TURBO "NEW" PACK $95.00 only $47.50 each. Sold separately Turbo GameWorks Turbo Editor Tooll MBOHQi At alwut a 30% savings, you % holiday spe< Turbo Pascal® 30 Turbo Tutor® Turbo DataBase Toolbox T SAVE OVER 30% ON OUR GIFT PACKS! Announcing Borland's New Turbo Editor Toolbox" $69.95 IT'S ALL YOU NEED TO BUILD YOUR OWN WORD PROCESSOR FOR ONLY $69.95! • in at righl roolbo* iradcnu'- Iniemafl You get all the modules you need to build your own word processor. • You get ready-to-compile source code. • You get a Hill-featured WordStar™-like word processor, we call it MicroStar™ You get a 200-page manual that tells • you how to integrate the editor proce- dures and functions into your programs. You can use Turbo Editor Toolbox "as is" or modify it any way you want. And you don't get a bill for Royalties. Because Borland doesn't believe you should pay for something more than once. All this and more for only $69-95. And until March 1, 1986 you can get Bor- land's new Turbo Editor Toolbox for even less! (Only $47.50 when you buy the special Turbo New Pack.) *W li YOU CAN HAVE MANY WINDOWS ON THE WORLD. The new Turbo Editor Toolbox features windowing, a technique that lets you see several documents — or several parts of the same document — at once. You know best what your needs are. Turbo Editor Toolbox lets you open the windows you want And to make those windows part of your program. WITH TURBO EDITOR TOOLBOX YOU CAN HAVE THE BEST OF ALL WORD PROCESSORS IN YOUR WORD PRO- CESSOR. You can make WordStar behave like Multi-Mate. Support windows just like Microsoft's® Word™ And do it as fast as WordPerfect does it. Incorporate your new "hybrids" into your programs to achieve incredible control and power. Turbo Editor Toolbox. It's the kind of tool that almost everyone needs — and we're the kind of company to give it to you at a reasona- ble price, without any compromise on quality. (We're so sure you'll be satisfied that we offer a 60-day money-back guarantee — something no one else does.) THE CRITICS' CHOICE "Turbo Pascal has got to be the best value in lan- guages on the market today — and Borland Interna- tional, by delivering excellent products at reasona- ble costs, is leading the software industry where it has to go. Turbo Pascal is more than just a good program at a low cost. It's also a low-cost, well- conceived programming language making it possi- ble for lots of people to produce good programs." Jerry Pournelle, BYTE '"litis compiler, produced by Borland International, is one of the best programming tools presently available for the PC" Michael Covington, PC Tech Journal "language deal of the century...Turbo Pascal." Jail Dunlemann, PC Magaiine ^^ BORLAND INTERNATIONAL Three Special Girt Packs 60-DAY MONEY-BACK GUARANTEE Introducing Borland's New Turbo GameWorks M $69.95 THE GAMES YOU CAN PLAY, REPLAY, REVISE AND REWRITE BUT CANNOT RESIST. (Turbo Pascal Source Code included!) We give you the source code, the manual, the diskettes, the 60-day guarantee and the competitive edge. Let the games begin. Chess. Bridge. Go-Moku. State-of-the art games that let you be player, referee, and rules committee — because you have the Turbo Pascal source code. Which means that you can play a game or create a game, any time and any way you want Borland's new Turbo GameWorks lets you combine gamesmanship with craftsmanship. Discover the secret techniques and moves used by the Old Masters. Learn exactly how state-of- the-art computer games are made — so you can go off and make your own. Since you have the source code, you can always change the game. Or rig the game, if no one's looking. Pure Magic. That's Turbo GameWorks. And part of the "sourcery" — Turbo GameWorks is only ?69-95. When combined with our new Turbo Editor Toolbox in the Turbo New Pack, it's only $47.50.. SHORT CUTS, SECRETS AND STRATEGIES. The Turbo GameWorks man- ual takes you step-by-step through all the games. How to play them. How to modify them. How to use the power of Turbo Pascal to write new games. You'll learn general problem analysis, how to identify all possible moves, "rule of thumb" strategies, procedures for testing strategies, and ways to rate options. You'll also be introduced to "top down" program design, the develop- ment of basic algorithms, the use of constants and data structures and ways to design short cuts with incremental updating. On top of all that, you'll have a lot of fun (if you want to). So go to play (and work) with Borland's new Turbo GameWorks. It's unique, it's fasci- nating. And it's brand-new. Be first with the latest and greatest — order your Turbo Game- Works today. 4585 SCOTTS VALLEY DRIVE, SCOTTS VALLEY, CA 95066 PHONE (408) 438-8400 TELEX 171373 Inquiry 42 for End-Users. Inquiry 43 for DEALERS ONLY. With Dazzling Discounts! BORLAND'S TURBO GAMEWORKS AND SOME OF ITS MASTER PIECES Chess, the ultimate strategic game. A game so old that no one knows its exact origins. Turbo GameWorks lets you play chess at six dif- ferent levels from the beginner to the sophisti- cated user. And you have many ways of playing with your Turbo GameWorks. Let the computer solve checkmate problems. Set the time limit for each game. And there's more. Decide whether you or the computer "goes first " Trade places with the computer at any point in the game. It's all possible with Game- Works. Go-Moku, also known as "Five-in-Line," is a very old Japanese game played on a board of squares. The first player to get five game pieces in a row — either horizontally, vertically, or diagonally — wins the game. It's an intriguing game. But you're not limited to playing it one way. With Turbo GameWorks, you can modify it your way. Bridge. Play bridge with a friend or team up against the program — you decide which hands the computer plays. You can even decide to let the program cheat! The program automatically bids and plays its own hands. And, since you can tinker with the source code, you can make "your" Bridge unlike any other. &Tt ■ ,' iv / ) TURBO HOLIDAY JUMBOPACK $245.00 Now you get the whole Turbo Pascal family, including its newest members, at an incredible price. combines an integi grammlng environment with the fastest cal compiler in the galaxy. teaches you step-by-step how to .il development environ- ment, with commented source code for all program examples on diskette gives you all )is yi it and search your data and build powerful database applications ete library of Pascal procedures to build applications using high resolution graphics and graphics window management ti ss, Bridge, Go-Moku. Secrets and strategies of si.. puter gai — the Pascal modules I let >ou build your own word processor. A WordStar like program, Mil Star™, is included on your disk. You're getting everything at only $40 each. And if you already own one or several members of ily, be creative — nothing ci you from buying die Jumbo Pack, picking out the ones you already have and giving thi holiday gift for family or friends At these pri- <■. can afford to give to others and to To order by aSSSSSasw-T Quantity jumbo . ___ 16-bit M«' s: -;r D ' 0S _ MS-DOS Carefully Turbo Holiday ■Turbo Holiday Pack •Tu.boNe" Pack Pascal pascal WIS" 87 pascal w'BCD Pascal w/8087ar.d BCD Turbo DalaBase Turbo Graph"' Turbo Tulor Turbo Editor Turbo GameWorks PacK $245-00 $125.00 $95.00 — $6995 — $109.90 — $109.90 - $124.95 - $54.95 - $54.95 - $34.95 - $69.95 $69.95 all U.S. Tbese cities. Jul foreifl" duel ordered. payment: Credit Card Expired *e2S8S&*** Card" ■s^SSS?^ &&**** payment Dy ■*■ ««"*" national t CONTENTS FEATURES Introduction 82 Product Preview: The Atari I040ST by Phillip Robinson and ]on R. Edwards 84 TWo BYTE editors take a look at Atari's new S999 1-megabyte machine. Finding the Titanic by Marti Spalding and Ben Dawson 96 After 73 years, the wreck of the R.M.S. Titanic was discovered with help fom the latest in image-processing equipment. Ciarcias Circuit Cellar: Real-Time Clocks: A View Toward the Future by Steve Garcia 112 Steve presents two real-time clocks, one of which also provides nonvolatile RAM. Programming Proiect. A Simple Windowing System. Part 1: Basic Principles by Bruce Webster 128 Bruce examines the problems involved in opening a window. An ANSI Standard for the C Language by Steve A. Hersee and Dan Knopoff 135 ANSI has set up a standardization committee to develop a universal set of rules for this popular language. Programming Insight. Macintosh Explorer by Olav Andrade 145 This disassembler, which translates machine code to human-readable mnemonics, was written in Microsoft BASIC for Apple's Macintosh. THEME: HOMEBOUND COMPUTING Introduction 152 Working at Home with Computers by \ane Morrill Tazelaar 155 For some, telecommuting is a choice; for others, it is the only option. Using Images to Generate Speech by Bruce R. Baker 160 Semantic compaction lets speech-impaired people communicate quickly and effectively in a variety of environments. The Electronic University Network by Donna Osgood 171 Get a degree without ever leaving your computer. The Technology of the Kurzweil Voice Writer by Raymond Kurzweil 177 The present office system provides a clue to future applications for the deaf. Increasing Independence for the Aging by K. G. Engelhardt and Roger Edwards 191 Robotic aids and smart technology can help us age less dependency. Computing for the Blind User by Aries Arditi and Arthur E. Cillman 199 Some special human factors must be considered in assembling a workable system. REVIEWS Introduction 212 Reviewer's Notebook by Glenn Hartwig 215 Kaypro 2861 by Harry Krause 217 An AT clone with a lower price. BYTE [ISSN 0360-5280) is published monthly with one exira issue per year by McGraw-Hill Inc. Founder lames H McGraw M860-I948) Executive editorial circulation, and advertising offices: 70 Main St.. Peterborough. NH 03458. phone 1603) 924-9281 Office hours Mon-Thur 8 30 AM - 4 30 PM. Friday 8:30 AM - 1:00 PM. Easiern Time Address subscriptions to BYTE Subscriptions. POB 590. Martinsville. N| 08836 Postmaster send address changes USPS Form 3579. undeliverable copies, and fulfillment questions to BYTE Subscriptions. POB 596. Martinsville. N) 08836- Second-class postage paid at Peterborough, NH 03458 and additional mailing offices. Postage paid at Winnipeg. Manitoba. Registration number 9321 Subscriptions are S21 for one year. S38 for two years and S55 for three years in the U5A and its possessions. In Canada and Mexico. S23 for one year. S42 for two years. S6I for ihree years. S69 for one year air delivery to Europe. 