 1.2M Floppy

Backup your pnceiess data on this full 1 7 megabyte tape drive and oe able to pip files oerween
any ol the ihree penpherals for total versatility Bool CP/M Irom hard disk or floppy, change
tapes lor archival storage Reads and wntes the iBM 3740 Format 18" CPM standard!
*S-t000-69 S6390.00.

Above system 40 megabyte hard disk *S 1000-82 S7240.00

CP/M 3.0

U.S. MICRO SALES SOFTWARE GIVEAWAY!

CP/M 3.0

FREE

Order any system, below and get all of the following software and manuals absolutely FREE! CP/M Operating System,
Perfect Writer, Perfect Speller, Perfect Mailer, Perfect Calc, AND an eight module business accounting package by
BUSINESSMASTER INCLUDING: A/R order entry, A/P purchase orders, G/L, Payroll, Mailing List, Fixed Asset Ac-
counting, Inventory (RAW), and inventory regular goods. AND multi-user systems also include Digital Research's MP/M
and Link-80 software $1685.00 value.

FREE

* THE OFFICE MASTERS! REMOVABLE CARTRIDGE DISK SYSTEMS *

10 Meg Cartridge Disk And 1.2 Meg Floppy

An otlce system at an almost unbelievable price when you consider ihe bunale ol applications
sotlware that ccmes wnn the system Ten megabytes o! lormatted storage on a removable
cartridge drsk allows unlimited storage space with extra 10 Meg cartridges available .'it S50.00
each With the speed and reliability ol a hard disk aid removability of a floppy this office
master is the choice *S- 100074 $3695.00

TWO 10 Meg Removable and DS/DD Floppy

Destined lobeour #1 seller and no one else makes anything like it A true slate-ol-the-art
system with virtually no-limit to storage edacities in 10 Meg rumov.iole cartridges Backup
problems 7 Gel nigh speed backup from cartridge to caitndge ten megabytes worth in 5 minutes'
HINT We dent use PIP. ; Future technology here today #5-iQ0-76 S4595.00

4 User Cartridge Disk System

Four users and 1wo 10 megabyte removable cartridge disks may be just what you want to
automate your office or small business, with all the software packages you'll ever need. A
multi-user version of the system at left, these users can be up to 100 feet away from each
other. Most any terminal will work with the user ports. #5-1000-80 . $5825.00

• THE BUSINESS PROFESSIONALS: HARD DISK MULTI-USER SYSTEMS •

2 User Hard Disk System

A twenty meg hard disk (2 plalter) with a DS/DD 1.2 Meg floppy disk makes
this a perfect system frjr a small business. Two user allows dual access to
the system files with each station up to 100 feet apart 1 Includes above soft-
ware. Full one year parts and labor. #S-1000-61 S5495.00

•

40 Meg Hard Disk 4 User System

A must tor a growing business' Two DS/DD floppys (2 4 Meg) for data backup
and copy with a 4 platter 40 Meg hard disk four user capability to automate the
whole front office. You can even designate a 10 Meg platter to each user! Same
warranty as all our products - (configurable from 2 to 7 users) #S 1000-60 S7295

7 User 85 Meg w/17 Meg Backup

Now it's available, the automated business system to run even those large com-
panies! 7 separate users tied into one professional host system. If 85 Meg isn't
enough, we can put together as much as three hundred and tony megabytes! Full
17 Meg tape backup insures archival storage of valuable data#S-1000-98 S9595.00

ircte 487 on inquiry card.

BYTE November 1983

699

CaUFornia DigjtaI

Post Office Box 3097 B • Torrance, California 90503

KFREE*

Plastic library case supplied with all
I diskettes purchased from California Digital

$

19? 5

Manufactured lor Calilomia Digital by one
of the most respected producers of mag-
netic media. Each diskettes is double den-
sity at 40 tracks. To insure extended media
life all diskettes are manufactured with a
reinforced hub.

Each box of diskettes is supplied with a
free plastic library case.
Soft sector CAL-50 1 ; Ten sector CAL-5 10.
Also Available Double sided soft sec-
tor diskettes for use with the IBM/PC
CAL-551 $24.95__

5V4" DISKETTES

WITH LIBRARY CASE

$

26. 50

Your Choice

SCOTCH
MEMOREX
VERBATIM

Single Side Double Density
Soft Sector 10 Sector 16 Sector

SCOTCH

MEMOREX

VERBATIM

MAXELL

OYSAN

744D-0

3481

525-01

MD1

104/1D

744D-10

3483

525-10

MH1-10

107/1D

744D-16

3485

NA

MH1-16

NA

26.50

26.50

26.50

26.50

45.00

Double Side Double Density

SCOTCH

745-0

745-10

745-16

39.00

VERBATIM

550-D1

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

Single Side Double Density

SCOTCH

740-0

29.50

SCOTCH

741-0

39.00

MEMOREX

3060

29.50

MEMOREX

3090

35.00

DYSAN

3740/1

39.50

DYSAN

3740/D

57.50

Thirty Two Sector

Double side Double Density

SCOTCH 1 740-32 1 29.50

SCOTCH

7430

47.50

Flips File 5' j stores 50 disk INC-525 18 95

MEMDREX

3114

39.50

Scolch head cIlv
Plastic library en

nkit5'j&8 MM
,es5'j&8 SFIV

^■ck520 95
V-LS 2 95

DYSAN

3740/2D

65.00

23"

ICOMPOSITE
MONITOR

*159

ideal monitor

for classroom

I demonstrations.

I Ever try gathering a classroom o( Sludents around a 12 monitor? Here is your opportunity to
I purchase a 23 high resolution monitor at a reasonable price

I These unilsaccepi standard compos it video signals generated by mo si personal computers including
I the Apple and IBM Aitach it your computer and in sucond you are shoolmg down Klmgons in wide

SPECIAL

Shugart410

'129

These Shugar t 4 j 5'j disk drives are all lactory

fresh 1983 production, recently purchased from the l

Four Phase Division of the Motorola Corporation.

These disk drives are single sided 80 track(96 TPI) I

suitable for use with the Radio Shack Model 1 and Mode! 3 Or any other

application that can support an 80 track second dnvesuch as the I8M/PC. The

4 1 is lull height and functionally the same as the Tandon TM 1 00-3. Complete

with powerconnector and installation manual.

When these Shugart 4i0"s are liquidated the price will revert to our regular

price OIS249 SHU-SA410

ME MORY

16K DYNAMIC

2.95

4116 150ns,

64K DYNAMIC

5.95

4164 150ns.

u^f

2732 EPROM"\ &?$*

4.95^

450ns.

16K STATIC

4.95

6116 200ns.

2764 EPROM

SALE'5.95

DYNAMIC MEMORY

■I0274K dyn;t(inc250rt5

•Ill6 t50ns iGK
4116200ns I6K
.1164 150ns 64K 128 refresh
41256 150ns 256K

ICM-4027250
ICM.IITS150
ICM-11 16200
1CM-416.H50
ICM-1 1256150

2tL02 200ns IK sialic
2lL02J50ns IK sialic
2112 450ns 2K stone
2114 300ns 1Kx4
■l044TMS450ns IKx I
5257300ns 4K» I
6ll6P4 200ns.2K«6
6116 P3 150ns 2K x 8
6167/2167 100ns 16K x

STATIC MEMORY

ICM21L02200
ICM-21L024S0
ICM-21 12.150
ICM-2 114300
ICM-40U450
ICM.5257300
ICM-til 16200
ICM-61 I61SO
ICM-6167JOO

2708150ns IKiB
2716450ns 2K x 8
27 1 6TMS 150ns Tn-vollage
2732 150ns 4K xB
2732350ns 4K x 8
2532450ns IK x 8
2761350ns 8K x 8
27128 350ns I6K > 8

EPROMS

ICE-2708

ICE-2716

ICE-2716TMS

ICE-2732

ICE-2732350

ICE-2532

ICE -2 764

ICE-27128

CONNECTORS

DB25P

^'S-IOOGold

ft J> ft ft A ft *

iu± s

\±J

w

W.'ITI'I

<' rr "<y

GOLD S-100 EDGE CARD CONNECTORS
catalog eacMO-99 1 00 +
lmsais/1 250 CNEIMS 295 2 50 2 19
Sutlms Hi/Rel CNEHIOO 4 19 3 85 347
S-lOOWireW CNE-WI0 3 95 3 50 3 19
AltaTr 140 s/1 CNE-100A ,S 95 4 50 .1 1<J

.1S6 - CENTEREDGECARDCONNECTOHS

22/44 Eyelet CNE--ME 2 50 2 15 195

43/72MDlos/tCNE-72S 6.60 6 15 5 75

36/72 D/Gs/t CNE-72S 5 95 5 50 5 19

Otherconnectors available uponrcriuesl

RIBBON CONNECTORS

D625Pmale CNDr25P 5 65 5 25 4 15

D825S female CNO-i25S 5 95 5 59 -150

57-30360 male CNC-r36P 795 6 75 590

57-303601 maleCNCr36S 7 95 6 75 5 90

20ptnedge CNIDE20 4 35 3 30 2 50

20pm socket CN1DS20 2 75 185 160

26pmedge CNI-DE26 4 95 3 50 2 70

26pmsocket CNI-DS26 3 50 2 40 2 15

34ptnedge CNI-DE3-1 4 95 ISO 3 50

34 pin socket CNIDS34 4 50 3 95 3 i5

50pinedge CNI-DES0 5 95 5 60 4 90

50pinsockel CNI-DS50 4 95 4 60 38G

"""TYPE catalog flacti 10-99 100+

DE9Pmnle CND-9P 1 «0 140 130

DE9S female CND-9S 2 25 2 00 t 30

OE hood CND-9H 1 50 1 35 1 20

DAlSPmale CND-15P 235 3 10 2 90

DAI5S female CNL '5S 3 25 3 10 2 90

DAt5hood CND-15H 160 135 130

OB25Pmale CND-25P 2.50 1 95 1 65

OB25S female CND-25S 3 35 2 75 i 95

DB25tiood CN025H 1 35 I 15 77

OC37Pmale CND-37P 4 20 3 95 3 65

DC37S lerrole CND-37S 5 95 5 75 5.50

DC37hood CND-37H 2 25 195 165

DD50Pmale CND 50P 5 50 5 10 4 75

DO50hood CND-50H 2 60 2 10 2 10

Hardware 2/selCND-2HS .99 6 9 42

AMPHENOL / CENTRONICS TYPE

57-30360 36-= CNC-36P 7 95 6 35 4 90

1EEE48B CdorCND24P 7 95 6 35 5 35

DISK DRIVE POWER CONNECTORS

8 6 pin DC CNP6DC 195

H 3ACScjl S CNP 3SS I 69

U 3 AC DPI S CNP-3DS 1 69

5'; J pin DC CNP-4DC ■ 1 79

(jinUlNr.-tpi CJ1PDSP 2 59

ViSA

Shipping: First five pounds S3. 00, each additional pound S. 50.
Foreign orders: 10% shipping, excess will be refunded,
California residents add 6Vz% sales tax. • COD's discouraged.
Open accounts extended to state supported educational institu-
tions and companies with a strong "Dun & Bradstreet" rating.
Retail location: 15608 Inglewood Avenue, Lawndale 90260.

BLOWOUT

SALE

*H9

California Digital has recently participated in- 1

the purchase ol several thousand SiemensB

FDD 100-8 floppy disk drives. These units are eiectronicaUyand physically
simihar to that of the Shugarl 801 R. All units are new and shipped in factory
sealed boxes. Manual and power connectors supplied free upon request. Your
choice 1 1 5 Volt. 60Hz. or 230 Volt. 50Hz.

NOTE! European customers, we have a large Quantity of 230 voll 50 Hz. units warehoused m
FrartklOM Germany Arrangements can be made to will call ihese drives in quantities ot 50 or more
in Fr anklorl reducing import duty and freight charges

REMEX "SSf '219

California Digital has just purchased a large quantity of Remex RFD-4000
Eight inch double sided disk drives. Remex is the only double sided disk
drive that has an double gimbal mounted head assembly that guaranties lower
head tracking. This drive is mechanically solid. Remex has always been
known for producing premiere products for the floppy disk market. The Remex
company is a subsidiary of the Ex-cell-o Corporation, a Fortune 500 Company.

Eight Inch Single Sided Drives

SHUGART 801R
SHUGART 810 Half Height
SIEMENS FDD 100-8
TANDON 848E-1 Half Height

One Two Ten

385 375 365

385 375 365

169 169 159

369 359 349

Eight Inch Double Sided Drives

SHUGART SA851R
SHUGART 860 Half Height
QUME842"QUMETRACK8"
TANDON 848E-2 Half Height
REMEX RFD-4000
MITSUBISHI M2894-63
MITSUBISHI M2896-63 Half Ht.

495 485 475

495 485 475

459 459 449

485 475 465

219 219 209

379 375 369

459 449 409

Five Inch Single Sided Drives

SHUGART SA400L
SHUGART SA410 96TPI/80 Trk.
SHUGART SA200% Height
TANDON TM100-1
TANDDNTM50-1 Half Height
TEACFD-55AHalf Height

235 229 225

129 119 call

169 159 149

189 179 175

465 450 439

465 459 445

Five Inch Double Sided Drives

SHUGART SA450 319 309 299

SHUGART SA455 Half Height 259 249 239

SHUGART SA465 Half Ht. 96TPI 289 279 269

TANDDNTM50-2 Half Height 215 209 199

TANDDN TM55-4 half Ht. 96TPI 329 319 309

TANDDN 100-2 279 269 259

TANDDN 101-4 96TPI 80 Track 369 355 350

MITSUBISHI 4851 Half Height 259 249 245

MITSUBISHI 4853 Vi Ht. 96TPI 339 329 319

MITSUBISHI 4854 V 2 Ht., 8" elec. 465 449 439

QUME 142 Half Height 239 229 219

TEACFD-55B Half Height 329 319 299

Five Inch Winchester Hard Disks Drives
SHUGART 612 13M/Bytes 895 865 825

SHUGART706 6M/Byte, Half Ht 795 775 755
SHUGART712 13M/Byte, V 2 Ht. 895 865 825
SEAGATE 506 6 M/Byte 555 495 475

TANDDN 503 12 M/Byte 895 875 855

Upon request, all drives are supplied
with power connectors and manual

ENCLOSURES

Calilorni a Digilal manufactures an asortmento I stock and custom diskdnve
enclosures It the volume is justified we will custom design an enclosure lor
your application The following stock disk drive enclosures are available
All include powersupphes the 8 enclosures are supplied with exhaust fans

Horizontal mount two 8 full
height drives. S279.00

Vertical mount two full height 8
disk drives S299 00

Horizontal mount one full heighi
or two hfill height 8 disk
drives S239 00

Vertical mount two lull height 5' **
disk drives $139.00

TOLL FREE ORDER LINE

(800) 421-5041

TECHNICAL & CALIFORNIA

(213) 643-9001

CaM Forma DiqiTAl

Post Off ice Box 3097 B • Torrance, California 90503

OCR READER

RECOGNITION EQUIPMENT

295

ASCII OUTPUT
OCR "A" ABOVE.

One of our best selling liquidations is again available. This OCR readers was
manufactured by Recognition Equipment Incorporated for the TRW Corpora-
tion. Used m their point of sale cash reqister systems currently in use at the
Sears Roebuck and J.C. Penney retail stores.

These OCR readers are suitable forinpulinq data tor inventory control, pomtof
sate or any application where accuracy and speed are essential. Units should
easily interface to most microcomputer such as Apple and S-iOO systems.
Interfaces eight bit ASCII parallel with handshaking' Controller has 1 1 user
accesable registers that are software controllable, minimizing double entry of
data The OCR wand reads a subset of OCR A as fast as 1 characters per
second Print wheels are available for most daisy wheel printers as well as
electric typewriters.

Documentation and application notes are included. Each reader is brand new
m factory sealed boxes Original acquisition is aprox.S2.500 OCR-720 15 lbs.

O LIBERTY $d7£
FREEDOM 50 Tfr
The Liberty Freedom 50 terminal leaiuros detach-
able keyboard wilh 93 keys including 10 funeiion
keys. 15 graphic symbols ana DIP switch selectable
character sol lor 7 Irxeign languages The 1 2 inch
etched non glare green phosphor screen displays
; 24 rows by 80 characters in 7«9 matrix with true
\ descenders Sell tesl and 25th data display tow also
included Swilcn selectable baud rates liom 110-

Jisplay memory, allowing operator to ilispfiiy a lull 1920

characters Emuiaies 5 popular CF1T terminals tor c.v.v t i'llw..n«":i;r.liguralion Switch selectable
between 1 15 and 230 voh We havtr never seen a terminal with all those teatuies lor Die incredibly
low price ol only S475 LIB F50 -10 lbs

iSftMHttfUN

DIABLO

Word Processing Printer -4

'879 H

Now Irom ine originator ol Iho daisy wheet printer, ihe Diablo 620 Print speeds to 2\ char .'sec
user selectable bidirectional printing, superscript, subscripts, graphics and more Plus standard
RS-232 interlacing Communication speeds 10 1200 baud with a 1500 character pnnibulfer
Soflware programabk' abi.oluli' h.in/ontal tab-, hum", nri'orl luvnallinq e.j-.y Over 20 diltisrenl
print wheels are currenlly available The 620 aulomancally selects Ihe print spacing tor 10 12 16
char /inch print wheels On sile service available worldwide DBL-620 50 lbs

Your Choice
SECOND DRIVE
GREEN MONITOR

Sanyo Electronics has just released the long awaited IBM/PC look-a-
like, the MBC-550. This is a complete microcomputer that includes a
5'/4" 160K/Byte disk drive, 128K/Byte of memory, color graphics inter-
face, low profile keyboard, and parallel printer port. Also includes ex-
tensive software such as Sanyo Basic, disk utilities. Wordstar, and
Visacalc. MS-DOS is supplied with the Sanyo computer allowing most
programs written tor the IBM/PC to operate on the MBC-550.
Along with all this California Digital oilers "FREE" your choice of
either a second disk drive or a high resolution green phosphor moni-
tor. All at the super low price of only S995.00,
We expect to see a initial shortage of this item, MBC-550's will be
shipped on a first ordered basis. Please placeyourorder early.

PRINTERS

'299

Star Gemini

MATRIX PRINTERS

StarGemini- 10X120 char/sec -IKbuHer STR-G10X

Sl.irGemini-15. 100 char /sec 15 paper STR-G15

Slar Coex 80FT tnclion & iracior VSTCQOFT

Toshiba P 1 350 . 1 92 char/sec loiter quality TOS-1350

Okidata82A senal & parallel 9' i paper 0KI-B2A

GkidOta 92A parallel mierface 160 char/sec OKI 92A

Okidata83A& parallel 15 paper OKI-83A

Okidala8-iA&paralleM5 paper OKi-8->A

OKidata2350(new)350char/sec OK1-2350

Epson FX80. 10 160 char -sec with graphtrax EPS-FX80

FiiMjf, r-.'XHKjMngupiilra*. 15 paper EPS-MXIOO

Nl.t .'.(iii.r.lA parallel LI-.' paper graphics NEC-8023A

Arvi'ji,;« 9501 A high speed wiih graphics ADX-9501A

Anade* 9620A 20O char/see par ( & serial ADX-9620A

Datasoulh ISOhtgh speed 18«cps 15 DSI-180

Quante« 7O30corespondencr) gualny t80 char/sec QTX-7030

Gorilla lo at cost d 0! matrix p/mlo/ PRO-7500

Prov.nter 8510 parallel 9'r paper PRO-8510P

Pro *nler85l0 serial 9' i paper PRO -8510S

Prownier II. parallel 15 paper, graphics F'RO-21 1
Prmlronu P300 high speed p'tnier 300 lines per minute PTXP300

Prmironn P&0O uilrahig h speed 600 linus per rmnuie PTX P600

Matwsmann Tally 160 L serial A par I 1 60 char/sec MAN-I60L

WORD PROCESSING PRINTERS

NEC7710 55 char/second.senahmetlace NEC-7710

NEC7730 55 char/sec. par l interlace NEC-7730

Silver RecdEXPSOO Id char/sec pari interlace SRD-EXP500

Silver Reed EXP550 17 Char/sec par Imtertace SRD-EXP550

Diablo 630 40 char/sec serial DSL 630

Orablo620 proportional spacing horz i
Jul(i6i00 IB char /sec graphicmode
Broiher HR i A daisy wheel, paralielmtertaang
Brother HR J A serial interlace
Slarwnter F 1 senal. -lOchnr/soc
Siarwnler FIO parallel -tOcliar/sec

lab 20cps DBL-620
JUK-6100
BTH-HR1P
BTH-HRlS
PRO-FlOS
PRO- F I OP

29900
399 00
229 00
1-19900
.11900
-19900
629 00
96900
199500
57500
69500
39500
1 1 1 9 00
1229 00
129500
159500
20900
19500
63900
75000
450000
615000
69500

199500
1995 00
59500
759 00
189500
87900
565.00
779 00
83900
147500
1475.00

EPSON MX80
RIBBONS s 6.95

MONITORS

BMC 12A green phosphor 15 MHz crjmposit video
BMC !.? hujn resolution. 20MHz

; : Vu ''i ZVV.l ;>1 tjreen phosphor 12 -10/80 column switch
NEC JB 1201 green phosphor 18 MHz compos u v moo
NEC JBI260 commercial grade compoS't
USI Amber screen 12 compo^i monitor
Mol'jiola :-'.i open frame b!k. white cornposit video
MotOfbta 12 open frame features horz sync, and power
Ccnrat 9 open frame requires horz sync & 12v supply

COLOR
BMC AU9 1 9 1 U Color ccmposil video with sound
BMC 9i9iM RGB designed 'or use with the IBM computer
NEC JC 1 203DM. RGB CC-iQr monitor
NEC JC 1 20 1 color composi!
Zenith ZVM 134 RGB color salable (or IBM PC
Com rex color cornposit with sound
Amde* Ccior 1 cornposit video

BMC-12A 88 00

BMC-12EN 13900

2TH-2121 10900

NEC-JB1201 169 00

NEC-J81260 12900

USI12A 16900

MOT-BW23 159 00

MOT-BW12 6900

CON-BW9 59.00

BMC-9191 27900

BMC-9191M 499 00

NEC-1203 699.00

NEC-JC120I 339 00

ZTH-Z134 59500

COM-6500 329 00

AMK-100 329.00

!5ITT1

MODEMS

. DIRECT CONNECT
S75.00

Hayes Sman Modem 1200 baud autoanswer. aulo dial HYS-2I2AD 49500

Hayes l200Blor use with the IBM/PC 1 200 baud HYS-1 200B 479 00

Hayes Smarimodem. 300 baud only auto answer auto diiii HYSiOSAD 229 00

Hayes MiCromodem II 103 A»ple direct connect HYS-MM2 279 00

Hayes Mcromodem 100 S-tOO autoanswer autodial HYS-JOO 319 00

Hayes Chronograph times, date HYS-CHR232 199 00

U S Robohcs 21 2A 300/ COO baud aulo dial/ answer USR-2I2A -139 00

Penni300 1200 aulodial.aulotog PEN-I2AD 69500

Universal Data I03LP line power answer 8. or.gmaie UDS-103LP 169 00

Universal Data 103LPJ.AU1O answer UDS-103LPJ 21900

Universal Data 202 l200b;iud halfdiipiexaniy UDS 202LP 219 00

Universal Oala 2 12LP. full 1200 baud duplex line power UDS-212LP 1159 00

ition J Cat direct connect aulo ansv«er NOV-JCAT 1 1 9 00

ahon Cal acoushc conneci NOV-CAT '59 00

_ NovalionSmatlCaM03 aulo answer auiodral HOVSCI03 219 00

Novation SmatlCai t03 212 l200bauoauiodiai NOV-SC212 52900

Signatman Mark 1 direct connect wiihterm.nal cable SGL-MK1 75 00

VISA

TERMINALS

The Wyse 100 features die cast
aluminum case, 102 key keyboard
and non-glare 26 line green phos- 1
phor video display. Split screen I
both horizontal an vertical makes I
the WY-100 unusally user friendly. [
This unique terminal is perfect to |
enhance any business system.

Wyse

'79$

I green

!>v>p.u;i> li.rn key:,
1 I wo p.u|u lunc keys

Teiovideo 9 1 Plus block mode

T,.r,.-v doo'.i; 1 -. c.-Mf.' n.-P'.' Vi-ypiinrr! :'.-• 1u- ■•intin m;-,-s

"• . >:■::■ a,;) .-■r.iph.r ,;har syu! K'r.i'.-n 22 lunc

Teievideo970 14 oreen screen 132 column European ivi-a/u

Zer.itn 29 tern: in ■■ .':. - hable keyboard ZTH-Z29

Alj[1S V L-.-.puin; A I .-ii-l.ilch-ib'e keyboard ADD-VP1

L1B-F50

VSL-50

VSL330G

APX-D125G

APXD125A

WYS-50

WYS-100

WYS-300

TVIS10P

TVI-925

TVI 950

65900
67900
99500
675 00
68500
59500
79500

115900
59500
79500
98500

125900
76500
58500

APPLE

'1595

Apple ll/E Starter Systei
includes CPU, Apple brand green
disk drive. SO column card, and stand.

Advanced Busness Tech. 13 Key Pad
Calif Computer 77lOAAsync Serial Interface
Calif. Computer 7710B same but for modem
Calif Computer 71 14A 12K PROM module
Calif. Computer 7720A parallel interlace
Calil. Computer 7724ACalandar/c!ock modual
Calif. Computer 7729A Centronics interface
Calif. Computer 7740A programmable timer
California Digital t6K card for standard Apple 1
Hayes Micromodem II for Apple II
Kensington Micro. System saver fan
Kraft Corp. Apple Joystick
Microsoft Softcard with CP/M: Z-80
Mountain Computer "The Clock
Mountain Computer Super lalkerSD200
Mountain Computer AD/DA 1 6 input. 8 bit
Mountain Computer ROM Plus with keybb.liltei
Mountain Computer ROM writer/socket
Orange Micro GRAPPLER "' parallel interface
Sorrento Valley 8" controller double side D/D.
TEAC 5 1 ■:" disk drive for Apple II
Vista Vision 80; 80 column card for std.Apple II
Vista 8" disk controller double side D/D.