17,100 yen for one year surface delivery to lapan S37 surface delivery elsewhere Air delivery lo selected areas at additional rates upon request Single copy price is S3 50 in the USA and its possessions. S4.25 in Canada and Mexico. $4.50 in Europe, and 55 elsewhere Foreign subscriptions and sales should be remitted in United States funds drawn on a U.S. bank Please allow six to eight weeks for delivery o( first issue. Printed In the United States of America. B YTE • MARCH 1986 COVER PHOTO BY PAUL AVIS BVTIE March Modula-2 System for Z80 CP/M by Brian R. Anderson 225 Hochstrassers system supports most features as defined by Niklaus Wirth. Pocket APL by Eric H. lohnson 237 STSCs inexpensive implementation. Arity/Proloc by William G. Wong 245 A version for MS-DOS machines. Braille-Edit by Henry Brugsh 251 Raised Dot's talking word processor. Printit by Henry Brugsch and Joseph J. Lazzaro 261 A card that lets you print anything on an Apple II screen. Review Feedback 265 Readers respond to previous reviews. KERNEL Introduction 266 Computing at Chaos Manor: All Sorts of Software by jerry Pournelk 269 lerry survives his BIX party and spends a busy month looking at new software. Chaos Manor Mail conducted by lerry Pournelie 293 lerry s readers write, and he replies. Applications Only: First in a Series by Ezra Shapiro 297 In this new column Ezra examines four software products. According to Webster: 68000 Wars: Round 1 by Bruce Webster 305 Bruce begins his comparison of the three prominent 68000 computers. Byte Japan: A New Language and a Laptop by William M. Raifte 327 Bill looks at an all-lapanese programming language called Mind and at the Fujitsu FM-16ir. BYTE U.K.: The Amstrad PCW 8256 by Dick Pountain 333 This new. completely functional, Z80-based computer and word processor from the U.K. costs less than most electric typewriters. Mathematical Recreations: Diophantine Equations by Robert T. Kurosaka 343 Who was Diophantus? Here's one way to find out. Circuit Cellar Feedback conducted by Steve Ciarcia 354 Steve answers project-related queries from readers. Editorial: Wishes for Spring: A Wider Circle . . 6 Microbytes 9 Letters 14 Fixes and Updates 33 Whats New 37, 399 Ask BYTE 44 Clubs and Newsletters 54 Book Reviews 57 Event Queue 78 Disks and Downloads 358 Best of BIX 367 Unclassified Ads 461 BYTE's Ongoing Monitor Box, BOMB Results 462 Reader Service 463 Address all edilorial correspondence [o rhe Editor. BYTE POB 372 Hancock. NH 03449 Unacceptable manuscripts will be returned if accompanied by sufficient first-class postage Not responsible for lost manuscripts or photos Opinions expressed by the authors are not necessarily those of BYTE Copyright © 1986 by McGraw-Hill Inc. 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Hancock, NH 03449 VOLUME II, NUMBER 3, 1986 212 266 SECTION ART BY PIERRE LE-TAN MARCH 1986 Inquiry 117 for End-Users. Inquiry 118 for DEALERS ONLY. LOOKING FOR AT PERFORMANCE FROM YOUR PC? IfcARTH HAS IT FOR I LESS THAN $1 ,000! fYOUR SEARCH IS OVER!! EARTH COMPUTERS' exciting new high- speed, 80286 accelerator card, TurboACCEL-286™ , is just what you've been looking for. The TurboACCEL- 286 will boost your PC performance up to Five times.. .its completely software transparent... and its only $995! TurboACCEL-286 will fuction with most operating systems and application programs (unlike other so-called '•accelerator boards). The TurboACCEL-286 features a high-speed, 8MHz, 80286 processor, 512Kbytes of RAM (expandable to 1 Mbytes), a switch for 8088 operation, and facilities for an 80287 math co- processor. It occupies one expansion slot, is completely compatible with most PCs and is software transparent. End your search for AT performance. Order the TurboACCEL-286 today! Call or write: EARTH C OMPUTERS P.O. Box 8067, Fountain Valley, CA 92728 TELEX: 910 997 6120 EARTH FV (714)964-5784 Ask about EARTH COMPUTERS' other fine PC and S-1 00 compatible products. BYTE editor in chief Philip Lemmons managing editor. print Gene Smarte managing editor. electronic publishing and communications George Bond consulting editors Steve Ciarcia Jerry Pournelle Bruce Webster senior technical editors G. Michael Vose. Themes Gregg Williams technical editors Dennis Allen Thomas R. Clune Ion R. Edwards Richard Grehan Glenn Hartwig. Review Ken Sheldon Iane Morrill Tazelaar Tom Thompson Charles D. Weston Eva White Stanley Wszola associate technical editors Margaret Cook Gurney, Book Reviews Donna Osgood. San Francisco NEWS AND TECHNOLOGY Ezra Shapiro. Bureau Chief. San Francisco Rich M alloy. Senior Technical Editor. New York Phillip Robinson. Senior Technical Editor. Palo Alto Tony Lockwood. Senior News Editor, Peterborough ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITORS Dennis Barker. 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Senior Vice President. Manufac- turing: Ralph R. Schulz. Senior Vice President. Editorial: George R Elsinger, Vice President. Circulation: Ralph [ Webb. Vice President and Treasurer Editorial and Business Office: 70 Main Street, Peterborough, New Hampshire 03458, (6031 924-9281 West Coast Offices: McGraw-Hill. 42 5 Battery St., San Francisco. CA 941 II. (415| 362-4600. McGraw-Hill, 1000 Elwell Court, Palo Alto. CA 94303. (415) 964-0624. New York Editorial Office: 1221 Avenue of the Americas. New York, NY 10020. [2121 512-2000. B YTE • MARCH 1986 Circuit-Board-Artwork Software for the Design Engineer ISL in a Hurry For only $895, smARTWORK® lets the design engineer create and revise printed-circuit-board art- work on the IBM Personal Com- puter. You keep complete control over your circuit-board artwork — from start to finish. Forget the tedium of taping it yourself or waiting for a tech- nician, draftsman, or the CAD department to get to your project. smARTWORK" is the only low- cost printed-circuit-board artwork editor with all these advantages: □ Complete interactive control over placement and routing □ Quick correction and revision □ Production-quality 2X artwork from a pen-and-ink plotter □ Prototype-quality 2X artwork from a dot-matrix printer □ Easy to learn and operate, yet capable of sophisticated layouts □ Single-sided and double-sided printed circuit boards up to 10 x 16 inches □ Multicolor or black-and-white display System Requirements: □ IBM Personal Computer, XT, or AT with 256K RAM, 2 disk drives, and DOS Version 2.0 or later □ IBM Color/Graphics Adapter with RGB color or black-and- white monitor □ IBM Graphics Printer or Epson FX/MX/RX series dot-matrix printer □ Houston Instrument DMP-41 pen-and-ink plotter □ Optional Microsoft Mouse The Smart Buy At $895, smARTWORK 5, is proven, convenient, fast, and a sound value. Call us today. And put it to work for yourself next week. tz msRm> Wintek Corporation inquiry 378 1801 South Street Lafayette, IN 47904-2993 Telephone: (317) 742-8428 Telex: 70-9079 WINTEK CORP UD In Europe contact: RIVA Terminals Limited, Woking, Surrey GU21 5JY ENGLAND, Telephone: 04862-71001, Telex: 859502 "smARTWORK:' "Wintek" and the Wintek logo are registered trademarks of Wintek Corporation. EDITORIAL Wishes for Spring: A Wider Circle When will personal computers reach far beyond the current circle of owners and produce another boom in our industry? Computer users and the industry alike have been awaiting the introduction of IBM's next base personal computer for more than a year. Everyone expects the machine to be a much better vehicle for software such as Microsoft Windows than is the current PC family. However, some reliable sources insist that IBM is now caught with an inventory of PCs, XTs. and ATs well in excess of one million machines. If this is true, IBM's new base machine must wait. Not even IBM can afford to write off billions of dollars in order to make way for a new product. It appears that the IBM side of the industry will stagnate, although IBM's RT will provide some stimulus before the replacement ar- rives for the base PC. And when the next IBM workhorse arrives, its pricing will prob- ably assure that it replaces existing PCs and XTs rather than extending the benefits of the personal computer to new users. It seems more likely that a breakthrough will come on the 68000 side of the market. The Atari 1040ST is one of the great mile- stones in personal computing. For the first time, we can buy a 16-bit machine with 1 megabyte of RAM, 720K bytes of floppy- disk storage, a good monitor, and a mouse, all for less than $1000. The oper- ating system, TOS. is fully in ROM. Al- though screen memory and systems soft- ware make some demands on RAM, most of the megabyte really does belong to the programmer, and therefore to the user. Given its price and power, the Atari 1040ST is the first personal computer that offers programmers the hardware re- sources needed to make the computer ac- cessible, responsive, and useful to millions of nontechnical people who have yet to use computers. But the software needed to take advantage of the hardware is yet to be seen. Only Tom Hudson's DEGAS paint program takes full advantage of chief designer Shiraz Shivji's hardware. (For more on the 1040ST, see the Product Preview by Phillip Robinson and |on Ed- wards on page 84.) lack Tramiel is capable of putting millions of these machines in homes around the world. The sheer numbers and raw computing power will drive software development, but it takes time. Apple's January announcements re- vealed significant improvements in the Macintosh family. With the increase in standard RAM to a megabyte and the in- troduction of an SCSI interface, Apple showed that it does indeed plan to open the architecture of the Macintosh. A Macintosh with slots can be expected as soon as feasible, but the required changes in systems software to add more process- ing power and support the slots while re- taining compatibility with today's Macin- tosh may take time. Furthermore, the $2495 price tag of the Macintosh Plus may prevent the Macintosh family from win- ning many new adherents. (We were unable to get access to a Macintosh Plus in time to prepare an article for this issue, but look for coverage in April or May.) The Commodore Amiga is now the oldest of these three flagship 68000 machines. The Amiga's coprocessors still give it the edge in computation, but the Amiga trails both the Macintosh Plus and the Atari 1040ST in the standard con- figuration of RAM. Software runs on pro- cessors, but it lives in RAM. Commodore will soon have to offer an inexpensive up- grade to 1 megabyte of RAM in order to remain competitive and reduce program- mers' headaches. The Amiga's open ar- chitecture should make the upgrade easy to do. We should also remember Com- modore's statement when introducing the Amiga that it is the first and least power- ful of a planned series of machines. Al- though Textcraft (with which this editorial is being written) is adequate and Elec- tronic Arts' Deluxe Paint is spectacular, the Amiga still generally lacks software to match its hardware. Making One Market The Atari 1040ST and the Amiga fall short of the Macintosh in both systems software and applications software. Many, many personal computer users have said they'd like to see Macintosh-quality software on Atari or Amiga hardware. Any company or group of programmers that fulfills this wish could bring about the next great chapter of growth in personal computing. But who will do it? Is there a remote possibility that Micro- soft will put an MS-DOS-compatible oper- ating system on the Amiga, the Atari ST, and the Macintosh, and put Microsoft Windows atop the operating system? Such a move would let Microsoft bestride the world of personal computers and unite the office, home, and education markets. Microsoft has produced a fine BASIC for the Amiga and must be tempted to simplify support for the machine by put- ting a Microsoft operating system in the Amiga's Writable Control Store (Kickstart RAM). But would Microsoft be bold enough to replace the ROMs and systems software of the Macintosh? One of January's fascinating rumors sug- gested that Digital Research would in- troduce CP/M-68K and GEM for the Amiga, thereby fusing the Amiga and Atari into a single market. This would be a step in the right direction and would help Amiga and Atari by giving program- mers a bigger market to write for. But Digital Research seems unlikely to try replacing the systems software of the