ABT-13B

CCS-7710

CCS-7710B

CCS-7114

CCS-7720

CCS-7724

CCS-7729

CCS-7740

CAL-A16

HYS-MM2

KEN-SF1

KFT-JY2

MSF-SFTCD

MTN-TCLK

MTN-STLK

MTN-ADDA

MTN-RMF

MTN-ROMW

OMS-G2

SVA223

TEA-A2

VSA-VIS80

VSA-A800

XEROX ***

WORD PROCESSING T Jf%^#

KEYBOARD *9T

(is

1 ^t+\ W. m » 3 M I* H .« M * ! Ml ■

* : MPgS

*- ,.]

5%" WINCHESTER CONTROLLER

■.muiuMifflimiiiiiim

DUAL PROCESSOR CPU BOARD

octagon

8/ 1 6 CPU cuts the price ol a dual processor system in half! A
single board now contains an 8 MHz 8088.4 MHz ZSO. 2
serial ports, mterupt controller, and dual density floppy disk

controller CP/M 2.2. CP/M 86. MS/DOS. PC/DOS. as well as UNIX is available.

The serial ports are fully software programmable with baud rates up to 19.200. The 8088 CPU can

be jumpered lor either 8 or 5 MHz operation A socket is provided for the 8087 math processor chip.

Intel 8272 disk controller is incorporated, controlling both 8 ' and 5M floppy disks simultaniously.

The mterupt controller is an 8259 that can accept interupts from on board as well as from the

VI0-VI7 lines on the buss S795.00

Octagon Hard Disk Controller Board features the new Western Digital Error Correcting"
Winchester Controller chip set. This optimized chip set and a data separator, designed exclusively
for Octagon, assures you extremely high data integrity.

The Octagon Hard Disk Controller can control up to four 5' j Winchester drives simultaniously.
The Board also includes an 8 bit Centronics printer port, and iwo fully programmable serial ports
with baud rates to 19.200. S475.00

S- 100 BOARDS

16BITMICROPROCESSORS

0<:lrUluN(1ualCPUfl088;Z80 <i coniroUBi 0C7.|flZ8l 795 00
GodlJOUl 8086/8087 microcomp 16bil GBT-8687 .'.95 00
Goilbout dual processor 6085,8088 8,16 GBT-8588 359 00

SINGLE BOARD COMPUTERS

insiqlilEQ-J t28K 4 semi nolS 1 00 INS-EQ4 59d00

Advancer! 0<g<tal floppy & 6-JK AMD-ZIO 75000

.1) master 7G5 (loppy. D IK TR-SMi 89500

Telultk FOCI Single DO.lrd no mwiioiy TEL-FDCl 67500

8 BIT MICROPROCESSORS

GuUboiilZBO 2-lbilexleiirtwlarJrj GIT-Z80 25000

Cililomra Computer ZBOmicraprocessoi CCS-2610 275 00
Tsrl)ellZ80.\illitv.oRS232porls TAR-ZBO 33900

FLOPPY DISK CONTROLLERS

Goobout Disk t double density

GBT-OSKi

3SS00

Calitorma.Computer 2422A wilnCPM

CCS-2J22

333 00

MoridA Disk Jockey II Willi CPM 2 2

MQS-DJ2

350 00

Morrow OiSk Jockey 1 with CPM SHI Den

MDS-DJi

225 00

TjrbellEltictronicsdoubletiensiiy

TAR-OOC

•!19t0

T.irbeli Elcctroincssingie density

1AR-SDC

27900

Fulcrum DMAOmmDiSk hOlO li.lrilttisk

FCM-001

389 00

CPM OPERATING SYSTEM

Digital nesearcnCPf.13 8 sgl den DRC-CPM30 249 00

Godboul CPM 2 2 tor Disk 1 GBT-CpM32 153 00

GorJbOuiCPM86for8088an 6086 GBT-CPM85 265 00

TarbellElecttonics C.Rvl 2 2 TaRCpM22 159 00

HARD DISK CONTROLLERS

□claoon hArd disk coniroller wnti E C OCTHO1 -175 00

Godbo|itDisk2 8 & 14 hardrJisV GB1-DSK2 56900

Goflbout DisK3 for 5'i Wmctiesiers GBT-DSK3 Nov

MoriOADesignsconiroiierforS'j Wm MDS-WS05 J 95 00

V.esiernO.g.tatriew VVO-iOOiinolS-lOO) WDl-lOOl -J9500

EPROM BOARDS

timet Access EPROMBfl programs 2 7 128 IAC-P100 465 OD

OigiUI Rese^rcn PROM boatfl 32K 0GR-P32 11 9 00

STATIC MEMORY BOARDS

Godboul Ram 16 6-1K 16 bildatalrans GBIRI6 459

GooboulRam 17 64K 8 bil2: bitadflress GBTRI7 359

Goo&oulRam2l 128K &y1e8/l6 transfer GBT-R2I 85S

fjicium0mmRama;i6lr,inslerbarik FCM R816 3°i

California Computet 2 116 8Ditorit> CCS 21 16 249

DYNAMIC MEMORY BOARDS

California 0igitai256K expand to I Meg CAL-D256 495 CO |

CaiilormaComp 20G6 64Kbankse!eci CCS-2066 295 00

INTERFACE BOARDS

GodbOJllnierfacer I 2 scrialpors GIT-133A 239.00

Godboul I nieriacerii 1 setiai3par ipons GBM50A 269 00

Godboulfntertaceftll withS serial ports GBM3SA 495 00

Godbout lmer1.icet III iMtfiBsetial ports GBT-138A 5B5 00

GodbJi iniertacerlV 3sptial Zparailel GBI-187A 329 00

CiMorniaComp His CCS-2710 279 00

Cahlomia Computer 27 19 Zseral 2 pat 1 CCS-2719 295 00

Cahlornia Computet 272Q 4 port pai f CCS-2720 219 00

California Computer 2830 6 port senal CCS-2830 429 Of

Morrow Designs Mulhboard 3 S/2P MDSMTL1 319 01

SPECIAL FUNCTION BOARDS

Hayes S-iOO Micromodem 300baud HVS-MlOO 325.Q
□TComputercloc»calenoar battery OTCCClOO 139 00 |

GbdboutSystemsupporiboard 4KEPR0MGBT-SYS1 35i
SodDout System iupporttJoard I5J1 mattitlBT-S851l 539 CS3 I

□ualSystems Jcfiannei i2biiOAconv 0SC-A0M12 613 Of

DualSystem 12diI resolution 32cn AD DSC-AIM12 629 00 I
MuliinsCpto-lsolalor comrois Bch MUL-ICB10 179 00 I
Muilms extender board wilhlogicA probe MUL-TI-i 79 00 f
t Tecnnoiogy wirewrap proiotype lOTWlOO 49 00
Artec Electronics wirewtap prototype ART-WW100 2500
ArtecEiectronicsgeneraipurposesolder ART-GP100 25 00 |

MAINFRAMES & MOTHER BOARDS

Eclipse Data stamiess 22 slot EDP-fOO 695 00

Godboul Enclosure 2 20slDts GBT-Mf2D 675 00

CaliformaComputer 2200 t2sloi CCS-2200 479 00 I

California Digital 16 slot mother board CALMB18 35
Godboul 12 slotmomer boardassemDlea GBI-MBI2 t*

CP/M SOFTWARE

AdaSoftCP/M ADA-445C 395.00

Back by popular demand our besl SSIItng woro proccssmq KijyDoard
77 key keyboard manufactured by Micro swilcfi lc Ihe Xerox Corpora-
tion Hall effect keys; for ihe utmost reliability

This keyboard outputs a seuen bit ASCII code along witti an eighth tut
Ihat allows most kevs lo shift and double lunction as special rti.:ir
actors. Extra large 1 ab and Relurn keys sirrnhat in layout 10 the IBM
Selectnc

t7 keys are illuminated for special woi ttOHS Two

BCD thumbwheel switches are also featured MIC-77X 6 lbs Cus-
tom enclosure ontion av,iil;inlp

Shipping: First five pounds S3. 00, each additional pound $.50.
Foreign orders: 10% shipping, excess will be refunded.
California residents add 6 V;>% sales tax. • COD's discouraged.
Open accounts extended to state supported educational institu-
tions and companies with a strong "Dun & Bradstreet" rating.
Retail location: 15608 Ingle wood Avenue, La wndale 90260.

D-Base I

Wordstar

Mailmerge

Speltstar

Multiplan

Macro 80

ASH-015C 429.00
MPR-187C 309.00
MPR-392C 169.00
MPR-429C 169.00
MSF-483C 189.00
MSF-187C 139.00

Supersoft
MAC
CP/M 3.0
Despool
Pascal Plus
CP/M 86
MP/M II

MPR-309C 149.00
DGR-401C 85.00
DGR-410C 249.00
DGR-367C 45.00
DGR-004C 429.00
DGR-186C 239.00
DGR-208C 379.00

Additional Software available for Apple, IBM/PC and
Atari. Please telephone for price and availability.

TOLL FREE ORDER LINE

(800) 421-5041

TECHNICAL & CALIFORNIA

(213) 643-9001

WE TRY HARDER

MINIMUM SHIPPING $3.00 - NO SURCHARGE ON VISA/MASTERCARD

TOLL FREE 1-800-545-2633 - Continental U.S.

DISK DRIVES

DISK DRIVE CABINETS DISK SUB ASSEMBLY

SHUGART

5V«"SA400(35TR) 160K 150.00

5 V« " SA400L (40 TR) 190 K 175.00

5V«" SA455L(40TR)320K y 2 HGT . . 235.00

8" SA801R(SS/DD) 600 K 359.00

8" SA851R(DS/DD) 1.2 MG 479.00

QUME

5V«" 142(40TR) 320 K Vi HGT 249.00

8"DT8(842) 490.00

MITSUBISHI
5V4" M-4853 y 2 size 410.00

96 TPI same as TM 100-4

M-2894-63(SS/DD) 220V 449.00

8" M-289G63 399.00

Thinline 8" OS/DD 1.2 MG

8" M-2894-63(110V) 389.00

STD 8" DS/DD 1.2 MG

DISKETTE STORAGE

ADVANCE ACCESS

AA-5 1 /* (Holds 82 Disks) 17.00

AA-8 (Holds 82 Disks) 26.00

Smoked Plexiglass Disk Tubs
LIBRARY CASES
CAS-5V4 "Colors Available; color burst asst., 2.50

CAS-8" beige, black, blue, red. gray 3.00

Color Burst (Pack of 5) 12.00

FLIP "N" FILE

Flip "N" File 25-5 V* " (holds 25) w/lock . 21.00

50-5V4 (holds 50) w/lock 27.95

Flip "N" File "Original-5" (holds 50) . . . 21.00

Flip "N" File "Original 8" (holds 50). . . 29.95

DATA CABLES

8"DSC 88-2SKT-for 2-8" drvs

w/skt. conn 20.00

5V4 M DSC55-2SKT-for 1-5V4"

dvs w/skt, conn 20.00

RS232MM-5' (male to male) 19.00

IBM to PAR 32.00

Osborne to PAR 32.00

Kaypro to PAR 32.00

OKI-Data Serial 24.00

QUV-T8/1H (hobby) 49.95

QUV-T8/2I (Industrial version) 68.95

QUV-T8/2P(w/timer& safety switch) 97.50

CDC

5y4"9409-DS/DD(ForCompaque) . . . 279.00
TAN DON

5V4"TM10O-1SS/DD160K 150.00

5V4"TM100-2A FOR IBM-PC . . . 225.00
DS/DD (320 K)

TM101-4(96 TPI Quad Den) 339.00

8" TM848-2 (DS/DD) 1.2 MG 400.00

PERTEC
5V4"FD200-5(160 KSS/DD40TR) . . . 139.00
5V4" FD25O5(320 K DS/DD 40TR) . . . 195.00

SIEMAN'S
8" FD10OB (SS/DD) 110V/801 R). . . . \169.00
8" FD100-8 (SS/DD) 220v\Compatible/l99.00

MPI
5V4" B-51 40TR SS/DD 180 K 145.00

RS232 Connectors

SOLDER TYPE

DB25P 2.50

DB25S 3.00

DB25 Hood 1-00

S-100 Connectors 10 for 25.00

DE9P 2.00

FLAT RIBBON TYPE

IDC25P 6.25

IDC25S 6.60

IDC25Hood 1-60

SOCKET Qty. 100

IDC10SKT 1.90 1.00

IDC16SKT 2.50 1.20

IDC20SKT 2.75 1.30

IDC26SKT 3.50 1.60

IDC34SKT 4.50 2.20

IDC50SKT 6.50 3.20

CARD EDGE Qty. 100

CEC26 5.00 2.70

CEC34 6.00 3.50

CEC50 7.25 4.90

MODEMS

* Hayes Smart 300 199.00

*Hayes Smart 1200 499.00

Multi-Tech MT 212 AD (1200/300) .... 499.00

Novation J-Cat 300 119.00

Novation Apple Cat 269.00

SSM AMC -300 (For Apple)

Auto Dial 259.00

US. Robotics 212A Auto Dial 469.00

*U.S. Robotics Password 399.00

8" CABINETS

8" DDC88V28 w/PS vertical

for 2-8" drives 269.00

8" DDC88T-1 w/PS vertical-tor 2

or 4-8" thinline drives 269.00

8" DDC88T-2 w/PS vertical for 2

8" thinline drives 200.00

8" DDC8H w/PS horizontal for

1 ea. 8" drive 249.00

8" DDC8V w/PS vertical for 1

8" drive 249.00

8" DDC88H w/PS horizontal

for 2-8" drives 269.00

5V4" CABINETS

5%" DDC5H w/PS horizontal-for
1-574" drive 55.00

5V4*' DDC5V w/PS vertical-for
1 ea. 5V4 " drive 65.00

5 1 /4" DDC55V w/PS vertical-for
2-5V4 drives 85.00

OUR BEST BUY'S

6" SUB ASSEMBLY

DDS + O 2EA SS/DD Siemens FD100-8

Drives w/Cabinet 595.00

DDS +2 2EA DS/DD Mitsubishi
M2894-63 w/cabinet 1,075.00

DDS + 4 2EA DS/DD 8" Thinline

Drives w/Cabinet 1,150.00

Specify— Vertical or Horizontal Cabinet

5V4" SUB ASSEMBLY

DDS + 5 1 EA SS/DD Disk Drive 200.00

DDS + 6 2EA SS/DD Disk Drive 369.00

Z80A (4MHZ) .... 5.00 TMS2716 (5 & 12V) 5.00

TR1602B WD .... 2.00 4164-200NS 6.00

2114L2(200NS) . . 1.50 4164-150NS 7.00

TMS2532 6.95 93421PC 3.00

2716 (5V) 5.00 LM340T12 1.00

MANY LS IN STOCK

KAYPRO II — IV VIDEO DISPLAY MONITORS

Sprinter K(5MHZ Speed-up) 99.00
K-C!ock (Batt Backup

Clk/Cal) 99.50

Video Output BD-(allows use of

video monitor) 125.00

Kaypro II Upgrade Disk Drives

(DS/DD) 239.00

(Trade-in Allowance $75
for SS/DD Drive)

DISKETTES

Diskettes are 3m media
packaged and certified by
CENTECH. Lifetime warranty —
5 colors in each pkg. (Red,
Yellow, Blue, Green, Brown)

5 1 /T Sgl side/dbl den 22.00/10

5Va" Dbl side/dbl den 29.00/10

5 1 /4" 10 sector 24.00/10

5 1 /4" 16 sector 2400/10

8" Sgl side/dbl den 30.00/10

8" Dbl side/dbl den 40.00/10

AMBER

DynaxAM121 (20 MHZ) Hi-Res/80 Col/12" 139.00

USI PI-4 (20 MHZ) Hi-Res/80 Col/9" 139.00

USI PI-3(20 MHZ) Hi-Res/80 Col/12" 149.00

^f Zenith ZM122 (18 MHZ) Hi-Res/80 Col/12" . 119.00

COLOR

Amdek 1-12" Composite (For Apple) 260.00

Amdekll-12"-RGB (For IBM-PC) w/audio. . 469.00

Amdek I + Composite w/audio 289.00

BMC 9191-12" Composite (For Apple) 255.00

Princeton HX-12-RGB (For IBM-PC) 489.00

Sakata SC-100-13" Composite (For All). . . 260.00
Sakata SC-200-RGB (For All) 489.00

GREEN

BMC 1 2AU (15 M HZ) 80 Col/12" 80.00

Dynax GM 120 (20 MHZ) Hi-Res/80

Col/12" 129.00

Sanyo DM 2112(15 MHZ)64 Col/12" 80.00

Sakata SC-1000 (18 MHZ) 80 Col/12" 119.00

USI PI-1 (20 MHZ) Hi-Res/9" 129.00

USI PI-2 (20 MHZ) Hi-Res/12" 139.00

S-100 PRODUCTS

CARD CAGES/MOTHER BOARDS

"IEEE-696-No termination required

w/card bare card

Slots Bare Bd

A + T cage

cage

4 15.00

40.00 60.00

20.00

6 20.00

48.00 70.00

22.00

8 25.00

69.00 100.00

31.00

12 30.00

99.00 140.00

41.00

18 45.00

150.00 200.00

50.00

22 60.00

185.00 —

75.00

All card cages

will accommodate

a 4" fan

Add $20.00 for 1 fan-Add $30.00 for 2 fans

MAINFRAMES

For 2 Standard 8" Drives

MF + DD6 (6 slot M/B) 575.00

MF + DD8 (8 slot M/B) 625.00

MF + DD12 (12 slot M/B) 675.00

For 2 Thinline 8" Drives

IMF + DD6F 350.00

I

CLOCK/CALENDAR

S-100 Clock/Calendar by QT/
Computime CCS-BB Bare Bd. or
manual 45.00

CCS-A Assembled and

Tested $95.00

For2-5V«" Disk Drives

MF + MD12 (12 slot M/B) 560.00

Standard Plain Front

MF + 12 (12 slot M/B) 499.00

MF + 22 (22 slot M/B) 550.00

All mainframes except IMF+ DD6F have EMI filter, 2 AC outlets, 15
ea. DB25, 2 ea. 50 pin, 2 ea. 34 pin, 1 ea. Centronic cutouts, power
supply for 8" M F ( - 5V1 A/ + 5V6A/ + 8V16A/ ± 16V3A7 + 24V6A)

CPU/M EM/I/O

QTC-SBC 2/4BB 1 ser 1 par

CPU $50.00

QTC-SBC 2/4 A A + T $265.00

QTC-Z + 80 BB 1 serial $28.00

QTC-EXP+III Bare Bd.

(dynamic) $75.00

QTC-EXP+III64K A + T

(64K/256K or 1 MEG) $450.00

I/O Tech I/O + 2 Ser 3 Par Bare

Bd 75.00

I/O Tech I/O + 2 Ser 3 Par

A & T 300.00

I/O Tech ADA Converter Bd '. 40a00
I/O Tech Dual GP1 B Interface

Bd 695.00

I/O Tech S-Ram 128K Static 16

bit 795.00

SEE AD IN BYTE

COMPUPRO

S-100-all assembled and tested

System 816A 4,000.00

System 816C 6,795.00

20 Slot MB 220.00

CPU 8085/88 389.00

Disk I w/CPM 399.00

DiskH 610.00

Ram 17-64K 410.00

Ram21-128K 900.00

Ram 16 . . 400.00

System Support 1 350.00

lnterface/R4 350.00

CPU 8086/8087 599.00

Active Terminator 55.00

Enclosure 2 (desk) 695.00

CALL FOR OTHERS

SIERRA DATA

COMPUTIME/QT BARE BOARD SET

Best Bare Board Set Available

SBC 2/4 CPU (1 SER 1-PAR)

EXP + III 256 K Memory Bd. Exp. to 1 MEG

FDC 5/8 Floppy disk controller (5 1 /4 or 8")

Bare Board Set $150.00

1) Includes manuals & assembly instructions

2) Parts available

3) Monitor & B10S available. Add $30.00.

SDS-SBC-100-Z80(4mhz) master
2 serial 2 par/floppy con-
trol ler/64k ram $675.00

SDS-SBC~100S-4mhz slave/2
serial 2 par/64k ram $625.00

SDS-ZSIO/4-4 serial port
I/O bd $250.00

SDS-MUX-RS232 multiplexer

bd . . . . $235.00

SDS-HDI-M-Hard disk bd

for micropolis $129.00

SDS-CPM/B105-cp/m for SBC

100W/BIOS $150.00

SDS-Turbodos-Multi-user for

master & slaves $645.00

CUSTOMER SERVICE
JOHN PIZZELLO

i -801 -363-331 7

Circle 203 on inquiry card.

The Great Salt Lake

Computer Company, Inc.

1-801-363-3314

Retail Sales

123 East 200 South

., Salt Lake City, Utah 84111
Retail Hours

Monday-Friday 10 AM to 6 PM
Saturday 10 AM to 5 PM

TO SERVE YOU!!

CALIFORNIA RESIDENTS SAVE 6% SALES TAX

* YEARS(1976) EXPERIENCE IN COMPUTER MAIL ORDER BUSINESS

PRINTERS

ALPHACOM

• 40 OR 80 COL
•80CPS
« FULL CHARACTER

SETS

• GRAPHICS

• LIGHT WT. 4 TO 6 LBS.

• FRICTION FEED

ALPHACOM 42 (40 col) $101.00
ALPHACOM 81 (80 col) $149.00
INTERFACE tor ATARI, COM-
MODORE Tl or APPLE $39.00
40 COL PAPER (per roll) SZ60
80 COL PAPER (per roll) $4.50
BMC

PB101 16CPS, 2K Buffer, Par 649.00

PB104 Silver Reed Look-Alike 599.00

COMREX

CR-2 12 CPS, 5K Buffer 499.00

DAISYWRITER

"fc Daisy writer 2000-48K Buffer/20T040CPS LTR/Par .. 1,050.00
Daisy writer Cable 40.00

DIABLO

620 (25CPS/Serial) 920.00

630 (40CPS/Multi-IF) 1,790.00

DYNAX

Dynax-15 Par-13CPS Daisy Wheel

2 color PTG-3K buff 475.00

Dyanx 15 Serial-13CPS Daisy Wheel 525.00

C, ITOH

Gorilla (Par 50 CPS) 199.00

^f Pro-writer I (8510A) Par 120 CPS 350.00

Pro-writer I (8510A) Serial 120 CPS 529.00

Pro-writer II Parallel-15" 669.00

8600 (180CPS) Par or Serial 18 PIN 90 CPS LTR .... 1,099.00

F-10 40CPS/Diablo/Par or Serial 1,149.00

F-10 55CPS/Diablo/Par or Serial 1,425.00

EPSON

FX80(160CPS-Par10") CALL

FX100 (160 CPS-Par 15") CALL

JUKI

61 00-18CPS/Diablo Compatible Par/Daisy Wheel 569.00

MANNESMAN-TALLY

160L (160CPC-40CPS LTR 10") 589.00

180L(160CPS-40CPSLTR 15") 829.00

MPI

MPI-99G (9") Par 499.00

MP1 150 Bl (15") Par2K Buff w/Graphics 675.00

MPI 150AI(15")Par4K Buff w/Graphics 799.00

MP1 150 Al (15") Par 16K Buff w/Graphics 899.00

NEC

NEC3550(For IBM PC) 1,850.00

NEC7715 (w/Diablo Emulation) 1,995.00

NEC8023A (100CPS-Par-Graphics) 389.00

Serial Card 139.00

NEC8025A (100 CPS-Par-Graphics) 699.00

OKI-DATA

Microline 82A (SER & PAR-120CPS 10") 379.00

Microline83A(SER & PAR-120CPS 15") 629.00

JC Microline 92 (PAR-160CPS-LTR-10") 489.00

Microline 93 (PAR-160CPS-LTR-15") 799.00

Microline 84P (PAR-200CPS-LTR-15") 969.00

Microline 84S (SER-200CPS-LTR-1 5") 1,059.00

STAR MICRONICS

k Gemini 10X NEW VERSION (PAR-120CPS-10") CALL

Gemini 15X(PAR-120CPS-15") CALL

fc Gemini 15-(PAR-100CPS-15") 399.00

Gemini Delta 10 (Par-160CPS-10" 8K buffer serial) CALL

SILVER REED

EXP550P-17CPS Daisy Wheel-PAR 670.00

EXP550S-17CPS Daisy Wheel-Serial 690.00

TOSHIBA

k P-1350(192CPS-120CPSLTR PAR or Serial) 1,499.00

TRANSTAR

120 P 499.00

315 Color Printer 499.00

IBM ACCESSORIES

AST

6 Pak Plus (SPC 64K) 299.00

Combo Plus (SPC 64K) 285.00

Mega Plus (SC, 64K) 305.00

I/O Plus Serial/Par Port 149.00

D.C. HAYES

Smartmodem 1200B 429.00

MAYNARD

Floppy Controller 160.00

Floppy Controller (Serial) 235.00

Floppy Controller (PAR) 215.00

Sandstar MOD-FDC
MODULAR (for 5'A" or 8" drives) .200.00

ADD-ONS FOR Pararrel MOD 60.00

SANDSTAR Serial-MOD 79.00

MOD-FDC Clock Calendar MOD ...69.00

Game Adapter MOD 49.00

Sandstar Multi-Function BD (Holds up to
6 modular add-ons 82.00

QUADRAM

Quadboard64K/256K 289.00/459.00

Quadboard II 64K/256K 289.00/459.00

Quad Link (Allows IBM PC to use Apple II

Software) 589.00

Microfazer (BK) 119.00

KEYTRONICS

Enhance your PC-with a superior keyboard 199.00

64K UPGRADE KIT — $50.00
Includes 9 ea. 4164 (200NS)

TOLL FREE

1-800-545-2633

CONTINENTAL U.S.

Circle 203 on Inquiry card.

SYSTEMS

^C Apple II EStarter 1,525.00

Columbia PC 2,625.00

Compupro System 816A (S-100) 4,000.00

Eagle PC-2 (16B1T) 2 ea. 320 K FD/64K RAM 2,650.00

Eagle 1620 3,400.00

Eagle PC-XL 3,500.00

Franklin 1000 895.00

Franklin 1200Starter 1,625.00

Kayp ro II (w/$2400 software) 1,495.00

PC-8801 Aw/software 949.00

NEC PC-8831A(5V4") drives 899.00

NEC PC-8881A (8") drives 1,525.00

Pied Piper — 1 ea. 256 K FD/64K 1,139.00

Sanyo MBC 1000 (1 ea. 320K FD/64K) 12" Mon.

w/$2000 software 1,495.00

Sanyo MBC 1000 A (2 ea. 320K V 2 HGT FD/64K)

12'' Mon. w/$2000 software 1,750.00

Televideo TS-803 1,900.00

Televideo TS-1603 2,475.00

Teletote I (new) w/software 1,695.00

TRY US FOR OTHERS

DISKETTES

' NOVEMBER— DECEMBER SPECIAL

S 1 /*" Soft Sector SS/DD 18.00/10

FOR APPLE, ETC.

5Y4" Soft Sector DS/DD 24.00/10

FOR IBM PC & PARTNERS
FOR QTY OF 100 (15% DISCOUNT)

AC SURGE ELIMINATORS

Grizzly (200W) uninterruptible

power system + surge protection 750.00

Grizzly (500W) uninterruptible

power system + surge protection 1,802.00

Hawk AC power monitor w/surge protection 160.41

Lemon (6AC outlets-3 prong) 44.00

Lime (5'-3 prong pwr cord w/on-off switch 69.00

Orange-AC surge + EMI filter (6 outlets) 95.00

Peach (3 outlets) 69.00

VECTREX

Complete w/9" monitor and 128K Memory $109.00
LIGHTPEN AVAILABLE OCTOBER — CALL

The Great Salt Lake

Computer Company, Inc.

1-801-363-3314

APPLE/FRANKLIN ACCESSORIES

ALS

CPM 3.0 Card 319.00

ASTAR

RF Modulator 19.00

GENERIC

Disk Controller for II E 60.00

80 Column Video (Videx Compatible) 99.00

HAYES

Micro Modem II 259.00

Micro-Model II w/terminal package 279.00

Smart Com ll 89.00

KENSINGTON

System Saver/Fan & Surge Pro 75.00

KRAFT

Joystick for II E 47.50

MICRO-MAX

ViewMax80(80Colforll +) 139.00

*View Max 80E (80 Col w/64K Memory Exp to 128K). . . 129.00

MICROTEK

Dumpling 64K/lnterface and Graphics 64K Buffer . . . 235.00

Dumpling GX-P/Par Interface Card and Cable 99.00

Parallel Interface Board (RV611C) 61.00

EV16 (16K Add-on Memory) 45.00

ORANGE MICRO

Grappler& Graphics Interface 121.00

Grappler + 16K Buffer Exp 179.00

TG PRODUCTS

Joy Stick-For Apple II + 38.00

Paddles 29.00

Selecta Port. 38.00

VISTA

A800 Floppy Controller for 8" Drives 300.00

A-800-1 Cable 27.00

ALL DRIVES 1 YR. WARRANTY

Vista Solo (35TR) 199.00

Micro-Sci A-2 (35TR) 225.00

Micro-Sci A-40 (40TR) 269.00

Micro-Sci A-70 (Quad) 329.00

Micro-Sci Controller 70.00

Rana Elite I 249.00

Rana Elite II 399.00

Rana Elite 111 509v00

Rana Controller 85.00

Super5"THINLINE" Vz size163K40TR 209.00

TERMINALS

I/O PORT CONVERTER

SPC-Serial Computer to Parallel Converter 99.00

* Allows the use of any port

*Baud to 19. 2K * Handshake Signals

PSC-Parallel Computer to Serial 99.00

ADDS

Viewpoint-AI (White) 509.00

Viewpoint-A2 (Green) 539.00

Viewpoint-3A + (Green) 509.00

Viewpoint 60-Same as Televideo 925 715.00

Viewpoint 90-Same as Televideo 950 (132 Col) ... 925.00
Viewpoint Color 995.00

QUME

QVT-102 80 Col. Green 550.00

QVT-1 02 80 Col. Amber 560.00

QVT-103 80/132 Col. Green 765.00

TELEVIDEO

TV91 529.00

TV910 + . 565.00

TV925 715.00

TV950 925.00

TV970 1,095.00

RG1000/TV60 Graphics Upgrade for 925/950 . . . 1,100.00

WYSE

WYSE-100 725.00

WYSE-300 (Color) 1,125.00

Mail Orders i

P.O. Box 3150
Salt Lake City, Utah 84110
Mail Orders

Monday-Friday 8 AM to 6 PM
(sometimes much later)
Saturday 10 AM to 5 PM

VIDEO DISPLAYS

PERIPHERALS FOR THE IBM PC

look for low cost-
high quality video
displays

VIDEO TERMINAL

BOARD. This is a com-
plete 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
transfered byRS232at
rates of 11 to 9600 baud
—switch selectable. Complete source listing is included in the
documentation. Both the CRT program and the character
generator are in 2716 EPROMS to allow easy modification to your
needs. This board uses a 6502 microprocessor and a 6845 crt
controller. The serial input port is interrupt driven. Assembled and
tested part number 82-018A $199.95. The bare board with the
crystal and EPROMS, part number 82 018B $89.95

MINI VIDEO. This board can be used to add a video display to
your aim or other computer. It can also, with the addition of a
parallel keyboard, 5V power supply, and video monitor, run Tom
Pittman's Tiny Basic. The display format is 40 columns by 24
lines. This board has two parallel ports (6522), a 6502 MPU 4K
RAM, 2 or 4K EPROM. The assembled video board without
EPROMS, part number 82-140A $149.95. The Tiny Basic EPROM
$39.95. The character generator EPROM $19.95. The parallel input
EPROM $19.95.

To order: Send check or money order. Add 6.5% tax in California.
Add 5% shipping for orders less than $100 or 3% for orders over
$100 or 10% outside U.S.A. Phone orders: We accept Visa or MC.
Add $2.00 for C.O.D. Will Call Hours 9am to 4pm.

look for low cost-
high quality inter-
faces for the IBM PC

UNIVERSAL I/O. The Universal I/O board has 16 eight
bit analog inputs with a voltage range of to 5 volts. It
also has 9 eight bit parallel I/O ports. It has interrupt cir-
cuitry, Timer clock 32768 Hz. to 512 sec, prototyping
area, and LED for power. Part number 83-064A $299.95

120 VAC CONTROL. This board has eight optically
isolated triac switches. Each switch can control 200
watts. It connects via a 16 pin ribbon cable to a parallel
output port. Screw terminals are provided for 120 vac
connection. Part number 82-332. $119.95.

_J

INPUT PROTECTOR. This board protects the inputs of
the ANALOG input or PARALLEL input ports. There are
4.7K pullups, diodes and caps for each line. It connects
via a 16 pin ribbon cable. Screw terminals are provided
for connection. Part number 82-334. $89.95.

To order: Send check or money order. Add 6.5% tax in California.
Add 5% shipping for orders less than $100 or 3% for orders over
$100 or 10% outside U.S.A. Phone orders: We accept Visa or MC.
Add $2.00 for C.O.D. Will Call Hours 9am to 4pm.

John Bell I John Bell

Engineering, Inc.

Engineering, Inc

1014 CENTER ST.
SAN CARLOS, CA. 94070
(415) 592-8411

1014 CENTER ST.
SAN CARLOS, CA. 94070
(415) 592-8411

704 BYTE November 1983

Circle 46 on inquiry card.

Circle 47 on inquiry card.

PERIPHERALS FOR THE APPLE II

INDUSTRIAL CONTROL PRODUCTS

look for low cost-
high quality inter-
faces for the APPLE II

6522 APPLE II
INTERFACE. This interface
plugs directly into slot 1
through 7 in the APPLE II or
the APPLE lie. It provides four
8 bit bi-directional I/O ports,
four 16 bit timer/counters, and
handshaking. Four 16 pin dip
sockets provide easy
connections to peripheral devices. This board is also used to run
the J BE EPROM Programmer. Order part # 79295A assm. $69.95 or
# 79-295B bare board $29.95

EPROM PROGRAMMER.

Programs 5 volt 2716's, 2516's, and

2532's. It interfaces to the 6522

interface with 4 ribbon cables. A

Textool zero insertion force socket

is used for the EPROM. Complete

documentation for reading and

writing. Cables available

separately. Order part # 80-244A assm. $49.95 o r # 80-244B bare

board 29.95 and set of 4 cables 2 ft. long $17.00

£ A-D CONVERTER. 16

j Channel A-D plugs into your
l APPLE II or APPLE lie. The 16
inputs are high impedance, to
5 volt range, 8 bit resolution.
Conversion time is less than 100
us per channel. Two 16 pin dip
sockets are used for input.
Order part # 81-132A assm.
$89.95 or #81-132B bare board $29.95

SPEECH SYNTHESIZER.

This board uses the VOTRAX
SC-01 Phoneme Synthesizer
chip. The on board audio amp
connects directly to an 8 ohm
speaker. A disk with atextto
speech program is included.
Order part #81-088 $129.95

To order: Send check or money order. Add 6.5% tax in California.
Add 5% shipping for orders less than $100 or 3% for orders over
$100 or 10% outside U.S.A. Phone orders: We accept Visa or MC.
Add $2.00 for C.O.D. Will Call Hours 9am to 4pm.

look for low cost-
high quality indus-
trial computers

SLIM MICROCOMPUTER. This

6502 based 4.5" x 6.5" computer
has the same 44 pin bus as the AIM
computer. It has 2K RAM, 2K or 4K
EPROM, and four 8 bit parallel I/O
ports (two 6522's). The clock is 1
MHz crystal controlled and has
power on reset. This board was
designed for control and is ideal for personal and OEM use. This
computer can be expanded with the peripherals listed below. Order
part # 81-260A assm. $199.95 or #81-260B bare board $39.95

SIX SLOT MOTHER
BOARD. This board has 6 44
pin edge connectors
connected in parallel. The card
spacing is .750". It will mount
in VECTOR card cages. Order
part # 81-320A assm. $99.95 or
# 81-320B bare board $49.95.

12 PORT PARALLEL I/O.

This board has six 6522 VI A's.
This is a total of 96. I/O lines.
Each of the 12 8 bit ports also
has 2 handshake lines. Order
part # 82-036A assm. $169.95 or
# 82-036B bare board $49.95

RAM EPROM MEMORY (32K).

This board has 16 24 pin sockets

that will accept 2716 EPROM's or

6116 RAM's to total 32K bytes. The

memory is mapped from to 7FFF.

The first 2K (0-7FF) can be

disabled with a jumper to allow for

the 2K of RAM on the SLIM

computer. Order part # 81-330A

assm. w/o memory $99.95 or # 81-330B bare board $49.95

ANALOG I/O INTERFACE. This

board has 16 analog inputs and 2
analog outputs. The inputs are 8 bit
(256 steps), 0-5 volt, high impedance
with a conversion time of 200us per
channel. The outputs are R-2R
ladders (R = 15K) driven between
and 5 volts and are 8 bit (256 steps)
also. Order part # 81-292A assm.
$199.95 or #81-292B bare board $49.95

To order: Send check or money order. Add 6.5% tax in California.
Add 5% shipping for orders less than $100 or 3% for orders over
$100 or 10% outside U.S.A. Phone orders: We accept Visa or MC.
Add $2.00 for C.O.D. Will Call Hours 9am to 4pm.

John Bell ■ John Bell

Engineering, Inc

Engineering, Inc,

1014 CENTER ST.
SAN CARLOS, CA. 94070
(415) 592-8411

1014 CENTER ST.
SAN CARLOS, CA. 94070
(415) 592-8411

Circle 48 on inquiry card.

Circle 49 on inquiry card.

BYTE November 1983

705

DATA SWITCH

FOR IBM PC PRINTER INTERFACE

Model 1 220 Bi Directional Data Switch
with 3-3ft. data cables gives an IBM PC
user 2 Centronics Interfaces to connect a
draft printer & letter quality printer to his
Parallel Interface. A toggle switch on the
front panel selects the desired printer.
Runs at any speed. Built in data cables,
save money. Supplied assembled and
tested. $179.00. Available from your
local computer dealer or

Terminal Data Corp.

11878 Coakley Circle, Rockville, MD

(301) 881-7655

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

14.75 + .44/ft.

17-25

1 7.00 + .55/ft.

Circle 467 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&Centronlc
cables.

Communication
Cable Company

31 9 Louella Ave. Wayne, PA 1 9087
V 215-964-9404 ,

Circle 79 on inquiry card.

Like-new
products

For free catalog,

phone toll-free (800) 225-1008

In Massachusetts (617) 938-0900

Genstar REI Sales Company

6307 DeSoto Ave.. Ste. J / Woodland Hills, CA 91367

Circle 198 on inquiry card.

HDBBV RDBDtX^"

PUT YOUR COMPUTER TO WORK

VISION SYSTEMS-VISION 1; 2D; CL,

Vision Kits let your computer see. They are simple but
excellent for experiments with VIC-20 and Basic, or other
computers. Vision I has a panoramic scan; 2D adds tilt
for a TV image; CL close up lens; fixed, or proximity
sensor. Experiments with Image processing, motion
detection, pattern recognition and tracking. Usable with
IR light. Interface kits available for several computers.

VISION I KIT .. $ 100 VISION KIT . . $ 40

VISION I STEREO/TWIN $150

VISION 2DKIT $135

See October Byte ad for Robot Arms.

Spectron Instrument

1342 W. Cedar Ave. Denver, CO 80223
CO Tel. (303) 744-7088 S

ATTENTION BIG BOARD USERS!
WHY USE OUTDATED TECHNOLOGY?

INSIGHT ENTERPRISES

IS NOW DELIVERING A NEW

STATE-OF-THE-ART CP/M Z80-A

SINGLE BOARD COMPUTER

On boord video • 128K ol Dynamic RAM and 4K of STATIC (video mem-
ory) • DMA • SASI (nord disk interlace) • Floppydlsfc conlroller(4 drives
pty combination ot 5-1/4" or 8") • 4 serial ports • Full Centronics
p. inter port * Exponsion bus * Wide line and thin line graphics *
Extended trock butter • Printerbutfer •Fullyinterrupf driven • Porollel
or Serial keyboard • CompoclSize • (8x14 inches)

$750.00

single quonliiy OEM pricing 2-4 weeks detive

INSIGH! ENTERPRISES CORPORATION
373 N Wesiern Ave . Suite 12 Los Angeles, CA900O4 (213) 461-3262
Dealer. OEM. International Inquiries Welcome
MANUFACTURING LICENSESARE AVAILABLE WORLDWIDEUPON REQUEST

$$ Printers $$

$$ WE WILL NOT BE UNDERSOLD $$

EPSON

RX 80, MX80FT, MX 100FT, FX 80 & newest
FX 100 "lowest prices In the USA"

Gemini 10X $329

Gemini 15 494

Prowrlter 851 (P) 385

All other printers discounted

Miscellaneous Hardware

Microsoft Premium Pack 479

Microsoft Softcard 239

Microsoft Softcard Plus 489

(includes vldex 80 Col.)

Smartterm 80 Col 145

Wizard 80 Col 179

Vldex 80 Col. Combo 257

Printer Cards

Parallel 69

Wizard Buffered BPO 1 49

Grapple r + 1 25

Buffered Greppler + 209

A COMPUTER SHOP

3941 -B S. Bristol Street

Dept. 345

Santa Ana, CA92704

714-261-1383

ORDERS ONLY: (800) 824-2227

Circle 437 on inquiry card.

Circle 227 on inquiry card.

Circle 104 on inquiry card.

FREE SOFTWARE

RENT THE PUBLIC DOMAIN!
It's not copyrighted, so no fees to pay!
1000's of CPM software programs in
source code to copy yourself!
8" SSSD format.

CPM USERS GROUP LIBRARY

Volumes 1-91, 46 disks rental— $45

SIG/M USERS GROUP LIBRARY

Volumes 1-126, 63 disks rental— $55

IBM PC-SIG

Volumes 1-58

5'/«" IBM-PC disks- $99.50

8" "Flippy" disks— $3.00 ea.

(copy on both sides)

Shipping, insurance and handling,

$10.00 per library.

No deposit— 7 days rental

3 days grace to return.

Directory programs, $9.95

Call (619) 727-1015 anytime

Have credit card readyl

P.J.S. Co.

993 S. Sante Fe "C"
Vista, CA. 92083

maxell

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.

W

Ma

North Hills Corporation

3564 Rolling View Dr.

White Bear Lake. MN 55110

1-800-328-DISC

MN Call Collect 1-612-770-0485

3M

DISKETTES

Top Quality Diskettes
Guaranteed and Tested
Error Free. Rely on 3M

516-543-6100
212-843-5775

(COLLECT CALLS ACCEPTED)

DAILY

For every box of
quality 3M
Diskettes ordered!
receive one FREE|
plastic case

BUSINESS PRODUCTS INC.
1 1 Parkway Dr. 5.
Hauppauge, N.Y.
11787

VISA, MasterCard

C.O.D. Accepted

Dealer b OEM

Inquiries Invited

Circle 124 on inquiry card.

PRIORITY ONE ELECTRONICS

J^j HEWLETT

Packard CALCULATORS AND
HANDHELD COMPUTERS

NEW!

?MM^m=i

HP-41CX

10 Times the Memory!

• 3105 bytes of user memory

• 443 data registers

• Built-in time/calendar alarm/
stop-watch module

• Built-in extended functions
module

• Built-in text editor

• Still retains the 4 external
I/O connections

LIST PRICE: S325.00

$269.00

BWHP-4ICX(Sh Wl 3 lbs.)

HP-41 C/CV HANDHELD COMPUTER SYSTEM

■@pfp|

bid bzd co bzd I

fflSiffl
mass

il ?^!" |H| t )

Description

List Price Our Price

BV HrMIC Handheld computer $195.00 $159.00

BWHP41CW Handheld computer $275.00 $21 9.00

w/5x the memory .

BV HP821D4A Card reader $195.00 $159.00

BV HP82153A Optical Wand $125.00 S 99.00

BV HP82161A Cassette drive $450.00 $349.00

BVHP82162A Thermal Printer $450.00 5349.00

BV HP82163A Video Interface $225.00 $1 79.00
(Shipping Weight 1 on above items: 5 lbs. each)

ENHANCEMENT MODULES:

BVHP82160A HP-IL module $125.00 $95.00

BV HP82170A Quad RAM module S 75.00 $59.00

BV HP821B0A Extended functions/ $ 75.00 $59.00

memory module

BV HP821B1A Ext. memory module S 75.00 $59.00

BV HP82182A Time module $ 75.00 $59.00
(Shipping Weights on above items: 1 lb each)

We now carry the complete fine of series 40
Application Pacs and Solution Books

HP-75C Computer & Software

BV HP-75C Portable Computer (9 lbs.)

BV HP00075-15014
BV HP00075-15019
BV HP00075-15015
BV HP0007515012
BV HP00075-15035

VisiCalc®
Text Formatter
MathPac
Surveying Pac
DataCommunications Pac

$995.00$ 749.00

$195.00
$95.00
$145.00
$295.00
$145.00

HP-IL PERIPHERALS

For HP-41 CV&HP-75C

BVHP82160A HP-IL Interface $125 00 $99.00

included in HP-75C

BV HP82161A Digital Cassette Drive $450.00 $349.00

BV HP82176A Digital Cassettes (10 pack) $ 95.00

BV HP82162A Thermal Printer/Plotter $450.00 $349.00

BV HP82125A Thermal Printer Paper (6 rolls) $ 10.00

BV HP82163A Video Interface $225.00 $179.00

BV HP82164A RS-232 Serial Interface $295.00 $249.00

BV HP82165A GP10 Interface $295.00 $249.00

SERIES 10 PROGRAMMABLE CALCULATORS

BVHP-fOCScientifx

BV HP-1 1 C Adv scientific

BV HP-12C Adv. financial

BV HP-15C Adv. sci. w/matrix

BV HP-16C Digital & Computer science

$ 70.00 $59.00
S 90.00 $79.00
$120.00 $99.00
$120.00 $99.00
$120.00 $99.00

(Shipping Weights on above calculators: 3 lbs. each)

AC SURGE PROTECTORS
FOR YOUR COMPUTER

THE LEMON™ SOURS SURGES

Part No. Description List Price Our Price

BWEPDLEMON 6 outlet wall mount $59.95 S44.95
BWEPDLIME 6 outlet 4V 2 ' cord 89.50 $69.95

w/power switch

(Shipping Weight 4 lbs. each)

EMI-RF1FILTEREDACSURGE PROTECTOR

BWEPDDRANGE6 outlet 4V 2 ' cord $139.95 $104.95

w/power switch
BVfEPDPEACH 6 outlet wall mount $97.50 $ 74.95

(Shipping Weight: 4 lbs. each)

AC POWER LINE MONITOR / SURGE PROTECTOR
BWEPDHAWK (Sh. Wt 6 lbs.) $1 95.00 $149.00

SPECIAL
PURCHASE

&TPK

8" DISKETTES
Double-Density

BWTDKF1S

SINGLE
SIDED

BWTDKF2D

DOUBLE
SIDED

$19-95

I PER BOX OF IF

$29.95

PER BOX OF 1(T

20- 5 1 / 4 " DISKETTES

40 Track Single Sided Double
Density With Hub Reinforcing Rings

$32.00

!i Part Number: BW5 (Sh. Wt. 1 lb)

APPLE II & lie
■111 - r 5 1 A DISK DRIVES

FULLY

APPLE II

COMPATIBLE

APPLE ADD-ON DISK DRIVE

BWVIS310I List Price S299 9^ / Cataloq Price S?49 00

ON SALE NOW FOR ONL Y $225.00

BWVISAFDC Apple II Drive Controller BUY IT NOW FOR ONLY $59 !!

s^sSierracin/Power Systems

S-100 OPEN FRAME LINEAR SUPPLIES

+ 8V rcD 8A + 8V Co) 20A

±16V @ 2A ±16V <a> 4A

BWSPL2DS100 (9 lbs 1 List S8f>00 BWSPL2FS100 (14 lbs 1 L.si S1400I)

p a r"e $78.00

Sce $129.00

SWITCHING POWER SUPPLY
FOR APPLE by ASTEC

IU

mm

+5V @ 4 A ' -5V »a- 25A

+ 12V v 2 5A -12V •• 3A

$39.95 each - 3/$99.00

BW99PSPS (2 lbs. each)

PRIORITY

1200 BAUD
MODEM SALE!

£»eeso^

After

u.s.

ROBOTICS

PASSWORD
1200 BAUD
Auto Originate/
Auto Answer

ROBOTICS ,rwt

Part

Description

$379.00

List PriceOur Price

BWPDBPASSTEL8 Password Modem w/Com- $528 00$379.00

munication Software 8" CP/M*
BWP0BPASSTEL5 Password Modem w/Com- $528 00$379.00

munication Software 5 1 /*" Apple
BWPOBADIALTELB Auto Dial 212A Modem $678.00$495.00

w/Communication software 8" CP/M"
BWP0BA0IALTEL5 Auto Dial 212A Modem S678 00$495.00

w/Communication software 5' •' "Apple

S-100 MODEM CARD
0-300, 1200 BAUD

• Auto Answer, Auto Dial • Bell212A • Full or Half
Duplex • NO RS-232 REQUIRED • Audible Phone
Line Signal Monitoring System • Telpak Operating
Software Available on 8" CP/M® Diskette

BWUSRSIOO Regular Price: $425.00

SALE A#

PRICE pi

BWUSBTEtPAKB Oh 8" Diskette

$379.00

$79.00

R1XON

1200
BAUD
AUTO DIAL

DIRECT CONNECT MODEMS WITH 10 NUMBER MEMORY

Pari Number Description Ust Price Our Price

BWRIXR212A 1200 BaudStand Alone unit $495.00 $475.00

BWRIXPC212A 1 200 IBM PC' U modem (2 lbs.) $495.00 $475.00

BWRIXPCCOMI IBM PC" Modem Software (1 lb.) \ 89.00

BWPDBRIXIBM IBM Modem & Software Together (3 lbs.) $539.00

D.C HAYES

BWDCHD4DDP
BWDCH0200P
BWDCH0300P
BWDCH0100P
BW0CH0000P

1200 Baud Smartmodem
300 Baud Smartmodem
Chronograph
MicroModem 100
MicroModem II

S695.00
S279.00
$249.00
$399.00
$379.00

$514.95
$229.00
$199.00
$349.00
$299.00

MURA 300 BAUD DIRECT CONNECT

RS232 C Interface

Full Duplex

Bell 103 compatible

$79.00

List Price OUR PRICE

BWMURMM10D 0-300 baud modem (2 lbs.)
BWCN0RS232BF RS232 Cable

$99.55.

$79.00

$19.95

ELECTRONICS

r^J ^5

9161 Deenng AveXhatswor th.CA 91311
ORDER TOLL FREE (800) 420-5922 - CA, AK. HI CALL (210) 709-51 1 1

Terms U S. VISA. MC, BAC, Check. Money Order. U.S. Kinds Only. CA residents add 6tt% Sales Tax MINIMUM PREPAID ODER Si 5*00 include MINIMUM SHIP-
PING & HAN DUNG of S3. 00 for the first 3 lbs plus 40c f oreach additional pound. Orders over 50 lbs. senMreight collect. Just in case, please include phone number.
Prices subject to change without notice. We will do our best to maintain prices through November, 1983. Many quantities are limited. Sony, no rainchecks. no refunds or
exchanges on sale merchandise. Credit Card orders will be charqed approriate freight Sale prices lor prepaid orders only. We arenot responsible for typographical errors

RETAIL STORE PHONE NUMBERS: CChofcworth:) (210) 709-5464 - (Irvine:) (714) 660-1411

PRIORITY ONE ELECTRONICS

WORLD'S LARGEST SUPPLIER

ISDSystemsI

SDC 000

Z-80 Single Doord Computer

Part No.