Macintosh. The recent controversy over GEM's visual resemblance to the Macin- tosh user interface provides enough to oc- cupy Digital Research's lawyers. Lattice has taken a positive step by de- veloping MacLibrary for the Amiga. These routines work with Lattice C on the Amiga and emulate ROM calls on the Mac. Mac- Library should help some in porting ap- plications software from the Mac to the Amiga. Lattice C is available for the Atari ST and perhaps a version of MacLibrary will be as well. Other versions of C in- cluding Manx C, are available for all three machines. Let's hope someone will have the vision and the resources necessary to make one vast software market of three substantial and overlapping ones. The Atari ST. the Commodore Amiga, and the Apple Macintosh are each an important part of personal computing. Together they could form a standard second to none and at- tract millions of new users to personal computers. — Phil Lemmons Editor in Chief BYTE • MARCH 1986 Maxell Corp. of America, 60 Oxford Drive, Moonathie, NJ 07074 Before you invest in a DECVT240 terminal, consider the software alternative. Stop and think about what you really need: A text terminal. Tektronix* graphics. ReGIS* graphics. File transfer capabilities. Communications. Purchasing a state-of-the-art terminal may be one option, but Persoft has a smarter solution— SmarTerm® 240, the ultimate in terminal emulation software. SmarTerm can do everything the state- of-the-art terminal can do— and more. That's why we call it state-of-the-smart. With SmarTerm 240, the emulation is so exact you'll forget you're using a PC. It features superior text emulation, ReGIS graphics, Tektronix graphics, outstanding communications and file transfer capabilities. You also get on-line help screens, remappable keyboard layouts and programmable softkeys which can simplify your most frequently performed tasks. You can even customize your own menus! And because SmarTerm runs on your PC, you've always got a wealth of computing power right at your fingertips. All SmarTerm products are backed by Persoft's strong technical support network. It's a service you expect from the industry leader in terminal emulation software. No matter which terminal you're currently using— Data General Dasher* D400, Tektronix 4010/4014, DEC VT100, VT125, VT220 or even the new VT240, SmarTerm has a state-of-the-smart solution for you. To find out more about the SmarTerm family of terminal emulation software, see your local dealer. Or contact: Persoft, Inc. 2740 Ski Lane Madison, Wl 53713 (608) 273-6000 - Telex 759491 'SmarTerm is a registered trademark of Person, Inc. 'DEC, VT and ReGIS, are trademarks of Digital Equipment Corp. "DASHER Is a registered trademark at Data General Corp. * Tektronix is a registered trademark of Tektronix, Inc. ©PersoU, Inc.. 1986. All rights reserved aersa/r J Inquiry 270 MICROBYTES Staff-written highlights of late developments in the microcomputer industry. IBM Announces UNIX-based RISC-Technology Computer IBM announced the RT PC, a line of desktop and floor-standing computers that feature a 32-bit RISC (reduced instruction set computer) microprocessor. The new machines also use a proprietary 40-bit-wide memory-management chip that can access a virtual memory of 1 trillion bytes. The desktop unit is the size of the IBM PC AT, has a i.2-megabyte floppy drive, a 40-megabyte hard-disk drive, 1 to 3 megabytes of memory, and six IBM AT- compatible expansion slots. An optional 80286 board lets the RT run AT software. AIX, the UNIX-based operating system for the RT, is compatible with UNIX System V and includes several enhancements from Berkeley version 4.2 UNIX. AIX can accommodate up to eight users. Also announced were three high-resolution displays for the RT. These include the Ad- vanced Monochrome and Color Displays, both with resolutions of 720 by 512 pixels, and the Extended Monochrome Display, with a resolution of 1024 by 768 pixels. IBM claims that the RT can perform at a rate of 1.2 to 2.4 million instructions per second. The price for the desktop model with the Advanced Monochrome Display is approximately $13,100. The AIX operating system is an additional $3400. Discounts of over 30 percent are available for orders of 50 units or more. Dutch Engineer Discloses Method for Eavesdropping on Computer Displays In a recent issue of the journal Computers & Security (North-Holland), Dutch engineer Wim van Eck outlined a method whereby an ordinary television receiver can be modified to recreate the images on any nearby CRTs or computer displays. The modifications require approx- imately $15 of electronic parts and a directional antenna. In one test, van Eck set up his equipment in a van parked outside an office building and was able to read classified infor- mation displayed on a computer terminal inside the building. Xerox Announces Color Ink-Jet Printer and Software for Its 6085 Computer Xerox of Rochester, NY, announced a new printer for its line of personal computers and more software for its 6085 computer. The Xerox 4020 is a color ink-jet printer that reportedly prints 4000 combinations of seven primary colors at a resolution of 240 dots per inch. The printer price of $1495 includes the GEM Desktop, WordChart, and Graph software packages. The Xerox 6085, a low-priced relative of the Xerox Star computer, is being bundled with Xerox's 4045 Laser CP (copier/printer) and new software to form a personal publishing system called the Documenter. No price was given for this system: projected availability is in the second quarter of 1986. Xerox will also offer compilers for C, FORTRAN, and BASIC that will run on the 6085 computer. The 6085 is a large-screen, window-and-mouse-oriented computer that is available with an optional IBM PC-compatible processor. High-Density 256K-bit EEPROM Xicor of Milpitas, CA, is selling samples of a 256K-bit EEPROM. The densest chip available before held 64K bits. The 256K-bit chip sits in the same package as the 64K-bit chip; for ad- dressing, it employs two pins that were unused on the 64K-bit version. The 256K-bit EEPROM also includes new software data-protection mechanisms to guard against inadver- tent writes during power-up and power-down. The 64K-bit chips cost from $12 to $20 apiece. The 256K-bit chip samples cost $120 in lots of 100. Full production is expected by the middle of 1986. (continued) MARCH 1986 -BYTE 9 Parallel Processing for the IBM You can buy a parallel-processing add-on board for your IBM PC, XT, or AT or ITT XTRA from Compupix Technology of Boca Raton, FL. The board is based on NCR's GAPP (geometric arithmetic parallel processor) chip, which contains 72 CMOS 1-bit ALU pro- cessors. For $4750, you get a board with 144 processors (two GAPP chips), and $5750 buys you a board with 288 processors (four GAPP chips). Both products have an on-board se- quence controller so the host computer can perform another task while the parallel pro- cessors are working. The demonstration software that accompanies the boards was developed for both UNIX and MS-DOS environments. Compupix offers two assemblers for the board: the Macro-Meta Assembler runs under MS-DOS and costs $1750, while a relocatable, linkable version of the Macro-Meta Assembler costs $2150. Datatext Word Processor Plus Source Code for $95 A $450 word processor that was withdrawn from the market for a few months has been reissued, this time with a complete source-code listing and a price of $95. Datatek of Oldsmar, FL, bills the new version of Datatext as a powerful, multifunction word processor and includes in the product's manual a complete listing of 30,000 lines of Pascal source code. A disk version of the source code costs $145, and a Computer Associates/Sorcim Pascal compiler for recompiling the code will be available for less than $100. The product runs on IBM PC, MS-DOS, and CP/M systems. Nanobytes According to SoftView of Camarillo, CA, its MaclnTax 1985, a $75 program for the Macin- tosh, is the only tax package that can generate IRS-approved tax forms on the Apple lmagewriter printer. . . . Epson announced the FX-286 printer, a replacement for its FX-I85 dot-matrix printer. Epson claims that the $749 wide-carriage printer is 30 percent faster than its older relative. . . . Iomega Corp. announced a new adapter card for its Bernoulli Box disk-cartridge system. The card lets the IBM PC boot from the Bernoulli Box. . . . Fox & Geller of Elmwood Park, NJ, is offering a Symphony-like database for Lotus Develop- ment's 1-2-3. Called Quickcode for 1-2-3, the program costs $199. ... A new multiuser ver- sion of Fox Research's 10-BASE database system for the IBM PC offers SQL (structured query language) features. . . . The Toshiba P3 51 dot-matrix printer can now emulate the Qume Sprint 1 1 daisy-wheel printer and the IBM Graphics Printer. Upgrades for older printers cost $99. . . . Panasonic announced three dot-matrix printers: the KX-P1595 (240 cps in draft mode, Courier type fonts, $949), the KX-P1592 (180 cps in draft, IBM Graphics Printer compatibility, $699), and the KX-P1080 (100 cps in draft, $319) ... . Tiara Computer Systems of Mountain View, CA, has acquired the Davong MultiLink local-area network and renamed it TiaraLink. The products will sell for 15 to 2 5 percent less. Tiara is also offering an IBM PC AT-compatible motherboard to developers for a single-quantity price of $920. . . . The International Computer Users Groups Association (ICUGA) has been formed in Lexington, KY. The association is intended as a support service for users groups around the world. Contact ICUGA c/o Abshire & Abshire, Security Trust Building, Suite 100, Lexington, KY 40507 .... Oki Semiconductor, Sunnyvale, CA, has developed a 5-MHz CMOS version of the 8085 A microprocessor. An NMOS 8085A draws 170 milliamperes; the MSM80C85A-2 typically draws less than 20 mA. In lots of 100, each chip costs $7.30. . . . Aldus Corp. of Seattle, WA, has introduced PageMaker release 1.1. This new version of the $495 Macintosh page-design program offers the option of using the LaserWriter's bit-map smoothing, a greater variety of tab uses, and support of tabloid-size pages (II by 17 inches) .... S-MOS Systems of San Jose, CA, announced three CMOS Z80 microprocessors. The SMC 84C00AC is simply a pin-compatible CMOS Z80. The SMC 84C00AC-L adds a low- power "sleep" mode that prohibits it from supporting the Z80's on-chip dynamic-memory- refresh counter. The SMC 84C00AC-S has both the sleep mode and an on-chip oscillator. All three chips sell for approximately $3 in quantities of 1000. . . . Vitelic, Santa Clara, CA, is making the V62C64, a low-power 8K-bit-by-8 CMOS static RAM chip. This new RAM has an access time of 150 nanoseconds and dissipates 175 milliwatts in operation or 10 microwatts in standby. A special low-voltage data-retention mode for battery backup lets the V62C64 retain data while dissipating only 4 microwatts from a 2-volt power source. 