Description

List Price Our Price

BWS0S3B095 Z80A4MHzA&T S741.00 $699.00

BWSDS38092 Z80B 6MHz A&T S825.00 $779.00

BWPGC26924DS 2' Internal Serial I/O cable S 14.65

BWPGC50M12S 12" 50 pin internal diskcable $ 23.60

VERSAFLOPPY III

Floppy and Hord Disk Controller

BWSDS36099 VFW-3 Disk Controller (A&T)S 895.00 $765.00
BWP0BVF399145*w/5Va' unbanked CP/M® 3.0S1 083.00 §895.00
BWP0BVF339146*w/8" unbanked CP/M® 3.0 St 083.00 §895.00
BWPDBVF339M7*w/5'/4" banked CP/M 3.0 $1083.00 $895.00
BWPDBVF33914B*w/8" banked CP/M® 3.0 $1083 00 $985.00
*CP/M® 3.0 is conligured for the SDS SBC300 board

VERSAFLOPPY 11/696

Floppy Disk Controller

BWS0S3B09B Versafloppy 11/696 (A&T)
BWPDBVF239141*With 5VV unbanked CP/M'
BWPDBVF239142*With 8" unbanked CP/M®
BWPDBVF239143*With 5%" banked CP/M*
BWPDBVF239144*With 8" banked CP/M®
*CP/M® 3.0 configured for the SDS SBC300.

SOFTWARE-CP/M PLUS™ 0.0

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS AND OS INFORMATION:

CP/M® 3.0 requires a minimum of 1 1 2K bytes of system RAM partitioned
into two banks (64K each)* for operation. Memoiy size parameters are
communicated to the OS by menu selections in GENCPM. The OS is
divided into two modules, the resident portion that resides in the common
memory, and the banked portion that occupies the upper area of BANK
(just below the commonarea). The common area must be f rom4 K to 1 6 K to
be compatible with the distribution configuration

BWS0S39144 CP/M 3.0 8" banked for SDSSBC300 $315.00

BWSDS39142 CP/M3.0 8"unbankedforSDSSBC300 $315.00

BWSDS39143 CP/M 3.0 5 ? A" bankedforSDSSBC300 $315.00

BWSDS39141 CP/M 3.05%" unbanked for SDSSBC300 $315.00

8

I/0-8

Port Serial I/O

BWSDS3B093 8 Async serial (A&T) $695.00 $594.00

BWSDS3B094 8 Sync serial (A&T) $795.00 $675.00

Cabiu:Each pod has itsown26 pin header. Order on 1/0 cable for each port used.
BWPGC26S24DS 26 pin SKT connector to DB255 24" $ 14.65
BWPGC26S80DP 26 pin SKT connector to DB25P 5' $ 15.70
BWPGC26S60DS 26 pin SKT connector to DB255 5' $ 16.55

PROM 100

Eprom burner

BWSDS38076 PR0M-1Q0 w/software(A&7) $285.00 $249.89

Z60
STARTER I
SYSTEM

A COMPLETE MICROCOMPUTER ON A BOARD

• Z80 • PROM Program • Cassette Interface • TwoS-100 Expansion
Ports (Connectors not included) • 2K ZBUG Monitor • 1 K RAM
(Expandable to 2K) • 2 Parallel Ports • 1 Year Warranty

$382.00

BWSDS38007 Z80 Starter System (A&T) $450.00
(Shipping Weight 4 lbs)

ExpandoRAM IV

256K Dynomic RAM w/Porrty Check ond
Optionol Error Detection ond Correction

BWSDS3B088 ExpandoRAM IV 256K (A&T)$1 145.00 $ 980.00
BWSDS3B0B9 ExpandoRAM IV 256K $1990.00 $1780.00
w/EDC (A&T)

ExpandoRAM III

256K Random Access Memory Doord

BWS0S3B097 256K ExpandoRAM III /696 $825.00 $598.89
(A&T)

ROM DISC 128

Program Accelerator

Part No.

Description

List Price Our Price

BWSDS3B0B1 ROM DISC 128K w/o EPROMS (A&T) S350.00 $329.00
BWSDSB1103 ROM DISC Manual $ 10.00

BWPBC26S24DS 2' Internal Serial 1/0 cable $ 14.65

RAMDISK-256

Program Accelerator

BWSDS38082 Ram Disk 256 K (A&T)
BWSDS61102 Manual

$795.00
$ 10.00

DUAL

NON VOLATILE CMOS RAMS

8, 16, or 32K. 8 or 16 Bit Data. Battery Backup On Board 6MHz,
Bank Selectable

BW0ULCMEM8 8K A&T $495.00 $450.00

BW0ULCMEMI6 16K A&T $59500 $550.00

BW0ULCMEM32 32K A&T $695.00 $650.00

256K DYNAMIC MEMORY

256K. 230 ns access time, 2 x 128K organization, 24 bil addressing,
parity error detection

BW0UL0MEM25BX Assembled & Tested $129500 $1195.00

32/64K EPROM DOARD

8 or 16 bit data, holds 2716s (32K). or 2732s (64 K)

BW0ULEPR0M32 For 2716s A&T $295.00 $275.00

BW0ULEPR0M64 For 2732s A&T $29500 $275.00

A/D CONVERTER

12 Bit Resolution 16 or 32 Channel Input

BW0ULAIMI2 Assembled & Tested $695.00 $625.00

BWD0LAIMI2B Without instru. Amp $645.00 $598.00

D/A CONVERTER

4 Channel. 1 2 Bit 3 Output Modes

BWD0LA0M12 Assembled & Tested

$695.00 $618.95

SIERRA O/UA SCIENCES

S-100 SDC DOARD

Z80A 4MHz, 2 Serial RS232 interfaces, 1 parallel interface, 64K RAM,
Floppy Disk Controller, provisions for one 2732 EPROM —

ALL ON THIS ONE BOARD!!

BWSQCCBCCM Z80 SBC for CP/M™ (A&T) $895.00 $655.00

BWSDCSBGT Z80 SBC for TurboDos'" (A&T) $895.00 $655.00
BWSDCCPM15 CP/M™ for use w/Micropolis hard disk
BWSDCCPM16 CP/M"" operating system
BWSDCTURBDS Single User TurboDos'" on 8" disk

BWSDCTURBDM Multi-User TurboDos™ on 8"
BWMCP12231 36 MByte Hard Disk(45lbs)

53695.00 $3250.00

S-100 Z80A SLAVE SDC

Z80A 4 MHz, 2 RS232 Serial ports, 4 parallel ports, 64 K RAM. EPROM

Programmer. Used in multi-user computer system with SDSSBC.
BWSDSSBCSE Slave Z80 SBC A&T

$82500 $565.00

California Computer Systems

Z60 CPU 2 or 4MHz

On board RS232 Serial port, On board 2K Monitor, ROM, Power on

jump to any location in 64 K, LED status indicators for ROM select,

halfstate and interrupts.

BWCCS2810A Z80A4MHzCPU A&T S325.00 $258.95

CCS271901

BWCCS271901 2 Serial, 2 Parallel, A&T $360.00 $288.95

CCS27201

BWCCS272001 4 Port Parallel. A&T $27500 $218.95

CCS271001

BWCCS271001 4 Port Serial, A&T $325.00 $278.95

CCS2000 __

BWCCS283001 6 port serial, A&T $550.00 $428.95

CCS206601

64K Dynamic S-100 RAM. Cromemco CROMIX™ Compatible.

BWCCS206601 Assembled & Tested $450.00 $425.00

CCS2422A

Floppy disk controller w/CP/M 2.2®

BWCCS2422A Assembled & Tested $475 00 $337.95

C_ MICBO

Intercontinental
Micro Systems

FREE Z60A SLAVE
PROCESSOR!*

* When You Purchase This System

Price
1 BWICMCPZ48000 SBC Board $895.00

1 BWICMCPS4A 4 MHz Slave $439.00

1 BWICMCPS4A 4 MHz Slave $439.00*

1 BWICMTD0SMU Multi User TurboDos'" $775.00

IF PURCHASED SEPARATELY: $2548 OO

IZ $2109.00

BWPDRICMSBCT5 For 5'A" Drives
8WPDBICMSBCT8 For 8" Drives

NOW'S YOUR CHANCE TO BUY A MULTI-USER
SUB-SYSTEM AT A FRACTION OF THE COST!

SAVE $439.00!!!

Z60A DMA SDC

• Z80A™, 4 MHz Operation

• Floppy disk controller (FDC) with onboard data separator. Single or
double sided. Single or double density. 8" or 5'/«". The choice is yours.

• Two synchronous or asynchronous serial 1/0 channels (SI0). One
channel can be programmed in direct memory access (DMA), interrupt,
or programmable 1/0 mode

• Two parallel 1/0 channels (PI0). One channel is programmable in 0MA

interrupt or programmable 1/0 mode.

• Four channel DMA controller

• 64 K on board RAM. Bank selection puts 4 K- 64 K under software control

• Eight vectored priority interrupts are chained with serial and parallel 1/0
interrupts for use with Z-80A mode 2 interrupts

• Provisions for 2K or 4 K onboard EPROM. A boot up function and monitor

in a 2K EPROM is supplied

• Turbo-Disk™ implementation included

Each CPZ-48000 comes with an RS232 personality module and your
choice of an 8" or bW floppy disk personality module.

Part Number

Description

Usl Price Our Price

BWICMCPZ480005SBC for 5V«" (2 ibs.) $995 00 $895.00

BWICMCPZ4B0008SBC for 8" (Wt:. 2 Ibs) $995.00 $895.00
BWICMCPZ46000M Manual only $ 15.00

BWICMTD0SMU5 Multi-user TurboDos - 5%" $775.00

BWICMTD0SMUB Multi-user TurboDos - 8" $775.00

Z80 SLAVES 4 & 6MHz

' Z-80B™ 6MHz operation

1 Two synchronous or asynchronous serial I/O ports

1 Master confiscation of slave memory for diagnostic purposes.

i Two parallel I/O ports

» 64 Kbytes of onboard dynamic RAM

» Master/slave memory-to-memory transfers under DMA control (a 571

Kbyte/sec transfer rate when used with CPZ-48000 SBCP
» Usable as an intelligent I/O processor in single user systems
> Includes on RS232 personality board

Part Number Description

Ust Price Our Price:

BWICMCPS4A 4 MHz / asynch port

BWICMCPS4S 4 MHz / asynch. port

BWICMCP28A 6MHz / asynch. port

BWICMCPS8S 6 MHz / asynch. port

BWICMCPSM Manual only

$475.00 $439.00
$485.00 $445.00
$550.00 $489.00
$560.00 $499.00
$ 15.00

(Shipping weights: 2 Ibs. each)

SDC PERSONALITY MODULES

BWICMRPB100 RS232 personality module $25.00

BWICMFPB10011 8"Floppy disk module $38.00

BWICMFPB10022 5 1/2"Floppy disk module $33.00

BWICMMPB100 Modem interface module $28.00

BWICMCPIfOO Centronics printer interface $28.00

BWICMLDS100 Long distance serial (2000ft) $65.00

BWICMFFTI00 RS422 serial interface module $28.00

BW1CMCCB100 Clock Calendar module $58.00

BWICMXH0I00 Konan David Jr. disk module $32.00

BWICMPRI100 Priam hard disk module $38.00

BWICMSAS100 SASI hard disk interface $55.00
The above personality modules include an internal data cable for connection
to the S100 board

ORDER TOLL FREE ( 600) 420-5922 - CA, AK, HI CALL (213) 709-51 1 1 circle 370 on inquiry card

PRIORITY ONE ELECTRONICS

OF S- 100 IEEE/696 BOARDS

ompuPro

ompuPro

«337

CPU BOARDS

68K- 68000 16 DIT CPU

16 bit 8 or 10 MHz on-boardsucketsfor 2716, 2732, or 2764
EPROMs for up to 8K x 16 of memory

Part No.

Description

BWGBT184A A&T 8MHz
BWGBT184C CSC 10MHz

Ust Price Our Price
$695.00 $512.95

S850.00 $765.00

CP/M® 68K NOW AVAILABLE!!
FORTH OPERATING SYSTEM INCLUDED!

Now CompuProand Digital Research bring you CP/M for the 68000. Also
included is the FORTH Operating System whichrequires a DISK I, 64K of
Compupro memoiy and an INTERFACER 3 or 4.

BWGBTCPMB6K 6800 CP/M & FORTH 0/S

$350.00

CO-PROCESSOR 8086/8087

16 bit 8 or 10 MHz 8086 CPU with sockets for 8087 and 80136
BWGBT186A A&T 8MHz 8086 only S 75000 $494.95

BWGBT186C CSC 10MHz 8086 only $ 850.00 $764.89

BWGBT1B6A87 A&T with 8087 option $1050.00 $939.00

BWGBT1B6CB7 CSC with 8087 option' $1150.00 $1065.00

*8087 Limits clock speed to 5MHz

DUAL PROCESSOR 8085-8088

6 or 8 MHz provides true 1 6 Bit Power with a standard 8 bit S-100 bus.

BWGBT1612A A&T 6MHz
BWG8T1612C CSC 6/8 MHz

S495.00
$595.00

5318^7
5497.67

CPUZ - Z80D CPU NOW 6MHz!

3/6 MHz Z80B CPU with 24 Bit Addressing

BWGBT160ft

BWGBTI60C

3/6 MHz A&T
3/6 MHz CSC

S325.00 $228.95

S425.00 $374.f

DISK CONTROLLERS

DISK 1 DMA FLOPPY CONTROLLER

Fast DMA, Soft Sector, Controls Up to Four 8" or 5V4" Single or
Double Density Drives'

BSPDB171ACPM A&T w/CPM 2.2* & BIOS $670.00 $489.00
When purchased w/two 8" disk drives only $450.00
8WPDB171CCPMCSC w/CP/M 2.2® & BIOS $770.00 $595.00
BWGBT171A Disk 1 Controller A&T $495.00 $368.95

BWG8T171C Disk 1 Controller CSC $595.00 $550.00

BWGBTCPMBO CP/M 2.2® for Z80/8085 w/manuaf & $148.95

BIOS 8" S/D disk

BWGBTCPM86 CP/M 2.2® for 8086 w/manuals & BIOS $258.95

8" S/D disk

DISK 2/SELECTOR CHANNEL

HARD DISK CONTROLLER

Fast DMA 2 board set controls 4 Shugart 4000 series or Fujiisu 2300

type drives. Includes CP/M 2.2®.

$795 oo $568.95

BW6BT1 77A Assembled & Tested
BWGBT177C CSC

$895.00 $850.00

M-DRIVE/H PROGRAM ACCELLERATOR

Interlaces through two I/O ports, and runs at 10MHz IEEE696 compatible.

Requires any CompuPro CPU and a DISK 1. Each board contains 5 1 2 K of

fast low power (900mA) RAM, with parity checking.

BWGBT197A M-DRIVE/H w/software, A&T $1895.00 $1249.00
BWGBT197C M-ORIVE/H w/software, CSC $2095.00 SI 495.00

STATIC RAM

RAM 1 6 - 02K x 1 6 DIT CMOS STATIC RAM

8 and/or 16 Bit 12 MHz, RAM 16. 32 K x 16 or 64 K x 8 IEEE/696
16 Bit 2 Watt, 24 Bit Addressing, 12 MHz

BWGBT180A 64K A&T 12 MHz
BWGBT180C 64K CSC 12MHz

$550 00 $510.00

$650.00 $610.00

RAM 21 - 126K STATIC RAM

816 RAM 21 14MHz, 128K x 8 or 64K x 16 IEEE/696
8 or 16 Bit, 1.2 Amps, 24 Bit Addressing, 14MHz

BWGBT190A 128KA&T $1095.00 $858.95

BWGBT190C 128KCSC $1245 00 $1125.00

I/O BOARDS

SYSTEM SUPPORT 1 MULTIFUNCTION DOARD

Serial port (software prog, baud), 4K RAM included, 15 levels of
interrupt real time clock, optional math processor

Parti

Description

Ust Price Our Price

BWGBT162A

BWGBT162C

BWGBT6231

BWGBT8232

BWGBT162AM1

BWGBT162CM1

BWGBT162AM2

BWGBT162CM2

Assembled & Tested

CSC

Math Chip

Math Chip

A&T w/8231 Math Chip

CSC w/8231 Math Chip

A&T w/8232 Math Chip

CSC w/8232 Math Chip

$45000 $308.95

$55000 $495.00
$195.00
$195.00

$645 00 $538.95

S74500 $670.00

$645 00 $538.95

$74500 $670.89

INTERFACER 3

Eight-channel multi-user serial 1/0 board

BWGBT174BA 8 Port. Assembled & Tested $699.00 $518.95
BWGBT1748C CSC 200 hr. 8 port $849 00 S748.89

INTERFACER 4

Thee Serial. 1 Parallel, 1 Centronics Parallel

BWGBT187A Assembled & Tested $45000 $314.87

BWGBT187C CSC $540 00 $414.87

MPX CHANNEL BOARDS

I/O Multiplexer, using 8085A-2 CPU on board w/16K RAM

BWGBT166A16 Assembled & Tested S649.00~

BWGBT166C16 CSC $749.00

Industrial Computer Designs

$584.89
$574.89

S-100 TO "REAL WORLD'
INTERFACE PRODUCTS

64 INPUT 8 BIT fl/D D/A CONVERTERS

I Humber Description Price

BWICDAD64100 64 input 8 bit S-100 A/D board
BWICODA64100 64 output 8 bit S-100 D/A board

$295.00
$39500

REMOTE SENSORS, ALARMS, VALVES, AND

CONTROLLERS FOR USE WITH ABOVE A/D D/A

CONVERTER BOARDS

BWICDRTS1 remote temperature sensnr (t lb.) $ 29.95

BWICDRLS1 remote light sensor (1 lb) $29.95

BWICDRMS1 remote moisture sensor (1 lb.) $ 59.95

8WICDRSDA1 rewmote smoke detector alarm (2 lbs.) $129.00

BWICDDNVAC1 in-line remote air-conditioner & heating $ 94.95

controller (1 lb.)

BWICDADV07 7" diameter valve (4 lbs.) $ 74.95

BWICDADV08 8" diameter valve (4 lbs.) $ 75.95

BWICDADV09 9" diameter valve (5 lbs.) $ 76.95

BWICDA0V10 10" diameter valve (5 lbs.) $ 79.95

BWIC0ADV1 1 11" diameter valve (6 lbs.) $ 81.95

BWIC0A0V12 1 2" diameter valve (6 lbs.) $ 83.95

BWICDADV13 t3" diameter valve (6 lbs.) $ 84.95

BW1CDADV14 14" diameter valve (6 lbs.) $ 85.95

64 PIN CADLE ASSEMBLIES

BWICD464PCA 64 pin single ended 4' long (2 lbs.) $ 59.25

BWIC01064PCA 64 pin single ended 10' long (3 lbs.) $ 89.95

8W1C02064PCA 64 pin single ended 20' long (6 lbs.) $145.00

"HOW TO" APPLICATION NOTES

If you would like to learn more about the ICD Designer Control Series of
peripherals, ICD offers a complete collection of "How To" applications
notes. See how your computer can control your home or office, or be used
as part of an industrial control system.
BWICDAPN Application notes (1 lb.) $15.00

S-100 CLOCK/CALENDAR BOARDS

BWIC0ACA100 With alarm circuit $228.00

BWICDCT100 With timer down to .01 second $345.00

BWICDCTS Software for ICDCT1 00 board $34.95
on 8" CP/M format

PRIORITY

105

2 Serial, 3 Parallel S-100 Interface

Description

Ust Price Our Price

BWSSMI05A

Assembled & Tested

$329.00 $288.95

106

8 Port Serial I/O S-100 Board

BWSSMI08A

Assembled & Tested

$550.00 $450.00

104

2 Serial, 2 Parallel I/O S-100 Board

Assembled & Tested

$290.00 $245.0

2700/2716 EPROM PROGRAMMERS EPROM DOARD

Programs 2708 and 2716 EPROMs. Holds 4 2708s (4K) or4 2716s(8K)

BWSSMMB8A Assembled & Tested

$265.00 $219.87

Manufactured by Vector Electronics under license from CompuPro

INTERFACER 1

Two Serial I/O

BWVCT8800GFB
BWVCT8800GFCB

Assembled & Tested
CSC

$295 00$198.95
$370.00 $329.00

INTERFACER 2

Three parallel, one serial 1/0 board

BWVCT880DGF28 Assembled & Tested
BWVCT8800GF2CB CSC

S325.00$249.00
$399.00 $359.00

RAM 17 - 64K CMOS STATIC RAM

12 MHz, RAM t7. 2 Watt DMA Compatible 24 Bit Addressing

BWVCT8800GR178 64K A&T 12MHz S45000$399.0Q

BWVCT8800GR17CB 64K CSC 12MHz $550.00$51Q.OO

omouPro I

STATIC RAM SALE!

12MHz 256K RAM 22

• Fully static • IEEE 696 • 24 bit extended

addressing • 8 or 16 bit data • 5V only •

Assembled and Tested

BWGBT198A

$1595.00 each

$1500.00

EACH, WHEN YOU BUY
TWO OR MORE!!

12MHz 128K RAM 21

• Fully Static • IEEE 696 • 24 bit extended

addressing • 8 or 16 bit data • DMA compatible •

Assembled and Tested

BWGRTRAM21

$695.00 each

$650.00

Hf| EACH WHEN YOU BUY
iUU TWO OR MORE!!

List Price $1295.00

ELECTRONICS

9161 Deenng Ave,. Chotsworth.CA 91311

^^

pfi

ORDER TOLL FREE (800*) 523-5922 - CA, AK. HI CALL (210) 709-5111

Terms. U.S. VISA. MC. BAC Check, Money 0r9er, U.S. rfjnds Only. CA residents add 6V ? % Sales Tax. MINIMUM PREPAID ORDERS15X)0. Include MINIMUM SHIP-
PING & HANDLING of $3.00 f o! the first 3 lbs. plus 40C for each additional pound. Orders over 50 lbs. sent freight collect Justin case, include yourp hone number. Prices
subject to change without notice. We will do our best to maintain prices through November, 1 983 Many quantities are limited. Sorry, no rainchecks, no refunds or exchang-
es on sale merchandise Credit card orders will be charged appropriate freight. Sale prices for prepaid orders only. We are not responsible for typographical errors.

RETAIL STORE PHONE NUMBERS: (Cholsworth:) (213) 709-5464 - (Irvine:) (714) 660-1411

PRIORITY ONE ELECTRONICS

SIEMENS FDD100-8

8" FLOPPY DISK DRIVE

SINGLE SIDED, DOUBLE DENSITY
SHUGART801R COMPATIBLE

$175.00 each

$169.00 ea.2-9
10+ CALL

OEM INQUIRIES INVITED

BWSIEFDD1008 (Include $7.00 per drive for shipping)

BUY DRIVE 6 CABINET

TOGETHER AND SAVE!!

DUAL 8" SIEMENS FDD1 008

DUAL 8" CABINET POWER SUPPLY

AND INTERNAL POWER CABLES

(Include $30.00 for shipping)

Positive Pressure Filter Cooling
- Power Supply: 4A@+5V, 3A@+24V

1A @ -5V
• Each output is individually fused

i Hinged to for easy access
i Heavy non-flex .090 aluminum

base

Modular power connectors

IF BOUGHT SEPARATELY: $890.00

SPECIAL SALE PRICE:

$625.00

6WPDBIIISIE (Include $30.00 for shipping)

BWIIIF0E002 CABINET ONLY (Sh. Wt 38 lbs.) $295.00

OUR FINEST DUAL 8"
DISK DRIVE CABINET!

International

Instrumentation

Incorporated

Positive pressure forced air cooling for reliable disk drive operation

AC input EMI filtered to six
amps to help prevent disk
crashes due to power spikes
and line noise

Part No.
BWIIIUDED04

(Sh. Wt. 40 lbs)

Integral power supply with 5V
@ 6A/-5V 1A/24V r«ifl 6A
Each DC supply and AC
separately fused

Ust Price SALE PRICE
S495.00 $349.0

With augmented power supplv to handle Tandon Slimline, or Winchester
disk drives. Includes the disk environment monitor.

B WIIIUDE004AU6 (Sh Wl 40 lbs) S733.00 $625.00

BWIIIUDE004EM (Sh Wt 40 lbs) $584.95 $395.00

DUAL 5V»" HARD DISK ENCLOSURE

The IIHD5002 enclosure pro-
vides all of the necessary power
tor two TANDON TM500 series
or equivalent hard disk drives,
and Xebec Controller. Forced air
cooling is provided by a 33 cfm
tan, and is filtered to keep your
equipment running at hs best 1

Part Number

SALE PRICE

BWIIIHD5002 Dual hard dtsk enclosure S42S.00
(Shipping Weight 20 lbs.)