10 BYTE- MARCH 1986 TANDY.. Clearly Superior The Tandy 8 1200 Personal Computer with dual floppy disk drives edges out the IBM* PC/XT. TANDY 1200 H Another remarkable com- puter breakthrough that only Tandy conic! bring yon. The new Tandy 1200 is XT-compatible, in- cludes dual floppy disk drives and is priced at only $1499.00— far less than IBM's XT! With the Tandy 1200, a business can ex- pand attbrdably and still use vir- tually all of the same quality software, as well as PC expan- sion boards. The Tandy 1200 (25-3001) comes with 256K RAM (expand- able on-board to a total of 640K), two thinline, 360K floppy disk drives, pins seven card slots. A parallel printer interface — an extra-cost option on the XT — is standard. Also available is the Tandy 1200 HD (25-3000, $1999.00). It has a built-in 10-megabyte hard disk and a 360K floppy. You'll find everything you need — software, printers, cus- tom forms, even furniture — at any Radio Shack Computer Center. And our support in- cludes training, service and leas- ing: we have what it takes to sit down and talk business. Available at over 1200 Radio Shack Computer Centers and at participating Radio Shack stores and dealers. Radio /hack COMPUTER CENTERS A DIVISION OF TANDY CORPORATION II 1 ■ ■ ■ ■ i Send me a Tandy 1 200 brochure. Mail To: Radio Shack, Dept. 86-A-793 300 One Tandy Center, Fort Worth, TX 76102 NAME COMPANY ADDRESS CITY STATE PHONE 7IP 1 ■ T ■ ■III' Tandy 1200 prices apply at Radio Shack Computer Centers and participating stores and dealers. IBM comparison pricing as ol 9/1/85. IBM/TM International Business Machines Corp. MS/TM Microsoft Corp. Inquiry 294 c&c Computers and Communications Your first color good enough SEC introduces the only color monitor you need. Superb resolution plus MultiSync for across- the-board compatibility with all three PC graphics boards made by IBM, for business graphics, CAD/CAM, computer art, and text. Now there's one high resolution color monitor that does things your way. The Multi- Sync™ monitor from NEC. It gives you the best color resolution avail- able at the price. • Compatibility with the IBM Professional Graphics Adapter, the IBM Enhanced Graphics Adapter, and the IBM Color Graphics Adapter. Compatibility with the IBM" Enhanced Graphics Adapter Board • MultiSync, the NEC feature that automatic- ally adjusts to color adapter board scanning frequencies from 15.75 KHz to 35 KHz— sug- gesting the possibility that the MultiSync monitor might be compatible with all color graphics boards that are fully compati- ble with the IBM PC, PC/XT, and PC/AT, now and in the future. • Full implementation of high resolution graphics software for business and other applica- tions, now and in the future. • And color capability limited only by the board be- ing used. See Things Our Way Until now, you had to choose different color monitors for compatibil- ity with all three PC color graphics boards made by IBM. With so many board and moni- tor configurations, folks Compatibility with the IBM® Professional Graphics Adapter Board didn't know which way to look. The new MultiSync color monitor gives you unique compatibility. As well as TTL and analog color. With 7 switchable text colors. And resolu- tion up to maximum 800 horizontal dots and maximum 560 vertical lines, on a large, 13" diagonal viewing area. All that, priced at just $799. All from NEC, a name respected around the world for advanced, Compatibility with the IBM® Color Graphics Adapter 12 BYTE • MARCH 1986 monitor should be to be your last iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiii ^ U L T I S Y N C The Intelligent Monitor TM reliable products backed by nationwide service. It's the one color monitor that does everything your way. But why talk more about it? Visit your Inquiry 252 nearest dealer and see a graphic demonstra- tion of the new NEC MultiSync monitor's capabilities. Then draw your own conclusions. For information dial j 800 447 4700 NEC HOME ELECTRONICS (U.S.A.) Inc. Personal Computer Division 1401 Estes Avenue Elk Grove Village, IL 60007 NEC MARCH 1986 • BYTE 13 LETTERS Copyrighting Icons Your January editorial ("A Threat to Future Software." page 6) regarding Apple's stifling of software creativity was precise- ly to the point. Legally, I have wondered why Xerox didn't sue Apple long ago. Technically, however, I also wondered why DR1 chose to slavishly copy the Mac user interface in the first place. Take scroll bars, for example. They take up an awful lot of screen space, are dif- ficult to use accurately, and are hardly in- tuitive, since you need to go right first to go up\ Why not just let a function key cause the cursor to adhere to the first window border it comes to? Option would cause the contents to scroll, Command might cause the window to resize, and Shift would move the window on the screen. Need to close the window? Just move the cursor rapidly back and forth a few times anywhere in the window (a motion similar to using a pencil eraser), and it would be gone. Presto, you have a window that operates far more intuitively than a Mac window, has less screen overhead, less code overhead (no need to draw the bars and resize them), and, best of all, has lit- tle resemblance to a Macintosh! And while they are at it, the DR1 people might want to throw in support for a global zoom pro- cedure (since every computer screen is only a window on an application) and the global abort function that the Macintosh sorely needs but doesn't have. Alex Funk Durham, NC It is truly remarkable that Apple managed to copyright the garbage can (its primary symbol?) and the icon interface developed by Xerox. It must be in the general interest to have a standard set of icons that express their meaning clearly and unambiguously. Clearly, Apple is taking the necessary steps to prevent a natural development of such a standard. Is Apple trying to pre- vent other vendors from launching sys- tems based on the ideas from Xerox? Do the people at Apple really think they will succeed? That is difficult to believe, as the bit map of an icon hardly is the major fea- ture of a computer system, and more powerful machines will appear in the near future, easily outperforming the Mac in all aspects (except the garbage can). Goran Rydqvist Kjell Post Linkoping, Sweden When 1 first learned that Apple had won a decision against Digital Research for "visual copyright" infringement, I thought "Right on!" and still feel this way. A pro- grammer should be able to protect his rights to any commercial system he develops. We would all agree that the visual aspects and appearance of any soft- ware system contribute heavily to the suc- cess of that particular system in the mar- ketplace. Your line of reasoning to justify other persons' ignoring visual copyrights— the "incremental" theory— if carried to its logical conclusion in my mind leads us to the point where my firm could publish a new software release called Wordstar 5000. emulating the latest MicroPro screens for its fine word-processing pro- gram. As long as we could prove in- cremental improvements, we would be protected from (not liable to) suit by MicroPro. This is ridiculous! It is the pro- grammer's right to release newer, in- crementally improved versions of any soft- ware product he has authored, if another firm feels it has a dynamite idea for an enhancement to an existing piece of soft- ware, then isn't that what joint ventures are for? The computer industry is far away from the ideal man-computer-man interface. Let us collectively stimulate, encourage, and suitably reward those who pursue new, un- tried interface techniques. As the level of computer literacy rises above thinking of the computer as a car-type tool and reaches the level where we see the com- puter as an extension of our brains, we will all probably want our own individualized interfaces. Mike Carmichael Glasgow. KY Covering Atari s ST Machines Well, another month has come and gone, and the only mention made of the best low-priced computer on the market is a few slightly snide remarks. I can't say that I am totally surprised, since it took BYTE a few years to figure out what every Atari owner knew-that the Atari 400/800/1 200s were the best 8-bit graphics machines on the market. Now comes a new Atari, the 520ST. It is available everywhere, right now, with software delivering now. Also available is a complete developer's software/docu- mentation package for less than a good C compiler for the IBM PC and its look- alikes. Still, no real mention in BYTE. Methinks your biases are showing. I.will readily concede that the Amiga is probably a better machine, but at a price that is more than double that of a similarly equipped 520ST. Mr. Webster and others have said the 520ST is not expandable. Of- ficially, that's true. But, as many owners of the Atari 400 know, the 400 wasn't ex- pandable beyond 16K RAM, officially. I and many others have or had 400s with 48K within a year of introduction. My 520ST (remember, unexpandable) will shortly have 1 megabyte of RAM (cost: less than $70) and an add-on 80-track 5 14-inch drive. So much for officialdom. When 1 bought my machine. I received BASIC, Logo, Neochrome (graphics draw- ing program), and ST Writer (word pro- cessor). While the graphics and word- processing software are not up to some of the more mature applications, they are far from primitive. In my area, the Amiga is not available yet. but it will be in "real soon now." The dealer says there is lots of software for the Amiga, but he doesn't have any in stock: again, it will be here "real soon now." 1 don't know about you. but in the com- puter world "real soon now" can often take months or years. [continued) LETTERS POLICY: To be considered for publica- tion, a letter must be typed double-spaced on one side of the paper and must include your name and address. Comments and ideas should be expressed as clearly and concisely as possible. Listings and tables may be printed along with a letter if they are short and legible. Because BYTE receives hundreds of letters each month, not all of them can be published. Letters will not be returned to authors. Generally, it takes four months from the time BYTE receives a letter until il is published. 14 BYTE MARCH 1986 This Little Feia Means Business. The Mouse by Maynard Electronics makes your favorite programs faster, wammm easier, and smarter! BY MAYNARD ELECTRONICS At last, an "intelligent" mouse! Now you can add command power to your programs, when you want, the way you want — instantly! The Mouse by Maynard Electronics comes with our CustomKey™ software which lets you assign and reassign commands while using your favorite programs — even those without mouse utilities. Fly through programs like Symphony? Lotus 1 -2-3? Framework? Multi- Mate?and others with undreamed of speed! And of course, it's fully compatible with all programs written for a mouse, too. "Symphony and Lotus 1-2-3 are trademarks ot Lotus Development Corporation. Framework is a trademark of Ashton-Tate. MultiMate is a trademark of SoftWord Sys- tems Inc. Telepaint is a trademark of LCS/Telegraphics. j Teach The Mouse To Type. A single Mouse click will instantly produce the character, sentence, paragraph, or anything else you've selected. Click: you call up the CustomKey menu. Click: your file is saved. Click: a com- monly used paragraph appears in place. No other mouse gives you such power and versatility. A Tale Of Three Mice . . . Compare our Mouse with the others running around and you'll see, there's no comparison! Here are just a few features across the board: FEATURES Maynard Mouse Micro- soft Mouse Systems # of Button Combinations 7 3 5 Button Auto Repeat Yes No No Diagnostics Yes No Yes Dynamic Scaling Yes No No Cursor Overshoot Control Yes No No Adjustable Cursor Speed/Up Dn (while running application) Adjustable Cursor Speed/Rt, Yes No No Lft (while running application) Buttons-Definable {while runr Yes No No ing application) Yes No No Macros-Definable (while runn ng application) Yes No No User-Definable Alternate Cursor Movement Yes No No Free Drawing! Purchase The Mouse now and receive the popular paint program Telepaint* at no additional cost — a $149 value! %-u Maynard Electronics Shaping tomorrow's technology. 