$375.00

DISK DRIVES

MICROPOUS 5Va" HARD DISK

BWMCP1302 20.4/25.9 Mb Winchester $1465.00

BWMCPI303 33.9/43.2 Mb Winchester $1875.00

BWMCP1304 40.8/51.9 Mb Winchester $2195.00

(Shipping Weight: 12 lbs. each)

TANDON SV*" HARD DISK

BWTNDTM501 1 platter 6 Mbyte (Sh. Wt. 9 lbs.) $749.00

BWTNDTM5D2 2 platter 12 Mbyte (Sh. Wt. 9 lbs) $895.00

BWTNDTM503 3 platter 19 Mbyte (Sh. Wt. 9 lbs.) $1049.00

DUAL HARD DISK ENCLOSURE

BWIIIH05002 For above drives $395.00

TANDON 5 V 4 "

BWTN0TM1001 1 Sided4RTPl $225.00 2 FOR $195.00 each
BWTNDTM1002 2Sided48TPi $260.00 2F0R$235.00 each
BWTNDTM1003 lSided96TPl $275.00 2 FOR $250.00 each
BWTNDTM1004 2 Sided 96 TPI $390.00 2 FOR $365.00 each

(Shipping Weights on above items' 5 tbs. each)

MPI5V4" FULL HEIGHT

BWMP151* I Sided 48 TPI

BWMPI52* 2 Sided 48 TPI

BWMPI9T t Sided 96 TPI

BWMPI92* 2 Sided 96 TPI

$200.00
$270.00
$275.00
$400.00

•Replace with an M for the MPl style bezel or with an S* lor Shugart style
bezel (Shipping Weight 5 lbs i

MPl 5V4" HALF HEIGHT

BWMPI501 1 Sided 48 TPI (Sh. Wt. 4 lbs.) $260.00

BWMPI5D2 2 Sided 48 TPI (Sh Wt. 4 lbs.) $300.00

BWMPI901 1 Sided 96 TPI (Sh. Wt. 4 lbs.) $300.00

BWMPI902 2 Sided 96 TPI (Sh Wt. 4 lbs) $355.00

5 1 /4" DRIVE CADINETS

BWJMR1C5 Single 5 V Cabinet (5 lbs) $69.00

BWJMR2C5 Dual 5'V Cabinet (9 lbs) $89.00

BWJMR2C5C JMR2C5 w/internal data cable (9 lbs) $99.00

SHUGART 6" FULL HEIGHT

BWSHU801R 1 sided (1P lbs) $369.00

QUME fl" FULL HEIGHT

BWQMEDT8 2 sided (18 lbs)

$480.00

2 FOR $460.00 each

MITSUBISHI 6" FULL HEIGHT

BWMITM2B9463B 2 sided (t 8 lbs.)

$380.00

MPl 8" FULL HEIGHT

BWMPI41S 1 sided {it lbs.)
BWMP142S 2 sided (t 1 lbs )

MPl 6" DUAL HALF HEIGHT

(SAME SIZE AS ONE FULL HEIGHT)

BWMP141D 1 sided (22 lbs.)
BWMPI420 2 sided (22 lbs.)

TANDON 6" HALF HEIGHT

BWTNDTMB4B1 1 sided (9 lbs) $395.00

2 FOR $375.00 each

BWTNDTMB4B2 2 sided (9 lbs.) $495.00

2 FOR 475.00 each

MPl 6" HALF HEIGHT

BWMPI41M 1 sided (11 lbs) $380.00

BWMPI42M 2 sided ft 1 IDs) $460.00

DUAL 8" HALF HEIGHT
FLOPPY CABINET

24V tf> 4A. 5V w 3A
-5V @ 800ma
Fan cooled

Socketed power connections
All supplies 'regulated

List Price Our Price

BWIIIDTLD02 DualThin LineCabmet (12 lbs.) S225 00 $165.00

DUY THE CADINET ti DRIVES AND SAVE!
With 2 Tandon Thinlines

BWPDBIIITN0I Cabinet W/2TNDTM8481 - 1 sided(30 lbs) $ 885.00
BWP0BIIITND2 Cabinet w/2TNDTM8482- 2 sided (30 lbs) $1115.00

With 2 MPl Slimlines

BWPDBIIIMPI1 Cabinet w/2 MPI4 1M -
BWPDBIIIMPI2 Cabinet w/2 MPI42M ■

1 sided (30 lbs )

2 sided (30 lbs.)

S 920.00

51080.00

Options

BWIIIOTLMPIKIT MPl drive adaptor mounting kit (2 i|j- .) $24.95

BWIII0CCSHU Shugart / AC/DC power connector kit (2 lbs.) $14.95

(For futl size sinqte SA801 or comoatihle drives)

TERMINALS

VISUAL 330

^■':}Umm-X-'" A r^ ■,■■■' .:■■:•" ■■■'ks.

(Sh Wt.
41 lbs.)

SPECIFICATIONS

300

ANSI X3 fi4 Specified NO STn NO

Programmable Non-Volatile SID STD NO

Function Keys
Video Attributes Require No STD STD NO

Display Space
Smooth Scroll. Slow Scroll and STD STD NO

.jump Scroti
Nonvolatile Set-up Modes STD ST0 NO

"Menu" st:ie
Programmable Non-Volatile STD STD NO

Columnar Tabbing
N- Key Rollover STD STD NO

CR New Line Mode STD STD NO

Tilt and Swivel STD STD NO

User Programmable Non- STD STD NO

Volatile Answerback. 32 Cedes
XON/XOFF Flow Control Split tor STD STD NO

Xmitter & Receiver

Pari No.

Description

List Price SALE

BWVSL3D0GN ANSI X3.64. 12" Green
BWVSL33DGN Green 12" CRT (Sh Wt. 41 lbs)
BWVSL33014GN Green 14" CRT{Sh. WT.4 1 lbs )

S1 095.00 $995.00
S1200 00 $895.00
$1 250.00 $949.00

VISUAL 50

The VISUAL 50 represents a new approach in low cost terminals. Although it
costs drastically less, it oflers the featuresyouexpectfromthe high priced
units. For example, the VISUAL 50 enclosure is economically 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 en-
gineering features normally offered only on much higher priced parameters.
Another distinctive feature of the VISUAL 50 is its emulation capability.
VISUAL 50 is code-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 alio weasy selection of terminal parameters.

BWVSL50BW Black & White 12"
BWVSL5DGN Green Screen 12"

S695.00 $625.00
$770.00 $655.00

LIBERTY ELECTRONICS

BWLIBF50 Freedom 50 (Sh Wt. 30 lbs)

ADDS

S599.00 $474.00

BWADDVWPB Viewpoint 3A+ (30 lbs.)

S695.00 $575.00

QUME

BWQME102 80 Column Green (Sh. Wt. 30 lbs) $550.00

BWOME102AM 80 Column Amber (Sh Wt. 30 lbs) $565.00

BWQME103 80/132 Column Green {Sh. Wt. 30 lbs) $765.00

BWQME10B 22 function key. 80 cot. Green (30 lbs.) $749.00

BWPE108AM 22 function key>80 cot. Amber (30 lbs.) $765.00

Circle 370 on inquiry card.

ORDER TOLL FREE ( 600) 420-5922 - CA, AK, HI CALL (210) 709-51 1 1

PRIORITY ONE ELECTRONICS

SIERRA DATA
SCIENCES

& MICROPnLIS

Z80A- CP/WI™ BASED COMPUTER

SUB-SYSTEM WITH 30M BYTES

OF DISK STORAGE!!

For Only:

$3995.00

BWPDBSDSMCP

And Here Is What You Get:

Ust Price

BWSDCSBCCM Z80A SBC W/64K RAM. 2 RS-232

Interface and Floppy Disk Controller

$ 895.00

BWS0CHD1

Micropoli* 1 200 series adaptor

tor use with above

$ 150.00

BWSDCCPM15

User-friendly CP/lvT

$ 150.00

BWWCP1223I

3 platter 35Mbyte hard disk 8" drive

$4495.00

BWSOCWNMCP

Enclosureand Power Supply lor Drive

$ 550.00

WHAT YOU WOULD PAY IF YOU * C nAn nn
BOUGHT EVERYTHING SEPARATELY: $OZ4U.UU

YOU SAVE $2245.00

MACROTECH International Corp.

S-100 IEEE/696 DYNAMIC RAM

MACROTECH MAX

UP TO 1 MEGABYTE!!

See Page 134 For More Details

Features:

• S-100/1EEE-696 futl comoalibility

• Various configurations — field upgradeable. 256 K - 384 K- 5 1 2 K - and

1 Megabyte 1

• High speed — 6MHz in 8 bit environments and 8 M Hz in 1 6 bit environ
ments .-.ith no wait states

• Under CP/M 2.2*. CP/M 3.0' CP/M86* or MP/M II*. all or part of the
memory may be devided between system memory and virtual disk

• M3 Memory mapping option for8-bit environments (Translated 1 6-bit
logical address to 24-bit physical address). Gives Z-80. 8080. or
8085 16 MEG iddress space

• OMA fully supported in accordance with IEEE/696

• Low power consumption 4 Amps (1 MEG): 3 Amps (256K)

• 6 Layer HOST and 4 layer "piggy-back" card for noise-free operation

• Fully socketed — Augat HOLTITE" zero profile sockets on all ICs
ORDERING INFORMATION: The 256K and 384K versions include the fully
socketed Host card The 512K and larger versions also include thr: fully
socketed "piggy-back" card To order the M3 Memory Mapping Option,
add M3 to the end of the part number and add S90.00 to the price

Part Number Description

Our Price

BWMACMAX256 256K Dynamic RAM (A&T) $1225.00

BWMACMAX384 384K Dynamic RAM (A&T) $1467.00

BWMACMAX512 512K Dynamic RAM (A&T] $1880.00

BWMACMAXM 1 MEG Dynamic RAM (A&T) $2449.00

BWMACMAXTM MAX Technical Manual $ 15.00
BWMACMAXVOSK MAX Virtual Disk Software supplied on $ 25.00
8" S/D Disk

MACROTECH UPGRADE KITS

Each MAX board is upgradeable in 128K increments. Each upgrade
includes the RAMs and the proprietary PALs (Programmable Array Logic)
required to change the board addressing. Call or write for upgrade kits not
listed

BWMACMKT23 Upgrade 1rom 256K to 384 K $ 265.00

BWMACWKT2M Upgrade from 256K to 1 MEGABYTE $1747.00

BWMACMKT3M Upgrade from 384K to 1 MEGABYTE $1500.00

BWMACMKT5M Upgrade from 512K to 1 MEGABYTE $1005.00

IBM-PC " COMPATIBLE
COMPUTER SYSTEM!

• MS DOS • 16 bit 8088 CPL

> 128KRAM

> Color Graphi
Centronics
Printer Port

i Sanyo BASIC

' Word Procf" ; -

Spread Sht

•samvo MDC-555

Call For Special Package Price

^ SANYO

m

10" RGB MONITOR

IDEAL FOR IBM, SANYO, EAGLE, AND
MANY OTHER COMPUTER SYSTEMS

Regular Price: $795 00

SALE
PRICE

BWSY0Dft4>113 (Sh. WL 35 lbs.)
BWSY0VMC6013 Composite (Wt 35 lbs.) $449.00

12" GREEN SCREEN
VIDEO MONITOR

64 Column Display Regular Price: $1 19.00

pSIce $75.00

BWSY00M2112(Sh. Wt. 16 lbs.)
80 Column Display Regular Price: $199.00

ZIS159.00

BWSY0DM8112CX(Sh . Wt. 24 lbs)

TAX/XN

Part Number Description

List Price Our Price

BWTAXRGB1 Medium Resolution/310 lines S399.00 $379.00

BWTAXRGB3 Super High Res/630 lines S699.00 $659.00

(Shipping Weight: 30 lbs each)

INTERFACE BOARDS AND CABLES

BWTAXAPPLE2RGB RGB interface for Aple II S 149.00 $139.00

BWTAX41O-B0 RGB 80 col int. for Apple lie SI 99.00 $185.00

BWTAXIBMRGB RGB cable for IBM PC M $19.00

BWTAXRGBAPL KGB cable for Apple lie and Ml $ 19.00

(Shipping Weight: 1 lb on each)

PRINTERS

AXIOM CORPORATION

$199.00

OUR LOWEST PRICED PRINTER!

BWAXMGP1D0A 30 cps; 80 col. dot matrix (1 1 lbs.) $199.00

Printers for Atari or Commodore

JUST PLUG AND RUN!
Complete With Built-in Interface Cables!

BWAXMAT10DA for ATARI
BWAXMC0100A for Commodore

$229.0
$229.0

MORROW

LETTER QUALITY PRINTERS

Pari Number Description

List price Our Price

BWM0SMP200 200 cps W/RS232 serial interface S950.00 $795.00

(Shipping weight: 35 lbs.)
BWMDSMPT50TK MP200 traclor feed $125.00

BWM0SMP100 12 cps friction/pin feed S595.00 $495.00

w/parallel interface

PRINT WHEEL

BWSRPC0URIER10 Courier 10 pica
BWSRPC0URIER12 Courier 12 elite
BWSRPM00ERN Proportional type

BWSRPSCRIPT

Script elite

$16.95
$16.95
$16.95
$16.95

COEX 60F/T

Friction and Pin Feed Standard

BWCDX80FT Parallel Intertace: 80 cps
BWCDXB0FTSER Serial Interface: 80 cps

$249.00
$249.00

GEMINI 1 0X & 15

BWGEM10X 120 cps Parallel Int. 80 col. (20 lbs.) $319.00

BWGEM15 100 cps Parallel Int. 132 col. (26 lbs.) $459.00

BWGEMSERINT Serial interface card (or GEM15 (1 lb) $85.00

BWGEMSERINTX Serial inlerface for GEM10X (1 lb.) $ 59.00

BWGEMSERINTX4K Serial interface & 4 K buffer for GEM 1 0X $1 19.00

OK I DATA

BW0KI0AT82AT TRACTOR INCLUDED (25 lbs) $449.00

BW0KI0AT83AT TRACTOR INCLUDED (35 lbs) $729.00

BW0KIDAT92AP 0KIDATA 92A Parallel (25 lbs.) $480.00

BW0KI0AT92AS 0KI0ATA92A Serial (25 lbs) $599.00

BW0KI0AT92AT 0KI0ATA92A Tractor (2 lbs.) $ 79.95

BW0KI0AT93AP 0KIDATA93A parallel (35 lbs.) $830.00

BW0KI0AT93AS 0KIDATA93A Serial (35 lbs.) $995.00

MANNESMANN TALLY

LETTER QUALITY DOT MATRIX PRINTER

160 cps

• 40 cps (Letter quality)

• Serial & Paralfel Interface

• Double wide characters
BWTALMT16DL 160 cps 80 col (21 lbs.)
BWTALMT180L 160 cps 132 col. (28 lbs.)

Tractor and friction feed
"Bullet- Proof cast frame
with metal cabinet

$569.00
$784.00

QUME LETTER QUALITY

RWQMES945 45 cps Sprint 9 serial (49 lbs.) $1789.00

BWQMES955 55 cps Sprint 9 serial (49 lbs.) $2195.00

BWQMES1 140 40 cps Sprint 11 (45 lbs) $1389.00

BWQMESI1RS232 RS232 Module for Sprint 11 (3 lbs.) $ 99.00

BWQMESUCENT Centronics parallel for Sprint 1 1 (3 lbs.) $ 99.00

BWQMES11IEEE4M IEEE488 Module for Sprint 1 1 (3 lbs.) $ 99.00

BWQMES11IBM IBM module for Sprint 11 (3 fbs.) $ 99.00

BWQMEB0T Bi-Directional Traclor (9 lbs.) $ 349.00

BWQMEWB Wire basket (2 tbs.) $ 85.00

BWOMECSF Cut Sheet Feeder (20 lbs.) $ 849.00

PRIORITY ONE ELECTRONICS

9bl Deermg Ave ,ChotswOrth CA 91311

f^H Q

ORDER TOLL FREE (800) 520-5922 - CA, AK, HI CALL (210) 709-51 1 1

Terms US VISA. MC. BAC. Check. Money Order. U S Funds Only CA residents add 6V'4> Sales Tax. MINIMUM PREPAID ORDER SI 5.00. Include MINIMUM SHIP-
PING & HANDLING of S3 00 for the first 3 lbs plus40c lor each addilional pound Orders over 50 lbs. sent freight collect. Just in case, include your phone number. Prices
subfGr to change wilhom no' ice Wewilldoour best to maintain prices through November. 1983 Manyquanlities are limited Sorry, no rainchecks. no refunds or exchang-
es on sale merchandise Credit Card orders will be charged appropriate freight Sale prices for prepaid orders only We are not responsible tor typographical errors

RETAIL STORE PHONE NUMBERS: (Chofsworfh:) (210) 709-5464 - (Irvine:) (714) 660-1411

Circle 370 on inquiry card.

64K DYNAMIC
200 NS

Fh iWFTF

2KX8 STATIC
200 NS

STATIC RAMS

2101

256 x4

(450ns)

1.95

5101

256x4

(450ns) (cmos)

3.95

2102-1

1024 x 1

(450ns)

.89

2102L-4

1024 x 1

(450ns) (LP)

.99

2102L-2

1024 x 1

(250ns) (LP)

1.49

2111

256 x4

(450ns)

2.49

2112

256x4

(450ns)

2.99

2114

1024x4

(450ns)

8/9.95

2114-25

1024x4

(250ns)

8/10.95

2114L-4

1024x4

(450ns) (LP)

8/12.95

2114L-3

1024 x 4

(300ns) (LP)

8/13.45

2114L-2

1024 x4

(200ns) (LP)

8/13.95

TC5514

1024 x4

(650ns) (cmos)

2.49

TC5516

2048 x 8

(250ns) (cmos)

9.95

2147

4096 x 1

(55ns)

4.95

TMS4044-4

4096 x 1

(450ns)

3.49

TMS4044-3

4096 x 1

(300ns)

3.99

TMS4044-2

4096 x 1

(200ns)

4.49

MK4118

1024 x 8

(250ns)

9.95

TMM2016-200

2048 x 8

(200ns)

4.15

TMM2016-150

2048 x 8

(150ns)

4.95

TMM2016-100

2048x8

(100ns)

6.15

HM6116-4

2048 x 8

(200ns) (cmos)

4.75

HM6116-3

2048 x 8

(150ns) (cmos)

4.95

HM6116-2

2048x8

(120ns) (cmos)

8.95

HM6116LP-4

2048 x 8

(200ns) (cmos)(LP)

5.95

HM6116LP-3

2048 x 8

(150ns) (cmos)(LP)

6.95

HM6116LP-2

2048 x8

(120ns) (cmos)(LP)

10.95

Z-6132

4096 x 8

(300ns) (Ostat)

34.95

HM6264

8192 x 8

(150ns) (cmos)

49.95

DYNAMIC RAMS

TMS4027

4096 x 1

(250ns)

UPD411

4096x 1

(300ns)

MM5280

4096 x 1

(300ns)

MK4108

8192 x 1

(200ns)

MM5298

8192 x 1

(250ns)

4116-300

16384 x 1

(300ns)

4116-250

16384 x 1

(250ns)

4116-200

16384 x 1

(200ns)

4116-150

16384 x 1

(150ns)

4116-120

16384 x 1

(120ns)

2118

16384 x 1

(150ns) (5v)

MK4332

32768 x 1

(200ns)

4164-200

65536 x 1

(200ns) (5v)

4164-150

65536 x 1

(150ns) (5v)

MCM6665

65536 x 1

(200ns) (5v)

k TMS4164-15

65536 x 1

(150ns) (5v)

EPROMS

1702

2708

2758

2716

2716-1

TMS2516

TMS2716

TMS2532

2732

2732-250

2732-200

2732A-4
| 2732A
I 2732A-2

2764

2764-250

2764-200
| TMS2564

MC68764
L 27128

256 x8
1024 x 8
1024 x 8
2048 x 8
2048 x 8
2048x8
2048x8
4096 x 8
4096 x 8
4096 x 8
4096 x 8
4096 x 8
4096 x 8
4096 x 8
8192x8
8192 x8
8192 x8
8192x8
8192 x 8
16384x8

(1us)
(450ns)
(450ns)
(450ns)
(350ns)
(450ns)
(450ns)
(450ns)
(450ns)
(250ns)
(200ns)
(450ns)
(250ns)
(200ns)
(450ns)
(250ns)
(200ns)
(450ns)
(450ns)
(300ns)

(5v)
(5v)
(5v)
(5v)

(5v)

(5v)

(5v)

(5v)

(5v)(21vPGM)

(5v)(21vPGM)

(5v)21vPGM)

(5v)

(5v)

(5v)

(5v)

(5v)(24 pin)

(5v)

1.99 I
3.00 I
3.00 I
1.95 |
1,65 I
8/11.75
8/11.95
8/12.95
8/14.95
8/29.95
4.95
9.95
5.95
6.95
8.95
8.95 J

4.50

3.95

5.95

3.95

5.95

5.50

7.95

5.95

4.95

8.95
11.95

6.95

9.95
13.95

9.95
14.95
24.95
17.95
39.95
29.95 ,

EPROM ERASERS

Capacity intensity

PE-14
PE-14T
PE-24T
PL-265T
PR-125T
LPR-320T

mer

Chip

(uW/Cm 2 )

9

8,000

83.00

X

9

8,000

119.00

X

12

9,600

175.00

X

30

9,600

255.00

X

25

17,000

349.00

X

42

17,000

595.00

Z-80

2.5 Mhz

Z80-CPU
Z80-CTC
Z80-DART
Z80-DMA
Z80-PIO
Z80-SIO/0
Z80-SIO/1
Z80-SIO/2
| Z80-SIO/9

4.0 Mhz

3.95
4.49
10.95
14.95
4.49
16.95
16.95
16.95
16.95

Z80A-CPU

Z80A-CTC

Z80A-DART

Z80A-DMA

Z80A-PIO

Z80A-SIO/0

Z80A-SIO/1

Z80A-SIO/2

Z80A-SIO/9

4.95
4.95
11.95
16.95
4.95
16.95
16.95
16.95
16.95

6.0 Mhz

11.95
13.95
13.95
19.95
39.95

Z80B-CPU

Z80B-CTC

Z80B-PIO

Z80B-DART

Z80B-SIO/2

ZILOG

i Z6132 34.95

LZ8671 39.95 j

CRYSTALS

32.768 khz

1.95

1.0 mhz

4.95

1.8432

4.95

2.0

3.95

2.097152

3.95

2.4576

3.95

3.2768

3.95

3.579545

3.95

4.0

3.95

5.0

3.95

5.0688

3.95

5.185

3.95

5.7143

3.95

6.0

3.95

6.144

3.95

6.5536

3.95

8.0

3.95

10.0

3.95

10.738635

3.95

14.31818

3.95

15.0

3.95

16.0

3.95

17.430

3.95

18.0

3.95

18.432

3.95

20.0

3.95

22.1184

3.95

£2.0

3.95.

CRT

CONTROLLERS

6845

22.50

68B45

19.95

HD46505SP

15.95

6847

11.95

MC1372

6.95

68047

24.95

8275

29.95

7220

99.95

CRT5027

39.95

CRT5037

49.95

TMS9918A

39.95

.DP8350

49.95.

KEYBOARD
CHIPS

AY5-2376 11.95

AY5-3600 11.95

l AY5-3600 PRO 11.95

74LS00

74LS00

.24

74LS173

74LS01

.25

74LS174

74LS02

.25

74LS175

74LS03

.25

74LS181

74LS04

.24

74LS189

74LS05

.25

74LS190

74LS08

.28

74LS191

74LS09

.29

74LS192

74LS10

.25

74LS193

74LS11

.35

74LS194

74LS12

.35

74LS195

74LS13

.45

74LS196

74LS14

.59

74LS197

74LS15

.35

74LS221

74LS20

.25

74LS240

74LS21

.29

74LS241

74LS22

.25

74LS242

74LS26

.29

74LS243

74LS27

.29

74LS244

74LS28

.35

74LS245

74LS30

.25

74LS247

74LS32

.29

74LS248

74LS33

.55

74LS249

74LS37

.35

74LS251

74LS38

.35

74LS253

74LS40

.25

74LS257

74LS42

.49

74LS258

74LS47

.75

74LS259

74LS48

.75

74LS260

74LS49

.75

74LS266

74LS51

.25

74LS273

74LS54

.29

74LS275

74LS55

.29

74LS279

74LS63

1.25

74LS280

74LS73

.39

74LS283

74LS74

.35

74LS290

74LS75

.39

74LS293

74LS76

.39

74LS295

74LS78

.49

74LS298

74LS83

.60

74LS299

74LS85

.69

74LS323

74LS86

.39

74LS324

74LS90

.55

74LS352

74LS91

.89

74LS353

74LS92

.55

74LS363

74LS93

.55

74LS364

74LS95

.75

74LS365

74LS96

.89

74LS366

74LS107

.39

74LS367

74LS109

.39

74LS368

74LS112

.39

74LS373

74LS113

.39

74LS374

74LS114

.39

74LS375

74LS122

.45

74LS377

74LS123

.79

74LS378

74LS124

2.90

74LS379

74LS125

.49

74LS385

74LS126

.49

74LS386

74LS132

.59

74LS390

74LS133

.59

74LS393

74LS136

.39

74LS395

74LS137

.99

74LS399

74LS138

.55

74LS424

74LS139

.55

74LS447

74LS145

1.20

74LS490

74LS147

2.49

74LS624

74LS148

1.35

74LS640

74LS151

.55

74LS645

74LS153

.55

74LS668

74LS154

1.90

74LS669

74LS155

.69

74LS670

74LS156

.69

74LS674

74LS157

.65

74LS682

74LS158

.59

74LS683

74LS160

.69

74LS684

74LS161

.65

74LS685

74LS162

.69

74LS688

74LS163

.65

74LS689

74LS164

.69

81LS95

74LS165

.95

81LS96

74LS166

1.95

81LS97

74LS168

1.75

81LS98

74LS169

1.75

25LS2521

74LS170

1.49

25LS2569

JDR Microdevices

1224 S. Bascom Ave. • San Jose, CA 95128
(408) 995-5430 • Telex 171-110

Copyright 1983 JDR Microdevices

VISIT OUR RETAIL STORE

HOURS: M-W-F, 9-5 T-Th., 9-9 Sat. 10

TERMS: Minimum order $10. For shipping and handling Inclm
$2.50 for UPS Ground and $3.50 tor UPS Air. Orders over 1 lb. ai
foreign orders may require additional shipping charges — plea
contact our sales department for the amount. CA residents mu
include 6% sales tax, Bay Area and LA residents include 6V 2 %. Pric
subject to change without notice. We are not responsible f
typographical errors. We reserve the right to limit quantities and
substitute manufacturer. All merchandise subject to prior sale.

712 BYTE November 1983

Circle 245 on inquiry card.