460 E. Semoran, Casselberry, FL^707 • 305/331 -6402 Available at the finest computer stores. Contact your local dialer or write to us today for product information. Inquiry 227 MARCH 1986 -BYTE 15 Why you should ignore 95% of the news Because NewsNet automatically finds the 5% you need. From our database of authori- tative, up-to-date business news, you get just the stories you want, delivered instantly to your microcomputer. You choose your own, unique keywords, and NewsNet saves — just for you — every new article containing those words. Or, you can find that critical 5% on your own, with NewsNet's powerful keyword search- ing and text scanning. Just what's in NewsNet's database? The full text of over 300 valuable business newsletters. In- depth news, written by experts, filled with analysis and interpretation. News from 34 dif- ferent industries and professions — everything from Computers to Investments, from Manage- ment to Telecommunications. Plus extras such as wire services, online stock quotes, air fares, and business credit reports. Computer News: Your Specialty is our Specialty. Here are just a few of the 25 Electronics and Computers newsletters on NewsNet: \ The Artificial Intelligence Report The Business Computer The Computer Cookbook Consumer Electronics Data Base Informer Electronic Mail News Outlook on IBM Japan High Tech Review Micro Moonlighter Mini/Micro Bulletin Personal Computers Today Robotronics Age Newsletter Semiconductor Industry & Business Survey The Seybold Report on Professional Computing Stanley Klein Newsletter on Computer Graphics ONLINE BUSINESS NEWS IkidM Call Today! We'll send all you need to subscribe. (800) 345-1301 (In PA 215-527-8030) /ilcwsNct Inc. <>B HavcrforU Road, liryn Mawr. PA 19010 LETTERS As for comparing machines, we really have to compare machines that are simi- larly priced. With the Atari 520ST's $1000 price tag, that leaves the Apple II. Poor Apple. When comparing compatibility, then we have to look at the IBM PC/XT/AT and the Amiga. The PC/XT/AT's saving graces are manufacture by IBM and a large base of available software. I recently saw a benchmark on the 520ST for process- ing (primes). Nothing that anyone will buy for home use was anywhere close to Atari's speed. For business, I don't really believe that the Atari will penetrate the market with any great percentage. Its success will prob- ably be along the line of the Apple Mac- intosh. It offers more bang for the buck than any other currently manufactured machine. For support. Atari was always one of the better companies about supplying infor- mation and help with its machines. Also, there is a very large installed base of users that are buying up the 520STs as fast as they hit the retail store. Some public- domain software is already out there. Ad- mittedly, it is not at the level it will be in a very short time. Also, there are two Atari- specific magazines on the market that are publishing more and more information about the machine every month. BYTE, your prejudices are showing, and by this letter you can see that mine are showing also. Maybe it will balance out. Lloyd Parsons Herrin, IL Phil Lemmons replies: We are not prejudiced against Atari or any other company. We were hampered in covering Atari's 520ST by the com- pany's refusal to give us access to a machine despite repeated attempts on our part. But that problem is now past. Please note that our January. February, and March issues all contain coverage of Atari's ST machines. I'd Know That Chip Anywhere I don't know whether this is a coincidence or not, but a chip virtually identical to the one John Bennett has described ("Raster Operations," November 1985, page 187) was developed by myself and John At- wood at Silicon Compilers in early 1983. The chip, designed with the help of an early version of the Silicon Compilers soft- ware, has been used quite successfully in the Sun Microsystems Color Workstation. In this application, a total of eight RasterOp chips (one per bit plane) manip- [continued) New! Windows-Compatible In-a-Vision 1.1 Complex Drawin Made^Easy w e created In-a-Vision just for you. The engineer who needs more productive drafting support. The designer who needs versatility for alternate ideas or quick re- visions. The ar- chitect who needs to manage a vari- ety of working drawings. And the businessman who needs first-class presentation mate- rials as well as de- tailed flow charts and organization charts. Point. Click. Draw. Now all you do to create com- plex technical drawings, systems designs, blueprints, diagrams, il- lustrations, and proposals is point, click and draw. With In-a- Vision's mouse support, windowing, icons, and pull-down menus, you produce drawings more quickly, accurately and efficiently than ever before. In-a-Vision's advanced technology includes many features not found on compar- able systems costing thou- sands more. For example, you can pan around in a user-definable drawing space up to 68" x 68" and zoom in on specific areas for FREE MicrosoffWindows from MICROGRAFX!® If you purchase In-a- Vision directly from MICROGRAFX, we'll give you a free retail copy of Microsoft Windows so you can use In-a- Vision as part of a fully integrated working environment. Move instantly from In-a- Vision to other applications and back . . . cut and paste text and drawings .. ,<- ,.. - m i i. (Most popular graphics cards, plotters, and printers supported.) Microsoft Windows-compatible. Call for specific operating environment requirements. * Demo requires MS Windows. Full demonstration system for use without Windows available for S49.0Q. greater detail. Scale, rotate and dimen- sion symbols, fill an area with your choices of pre- defined colors and patterns, as well as draw lines with multiple styles and widths. Other features in- clude overlays, predefined and user-definable page sizes, rulers, grids, and templates to speed popular applications. Multi-tasking in a PC- based CAD system. In-a-Vision uses multi-tasking to enable you to continue drawing while printing hard copies or edit multiple drawings simultaneously. MICROGRAFX The Picture of Success. Inquiry 237 between applications ■ ... and more! We're confident you'll agree — In-a-Vision will make your complex drawing tasks simple and make you more pro- ductive. Satisfaction guaranteed. TO ORDER CALL' 800-272-3729 As always, free demo disk* or bro- chure available upon request. In Texas or for cus- tomer support, call (214) 234-1769. MICROGRAFX, Inc., 1820 North Greenville Avenue, Richardson, Texas 75081. In-a-Vision and MICROGRAFX are trademarks of MICROGRAFX. Inc. Microsoft is a trademark of Microsoft, Inc. Escape the Programmer's Prison Do you feel imprisoned by your IBM PC? Do you spend too much time wrestiing with a rigid, unyielding programming language? Are you tired of clumsy pro- gramming tools that straight-jacket your creativity instead of liberating it? If so, you're ready for Methods— a Small- talk, object-oriented programming sys- tem for the IBM-PC and compatibles that sets you free from the constraints of other languages. Until you program with Methods, you don't know just how quick and creative programming can be on the. IBM PC. Methods is . . . . . . high-performance object-oriented pro- gramming. A powerful, language-compatible subset of Smalltalk-80'\ ... a toolkit of over 100 classes— easily-cus- tomized software building-blocks for rapid, in- cremental development of real-world applications. ... an open-ended, window environment that encourages exploration while allowing re- covery from any error. . . . extensively documented in a four-part manual for everyone from beginners to experienced programmers— the perfect in- troduction to Smalltalk programming. . . . ideal for software prototyping, simulation, databases, advanced user interfaces, and numerous AI applications. Methods also offers easy access to DOS, a powerful directory/file browser system, remote UNIX™ access, an object-oriented shell for DOS programs, and much more. Methods requires DOS and 512K RAM on IBM PC's (including AT) or "compatibles," and can be used with or without a mouse. digitalkinc. 5200 West Century Boulevard Los Angeles, CA 90045 (213) 645-1082 Available from Digitalk for $250. Outside U.S. add $15.00 for shipping and handling. California residents add sales tax. Educational and dealer discounts available. Inquiry 110 LETTERS IBM is a trademark of International Business Machines Corporation. Smalltalk-80 is a trademark of Xerox Corporation. UNIX is a trademark of Bell Laboratories. ulate up to 128 bits of image data in parallel for high-speed screen updating. The Sun RasterOp chip is now available commercially from VLSI Technology Inc. as part VL16160. Andreas Bechtolsheim Sun Microsystems Inc. Mountain View, CA Kudos for Conferencing Theme Congratulations on the fine December 1985 issue. We at Network Technologies International Inc. were pleased to see the thoroughness of the Computer Conferenc- ing theme section. As you know, this is an exciting segment for the computer in- dustry, and it has tremendous growth potential in the near future. The reputa- tion of BYTE for being on the leading edge of technology news is well deserved, as this issue focused on conferencing proves. We were very excited by the review of our eForum product by Brock Meeks ('An Overview of Conferencing Systems," page 169). However, several points deserve clarification: 1. eForum does have an electronic mail facility. It is an add-on software package called efvlemo that allows private one-to- one communications with many of the enhanced organizational features of eForum. 