2114<,o N s8/$995 2114 25 o NS 8/$1095

7400

.19
19
19
19
19
25
29
29
.24
19
19
25
.30
.35
49
25
25
19
.35
35
29
.29
.29
29
.45
.19
.29
.45
.29
.29
.19
.49
.65
.69
69
.69
.69
.69
.19
.23
23
.23
.23
.35
.29
.34
.33
.45
.35
.59
1.10
.95
.50
.59
.35
2.15
.35
.40
.50
35
.65
.55
70
2.75
1.75
.30
.45
.45
.55
1.55
1.20
.29
45
.49
.45
.45
,55

74132
74136
74141
74142
74143
74145
74147
74148
74150
74151
74152
74153
74154
74155
74156
74157
74159
74160
74161
74162
74163
74164
74165
74166
74167
74170
74172
74173
74174
74175
74176
74177
74178
74179
74180
74181
74182
74184
74185
74190
74191
74192
74193
74194
74195
74196
74197
74198
74199
74221
74246
74247
74248
74249
74251
74259
74265
74273
74276
74279
74283
74284
74285
74290
74293
74298
74351
74365
74366
74367
74368
74376
74390
74393
74425
74426
74490

CLOCK
CIRCUITS

.45

.50

.65

2.95

2.95

.60

1.75

1.20

1 35

.55

65

55

1 25
.75
65
.55

1.65
85
.69
85
69
.85
.85
1.00

2 95
1.65
595

.75

.89

.89

.89

75

1.15

1.75

.75

2.25

.75

2.00

2.00

1.15

1.15

.79

.79

.85

.85

.79

.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

LINEAR

RCA

LM301

LM301H

LM307

LM308

LM308H

LM309H

LM309K

LM310

LM311

LM311H

LM312H

LM317K

LM317T

LM318

LM318H

LM319H

LM319

LM320(se

LM322

LM323K

LM324

LM329

LM331

LM334

LM335

LM336

LM337K

LM337T

LM338K

LM339

.34

.79

.45

.69

1.15

1.95

1.25

1.75

.64

.89

1.75

3.95

1.19

1.49

1.59

1.90

1.25

7900)

1.65

4.95

.59

.65

3.95

1.19

1.40

1.75

3.95

1.95

6.95

.99

LM340(sei

LM348

LM350K

LM350T

LM358

LM359

LM376

LM377

LM378

LM380

LM380N-I

LM381

LM382

LM383

LM384

LM386

LM387

LM389

LM390

LM392

LM393

LM394H

LM399H

NE531

NE555

NE556

NE558

NE561

NE564

LM565

H = TO-5 CAN

74S00

| 74S00
74S02
74S03
74S04

I 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

L74S163

.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
1.95

74S168
74S169
74S174
74S175
74S181
74S182
74S188
74S189
74S194
74S195
74S196
74S197
74S201
74S225
74S240
74S241
74S244
74S251
74S253
74S257
74S258
74S260
74S273
74S274
74S275
74S280
74S287
74S288
74S289
74S301
74S373
74S374
74S381
74S387
74S412
74S471
74S472
74S474
74S482
74S570
74S571

7800)

.99
4.95
4.60

.69
1.79
3.75
1.95
2.50

.89
1.10
1.60
1.60
1.95
1.95

.89
1.40
1.35
1.95

.69
1.29
4.60
5.00
2.95

.34

.65

1.50

24.95

2.95

.99

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

2.45

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

INTERSIL

4.95
3.95
4.95
12.95
11.95
3.95J

ICL7106
ICL7107

| ICL7660
ICL8038
ICM7207A

UCM7208

9.95

12.95

2.95

3.95

5.59
15.95 J

9000

I 9316

9334

9368

9401

9601

9602
L.96SQ2

1.00 I
2.50
3.95 I
9.95 [
.75 I
1.50 I
1.95 J

LM566

LM567

NE570

NE571

NE590

NE592

LM709

LM710

LM711

LM723

LM723H

LM733

LM741

LM741N-

LM741H

LM747

LM748

LM1014

LM1303

LM1310

MC1330

MC1349

MC1350

MC1358

MC1372

LM1414

LM1458

LM1488

LM1489

LM1496

1.49

.89

3.95

2.95

2.50

2.75

.59

.75

.79

.49

.55

.98

.35

I .35

.40

.69

.59

1.19

1.95

1.49

1.69

1.89

1.19

1.69

6.95

1.59

.59

.69

.69

.85

LM1558H

LM1800

LM1812

LM1830

LM1871

LM1872

LM1877

LM1889

LM1896

ULN2003

LM2877

LM2878

LM2900

LM2901

LM3900

LM3905

LM3909

LM3911

LM3914

LM3915

LM3916

MC4024

MC4044

RC4136

RC4151

LM4250

LM4500

RC4558

LM13080

LM13600

LM13700

3.10
2.37
8.25
3.50
5.49
5.49
3.25
1.95
1.75
2.49
2.05
2.25

.85
1.00

.59
1.25

.98
2.25
3.95
3.95
3.95
3.95
4.50
1.25
3.95
1.75
3.25

.69
1.29
1.49
1.49

CA3023

2.75

CA 3039

1.29

CA 3046

1.25

CA 3059

2.90

CA 3060

2.90

CA 3065

1.75

CA 3080

1.10

CA 3081

1.65

CA3160

TL494

4.20

TL496

1.65

TL497

3.25

75107

1.49

75110

1.95

75150

1.95

75154

1.95

75188

1.25

75189

1.25

75494

CA3082
CA3083
CA 3086
CA 3089
CA 3096
CA3130
CA3140
CA 3146
1.19

Tl

75365
75450
75451
75452
75453
75454
75491
75492
75493
.89

Bl FET

TL071
TL072
TL074
TL081
TL082
TL083

.79
1.19
2.19

.79
1.19
1.19
LF357

TL084
LF347
LF351
LF353
LF355
LF356
1.40

1.65
1.55
.80
2.99
3.49
1.30
1.15
1.85

1.95
.59
.39
.39
.39
.39
.79
79
.89

2.19
2.19
.60
1.00
1.10
1.10

CMOS

INTERFACE

8T26

8T28

8T95

8T96

8T97

8T98

DM8131

DP8304

DS8833

DS8835

DS8836

DS8837

DS8838

MISC.

TMS99532

ULN2003

3242

3341

MC3470

MC3480

11C90

95H90

2513-001 UP

2513-002 LOW

1.59
1.89

.89

.89

.89

.89
2.95
2.29
2.25
1.99

.99
1.65
1.30

29.95
2.49
7.95
4.95
4.95
9.00

13.95
7.95
9.95
9.95 J

VOLTAGE

REGULATORS

7805T

.75

7905T

.85

78M05C

.35

7908T

.85

7808T

.75

7912T

.85

7812T

.75

7915T

.85

7815T

.75

7924T

.85

7824T

.75

7905K

1.49

7805K

1.39

7912K

1.49

7812K

1.39

7915K

1.49

7815K

1.39

7924K

1.49

7824K

1.39

79L05

.79

78L05

.69

79L12

.79

78L12

.69

79L15

.79

78L15

.69

LM323K

4.95

78H05K

9.95

UA78S40

1.95

78H12K

9.95

C

T = TO-220

K = TO-3

L -

TO-92

IF V0U CAN FIND A PRICE LOWER ELSEWHERE.
LET US KNOW AND WE WILL MEET OR DEAT THEIR
PRICE! (SEE TERMS BELOW}

* Computer managed inuentory - ulrtually
no bach orders!

* uery competitlue prices!

* Friendly stall!

* Fast sendee - most orders shipped within
24 hours!

EXAR

| XR 2206

XR 2207

XR 2208

XR 2211
LXR 2240

DATA ACQUISITION

ADC0800 1555

ADC0804 3.49

ADC0809 4.49

ADC0817 9.95

L DAC0800 4.95

DAC0808 2.95

DAC1020 8.25

DAC1022 5.95

MC1408L6 1.95

MC1408L8 2.95,

4000

.29

4528

1.19

4001

.25

4531

.95

4002

.25

4532

1.95

4006

.89

4538

1.95

4007

.29

4539

1.95

4008

.95

4541

2.64

4009

.39

4543

1.19

4010

.45

4553

5.79

4011

.25

4555

.95

4012

.25

4556

.95

4013

.38

4581

1.95

4014

.79

4582

1.95

4015

.39

4584

.75

4016

.39

4585

.75

4017

.69

4702

12.95

4018

.79

74C00

.35

4019

39

74C02

.35

4020

.75

74C04

.35

4021

.79

74C08

.35

4022

.79

74C10

.35

4023

.29

74C14

.59

4024

.65

74C20

.35

4025

.29

74C30

.35

4026

1.65

74C32

.39

4027

.45

74C42

1.29

4028

69

74C48

1.99

4029

79

74C73

.65

4030

.39

74C74

.65

4034

1.95

74C76

.80

4035

.85

74C83

1.95

4040

.75

74C85

1.95

4041

.75

74C86

.39

•042

.69

74C89

4.50

4043

.85

74C90

1.19

4044

.79

74C93

1.75

4046

.85

74C95

.99

4047

.95

74C107

.89

4049

.35

74C150

5.75

4050

.35

74C151

2.25

4051

.79

74C154

3.25

4053

.79

74C157

1.75

4060

.89

74C160

1.19

4066

.39

74C161

1.19

4068

.39

74C162

1.19

4069

.29

74C163

1.19

4070

.35

74C164

1.39

4071

.29

74C165

2.00

4072

.29

74C173

.79

4073

.29

74C174

1.19

4075

.29

74C175

1.19

4076

.79

74C192

1.49

4078

.29

74C193

1.49

4081

.29

74C195

1.39

4082

.29

74C200

5.75

4085

.95

74C221

1.75

4086

.95

74C244

2.25

4093

.49

74C373

2.45

4098

2.49

74C374

2.45

4099

1.95

74C901

.39

14409

12.95

74C902

.85

14410

12.95

74C903

.85

14411

11.95

74C905

10.95

14412

12.95

74C906

.95

14419

7.95

74C907

1.00

4502

.95

74C908

2.00

4503

.65

74C909

2.75

4508

1.95

74C910

9.95

4510

.85

74C911

8.95

4511

.85

74C912

8.95

4512

.85

74C914

1.95

4514

1.25

74C915

1.19

4515

1.79

74C918

2.75

4516

1.55

74C920

17.95

4518

.89

74C921

15.95

4519

.39

74C922

4.49

4520

.79

74C923

4.95

4522

1.25

74C925

5.95

4526

1.25

74C926

7.95

4527

1.95

74C928

7.95

74C929

19.95;

SOUND CHIPS "

■ 76477

3.95

■ 76489

8.95

■ AY3-8910

12.95

■ AY3-8912

12.95

■ MC3340

1.49,

I

ALL MERCHANDISE
100% GUARANTEED

CALL US FOR UOLUME QUOTES

© Copyright 1983 JDR Mlcrodevfces

Circle 245 on inquiry card.

BYTE November 1983

2732

32K EPROM

SPECTACULAR FALL SAVINGS!

(QUANTITIES LIMITED!)

RF MODULATOR (ASTECUM1082)

• PRESET TO CHANNEL 3

• USE TO BUILD
TV-COMPUTER INTERFACE

• +5 VOLT OPERATION

NOW
ONLY

$695

POWER
SUPPLIES

IDEAL FOR HOBBYIST, BENCHWORK
AND DO-IT-YOURSELFERS!
90-DAY WARRANTY!
NEW AND UNUSED!!

ASTEC AA11190

• QUAD OUTPUT SWITCHING
DESIGN AS USED IN APPLE III

• +5 @ 4A; -5 @ .25A

• + 12@2.5A;-12@ .30A; 15.5"x4.5"x2"

SIGMA INSTRUMENTS

Model 2PC2241

• DESIGNED FOR DEC EQUIPMENT

• FUSE PROTECTED • LINEAR DESIGN

• AUXILIARY AC OUTLET

• +5 @ 4A; -15V @ 1.5A; 12.25"x4"x4.75"

NOW
ONLY

$59 90

NOW
ONLY

$1995

ORDER 800-538-5000
TOLL FREE 000-662-6279

2764

64K EPROM

CAPACITORS

TANTALUM

(CALIFORNIA RESIDENTS)

6V

10V

15V

20V

25V

35V

50V

.22uf

.40

.27

.40

.33

.40

.45

.47

.35

.50

.68

.45

.50

1.0

.40

.40

.45

.45

1.5

.45

.50

.60

1.8

.75

2.2

.35

.40

.45

.65

.85

2.7

.40

.45

.90

3.3

.45

.50

.55

.60

.65

.90

3.9

.45

4.7

.45

.55

.60

.65

.85

.90

6.8

.70

.75

8.2

1.00

10

.55

.65

.80

.85

.90

1.00

12

.65

.85

.90

15

.75

.85

.90

18

1.25

22

1.00

1.35

27

2.25

39

1.50

47

1.35

1 1

56

1.75

100

3.25

270

3.75

DISC

10pf

50V

.05

470

50V

::

22

50V

.05

560

50V

c.

25

50V

.05

680

50V

:.

27

50V

.05

820

50V

z r .

33

50V

.05

.001uf

50V

3:

47

50V

.05

.0015

50V

.05

56

50V

.05

.0022

50V

"■

68

50V

.05

.005

50V

O'

82

50V

.05

.01

50V

"..:

100

50V

.05

.02

50V

1..

220

50V

.05

.05

50V

330

50V

.05

.1
.1

12V
50V

■ :

MONOLITHIC

.1uf-mono 50V .18 .47uf-mono 50V

ELECTROLYTIC

RADIAL
.47uf 50V

1

2.2

4.7

10

47

100

220

470

2200

25V
35V
50V
50V
35V
16V
35V
25V
16V

.14
.14
.15
.15
.15
.18
.18
.20
.30
.60

COMPUTER
GRADE

26,000uf 30V 3.95

1uf

4.7

10

10

22

47

100

100

150

220

330

500

1000

1500

6000

AXIAL
50V
16V
16V
50V
16V
50V
15V
35V
25V
25V
16V
16V
16V
16V
16V

.14
.14
.14
.16
.14
.20
.20
.25
.25
.30
.40
.42
.60
.70
.85

OPTO-ISOLATORS

FEDERAL EXPRESS

SERVICES AVAILABLE

■

TRANSISTORS

MPS3706

2N3772

2N3903

2N3904

2N3906

2N4122

2N4123

2N4249

2N4304

2N4401

2N4402

2N4403

2N4857

PN4916

2N5086

PN5129

PN5139

2N5209

2N6028

2N6043

2N6045

MPS-A05

MPS-A06

MPS-A55

T1P29

TIP31

TIP32

.15
1.85
.25
.10
.10
.25
.25
.25
.75
.25
.25
.25
1.00
.25
.25
.25
.25
.25
.35
1.75
1.75
.25
.25
.25
.65
.75
.79

r IC SOCKETS

8 pin ST

14pinST

16 pin ST

18 pin ST

20 pin ST

| 22 pin ST

I 24 pin ST

I 28 pin ST

I 40 pin ST

I 64 pin ST

1-99
.13
.15
.17
.20
.29
.30
.30
.40
.49

4.25

100

.11

.12

.13

.18

.27

.27 f

.27

.32 I

.39 |

call

ST = SOLDERTAIL
8 pin WW .59 .49

14 pin WW
16 pin WW
J 18 pin WW
I 20 pin WW
I 22 pin WW
1 24 pin WW
28 pin WW

.69
.69
.99
1.09
1.39
1.49
1.69

.52

.58

.90

.98 I
1.28
1.35 [
1.49

£.0 pin YV YV 1.03 1.13

40 pin WW 1.99 1.80

WW = WIREWRAP
16 pinZIF 6.75 call
24pinZIF 9.95 call
28 pin ZIF 10.95 call

ZIF = TEXTOOL
(Zero Insertion Force)

DIP
SWITCHES

4 POSITION

5 POSITION

6 POSITION
| 7 POSITION
L 8 POSITION

.85

.90 |

.90

.95

.95 J

LED LAMPS

1-99 100-up
.10 .09

Jumbo

Red
Jumbo

Green .18
Jumbo

Yellow .18 .15

.15

BYPASS CAPS

.01 UFDISC 100/6.00

.1 UF DISC 100/8.00

.1 UF MONOLITHIC 100/15.00

LED DISPLAYS

HP 5082-7760
MAN 72
MAN 74
FND-357 (359)
FND-500(503)
FND-507 (510)

.3"

.3"

.375"

.5"

.5"

CC
CA
CC
CC
CC
CA

1.29

.99

.99

1.25

1.49

1.49

RESISTORS

V» WATT 5% CARBON FILM ALL

STANDARD VALUES

FROM 1 OHM TO 10 MEG OHM

50 PCS. SAME VALUE .025

100 PCS. SAME VALUE .02

1000 PCS. SAME VALUE .015

JDR Microdevices

1224 S Bascom Avenue

San Jose. CA 95128

800-538-5000 • 800-662-6279 (CA)

(408) 995-5430* Telex 171-110

© Copyright 1983 JDR Microdevices

VISIT OUR RETAIL STORE

HOURS: M-W-F, 9-5 T-Th.,9-9 Sat. 10-3

PLEASE USE YOUR CUSTOMER NUMBER WHEN ORDERING

TERMS: Minimum order $10. For shipping and handling include
$2.50 for UPS Ground and $3.50 for UPS Air. Orders over 1 lb. and
foreign orders may require additional shipping charges — please
contact our sales department for the amount. GA residents must
Include 6% sales tax, Bay Area and LA residents include 6'A%. Prices
subject to change without notice. We are not responsible for
typographical errors. We reserve the right to limit quantities and to
substitute manufacturer. All merchandise subject to prior sale.

714 BYTE November 1983

Circle 246 on inquiry card.

2716

16K EPMNIS

2732

32HEftOMS

MICROCOMPUTER
HARDWARE HANDBOOK

FROM ELCOMP — $14.95
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

* MPU support & interface —
6800, 6500, Z80, 8200, etc.

BEST SELLING
BOOKS

OSBORNE/MC GRAW-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 First Computer 8.95

The CP/M Handbook 14.95

The PASCAL Handbook 18.95

Microprocessor Interfacing
Techniques 17.95J

TRANSFORMERS

4.95
5.95 |
7.95
10.95
7.95

3.95
4.95
5.95
6.95

6, 9, 12 VDC selectable with universal
adapter 8.95

NOTE: Please Include sufficient amount tor j
l shipping on above items.

FRAME STYLE

12.6VAC

2amp

12.6VAC CT

2amp

12.6VAC CT

4amp

12.6VACCT

Samp

25.2VACCT

2amp

PLUG CASE STYLE

12VAC

250ma

12VAC

500ma

12VAC

lamp

12V AC

2amp

DC ADAPATER

DISK DRIVES

TANDON

I TM 100-1 5 / (FOR IBM) SS/DD 229.00 l
| TM100-2 5V (FOR IBM) DS/DD 259.00 |

SHUGART

| SA 400L 5 V (40 TRACK) SS/DD 1 99.95 I

SA 400

189.95

(35 TRACK) SS/DD

PERTEC

SS/DD
DS/DD

MPI

FOR IBM) DS/DD

NOTE: Please include sufficient amount
lor shipping on above items.

8" DRIVE SALE
FD100-8 $189

SHUGART 801 EQUIVALENT

FD-200 s
FD-250 s

MP-52 5'.

179.95
199.95

249.00

SS/DD

10 FOR $175 EA.

FD200-8 $239

SHUGART 851 EQUIVALENT
DS/DD 10 FOR $220 EA.

CABINETS FOR
CABINET #1 $29.95

DIMENSIONS 8% x 5^16 x 3 1 Vi6"
COLOR MATCHES APPLE
FITS STANDARD 5%" DRIVES,
INCL. SHUGART
INCLUDES MOUNTING
HARDWARE AND FEET

NOTE: Please include sulticient amount tor
shipping on above items.

5V4" DISK DRIVES

CABINET #2 $79.00

• COMPLETE WITH POWER
SUPPLY, SWITCH, LINE
CORD, FUSE & STANDARD
POWER CONNECTOR

• DIMENSIONS: 11 V 2 x 5% x3'Vi6"

• +5V @ 1 AMP, + 12V @ 1 .5 AMP

• FITS STANDARD 5v 4 " DRIVES

• PLEASE SPECIFY
GRAY OR TAN

EDGE-

CARD

CONNECTORS

S-100 ST

3.95

S-100 WW

4.95

72 pin ST

6.95

72 pin WW

7.95

50 pin ST

4.95

44 pin ST

2.95

44 pin WW

4.95

44 pin SE

3.95

I ll

i^ im.

vtsa ||

MasterCard

i Ji

^^^-^^

DIP CONNECTORS

HIGH RELIABILITY

COMPONENT

RIBBON

DESCRIPTION

TOOLED STIC

CARRIERS

CABLE

SOCKETS

(DIP HEADERS)

DIP PLUGS (IDC)

ORDER BY

AUGATxx-ST

ICCxx

IDPxx

CONTACTS 8

.99

.65

14

.99

.75

1 45

16

.99

.85

1.65

18

1.69

1 00

20

1,89

1.25

22

1.89

1.25

24

1 99

1.35

250

28

2.49

1.50

40

2.99

2.10

4 15

For order instructions see "IDC Connectors" below.

WE GOOFED!

Due to overwhelming de-
mand, we are SOLD OUT of
SA-460 disk drives. We apol-
ogize and thank you for your
understanding.

CENTRONICS

IDCEN36 Ribbon Cable 36 Pin Male 8.95

CEN36 Solder Cup 36 Pin Male 7.95,

RIBBON CABLE

D-SUBMINIATURE

CONTACTS

SINGLE COLOR

COLOR CODED

r

10'

r

10'

10

.50

4.40

.83

7.30

16

.55

4.80

1.00

8.80

20

.65

5.70

1.25

11.00

25

.75

6.60

1.32

11.60

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

DESCRIPTION

SOLDER CUP

RIGHT ANGLE
PC SOLDER

IDC
RIBBON CABLE

HOODS

MALE

FEMALE

MALE

FEMALE

MALE

FEMALE

BLACK

GREY

ORDER BY

DBxxP

DBxxS

DBxxPR

DBxxSR

IDBxxP

IDBxxS

HOOD-B

HOOD

CONTACTS 9
15
25
37
50

2.08
2.69
2.50
4.80
606

2.66
3.63
3.25
7.11
9.24

1.65
2.20
3.00
4.83

2.18
3.03
4.42
6.19

3.37
4.70
6.23
9.22

3.69

513

6.84

10.08

1.25

1.60
1.60
1.25
2.95
3.50

For order instructions see "IDC Connectors" below.

MOUNTING HARDWARE 1.00

IDC CONNECTORS

DESCRIPTION

SOLDER HEADER

RIGHT ANGLE
SOLDER HEADER

WW HEADER

RIGHT ANGLE
WW HEADER

RIBBON
HEADER SOCKET

RIBBON
HEADER

RIBBON
EDGE CARD

ORDER BY

IDHxxS

IDHxxSR

IDHxxW

IDHxxWR

IDSxx

IDMxx

IDExx

CONTACTS 10
20
26
34
40
50

.82
1.29
1.68
2.20
2.58
3.24

.85
1.35
1.76
2.31
2.72
3.39

1.86
2.98
3.84
4.50
5.28
6.63

2.05
3.28
4.22
4.45
4.80
7.30

1.15
1.86
2.43
3.15
3.73
4.65

5.50
6.25
7.00
7.50
8.50

2.25 . |

2.36

2.65

3.25

3.80

4.74

ORDERING INSTRUCTIONS: Insert the number of contacts in the position marked "xx" of the "order by" part number listed. Example: A 10 pin right angle solder style
header would be IDH10SR.

' © Copyright 1983 JDR Microdevlces

Circle 246 on inquiry card.

BYTE November 1983

FOR APPLE COMPUTER USERS

MICROMAK

VIEWMAX-80 NOW ONLY $ 159 95

• 80 Column Card for Apple II +

• Video Soft Switch • Inverse Video

• 2 Year Warranty

VIEWMAX-80e NEW $ 1 29 95

• 80 Column Card for Apple Me

• 64K RAM Expandableto128K
64K RAM UPGRADE $47.60

GRAPHM AX $ 1 29 95

• Hi Resolution Graphics

• Printer Card

• Centronics Parallel Interface

Graphmax with Color and Zoom Options $149.95

Z-MAX $ 139 95

* Z-80 Card for Apple II+

* Use to Run CPM Programs

* CPM Diskette Available

MONITORS

MONOCHROME

NEC JB1201M -20 MHZ GREEN $ 169
ZENITH ZVM-121 - 15 MHZ GREEN S 99

iTAXAN 18 mhz AMBER s 139l

COLOR

| AMDEK COLOR I - COMPOSITE s 335 1

NO C.O.D. ORDERS PLEASE

5 1 /4" DISKETTES

UERBATim DATALIFE

SS/DD SOFT SECTOR 29.95 |

SS/DD 10SECTOR HARD 29.95

NASHUA

SS/SD SOFT SECTOR
WITH HUB RING

$-|995

Ask about our full BEST BUV j

line of Nashua diskettes

ORDER TOLL FREE

800-538-5000

JME$5SE

(CALIFORNIA RESIDENTS)

VISA

APPLE COMPATIBLE
POWER SUPPLY

• UseTo Power Apple-Type Systems

• +5V@5A +12V@3A
-5V@.5A -12V@.5A

• Instructions Included

NOW
ONLY

$7995

PERIS0FT

IPRINTERLINK

• Low Cost Centronics
Parallel Interface with
Cable and Manual

MESSENGER

• Serial Interface — connects
virtually any serial device

• Includes Cable

ITIMELINK

• Real-Time Clock Calendar
With Alarm Feature

ALL WITH ONE YEAR WARRANTY

$5900
$9900

$8fl 00

JDR PRODUCTS

JDR HALF-HEIGHT DISK DRIVE

• 35 Track w/Apple Controller NEW

• 40 Track Controller and DOS ^QOOQS
Available (Call for Price) ^C UW

JDR 16K RAM CARD FOR APPLE II+ s 44 95

• 2 YEAR WARRANTY

KIT WITH INSTRUCTIONS $40.95

BARE PC CARD $14.95

JDR COOLING FAN CLEARANCE SALE!

• With Surge Protection

• Quantities Are Limited!

$4995

OTHER ACCESSORIES FOR APPLE II

THUNDERCLOCK $129.95

* Real-Time Clock Calendar * Software Included
* Mountain Software Compatible * BSR Control Options Available

KRAFT JOYSTICK $49.95

"The Choice of Professionals"

MA SVSTEWIS

FD-35 DISK DRIVE $229.95

* Shugart Mechanism — Made in U.S.A.
* Direct Replacementfor Apple Disk II * 1 YearWarranty

CONTROLLER CARD $69.95

* One Year Warranty

JDR Microdevices

1224 S. Bascom Ave. • San Jose, CA 95128
(408) 995-5430 • Telex 171-110

© Copyright 1983 JDR Microdevices

VISIT OUR RETAIL STORE

HOURS: M-W-F, 9-5 T-Th„ 9-9 Sat 10-3

PLEASE USE YOUR CUSTOMER NUMBER WHEN ORDERING

TERMS: Minimum order $10. For shipping and handling include lor
UPS Ground and $3.50 for UPS Air. Orders over 1 lb. and foreign
orders may require additional shipping charges — please contact our
sales department for the amount. CA residents must Include 6% sales
tax, Bay Area and LA residents include 6V>%. Prices subject to change
without notice. We are not responsible for typographical errors. We
reserve the right to limit quantities and to substitute manufacturer. All
merchandise subject to prior sate.

716 BYTE November 1983

Circle 247 on inquiry card.

Unclassified Ads

FOR SALE: NEC APC includes 8086. dual 8-inch I -mega-
byte floppy disks, 1 28K RAM. RS-232C. parallel, green display,
detachable keyboard, CP/M-86. Computer Innovations C-86.
and VEDIT. Almost a year old. Lists at S4650: asking $3900.
Pete Gill. 17 Knowlton Rd.. Nashua. NH 03063. (603)
882-1 145.

WANTED: A CP/M 2.2-compatible program for finding
averages, etc. that will work for several bow/ing /eagues.
Hopefully, a public-domain program is available. Otherwise
one to work fairly quickly. 8ev Elroy. 28850 Ol' Mine Rd..
Hemet. CA 92343. (714) 926-1 141.

FOR SALE: AIM 65. 4 K RAM, BASIC, and Assembler. Set up
as a portable unit in typewriter case with Gelcel battery pack.
Asking S500. Chris Kosieracki, Bay view Estates. Devils Lake.
ND 58301. (701) 766-421 I days or 662-3576 evenings.
FOR SALE: Ampzilla power amp. 200-watt-per-channel unit
is partially constructed with about 70% of parts. Price reflects cost
of parts only: 5 1 00. Also, function generator that produces
variable frequency, sine, triangle, and square waves: S3 5. Mark
Mitckes. 138 Lake Hills Dr.. Oak Ridge. TN 37830. (615)
483-3113.

FOR TRADE: Apple 1 1 Plus programs: games, business, etc.
Also, seeking VlC-20 software. Will trade Apple for VIC. Send
listing with your name and address. Matt Taylor. 32 Casale Dr.
S, Warren, NJ 07060.

FOR SALE: HP 9I00A vintage programmable desk calcula-
tor. Needs repair. Operator's and programming manuals and
40 magnetic cards included. Price negotiable. E. G. Vogt. 4804
Randolph Dr., Annandale, VA 22003. (703) 750-2240.
FOR SALE: Netronics Explorer 85 with S-100 bus. 8085
microprocessor. 8K Microsoft BAS/C in ROM, 4K RAM, steel
cabinet with fan and power supply, and a 300 bit per second
terminal that requires a video monitor. All for S300. William
Davis. 2009 Evansdale Dr.. Adelphi. MD 20783.
WANTED: Correspondence with 6809 users. Also, an
editor/assembler that will run on a Percom SBC/9 and LFD42
under MPX/9. Any information concerning availability of such
a product (or a viable alternative) will be greatly appreciated.
Ken Fulton. 688 Powell Ave. #2. Morgantown. WV 26505,
(304)296-1628.

FOR SALE: VIC-20 with turtle graphics. 3K RAM. and road-
race cartridges. Also, C2N datasette plus over 1 00 cassette pro-
grams. Joystick and paddles included. A S380 system for S350
or best offer. Stuart H. Brooks Jr., Rt. 2 8ox 395, Stuarts Draft.
VA 24477.

WANTED: BYFE vols. I to 7 plus other collections of com-
puting journals and magazines. Send offers with shipping in-
cluded. Erwin R. Carrasco. POB 567. Valdivia, Chile, South
America.

FOR SALE: SS-50 (SwTPC) bus RAM boards. Two SwTPC
MP/M 4K: S 1 5 each. One Seals 68KSC 8K: S30. One DS&D
I6K: S60. One Smoke Signal I6K: S75. William R. Hamblen.
946 Evans Rd.. Nashville. TN 37204.

WANTED: Information from any surviving enthusiasts of
Conway's game of Life. Have any new spaceships been
discovered? Bring the Life stofy up to date. I am writing a book;
credit given for contributions. Anthony Barcellos. 9 1 5 Capitol
Mall, Room 435. Sacramento, CA 95814.
FOR TRADE: I would like to swap TRS-80 Color Computer
games or utilities. Send a cassette containing some of your pro-
grams and I will send it back with the best of mine. Jim Gannin-
ger. 2 1 49 Pardoroyal. Des Peres, MO 63 1 3 1
FOR SALE: S-l 00 21 L02 static RAM cards. Three 8K God-
bout EconoRAM II boards: S40 each. One SK Processor Tech
board: S40 One 4K Processor Tech board: S20. One 4K Altair
dynamic board: S 1 5. All were used in my working Altair. Ron
Herman. RFD 2. Box 455K. Weare, NH 03281 .
FOR SALE: S-l 00 memory boards. Two North Star 16 K
dynamic boards: S 1 00 each. One Morrow 1 6K static board:
S 100. One Vector Graphic 8K static board: S50. Mark Sauer-
wald. 8085 Caminito Mallorca. La Jolla. CA 92037,
FOR SALE: Development Boards for 8051. 68000. 8048,
80C48. COSMAC. 6809. Also. Centronics 779 printer. Vic
Wintriss. 254 Sunset Dr.. Encinitas. CA 92024, (619) 566-391 1 .
FOR SALE: Three new Shugart SA400 SDSS disk drives. 35
tracks, used by Apple, Radio Shack, and others: S 135 each, Joe
Gunter. RR2 Box 823. Lot 125. Pompano Beach, FL 33067.
WANTED: S-l 00 64K static RAM board. For sale: Jade S-l 00
64K dynamic RAM board, fully populated. Kerry Crouse. 202
Alfred St.. Bridgeport. CT 06605. [203] 852-7666.
WANTED: Laser printer to use with 8-bit (or will upgrade to
16-bit) S-l 00 computer. It may be new or used; I need super-
quality print-out. It should also accept camera-digital input (pic-
tures in— laser photos out). Rich Hartzog. POB 4143 XF.
Rockford. IL 61 1 10.

WANTED: Any information on an APL interpreter for the
8080 or 280; or a copy of Nybbles' library publication. An APL
Interpreter in Pascal Also wanted: a source of Oume-
compatible daisy wheels for generating bar code. R. Cooper,
c/o J.E. Sirrine Co.. 10000 Richmond. Houston. TX 77042.
WANTED: Anything related to Ohio Scientific Challenger II
computer. Memory, any interfaces, cassette software, etc. Will
paytopdollarforgood equipment. Bill Chellberg, 448 Arlington
Ave.. Elmhurst. IL 60126. (312) 279-4494.

WANTED: Enhancements and expansion add-ons for IBM
PC and technical-analysis programs forstockchartingf or Apple
1/ and (8M PC. Norman F. Wiss Jr.. 12 Chestnut Place. Short
Hills, NJ 07078.

FOR SALE: Teletype Model 33 RO Printer with TRS-232 inter-
face and software driver on disk: S300. Shugart bare-drive
Model 400 with 35 tracks on one side. S 1 50. Jay Cox. 1 5 Lake
Dr. E. Wayne. NJ 07470.

FOR TRADE: I would like to swap Superbrain OD utilities.
Send a disk with some of your programs and I will return it with
the best of mine. Normand Beaudoin, 3479-A St. Dominique.
Montreal PO H2X-2X5. Canada.

FOR SALE: California Computer Systems parallel interfaces
Models 7720B and 7728. Each comes with a cable and con-
nectors. Includes documentation by CCS that explains how to
interface printers and Apples. Mint condition: S80 will deliver
either item plus manual; S 1 45 will get you both. John Kun-
drat. 3316 4th St., Lewiston. ID 83501. (208) 746-3487.
FOR SALE: Three Base 2 I6K static RAM boards for S-l 00
system, complete with manual. All three in good working con-
dition for S 1 50. I will pay shipping anywhere in the U.S. Send
SASE for details. Richard Ray. 347 South Havenside Ave..
Newbuiy Park. CA 91320. (805) 498-3878.
FOR SALE: North Star Horizon with 64K and two disk drives
includes Televideo 950 terminal and Epson MX-80 printer; price
negotiable. Ken Bonham, 106 Chesrown Rd., Mansfield. OH
44903, (4 1 9) 524-2 1 42 evenings or 526-3800 days.
FOR SALE: North Star Horizon S- 1 00 circuit boards at very
low prices. Includes Z80 processor. 56K memory, and disk con-
troller boards. Excellent condition; upgraded by 1 6-bits. Lots of
software. Jim Haug. 1242 Sherman. Sturgis. SD 57785. (605)
347-4 125 evenings.

FOR SALE: Zilog MCZ-1/70 Z80-based software-develop-
ment system. Includes 64K RAM. two 8-inch drives, 1 0Mb
Pertec. two systems disks. Beehive 100 and Infotron terminals,
software, manuals, cabinet, spare power supply, and two
spare drives. S 1 8,000 new value; asking S3 750 or $4500 with
Okidata ML-84. Brent Regan. 2268 Redington Rd.. Hillsbor-
ough, CA 94010. (415) 340-9409.

FOR SALE: HP-B5 portable computer with 32K main
memory, fast 32-character internal thermal printer that pro-
duces hard copy. 255 by 191 high-resolution display, and a
tape drive. Both peripherals built in. Also includes Standard Pac.
Games Pac, cartridges, software catalogue, application books,
case, and more. Was $2400; asking S 1 900 or best offer. Alex-
ander Witkowski, 6 East 97th St., New York. NY 1 0029. (2 1 2)
289-7578.

FOR SALE: Tektronix 405 1 desktop graphics computer with
RS-232C. GPIB. BASIC firmware with graphics commands. Tek
hard-copy output.' Includes 6-in-l ROM pack and 22 tapes,
pedestal, system-test fixture, manuals, and software: SI995.
Bruce Ableidinger, 6520 Southwest Nehalem Lane. Beaverton.
OR 97007. (503) 646-0670 evenings.
FOR SALE: IMSAI 8080. 22-slot motherboard, video
ASCII/graphics keyboard and cassette interface, parallel and
two serial RS-232C or TTL interfaces, three prototype boards,
8K protectable stauc RAM, keyboard, system monitor in ROM,
BASIC, and documentation. First check over $700 or best offer.
Jim Callahan. RR2 Box 444, Harvard. MA 01451 .
FOR SALE: Two IBM Selectric typewriters with computer I/O
interface ports. Full transmit/receive capability. Includes com-
plete documentation, schematics, diagrams, etc. Packed to
maintain good condition. Original cost new over $ 1 2.000 per
unit; will sell for $525 each. Thad S. Shirley, POB 550. Palmdale.
CA 93550. (805) 273-0105.

FOR SALE: 104-key keyboard by Control Data Corp. with
typewriter-style layout, 8-bit parallel ASCII output, data, and
numeric keypad. Brand new. good condition. S 100 or will
trade for S-100 boards or 5 /4-inch disk drive. Also, want video
board: S-100 I/O mapped or stand-alone with RS-232C or
parallel port. Russ Hersch 8715 First Ave., 308D. Silver Spring.
MD 20910, (301) 587-1799 evenings.
FOR SALE: TRS-B0 Model III with two 5/4 -inch disk drives.
48K RAM, and RS-232C serial interface. CTR-80 Cassette
Recorder and Line Printer VIII. Includes all necessaiy cables and
manuals with an assortment of software and accessories. Entire
system, less than 2 years old for $ 1 700. postage paid, Jim
Parish. 4 Susan Lane Apt. F. Lexington Park, MD 20653, (301)
862-1217 before 3 p.m.

FOR SALE: Apple II Plus with Pascal language system, 64K.
Videx Enhancer II. two disk drives, fan, and all manuals. Ex-
cellent condition: S I 595 plus shipping. George J. Dawkins.
(914) 382-1270.

FOR SALE: SwTPC CT-64 terminal (needs some work). CPU
with 32K-bytes memory, dual disk drives (Wangco Model 82).
AC-30 cassette interface, and a Centronics Model 730
80-column line printer with complete schematics and manuals.
Best offer over $1000 takes all. Robert Ballard. 2731 Minot
Lane. Waukesha, Wl 53186. (414) 547-4073.
WANTED: Correspondence with Commodore-64 users to
trade utilities, educational, home, and game programs. Also, to
share experiences writing C-64 programs and using hardware
and software. Roland Signett. POB I 351. Ferndale. WA 98248.
FOR SALE: Franklin Ace 1000 with 64K. Ace 10 drive with
card. NEC green monitor, upper- and lowercase, auto-repeat
keys, numeric pad, and a full library of software: $ 1 800 for all.
R. Rojas. 172-A, South Military Rd, Slidell. LA 70458 (504)
641-7176.

FOR SALE: Magazines from 1 977 to present (with an occas-
sional missing issue): BYFE. Personal Computing. Kilobaud
Microcomputing. Interface Age. Creative Computing. ROM. and
Softside Also, several computing books for sale. Send SASE for
list and prices. Hemy Hoover. POB 479. Elk Grove. CA 95624.
WANTED: High school student needs used Apple lie with
disk drive, monitor, and software for SI 000 or under. Also,
want Timex/Sinclair with cassette recorder and software for S40
or under. Will trade software for the Commodore 64; send me
your list and I'll send mine. Moritz Sell. 647 East 1 4th St.. New
York, NY 10009 (212) 533-8063.

FOR SALE: Sharp PC-I2I I Pocket Computer (I.9K) with
Sharp CE- 1 22 printer/cassette interface; TI-58C with Master
Libraiy module (never used); Mini-Sensoiy Chess Challenger
with Advanced Chess Module; and Fidelity Backgammon
Challenger. All in excellent condition, in original cartons.
Everything for 5165 or trade for an HP-41 CV. Terry Ghetti.
P08 698. Penetang. Ontario LOK IPO. Canada.
FOR SALE: Heath H-8 with 56K (one BK and three I6K static
memory) with one spare I6K. H-l 9 terminal. H-l 7 (three drive),
H- 1 4 printer. Votrax Type n' Talk, UDS modem with Maple soft-
ware; HDOS, BH BASIC. M-SOFT BASIC-80. M-SOFT
FORTRAN-80. and UCSD Pascal. Includes Heath FORTRAN
and Pascal courses. Remark magazine #9 to now, Hscoop all
issues ($5000 value for $2300). Armand F. French. N675 Opal.
Hayden Lake. ID 83835.

WANTED: Software and/or source (8080/Z80) for Heuristics
Model S-50 Speech Analyzer and Computalker CT-I Speech
Synthesizer, any format (North Star DD CP/M or 8-inch CP/M, if
possible). Also. BASIC programs to control DC Hayes MM- 100.
All reasonable offers considered. Send details and price. Sgt.
Stanley K London. FR554-I9-107I. AFI (Air Forces Iceland).
Box 205, FPO New York. 0957 1 .

FOR SALE: Cromemco 1 6FDC floppy disk controller. Mixed
8-and 5 */* -inch drives. 8- or 1 6-bit. Modified to work with Seat-
tle Computer Products 8086 CPU (IEEE-696) and still usable
with 8-bit S-100 systems. Includes I6FDC. full documentation
(including modifications), and an SCP 8086 CPU boot EPROM:
S 199 plus shipping. G. Horgan, 981 Wild Plum Dr.. Klamath
Falls. OR 97601. (503) 884-6631.

FOR SALE: Back issues of BYTE. Kilobaud Microcomputing.
Radio Electronics, Popular Electronics, Robotics Age. Creative
Computing, and others. $ I each for BYTE. 75 cents each for all
others. Also, many electronics books and college texts. Send
SASE. Kevin Hansen. 903 G St., 8ox 157, Eagle. NE 68347.
FOR SALE: Microtek MT80P printer: $250. Microterm Act-1
terminal: $ 1 00. SwTPC 6800 with 44K. two serial and one
parallel interface computer: $425. SwTPC AC30 cassette inter-
face: $50. Send for details. Jim Hall, 2063 108th Ave.. Otsego,
Ml 49078, (616) 694-9760.

FOR SALE: Back issues of BYFE. 1/80 to present; missing 5/80
and 6/82. Wish to sell in large blocks. $3.50 per issue plus ship-
ping. Dan Starr. 367 Franklin Ave.. Princeton. NJ 08540. (609)
924-4583.

FOR SALE: Digital Group SD Disk Controller without drives:
S 100. Two DG 8K static RAM boards: $45 each. DG Z80card:
S75. S-100 Morrow 32K static RAM: $225. Two 8-inch drive
cabinets without drives, power supply, or cables: $ 1 each.
Dennis Ellis. POB 25334, Colorado Springs. CO 80936. (303)
594-6199 after 5 p.m.

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 noncommercial (individuals or bona fide computer clubs only), typed double-spaced
on plain white.paper, contain 75 words or fewer, and include complete name and
address. This service 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.

November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. 717

Unclassified Ads

WANTED: Pen pals to share answers to the question What
are we using our computers for? Robert Ashworth. POB 2161,
Bellingham. W,A 98227.

FOR SALE: One dual-disk drive with case, fan, and switch-
ing power supply (equivalent retails for S695J; new drive in
original carton: asking S450. One DEC LA34-AA with tractor
option. Printing terminal in new condition and retails for over
S 1 400; asking S 750. One Model 35 KSR teletype with manuals:
S 1 25. shipping not included. J. Damm. Box 307, Ceresco, NE
68017. (402) 665-5631 evenings.

WANTED: Information about computer developments and
programming ideas for a free programming newsletter. To
receive the first one, sendSASE. Charles E. Goodin, 98-21 1 Pali
Momi St. #640. Aiea. HI 96701 .

WANTED: Persons interested in the Tl 99/4A home com-
puter who would like to correspond and exchange programs
and programming tips with other owners. Matt Bennett. 1505
Jefferson Rd., Fort Washington, MD 20744.
FOR SALE: TRS-80 Model I expansion interface, 48K, DD,
three 40-track disk drives, RS-232C with JCAT modem, lower-
case, Goldplugs, Epson MX-80, Microgrip, and all manuals.
Eveiything less than a yearold except drive and El. 75 disks of
software. Value over S3500 in hardware, and S 1 500 in soft-
ware; will sacrifice at $2900 or highest bid. Alexander
Crawford, Groton School, Groton, MA 01450.
FOR SALE: BYTE , all of vol. 3, 1 978 exceptSept. In excellent
condition. Guy Coffee, 3500 River Bend Rd., Manhattan, KS
66505.

BOMB

BYf E's Onaoina Monitor Box

Article #

Page

Article

Authorfs)

1

36

Build the H-Com Handicapped Communicator

Garcia

2

52

BYTE West Coast: California Hardware

Robertson

3

65

User's Column: The Latest from Chaos Manor

Pournelle

4

78

IBM PCs Do the Unexpected

Ross

5

88

IBM's Estridge

Curran,
Shuford

6

99

Enchancing Screen Displays for the IBM PC

Field

7

121

POKEing Around in the IBM PC, Part 1 :

Accessing System and Hardware Facilities

Howson

8

135

Could 1,000,000 IBM PC Users Be Wrong?

Gens,
Christiansen

9

144

Big Blue Goes Japanese

WilliS :

10

168

Expanding on the IBM PC

Welch

1 1

188

Installable Device Drivers for PC-DOS 2.0

Field

12

199

A Communications Package for the IBM PC

Moore,
Geary

13

21 1

A Graphics Editor for the IBM PC

Duff

14

232

Comparing the IBM PC and the Tl PC

Bullard

15

247

Technical Aspects of IBM PC Compatibility

Montague,

Howse,

Mikkelsen,

Rein,

Mathews

16

254

The Making of the IBM PC

Camenker

17

257

Concurrent CP/M

Guzaitis

18

272

The IBM PC Meets Ethernet

Birenbaum

19

285

MS-DOS 2.0: An Enhanced 1 6-bit Operating System

Larson

20

294

The IBM PC XT and DOS 2.0

Archer

21

308

The Corona PC

Ma Hoy

22

328

A Look at the HP Series 200 Model 16

Kercheval

23

352

Three Generations of Business Charts for the IBM PC

Bishop

24

370

A Versatile IBM PC Word Tool: Sorcim's Superwriter

Shuford

25

394

Japan and the Fifth Generation

Lemmons

26

402

Speech images on the IBM PC

Cote

27

410

Lmodem: A Small Remote-Communication Program

Clark

28

430

The Software Tools: Unix Capabilities on

Non-Unix Systems

Scherrer,
Scherrer,
Strong.
Penny

29

449

Double the Apple H's Color Choices

Sturges

30

467

A Character Editor for the IBM PC

Diedrichs

31

481

How to Pass and Scan a CP/M Command Line

Hunt

32

487

Make Fast and Simple Contour Plots on a Micro

Simons

33

494

Address Calculation: The Forgotten Sort

Davidson

34

502

Fast Loading with Apple Dos 3.3

Williams

35

507

; A Simplified Algorithmic Approach to Decision Tables

Celko

36

518

Subscripts and Superscripts for the Atari

Kilby

37

524

A Date/Time Stamp for Disks

Murray

38

552

Array Capabilities for dBASE II

Hartmann

39

560

Statistical Programs for Microcomputers

Lachenbruch

40

575

User to User

Pournelle

FOR SALE: Sanders Printers: Two Media 12/7. Good condi-
tion, used veiy little: tractor and sheet feeders. S 1800 each as is
or S2000 each with factory tune up. Bill Kennedy. POB 38.
Taylorville. IL 62568. (217) 287-7231.
FOR SALE: Vista A-800 (Apple 8-inch disk-drive controller)
and cable (manual and disks included), one-year old. 8-inch
disk-drive cabinet and power supply also available. Best offer.
Want Hayes Micromodem II with or without terminal package.
Send age, condition, and price. James R. Eshleman Jr., 4017
Baltimore Ave. Apt. D-l. Philadelphia. PA 19104.
FOR SALE: OSI computer 32K (Series 2 SB II) with 4-drtve
controller and 2 Shugart drives, 12-inch monitor, separated
power supply, two joysticks, uninstalled 540 board without
documentation {32 by 64 color video), OS65D V3.1 operating
system, 23 disks, and 32 cassettes, manuals, notes, and Aard-
vark and PEEK 65 journals. S 1 000 or best offer. James Williams,
1 1 Dayton Crescent, Bernardsville, NJ 07924, (201) 766-3292
after 6 p.m.

The Top Five
For the August BOMB

James Joyce takes first place in
the August BOMB for his article en-
titled "A C Language Primer, Part V.
Constructs and Conventions." He
wins the $100 bonus. Second-place
winners are Stephen C. Johnson
and Brian W. Kernighan, who wrote
"The C Language and Models for
Systems Programming." They will
divvy up the $50 prize. Steve Gar-
cia earns third place for "Build a
Power-Line Carrier-Current Modem."
The fourth-place winner is Jerry
Pournelle for his User's Column
about the "Epson QX-10, Zenith
Z-29, CP/M-68K, and More" and
David Fiedler takes fifth place with
the first part of "The Unix Tutorial:
An Introduction to Features and
Facilities/' Congratulations to these
authors from their readers.

Correspondence

Address all editorial correspondence to the editor
at BYTE. POB 372. Hancock, NH 03449. Unaccept-
able 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. En-
tire contents copyright © 1983 by BYTE Publica-
tions Inc. All rights reserved. Where necessary, per-
mission is granted by the copyright owner for librar-
ies and others registered with the Copyright
Clearance Center (CCC) to photocopy any article
herein for the flat fee of S I .50 per copy of the arti-
cle or any part thereof. Correspondence and pay-
ment should be sent directly to the CCC. 2 1 Con-
gress St.. Salem, MA 01970. Specify ISSN 0360-
5280/83. S 1 ,50. Copying done for other than per-
sonal or internal reference use without the permis-
sion of McGraw-Hill is prohibited. Requests for
special permission or bulk orders should be ad-
dressed to the publisher. BYTE* is available in
microform from University Microfilms International,
300 North Zeeb Rd.. Dept. PR, Ann Arbor, Ml
48 106 USA or 18 Bedford Row, Dept. PR. London
WCIR 4EJ England.

718 November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc.

Reader Service

Inquiry No.