2. The eForum software has a migration path that cannot be matched. NETI began marketing with eForum software available on supermicro and mini systems. Begin- ning in February, the eForum system will be available on an MS-DOS IBM PC-com- patible microcomputer. And currently, eForum on a mainframe system is avail- able through the largest packet-switching network in the world, the General Electric Information Service. We feel this wide range of options more than adequately serves the needs of Fortune 500 com- panies as well as organizations of every size and need. Jeffrey J. Elpern Ann Arbor, Ml MS-DOS Disk Formats Marcus Kolod. in his article "IBM PC Disk Performance and the Interleave Factor" (Inside the IBM PCs. Fall 1985. page 283), goes into considerable detail to describe how PC-DOS 1.x differs from 2.x in access- ing a double-sided disk. He describes DOS 1.x as accessing all of side and then all of side 1. while DOS 2.x will access both sides of each cylinder on the disk before (continued) For those times when 640K memory just doesn't seem to be enough. AST introduces RAMpage! ™ with up to 2 Mb of PC RAM. Feed your byte-gobbling appli- cations with the expanded memory of RAMpage! And stop wasting valuable time with frustrating "Memory Full" messages. Breaking The 640K Barrier. RAMpage! breaks through the PC's 640K- byte barrier delivering up to 2 megabytes of parity checked memory for expanded memory applications. Up to 4 RAMpage! boards can be used in a single PC for a full 8 Mb of memory per system. EMS Compatibility. RAMpage! is fully compatible with all applications developed for use with the Lotus 8 Expanded Memory Speci- fication (EMS). It's also supported by Enhanced EMS software— offering more versatility for even greater value and performance. New software updates of popu- lar applications like Symphony™ Framework™and l-2-3rdesigned specifically for use with EMS boards, are now becoming avail- able. And a wide variety of other packages, including win- dowing, spreadsheet, database and CAD applications, will soon follow. A Super Bonus. RAMpage! includes AST's new SuperPak™ utility software. Designed specifically to operate in expanded memory environments, it allows you to spool print jobs and create multiple RAM disks for added performance. Don't let your valuable byte- hungry applications starve. Get RAMpage! today. For more information call our Customer Information Center (714) 863-1333. Or write, AST Research, Inc., 2121 Alton Avenue, Irvine, California 92714 TWX: 753699 ASTR UR. Specifications • For use with IBM* PC, PC-XT, 3270 PC and compatibles. • Up to 2.0 Mb expanded memory per board— 8.0 Mb total per system. • Socketed and user upgradeable with 256K DRAMS. • Fully compatible with Lotus EMS 3.0. • Enhanced EMS design for greater per- formance with enhanced EMS software. • AST Expanded Memory Manager software standard. • New SuperPak™ utility software standard. RCSCRRCH INC. RAMpage! and SuperPak trademarks of AST Research, inc. lotus and 1-2-3 registered trademarks and Symphony trademark of lotus Development Carp. Vrameteork trademark of Ashton-Tate IBM registered trade- mark of International Business Machines Carp. Inquiry 2 for End-Users. Inquiry 3 for DEALERS ONLY. MARCH 1986 'BYTE 19 The database used nowbeused Introducing dBASEIIF PLUS. The PLUS stands for all the improvements weVe made to the world's number one selling database management software. Jp 1 Create IHfiRET Position Ret 1 1 1 Database file Format Uiew Query Report Label The Assistant helps beginning users accomplish day-to-day data management tasksmthoutprogramming. Mind you, dBASE III PLUS still has the powerful dBASE programming language, dot prompt, and all the features that have made dBASE III the standard of the industry. WeVe simply raised the standard. And just as dBASE III introduced more power to the people, our new dBASE III PLUS introduces more people to the power People who aren't all that crazy about programming, for example. The Assistant feature in dBASE III PLUS now provides them with new easy-to-use pull-down menus for creating, using and modifying multiple databases. So now anyone who can manage a simple cursor can manage day-to-day data management tasks. Without programming. And by using our new Screen Painter, anyone can create custom screens. Without programming. Or using View, access related information in several databases at one time. Without programming. With Advanced Query System, another new non-programming feature, any user can build complex queries just by selecting from the dBASE III PLUS pull-down menus. For rapidly creating entire programs, there's even a new Applications Generator. And for all those who wish to learn to program, the Assistant can be of further assistance. By teaching you programming commands as you go along. Without disrupting your work flow These are only a few of the dBASE HI PLUS features that can help new users quickly get up to speed. And experienced users quickly increase their speed. (Sorting, for example, is up to two times faster and indexing up to ten times faster than dBASE III.) Field Hue STATE Operator Matches Constant/Expression "HV" No i:imh i nation CogMm ulth .Mil. ConHne ulth .Mil.. ROT. CoMbine uith .OR.. HOT. Line Field STATE STATE P»0»_1ESC OBDEB DOTE Operator Hatches Hatches Hatches More than i Constant/Express lo "RY" "IE" "LH lass Lures" waues 01. AHO. I .AR1. ami! VSet Filter Select a logical connector For the Filter condition. j Advanced Query System lets you set up and answer complex queries withoutprogramming. 20 BYTE* MARCH \9S6 3y more peop Dy more people. ecan And it's the fastest way to network those users, too. Because now, local area networking capabilities are built right in. dBASE HI PLUS can also help put developers in the fast lane. With a new Data Catalog and more than 50 new commands and functions. Plus code encryption and linking, improved debugging aids, assembly language calls and much more. ASHTONTATE lb obtain a free dBASE ffl PLUS demo disk, call 800-437-4329, Extension 0282; for the authorized AshtonTate* dealer nearest you** And get your hands on dBASE ffl PLUS. It's the software more people can look forward to using. Inquiry 383 •In Colorado call (303) 799-4800, Extension 0282. "Upgrades are available to all dBASE III owners. Requires IBM* PC or 100% compatible.Tradeinarlts/owners: Ashton-Tate, dBASE III/ Ashton-Tate; IBM/International Business Machines Corporation, c 1985 Ashton-Tate. All rights reserved. dBASE III PLUS The data management standard. ENERCOMNECT.-. CIM COGO R300 I GrafTalk ,1k. 2c til ;lii 8P& " ^i *#i 1: totf-jiEfl 1 B SrtMt I 1". MACPLtrr^B 1 . sr 1 .' I 1 ■ HMO I - II e6 *3 5) [DEN101 When you select a plotter or digitizer from Houston Instrument, you'll be impressed by the vast array of available software — like more than 300 graphics packages custom- configured especially for Houston Instrument products. You'll find programs for virtually every application — business graphics, CAD/CAM, architecture, surveying, geophysics, oceanography, medical, electronics — to name just a few. And more are being added every day. Just name your application. Software is immediately available. To learn which vendors supply plotter and digitizer software packages for your system, contact Houston Instrument and we'll promptly send you our complete booklet. Call 1-800-531-5205 (or 512-835-0900 if in Texas), or write Houston Instrument, 8500 Cameron Road, Austin, Texas 78753. In Europe, contact Houston Instrument, Belgium NV., Rochesterlaan 6, 8240 Gistel, Belgium. Tel.: 32-(0)59-277445. Tlx.: 846-81399. Attention software vendors: If you have a program you would like to have become compatible with Houston Instrument' s graphics products, contact the Houston Instrument Marketing Support Group. DQ®CES , S®[jQ instrument A Division of AMETEK Inquiry 161 LETTERS advancing to the next cylinder. (1 have dubbed the first method "surface mode" and the second method "cylinder mode.") DOS 1.x does not access the disk this way; it uses the same cylinder mode as does DOS 2.x. In fact, 1 have written device drives for 1 7 different MS-DOS disk for- mats, ranging from 3'A inches to 8 inches to the AT high-density, and I've yet to see an MS-DOS surface-mode disk. I have seen many other differences in MS-DOS floppy-disk formats, however. Several manufacturers have made changes to improve performance or to match their system design. I've seen sector sizes from 2 56 bytes (HP 150) to 1024 bytes (NEC APC 8-inch), cluster sizes from 512 to 4096 bytes, one boot sector (the most common) to two entire tracks (DEC Rainbow), base sector addresses of both and 1, logical to physical sector mapping via a transla- tion table (a la CP/M). and the 3 !/ 2 -inch 600- rpm high-speed Hewlett-Packard drive (usual speed is 300 rpm). Plus, of course, the IBM PC AT-style drive. Unfortunately, the "media descriptor byte" is not unique for each of these different formats. I expect 1 will continue to see more dif- ferences in future MS-DOS disk formats: it keeps my life interesting. Gary Sanford Acton, MA Adding RAM to the Amiga Thanks for printing my letter on the Amiga's RAM layout (Letters. November 1985. page 26). Thanks also to Gregg Williams for his reply, which requires fur- ther comment. Extensive changes apparently would have been necessary to provide for future upgrades to more than 512K bytes of RAM on the Amiga motherboard, even if the upgrades were to be accomplished simply by swapping chips. As 1 understand it. there is a segmentation between the core 5 1 2 K-byte RAM on the one hand and the larger address space available to the external bus expansion port on the other hand. The Amiga's custom processing chips apparently work only within the 512K-byte space; to expand this core RAM. the very architecture of the system apparently would have to have been re- arranged. This is "rather extreme," indeed. But after deflating my letter of its "rather extreme" atmospheres, I'm still left with the central point that caused me to write: Why is an optional cartridge necessary just to get 512K in the first place? Including a full 512K bytes on the Amiga motherboard, using 16 standard 2 56K by (continued) Data communication problem? Solve it with a BayTech multiport controller Fifty easy-to-use models for cost-effective, RS-232C serial port expansion. ■ Adapt your micro to industrial control and data acquisition applications. ■ Add more terminals to your existing computer system. ■ Allow your computer to share or select printers. ■ Enable your computers to use the same data communication lines by multiplexing. ■ Simplify your network with any-device-to-any-device communication. These intelligent multiports feature many user-programmable functions and are available in 5, 9, 12 and 18-port sizes, $279 to $1,795. Call or write for complete details. BAY TECHNICAL ASSOCIATES, INC. DATA COMMUNICATIONS PRODUCTS 800/523-2702 or 601/467-8231 Highway 603, P.O. Box 387, Bay Saint Louis, Mississippi 39520 Telex: 910-333-1618 EasyLink: 6277-1271 Inquiry 38 MARCH 1986 -BYTE 23 LETTERS 1-bit RAM chips, probably would have added something less than $30 to the manufacturing cost. This would have been partly offset by the cost-reducing elimina- tion of the optional cartridge slot, since more than 512K bytes of core RAM ap- parently would not have been practical, anyway The earlier 128K-byte prototype mother- board had 16 standard 64K by 1-bit RAM chips, so this hypothetical upgrade to 512K bytes using 16 standard 2 56K. by 1-bit RAM chips should have been an ob- vious one. The Amiga's designers must have gone out of their way to use eight nonstandard 64K by 4-bit RAM chips in order to hold standard memory down to 2 56K bytes and require the optional car- tridge for the second 2 56K bytes. That was my main point, and the design choice re- If lightning still scares you, you're using the wrong file manager. Be sure. Btrieve.® Lightning may strike. But it doesn't have to destroy your database. Btrieve® file management offers automatic file recovery after a system crash. So accidents and power failures don't turn into database disasters. Your Btrieve-based applications will come up when the lights come back on. Fast. Btrieve is lightning fast, too. It's written in Assembly language es- pecially for the IBM PC. And based on the b-tree file indexing system, with automatic balancing and elec- trifying access speed. The standard for networking. Btrieve /N (network version) sets the standard for the industry's most popular LANs and multi-user systems. Fully-relational data management. SoftCraft's entire family of products gives you a complete, fully-relational database management system. Rtrieve™ adds report writing capabili- ties. Xtrieve™ speeds users through database queries with interactive menus. For professional programmers. Btrieve is the fast, reliable answer for all your application development. In any development language— BASIC, Pascal, COBOL, C, FORTRAN and APL. With Btrieve, you can develop better applications faster. And know they'll be safe if lightning strikes. SoftCraft Inc. P.O. Box 9802 #917 Austin, Texas 78766 (512) 346-8380 Telex 358 200 Suggested retail prices: Btrieve, $245; Btrieve/N, $595; Xtrieve, $195; Xtrieve/N, $395; Rtrieve, $85; Rtrieve/N, $175. Requires PC-DOS or MS-DOS IX, 2.X, or 3.X. NO ROYALTIES. mains inexplicable to me. 1 didn't want to leave the impression that I don't like the Amiga. In fact, it is precisely because 1 do like it that the memory scheme arouses my criticism; it seems to stick out like a sore thumb amidst all those wild custom processing chips. The Amiga's capabilities eat up lots of memory, and the 512K-byte core RAM should have been provided in a far more cost-effective man- ner. The basic Amiga should have 512K bytes of RAM, yet still be priced at $1295 or less. Jim Howard Project City, CA Using the M68000 for Scientific Research L. David Roper (Letters. October 1985. page 24) has apparently been misin- formed about the M68000 family. The 68020 has 32-bit address and data buses with a 32-bit ALU and two 32-bit adders internally. It also has 32- by 32-bit multi- ply and 64- by 32-bit divide. The 68881 floating-point coprocessor is available in sample quantities right now and should be available for general use soon. The 68020 is already in use. As of this date, G1M1X Inc. (in Chicago) is producing one computer with the 68020 and will soon be making a single-board computer with that chip. I hope Mr. Roper will reconsider his decision to exclude the M68000 family from consideration in choosing a scientific computer. Calvin Dodge Wheatridge, CO Remote Diagnostics Schemes Remote diagnostics offer the industry great promise, as your editorial "Service and Support" (February 1985, page 6) in- dicated, but their implementation is filled with "very serious problems." as a letter from Paul Pinette in the October 1985 issue (page 14) showed. The solution is not remote, however, because a carefully designed system architecture can allow us to have our bugs and eat them. too. The old dilemma haunting the suc- cessful use of remote diagnostics occurs when the diagnostic requires the CPU, main memory, and data paths all to be operational to test a failing system. The failed system won't respond. The system can't diagnose itself for the same reason it won't respond: It's broken! There is a workable solution to this dilemma, and it is being used now. The independent multi- board architecture of the Altos 2086 and [continued] 24 BYTE • MARCH 1986 Inquiry 311 The C for Microcomputers PC-DOS, MS-DOS, CP/M-86. Macintosh. Amiga, Apple Q, CP'M-80. Radio Shack, Commodore, XENIX. ROM. and Cross Development systems MS-DOS, PC-DOS, CP/M-86, XENK, 8086/80x86 ROM Manx Aztec C86 "A compiler that has many strengths . . . quite valuable for serious work" Computer Language review, February 1985 Great Code: Manx Aztec C86 generates fast executing compact code. The benchmark results below are from a study conducted by Manx. The Dhrystone benchmark (CACM 10/84 27:10 pl018) measures performance for a systems software instruction mix. The results are with- out register variables. With register variables, Manx, Microsoft, and Mark Williams run proportionately faster, Lattice and Computer Innovations show no improve- ment. Execution Code Compile/ Time Size Link Time Dhrystone Benchmark Manx Aztec C86 3.3 34 sees 5,760 93 sees Microsoft C 3.0 34 sees 7,146 119 sees Optimized C86 2.20J 53 sees 11,009 172 sees Mark Williams 2.0 56 sees 12,980 113 sees Lattice 2.14 89 sees 20,404 117 sees Great Features: Manx Aztec C86 is bundled with a powerful array of well documented productivity tools, library routines and features. Optimized C compiler Symbolic Debugger AS86 Macro Assembler LN86 Overlay Linker 80186/80286 Support Librarian 8087/80287 Sensing Lib Profiler Extensive UNIX Library DOS, Screen, & Graphics Lib Large Memory Model Intel Object Option Z(vi) Source Editor -c CP/M-86 Library -c ROM Support Package -c INTEL HEX Utility -c Library Source Code -c Mixed memory models -c MAKE, DIFF, and GREP -c Source Debugger -c One year of updates < CP/M-86 Library -c Manx offers two commercial development systems, Aztec C86-c and Aztec C86-d. Items marked -c are special features of the Aztec C86-c system. Aztec C86-C Commercial System $499 Aztec C86-d Developer's System $299 Aztec C86-p Personal System $199 Aztec C86-a Apprentice System $49 All systems are upgradable by paying the difference in price plus $10. Third Party Software: There are a number of high qual- ity support packages for Manx Aztec C86 for screen management, graphics, database management, and soft- ware development. C-tree $395 Greenleaf $185 PHACT $250 PC-lint $98 HALO $250 Amber Windows $59 PRE-C $395 Windows for C $195 Windscreen $149 FirsTime $295 SunScreen $99 C Util Lib $185 PANEL $295 Plink-86 $395 MACINTOSH, AMIGA, XENIX, CP/M-68K, 68k ROM Manx Aztec C68k "Library handling is very flexible . . . documentation is excellent ...the shell a pleasure to work in ... blows away the competition for pure compile speed ...an ex- cellent effort." Computer Language review, April 1985 Aztec C68k is the most widely used commercial C com- piler for the Macintosh. Its quality, performance, and completeness place Manx Aztec C68k in a position be- yond comparison. It is available in several upgradable Optimized C Macro Assembler Overlay Linker Resource Compiler Debuggers Librarian Source Editor MacRam Disk -c Library Source -c Creates Clickable Applications Mouse Enhanced SHELL Easy Access to Mac Toolbox UNIX Library Functions Terminal Emulator (Source) Clear Detailed Documentation C-Stuff Library UniTools (vi,make,diff,grep) -c One Year of Updates -c Items marked -c are available only in the Manx Aztec C86-C system. Other features are in both the Aztec C86-d and Aztec C86-C systems. Aztec C68k-c Commercial System $499 Aztec C68d-d Developer's System $299 Aztec C68k-p Personal System $199 C-tree database (source) $399 AMIGA, CP/M-68k, 68k UNK call Apple H, Commodore, 65xx, 65C02 ROM Manx Aztec C65 "The AZTEC C system is one of the finest software packages I have seen" NIBBLE review, July 1984 A vast amount of business, consumer, and educational software is implemented in Manx Aztec C65. The quality and comprehensiveness of this system is competitive with 16 bit C systems. The system includes a full optim- ized C compiler, 6502 assembler, linkage editor, UNIX library, screen and graphics libraries, shell, and much more. The Apple II version runs under DOS 3.3, and ProDOS, Cross versions are available The Aztec C65-c/128 Commodore system runs under the C128 CP/M environment and generates programs for the C64, C128, and CP/M environments. Call for prices and availability of Apprentice, Personal and Developer versions for the Commodore 64 and 128 machines. Aztec C65-C ProDOS & DOS 3.3 $399 Aztec C65-d Apple DOS 3.3 $199 Aztec C65-p Apple Personal system $99 Aztec C65-a for learning C $49 Aztec C65-C/128 C64, C128, CP/M $399 Distribution of Manx Aztec C In the USA, Manx Software Systems is the sole and ex- clusive distributor of Aztec C. Any telephone or mail order sales other than through Manx are unauthorized. Manx Cross Development Systems Cross developed programs are edited, compiled, assem- bled, and linked on one machine (the HOST) and trans- ferred to another machine (the TARGET) for execution. This method is useful where the target machine is slower or more limited than the HOST, Manx cross compilers are used heavily to develop software for business, consumer, scientific, industrial, research, and education- al applications. HOSTS: VAX UNIX ($3000), PDP-11 UNIX ($2000), MS- DOS ($750), CP/M ($750), MACINTOSH ($750), CP/M-68k ($750), XENIX ($750). TARGETS: MS-DOS, CP/M-86, Macintosh, CP/M-68k, CP/M-80, TRS-80 3 & 4, Apple II, Commodore C64, 8086/80x86 ROM, 68xxx ROM, 8080/8085/Z80 ROM, 65xx ROM. The first TARGET is included in the price of the HOST system. Additional TARGETS are $300 to $500 (non VAX) or $1000 (VAX). Call Manx for information on cross development to the 68000, 65816, Amiga, C128, CP/M-68K, VRTX, and others. CP/M, Radio Shack, 8080/8085/Z80 ROM Manx Aztec CII "I've had a lot of experience with different C compilers, but the Aztec C80 Compiler and Professional Develop- ment System is the best I've seen." 80-Micro, December, 1984, John B. Harrell III Aztec CH-c (CP/M & ROM) $349 Aztec Cll-d (CP/M) $199 C-tree database (source) $399 Aztec C80-C (TRS-80 3 & 4) $299 Aztec C80-d (TRS-80 3 & 4) $199 How To Become an Aztec C User To become an Aztec C user call 1-800-221-0440 or call 1-800-832-9273 (800-TEC WARE). In NJ or outside the USA call 201-530-7997. Orders can also be telexed to 4995812. Payment can be by check, COD, American Express, VISA, Master Card, or Net 30 to qualified customers. Orders can also be mailed to Manx Software Systems, Box 55, Shrewsbury, NJ 07701. How To Get More Information Tb get more information on Manx Aztec C and related products, call 1-800-221-0440, or 201-530-7997, or write to Manx Software Systems. 30 Day Guarantee Any Manx Aztec C development system can be return- ed within 30 days for a refund if it fails to meet your needs. The only restrictions are that the original pur- chase must be directly from Manx, shipped within the USA, and the package must be in resalable condition. Returned items must be received by Manx within 30 days. A small restocking fee may be required. Discounts There are special discounts available to professors, students, and consultants. A discount is also available on a "trade in" basis for users of competing systems. Call for information. Inquiry 219 To order or for information call: 800-221-0440 LETTERS 3068 systems is designed so that even in the event of a major hardware failure, the Serial Input/Output controller (SIO PCB) is able to report status messages through a modem to the remote service center. These systems are designed so that the self-tests begin from the edge of the system (SCI PCB) and not the center (CPU). This is crucially important if the diagnos- tics are to function without being crippled by a failure. If, for example, a severe hardware failure occurs in which the CPU PCB has failed, a diagnostic based on testing from the center (CPU) out will not respond. But a remote diagnostic scheme in which the tests begin at the edge (SIO) and move in- ward to the CPU will isolate the problem. The technician can download a wide vari- ety of CPU diagnostics through the SIO PCB to isolate the failing component. From error messages the service center technician can devise a troubleshooting strategy. Once the CPU PCB is identified as the culprit, a new CPU can be quickly sent to the site. In the 2086 and the 3068, each of the key PCBs, the SIO PCB, CPU PCB, and file processor PCB, has its own independent firmware, microprocessor, and local RAM. After power-up, the Intel 8086 on the SIO PCB becomes the diagnostic controller, which is not dependent on the CPU or any other subsystem in order to execute remote diagnostics. The minimum hard- ware necessary for the SIO to become the diagnostic controller and start verifying the diagnostic kernel after power-up is the following: The SlO's 8086 must be able to retrieve the test program from the SlO's PROMs and store the data in the SIOs local RAMs. Only two of the ten SIO ports (one SCC integrated