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534
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15

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1ST NATIONAL COMPUTER 229

1 SUPERWAREHOUSE 568

800 SOFTWARE 101

A.S.T. RESEARCH 541

AB COMPUTERS 681

ABC DATA PRODUCTS 206

ACL 483

ACM 590

ACORN COMP. CORP. 558, 559

ACTION COMPUTER 223

ADDMASTER CORP. 649

ADV. COMP. PROD. 687

ADV. DIGITAL CORP. 447

ADV. LOGIC SYSTEMS 263

ADV. SYS. CONCEPTS 627

ALF PRODUCTS, INC. 348

ALL ELECTRONICS CORP. 676

ALPHA BYTE COMP. PROD. 600, 601

ALPHA OMEGA COMPUTER 20

ALTOS COMP. SYS. 536, 537

AM MICRO 290

AMDEK CORP. 61

AMER. BUYING & EXPORT 642

AMER. SQUARE COMP. 635

AMERICAN EXPRESS CO. 527

AMPERSAND INC. 554

ANADEX 593

ANGEL'S COMPUTER 525

ANN ARBOR TERMINALS 587

APPARAT INC. 231

APPLE COMPUTER INC. CM, 1

APPLE COUNTRY LTD. 671

APPLEWARE, THE 680

APPLIED SOFTWARE TECH. 675

ARKTRONICS CORP. 98

ARTIFICIAL INT'L. RESEARCH 684

ASHTON-TATE 67

ASHTON-TATE 542, 543

ATARI/HOME COMPUTERS 482

AT&T CONSUMER PROD. 349

AVOCET 435

BAHR TECHNOLOGY 22

BALCONES COMP. CORP. 221

BARBER, WILLIAM L. ESQ. 657

BASF SYSTEMS 175

BAY TECHNICAL ASSOC. 14

BELL, JOHN ENGR. 704

BELL, JOHN ENGR. 704

BELL, JOHN ENGR. 705

BELL, JOHN ENGR. 705

BG COMP. 378

BHRT 484, 485

BIBLE RESEARCH SYSTEMS 226

BLUE CHIP 69

BMC USA, INC. 419

BMC USA, INC. 419

BORLAND, LTD. 129

BOTTOM LINE, THE 243, 244, 245

BRYLAR TECH. 690

BYTE INDUSTRIES 440

BYTE PUBL. INC. BACK ISSUES 672

BYTEK COMP. SYS. CORP. 80

BYTEWRITER 28

C WARE 592

C-SYSTEMS 676

C.S.D. INC. 534

CABLES UNLTD. 649

CALIF. DIGITAL 700, 701

CALIF. COMP. SYS. 355

CALIF. DATA CORP. 676

CALIF. MICRO COMP. 630

CANON U.S.A. 239

CAPITAL EQUIPMENT 314

CARRY CASE CORP. 378

CDR SYSTEMS 684

CENTENNIAL COMP. PROD. 253

CENTRE COMP. CONSULT 682

CERMETEK MICROELECTRONICS 120

CHIPS & DALE 676

CHRtSLIN IND. INC. 631

CHROMOD ASSOC. 678

CIRCUITS & SYSTEMS 503

CLEO 629

CMC, INT'L. 340

COEFFICIENT SYS. 413

COGITATE 680

COLORADO COMP. PERI PH. 686

COLUMBIA DATA PROD. 515

COMMERCIAL BUSINESS SUPPLY 672

COMMUNICATION CABLE 706

COMP. COMPNTS. UNLTD. 692, 693

COMPAQ COMPUTER CORP. 10, 11

COMPETITIVE EDGE 630

COMPONENTS EXPRESS 614

Inquiry No.

Page No.

86 COMPUADD 657

87 COMPUADD 657

88 COMPUADD 657

89 COMPUADD 657
511 COMPUMEDIA 690

91 COMPUPRO 457

* COMPUPRO 616

* COMPUPRO 617

* COMPUPRO 618

92 COMPUSERVE 547

101 COMPUSHACK 661

93 COMPUTER APPARATUS 195

94 COMPUTER CHANNEL 538

96 COMPUTER DISCOUNT PROD. 679

8 1 COMPUTER EXCHANGE 1 86, 1 87

82 COMPUTER EXCHANGE 186, 187

83 COMPUTER EXCHANGE 186, 187

97 COMPUTER FURN. & ACCSS. 444

98 COMPUTER HUT OF N.E. 213

99 COMPUTER INNOVATIONS 266
527 COMPUTER MAIL ORDER 620, 621

* COMPUTER PLUS 81

102 COMPUTER POST INC. 683

103 COMPUTER SHOP 690

104 COMPUTER SHOP 706

105 COMPUTER SYSTEM DESIGNS 317

* COMPUTER WAREHOUSE 637

106 COMPUTERLINE INT'L-A 588, 589

107 COMPUTERLINE INT'L-B 322

108 COMPUTERS AND MORE 132
339 COMPUTERS WHOLESALE 123

110 COMPUVIEW PROD. INC. 63

111 COMREX 319

536 CONCORDE PERIPHERAL SYS. 291

537 CONCORDE PERIPHERAL SYS. 291

1 1 3 CONDOR COMP. CORP. 326, 327

81 CONROY-LAPOINTE 186, 187

82 CONROY-LAPOINTE 186, 187

83 CONROY-LAPOINTE 186, 187

114 CONTROL DATA CORP. 193

115 CORONA DATA SYS. 292, 293

116 CORVUSSYS. INC. 105

117 COSMOS 379

1 18 COST PLUS COMP. 690

119 CREATIVITY UNLTD. 688

120 CROMEMC0 5

538 CRYPTRONICS 498

121 CUESTA SYSTEMS 424

122 CUSTOM COMP. TECH. 691

123 DAILY BUSINESS PROD. 690

124 DAILY BUSINESS PROD. 706

132 DATA BASE RESEARCH 347

126 DATA ELECTRONICS INC. 399
130 DATA TRANSLATION INC. 583
229 DATAPRODUCTS 201

1 33 DATASOUTH COMP. CORP. 550, 551

127 DATASOUTH COMP. CORP. 554
135 DECISION RESOURCES 381

137 DECISION RESOURCES 140, 141

138 DECOTEC 678

* DELUXE COMP. FORMS 280

139 DHL WORLDWIDE COURIER 651

1 40 DIAMOND SOFTWARE SUPPLY 1 1 6

141 DIGISOFT COMPUTERS 117

142 DIGITAL DELI 649

143 DIGITAL DIMENSIONS 216

144 DIGITAL EQUIPMENT 361

145 DIGITAL EQUIPMENT 678

146 DIGITAL EQUIPMENT CORP. 549

147 DIGITAL MARKETING 240

148 DIGITAL MEDIA 680

149 DIGITAL RESEARCH 519

* DIGITAL RESEARCH COMP. 677

150 DIGITIME 684

151 DISCOUNT SOFTWARE 237

152 DISCOUNT SOFTWARE 102

153 DISCWASHER COMP. ACCESS. 313

154 DISK WORLD 686

156 DMA 429

157 DMA SYSTEMS 210

1 58 DOKAY COMP. PROD. INC 696, 697

1 59 DOW JONES SOFTWARE 353

160 DUPONT COMPANY 181

161 DWIGHTCO., INC. 684

162 DYNACOMP 682

163 DYNAX, INC. 377

164 DYSAN CORP. 417

165 EAGLE SOFTWARE 446

166 EAST SIDE SOFTWARE 607

167 EASTERN ENTERPRISES 615

169 ECOSOFT624

170 EDGE MICROSYSTEMS 378

171 EDUCATIONAL MICROCOMP. 678
540 ELECTRADE 688

Inquiry No.

Page No.

172 ELECTRONC PROTECTION DEV. 21

1 73 ELECTRONC PROTECTION DEV. 23

174 ELECTRONIC SPECIALISTS 504

175 ELGAR CORPORATION, THE 149

176 ELLIS COMPUTING INC. 509

177 ELLIS COMPUTING INC. 486

178 EMERY AIR FREIGHT 557

* EMPIRICAL RESEARCH GROUP 174

179 ENGINEERING SPECIALTIES 676

* EPSON AMERICA 516, 517

* EPSON AMERICA 572, 573

180 EROS 387

181 EXCEL 580

* EXECUTIVE SOFTWARE 91

182 EXPOTEK 599

183 EXTENDED PROCESSING 688

184 EXXON OFFICE SYSTEMS 684

185 FALCO DATA PROD. 455

186 FALCON SAFETY PROD. 468

187 FENWAL PROTECTION SYS. 655

188 FIGURE-LOGIC BUS. EQUIP. 688

189 FLIP-IT 203

190 FLOPPY DISK SERV. INC. 441

191 FORMULA INT'L. 689

192 FORMULA INT'L. 689

193 FOX & GELLER INC. 93

194 FRONTIER TECHN. CORP. 202

1 95 FUJITSU PROFESS, MICROSYS. 345

196 GARDEN OF EDEN COMP. 682
131 GATES 690

542 GENERAL MICROSYS. 378

197 GENERAL TECHNOLOGY 578

198 GENSTAR REI SALES CO. 706

199 GIFFORD COMP. SYS. 267

201 GILTRONIX, INC. 676

202 GRANITE FALLS AREA VOCTNL 452

203 GREAT SALT LAKE COMP. 702, 703

204 GTEK INC. 488

* H & E COMPUTRONICS 311

205 H & M DISK DRIVE SERVICES 649

206 HAMILTON/ AVNET 480

207 HANDWELL CORP. 673

208 HAYDEN SOFTWARE 647

209 HAYES MICROCOMP. PROD. 85

210 HAYES MICROCOMP. PROD. 459

21 1 HEWLETT-PACKARD 522, 523

212 HOLIDAY INNS, INC. 553

213 HOOLEON COMPANY 160

214 HOUSTON INSTR.— DIV.
BAUSCH & LOMB 301

215 HUMAN SOFT 426

216 l-BUS SYSTEMS 472

217 I.B.C. 17

218 IBM CORP. 306, 307

219 IBM SYSTEMS SUPPLY DIV. 343

220 IDE CORPORATION 464, 465

221 IDEA WARE 405

* IDS 603

222 IMAGE COMP. PROD. 688

223 INCOMM 302

224 INCOMM 602

225 INFORUNNER CORP. 197

226 INMAC605

227 INSIGHT ENTERPRISES 706

228 INSTITUTE SCTF. ANALYSIS 626

230 INTEGRAND 342

231 INTERACTIVE MICROWARE 546

232 INTERACTIVE STRUCT. 131

233 INTERDATA SYSTEMS INC. 439

234 INTERFACE INC. 636

235 INTERFACE INC. 636

236 INTERTEC DATA SYS. 13

237 INTEX MICRO SYS. 628
41 IQ TECHNOLOGIES 315

239 J. C. SYSTEMS 489

* JADE COMP. PROD. INSERT 672A

520 JADE COMP. PROD. INSERT 672B

521 JADE COMP. PROD. INSERT 672C

522 JADE COMP. PROD. INSERT 672D

523 JADE COMP PROD. INSERT 672E

524 JADE COMP. PROD. INSERT 672F

525 JADE COMP. PROD. INSERT 672G

526 JADE COMP. PROD INSERT 672H

244 JAMECO ELECTR. 694, 695

* JANUS INSERT 256A-F

245 JDR MICRODEVICES INC. 712, 713

246 JDR MICRODEVICES INC. 714, 715

247 JDR MICRODEVICES INC. 716

248 JUKI INDUSTRY OF AMERICA 279

249 K & R COMPUTER CO. LTD. 688

250 KADAK PRODUCTS 112

251 KAYPRO 608, 609

253 KELLEY COMP. SUPPLIES 682

254 KENSINGTON MICROWARE 633

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255 KERN PUBLICATIONS 56

256 KERN PUBLICATIONS 57

257 KEYTRONICS CORP. 159

258 KIMTRON CORP. 281
533 L & J ENG. 262

259 LABORATORY MICROSYS. 442

260 LANIER BUSN. PROD. 323

261 LEADING EDGE PROD. Clll

262 LEXICOMP DATA SYS. 688

263 LIBERTY GROUP INC. 251

264 LIFEBOAT ASSOC. 367

265 LIGO RESEARCH INC. 155

266 LINDAL CEDAR HOMES 407

* LOBO SYSTEMS, INC. 619

267 LOGICAL DEVICES 158

268 LOGICAL MICROCOMPUTER 331

269 LOMAS DATA PRODUCTS 581

270 LOTUS DEVELOPMENT 287

271 LYBEN COMP. SYS. 678

272 LYBEN COMP. SYS. 686 ,

273 LYCO COMPUTER 641

274 MA SYSTEMS 228

275 MA SYSTEMS 250

276 MACMILLAN BOOK CLUBS 545

277 MACROTECH INT'L 134
279 MAGIC COMPUTER CO. 289

281 MANX SOFTWARE SYS. 94

282 MARITIME SOFTWARE ASSOC. 684

283 MARYMAC INDUSTRIES 690
285 MAYNARD ELECTRONICS 83

* MC-P APPLICATIONS 659

* MCGRAW-HILL BOOK STORE 496

* MCGRAW-HILL BOOK STORE 598
288 MCI DATA SERVICES 594, 595

* MEMOREX MEDIA PROD. 505

291 MET-CHEM INT'L. CORP. 657

292 METASOFT CORP. 277

293 MFJ ENTERPRISES INC. 238

294 MGJ, LTD. 657

296 MICRO CRAFT CORP. 207

297 MICRO DATA SUPPLIES 252

299 MICRO MANAGEMENT SYS. 421

300 MICRO MART 686

302 MICRO MYSTIQUE 686

295 MICROAGE COMP. STORES INC. 125

304 MICROCOMPATIBLES 314

305 MICRODYNAMICS 678

306 MICROHOUSE 506 .
531 MICROMAIL 685

303 MICROPRECISION 622
544 MICROPRO 451

309 MICROPROCESSORS UNLTD. 682

* MICROSOFT (CPD) 269

312 MICROSTUF, INC. 533

313 MICROTAX 365

314 MICROTECH EXPORTS 492

315 MICROWARE 634

316 MICROXPRESS 224

317 MILLER MICROCOMP. SERV. 208

318 MORROW 475

319 MOUNTAIN VIEW PRESS 623

320 MPI 165

321 MTI SYSTEMS CORP. 442

322 MULTITECH ELECTR. INC. 535

* MUSYS CORP. 423

323 MY SUPPLIER, INC. 688

324 N.W.S. INC. 378

325 NAVAL UNDERWATER SYS. CTR 555

326 NEC HOME ELECTR. USA 171

327 NEC HOME ELECTR. USA 173

328 NELMA DATA 332

329 NETWORK CONSULTING INC. 255

* NETWORK CONSULTING INC. 597

* NORTH HILLS 680, 706

330 NORTH STAR COMPUTERS 363

331 NORTHWEST DIGITAL SYS. 346

332 NORTHWEST MICROCHIPS DIST. 649

333 NOVATION, INC. 270, 271

* NRI SCHOOLS ELECTR. DIV. 577

334 O'HANLON COMP. SYS. 219

335 OASIS SYSTEMS 26, 27

336 OCCO 602

338 OLDSMOBILE DIVISION 574

340 OLYMPIC SALES 209

341 OMEGA INFO SYS. 453

342 ORANGE MICRO 74, 75

343 ORYX SYSTEMS 638, 639

344 OSBORNE/MCGRAW-HILL 571

345 OSM COMPUTER 325

346 OXFORD INT'L. INC. 678
23 OZTECH INC. 680

* PACIFIC COMPUTERS 526

347 PACIFIC EXCHANGES 649, 676,
680, 682, 684, 688, 690

348 PAN AMERICAN ELEC. INC. 526

349 PANASONIC INDUSTRIAL CO. 613

350 PANASONIC INDUSTRIAL DIV. 529

352 PARA DYNAMICS CORP. 261

353 PASCOT16

354 PC WARE INC. 166, 167

355 PC WARE INC. 166, 167

356 PEACHTREE SOFTWARE 408, 409

357 PENCEPT INC. 185

* PENGUIN PRODUCTS 686

358 PER SCI INC. 680

359 PERCOM DATA 9

360 PERFECT DATA 103

November 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. 719

Reader Service.

Inquiry No.

Page No.

361 PERSOFT 104

362 PERSONAL SYS. TECHN. 392, 393

363 PETRO-LEWIS FUNDS INC. 434
518 P-H ASSOC. 318

364 PHASER 383

365 PHONE I, INC. 642

* PJS 706

366 PRACTICAL PERIPH. 24

367 PRACTICAL PERIPH. 469

368 PRINCETON GRAPHIC SYS. 521

369 PRINTER STORE, THE 194

370 PRIORITY ONE 707, 708, 709,
710, 711

371 PROGRAMMERS SOFTWARE EX. 318

372 PROGRAMMING INT'L 235

373 PROGRAMMING INT'L. 499

374 PROGRAMMING INT'L. 500, 501

375 PROMETHEUS PRODUCTS 163

376 PURCHASING AGENT, THE 84

377 QUADRAM CORP. 133

378 QUADRAM CORP. 497

379 QUANT SYSTEMS 680

380 QUARK INCORPORATED 18, 19

381 QUBIE DISTRIBUTING 217

382 QUBIE DISTRIBUTING 477
545 QUCES 448

* QUEUE LIMITED 676

385 R.R. SOFTWARE 265

386 RADIO SHACK CIV

* RANA SYSTEMS 29

388 RANA SYSTEMS 31

389 RANDOM ACCESS INC. 684

390 RANDOM HOUSE 632

391 RAP ELECTRONICS 649

392 RELMS 274

529 RHINO ROBOTS 579

393 RING KING VISIBLES, INC. 582

394 RIXON 198

" ROCKY MOUNTAIN MICRO INC. 107

396 ROGERS LABS 680

397 RTL PROGRAMMING AIDS 682

398 RYDEX INDUSTRIES CORP. 341

Inquiry No.

Page No.

399 S C DIGITAL 528

400 S-100 DIV. 696 CORP. 30

401 S.E.I. INC. 612

402 SAFEWARE 424

403 SAFT PORTABLE BATTERY 305

404 SAGE COMP. TECH. 473
406 SATELLITE SOFTWARE 153
408 SCION CORP. 6

* SCOTTSDALE SYSTEMS 127

410 SCREENWARE 682

543 SEATTLE COMP. PRODS. 378

411 SEATTLE COMP. PRODS. 466

412 SEATTLE COMP. PRODS. 678

413 SEEQUA COMP. CORP. 282, 283

414 SEKON COMPUTER 434

415 SEMI DISK SYSTEM 471

416 SHARP ELECTRONICS 373

417 SHERATON HOTELS WORLDWIDE 569

4 1 8 SIEMENS COMM. SYS. I N C . 350, 35 1

419 SIERRA DATA SCIENCES 32

420 SIERRA DATA SCIENCES 33

* SILICON SPECIALTIES 344

421 SILVER-REED AMERICA, INC. 643

422 SLICER COMPUTERS 585

423 SOFTCRAFT611

424 SOFTCRAFT INC. 632

425 SOFTLINE CORP. 95

426 SOFTQUEST540

427 SOFTWARE ARTS 118, 119

429 SOFTWARE AUTOMATION 205

430 SOFTWARE BANC 368

431 SOFTWARE BANC SEMINARS 369

432 SOFTWARE BANC DEALER SERV. 513

433 SOFTWARE DEV. CORP. 256

* SOFTWARE GUILD 644, 645

* SOFTWARE OF THE MONTH CLUB 474

434 SOFTWARE SERVICES 657

436 SOLUTIONWARE CORP. 649

* SORCIM 564, 565

535 SOUTHERN COMPUTER SYS. 504

437 SPECTRON INSTRUMENTS 706

438 STAR LOGIC 610

Inquiry No.

Page No.

439 STAR MICRONICS 511

441 STM CORP. 425

442 STRATEGIC SYSTEMS CORP. 71

443 STRUCTURED DESIGN 12

444 SUMMA SOFTWARE 339

445 SUNDEX 113

446 SUNNY INT'L. 674

447 SUNOL SYSTEMS 227
530 SUNSHINE PUB. 606

448 SUNTRONICS 674

449 SUPERSOFT 491

450 SUPERSOFT 493

451 SWEET GUM, INC. 622

452 SWI INT'L. 415

454 SYSTEM VISION CORP. 60

455 SYSTEMS PROD. EXCHANGE 649

456 TAB BOOKS 321

457 TALLGRASS TECH. 25

458 TARBELL ELECTR. 528

459 TATUM LABS 676

461 TAURUS COMP. PROD. INC. 73

462 TAYCO BUSINESS FORMS 682

463 TDK ELECTRONICS 225

* TEKTRONIX INC. 86, 87

464 TEKTRONIX Y3-312 303

465 TELETEK ENTERPRISES, INC. 51

466 TELETEX COMMUNICATION
CORP. 284

467 TERMINAL DATA SYS. 706

468 TERRAPIN INC. 406

469 TEXAS COMP. SYS. 653

* TEXAS INSTRUMENTS 142, 143

* TEXAS INSTRUMENTS 530, 531
129 TEXPRINT604

470 THOUGHTWARE INC. 686

471 THREE M COMPANY 539
2 THREE MH-RENDCOM 445

472 TIAC MFG. INC. 686

473 TIMEX COMPUTER 337

475 TITAN TECHNOLOGIES 108

476 TITAN TECHNOLOGIES 110

477 TOSHIBA AMERICA INC. 460

Inquiry No.

Page No.

478 TOSHIBA AMERICA INC. 461

479 TRADE BROKER, THE 657

480 TRANSACTION STORAGE SYS. 479

481 TRANSTAR 335

482 TRANSTAR 427
528 TRISTAR DATA 586

483 TSK ELECTR: CORP. 495

484 TSL584

486 U.S. AIR FORCE 625

487 U.S. MICRO SALES 698, 699

485 U.S. ROBOTICS 164

488 UNIPRESS SOFTWARE INC. 388

489 UNIVAIR INC. 627

491 VAN DATA 404

492 VECTRIX 462, 463

494 VERBATIM CORP. 333

495 VIDEX 15

496 VISUAL TECH, INC. 34, 35

497 VISUAL TECH, INC. 259

498 VLM COMPUTER ELECTR. 686

499 VOICE MACHINE COMMUN. 183

500 VOTRAX246

501 VR DATA 111

502 WADSWORTH ELECTR. PUB. CO. 389

503 WANG ELECTR. PUBL. INC. 162

* WANG LABS INC. 443

* WAREHOUSE SOFTWARE 106

504 WCB COMPUTER 678

* WESTIC0 299

90 WHITAKER H.L. CO. 690

505 WHITESMITHS LTD. 204

509 WILLIAMS, MARK CO. 109

510 WINTEK CORP. 684
440 WOOLF SOFTWARE 628

513 WRITERS DIGEST BOOKS 220

514 WYNDHAM GROUP 604

515 WYSE TECHNOLOGY 215

516 X COMP 275

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88

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100

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26

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30

31

32

33

34

35

36

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38

39

40

41

42

43

44

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Excellent

101

105

109

113

117

121

125

129

133

137

141

145

149

153

157

161

165

169

173

177

1SI

185

189

193

197

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102

106

MO

114

MS

122

126

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134

138

m

146

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158

162

166

170

174

178

132

186

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194

198

Fair

103

107

IN

115

119

123

127

131

135

139

143

147

151

155

159

163

167

171

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179

1S3

187

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Poor

104

108

112

116

120

124

128

132

136

140

144

148

152

156

160

164

168

172

176

180

184

188

192

196

200

Comments.

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NOVEMBER 1983

Ell

1

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1 23 45 67

89

111

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221 243 265 287 309

331 353 375

397 419

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3 25 47 69

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228 250 272 294 316

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626 648

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780 802

11 33 55 77

99

121

143 165 187 209

231 253 275 297 319

341 363 385

407 429

451 473

495

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627 649

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715

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781 803

12 34 56 78

100

122

144 166 188 210

232 254 276 298 320

342 364 386

408 430

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496

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628 650

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13 35 57 79

101

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14 36 58 80

102

124

146 168 190 212

234 256 278 300 322

344 366 388 410 432

454 476

498

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630 652

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784 806

15 37 59 81

103

125

147 169 191 213

235 257 279 301 323

345 367 389

411 433

455 477

499

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587 609

631 653

675

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719

741 763

785 807

16 38 60 82

104

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346 368 390

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17 39 61 83

105

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347 369 391

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501

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633 655

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18 40 62 84

106

128

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348 370 392

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19 41 63 85

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20 42 64 86

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240 262 284 306 328

350 372 394

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790 812

21 43 65 87

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153 175 197 219

241 263 285 307 329

351 373 395

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637 659

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747 769

791 813

22 44 66 88

110

132

154 176 198 220

242 264 286 308 330

352 374 396 418 440

462 484

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528

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638 660

682

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726

748 770

792 814

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History will record as a profound irony

that the most powerful word processing package

ever created for the IBM® Personal Computer

wasn't created by IBM.

LEADING EDGE.

Leading Edge Products Inc., Fortune 1300 Division, 21 Highland Circle, Necdham Heights, Mass. 02194 {§00) 343-3436 (617) 44^-6762
Headquarters and Retail Division, 225 Turnpike Street, Canton, Mass. 02021 (800) 343-68 3 3 (617) 828-8150

"■■IBM is a registered rnulanurk of Ituenvitioruil Business Machines Corporation.

See us at Booth #3327

©COMMI/Rdl '83

November 28-December 2, 1983
Circle 261 on inquiry card.

Radio Shack's TRS-80 Model 1 00—

A Big Gift That Comes in a Small Package

^Jfc^J'^

3*V,

V

America's First Pre-Programmed, Ready-to-Run Truly Portable Computer!

The Micro Executive Workstation™. The TRS-80
Model 100 is one present that can be used by any execu-
tive — anywhere! This is a true portable computer that
works on batteries or optional AC adapter. It's small
enough to fit easily in a briefcase, yet powerful enough to
serve as a desktop microcomputer. And it requires no
"extras" to get started.

Ready to Use. Turn on Model 100 and five built-in man-
agement programs — plus your own files — are instantly
listed on its eight-line by 40-character liquid crystal dis-
play. The full-size typewriter keyboard and the powerful
editing functions of Model 100's personal word process-
ing program make it a breeze to jot down notes or write
letters and reports. Model 100 also works as an appoint-
ment calendar, address book, phone directory, plus a

telephone auto-dialer. You can even write your own
BASIC programs.

A Portable Terminal. With Model 100's communications
program and built-in auto-dial modem, you can access
national information services, such as CompuServe® and
Dow Jones News/Retrieval®. Or connect Model 100 di-
rectly to another computer — micro, mini or mainframe-
using the RS-232C interface. Model 100 also includes a
parallel printer port and a cassette tape interface.

Available Nationwide. You don't have to go out of your
way to buy this gift! You can get the 8K Model 100 (Cat.
No. 26-3801 , $799) or the 24K Model 100 (26-3802, $999)
at any Radio Shack Computer Center, participating store
or dealer near you.

Radio /hack

The biggest name in little computers

A DIVISION OF TANDY CORPORATION

Prices apply at participating Radio Shack stores and dealers. CompuServe is a registered trademark of CompuServe, Inc Dow Jones News/Retrieval is a registered trademark o( Dow Jones & Co., Inc

Circle 386 on inquiry card.