circuit) need to func- tion for the SIO to be able to report status messages. Even if the hardware necessary for the minimum diagnostic kernel fails, all is not lost. The necessary hardware for the diag- nostic kernel resides on every SIO PCB. On the Altos 2086 system, there are two SIO PCBs (a master and slave). Diagnostics run from the master SIO board. So, if the failed unit does not respond to the downloaded code from the service center computer, this indicates to the service center techni- cian that the master SIO has failed. Now, the slave SIO can be repinned as the master SIO. Remote diagnostics can then be up and running again. This is not a complete solution to the diagnostic dilemma that calls for failing hardware to troubleshoot itself. If the power supply of the system fails, or if the system is swallowed up by an earthquake, any remote diagnostic scheme will not work. But fortunately, most hardware failures are not catastrophic, and there is usually enough working hardware to iden- tify the failing area. A remote diagnostic scheme designed into a system architec- ture of independent PCBs that self-test from the edge to the center provides the best of all possible opportunities to fix failures in the field. Carl Strasen San Jose, CA Call for Papers Collegiate Microcomputer, a journal begun in February 1983, is a forum for the ex- Icon tinued) DRIVE ENCLOSURES fif>K V fc* FLOPPY-WI N CH ESTER-TAPE FROM *80°° (Includes Power Supply) 3915 $199 2915 $165 Write or call (or our brochure which Includes our application note: "Making micros, better than any ol' box computer" • Desktop & Rack • Heavy Duty All Metal Cabinet • Fan & Dust Filter* • Hefty Power Supplies • Full or Slim Drives • Power Harness From Supply To Drives • Line Fuse, EMI Filter*, Detachable Line Cord • Cabinets & Supplies Available Separately ' = Most Models (Disk drives not included) BIlfflQIBIti RESEARCH CORPORATION 8620 Roosevelt Ave./Visalia, CA 93291 209/651-1203 32 Page Free Fakt Pakt Catalog 26 BYTE • MARCH 1986 Inquiry 1 71 Clipper gives dBASE 'III users more time to do more. Clipper™ allows you to run all dBASE III™ programs 2 to 20 times taster than they do with the standard dBASE interpreter. That frees up extra time you're wasting it you're running dBASE III programs without Clipper. Extra time to think. To create. To produce. To use as you choose. You see, Clipper is the tirst true compiler for dBASE III. Clipper eliminates the time- consuming translation which the dBASE inter- preter performs line after line whenever a program is run. With Clipper, once you've debugged your source code, it's com- piled into more effi- cient machine code. And Clipper com- piles all your dBASE III programs. The ones you have today. The ones you'll have tomorrow. But don't wait until tomorrow to order Clipper. Today, Clipper has already been pur- chased to speed up dBASE run time at 3M and Touche Ross. At Exxon and NASA. In the Harvard Physics Department. For the State of Arizona and TRW. And that's just a few of the installations worldwide. From Greece to Venezuela to Canada to Europe. So stop wasting time. Call our toll-free 800 number and get Clipper. You'll spend less time running dBASE III and more time running the rest of your life. m Nantucket Inquiry 247 for End-Users. Inquiry 248 for DEALERS ONLY. 5995 S. Sepulveda Blvd., Culver City, CA 90230 (800)251-8438 In California (213)390-7923 When you positively custom % Tf! ■ 1 !8k- •1 H :.l| i, -u; SFS' : " -^ f» " .,»■-■ *j •ft Si IS ■«*' la [il liTTl PI •VI: : 1" 1 1 11 Reliability is your obvious first requirement in this vital link between your product and the outside world. At Ven-Tel -with 12 years experience and millions of modems designed and shipped-we don't take reliability for granted ...so you can. _i i i i i i i_ J i>1 raO pi j±- r Compatibility QuickTurnaround with industry standards. All Ven-Tel modems utilize the industry stan- dard "AT" command set, guaran- teeing compatibility with virtually all types of software. And every Ven-Tel custom modem is fully compatible with our complete line of standard desktop and PC internal modems. We also meet Bell 21 2A and CCITT V22bis standards in speeds up to 2400 baud. is more than a phrase to us. We've built a reputation for meeting prod- uct deadlines among some of the nation's largest and most demand- ing manufacturers. From start to finish in as little as 90 days, Ven-Tel can help you get your product to market quickly. You can even begin development using our standard modules while your design is being finalized. take a good absolutely, need reliable modems... Customizing your modem is your choice. From our standard off-the-shelf boards, to complete custom design, to licens- ing our proprietary CMOS chip design (for quantities in excess of 100,000 annually), we guarantee the right modem solution based on your deadline, design and volume requirements. Custom hardware configurations and firmware give you maximum freedom for inte- grating the modem into your overall product design. SSS3! k»f- J.TP D _. 17 t fi ■ i * («v Compact Size is an important requirement in applications like credit check ter- minals, portable computers and trouble monitors. Ven-Tel modem density is state-of-the-art to provide excellent "real estate" value, with complete auto-dial/auto-answer, AT compatible, 212Amodems- in as little as 12 square inches. With power requirements as low as 500mW. Competitive Pricing makes the Ven-Tel custom modem package one definitely worth looking into. For quotations based on your modem specs or a discussion with our experienced OEM sales engi- neers, call 800/538-5121 (outside California). In California, call 408/727-5721. Or contact us for our custom modem brochure: Ven-Tel, OEM Products Division, 2342 Walsh Avenue, Santa Clara, CA 95051. Inquiry 365 look at Venle! Inquiry 385 TM BOXCALC Not Another Spreadsheet! Not Another Word Processor! No - BOXCALC is a new kind of calculation program that allows easy combination of figures with text. Instead of fighting pre-determined rows and columns, just type text and place calculation "boxes" anywhere on your screen at the press of a function key. This makes BOXCALC just what you need for creating cost estimates and budget reports. Even income tax forms. Any documents that used text mixed in with the figures. •Create up to 800 calculation boxes for each BOXCALC file. • Relocate boxes on screen under cursor control. Or move whole columns of boxes. • BOXCALC is page oriented - files may contain up to 99 pages. • Print any page or combination of pages (send printer control codes, too). • Put simple or complex formula in a box to establish it's mathematical relationship to other boxes. •Calculate boxes sequentially or in any order you specify. •Get data from other BOXCALC files. • Full replication features for fast, easy creation of box formulas. •Supplied with no copy protection. Along with 4 sample files and a comprehensive instruction manual, BOXCALC is available for $40.00. Or, to observe BOXCALC in action, a demonstration disk and manual can be purchased for $5.00. To order BOXCALC or the demonstration kit, send your name, address, and check to: Cotton Software, Inc., 2510 Anderson Rd., Suite #364, Covington, Ky. 41017. (VISA/MC # accepted for BOXCALC only - include expiration date) Requires PC, XT or AT, color monitor, PC DOS 2.0 or higher and 256K RAM. BOXCALC is a trademark of Cotton Software, Inc. 1 -606-727-1 600. LETTERS change of ideas on the role of the micro- computer in all subjects and areas of col- lege and university life. Material appear- ing includes uses of hardware and soft- ware, descriptions of courses, units and topics using microcomputers, results of research using microcomputers, analysis of experiments using microcomputers, stu- dent projects, suggestions and tips, write- ups of experiences as microcomputer consultants, reviews of the literature, and evaluation of microcomputer use in the of- fice and in materials preparation for teaching and research. Subscription rates are $28 per year and $36 per year for non- U.S. subscriptions. Brian J. Winkel, Editor Collegiate Microcomputer Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology Terre Haute, IN 47803 Making RS-232C Connections Universal I'm afraid that the scheme proposed by Pete Klammer (Letters, October 1985, page 22) to make RS-232C connections universal will not work. To see why, let us ignore the control lines in an RS-232C setup and concentrate our attention on the two data lines, which serve as the simplest example that will demonstrate the phenomena involved. The RS-232C standard states that the female connector shall be associated with data communications equipment (DCE); transmitted data will be on pin 2 and received data will be on pin 3. Similarly, the male connector shall be associated with data terminal equipment (DTE). Transmitted data will still be on pin 2 and received data on pin 3. From the point of view of the DTE, it sends data to the DCE on pin 2 and receives data from the DCE on pin 3. The DCE sends data to the DTE on pin 3 and receives data from the DTE on pin 2. This standard allows any data terminal equip- ment to be connected to any data com- munications equipment directly, maintain- ing compatibility of connections. However, if all equipment were to be considered similar, and hermaphroditic connectors were used, a problem would arise. The problem would be that all units (according to Mr. Klammer's scheme) would use the same pin for a given func- tion (let's say pin 2 to send data and pin 3 to receive). Now we could not connect any two pieces of equipment together directly, since each unit's transmit line would be connected to the other unit's transmit line, rather than to its receive line. (continued) 30 BYTE • MARCH 1986 Inquiry 102 PC Paintbrush. Because life is loo short tor monochrome pie charts. Fun is the best thing to have. With PC Paintbrush, you can add color, flair, dimension and creativity to a chart, a pre- sentation, or an otherwise dull day From charts and graphs to serious computer art, our newest generation 3.0 PC Paintbrush will cheer you on with features no other graphics package can match. Best of all, if s easy to use. You don't have to learn up to sixty commands, like you do with some products. If you can understand icons as simple as scissors, paintbrush, spray can and paint roller, you're ready to start using PC Paintbrush. The pen is mightier than the keyboard. None of history's great artists drew with a keyboard, and you shouldn't have to either. So PC Paintbrush is now available with a Summasketch MM™ Series drawing tablet, to give you complete freedom of expression. Of course, it also supports regular mice, joy- sticks, graphics tablets, and is compatible with most graphics cards. PC Paintbrush also has a beautiful way with words. The text icon lets you write in any of eleven fonts, in nine sizes, with italics, outline, shadow and boldface variations. What's more, with the new 3.0 PC Paintbrush, you can draw rounded boxes, rubber band curves and circles, and edit pictures many times larger than the screen. Are we making fun of 1-2-3®? Why not? For Lotus™ users, PC Paintbrush's new PIC Go on, live a little. &m IT Highway flir interpreter loads 1-2-3™ and Symphony™ charts and graphs at your equipment's best resolution, from an IBM EGA™ (640 X 350 X 16 colors) to a Number Nine Revolution™ (512 X 512 X 256 colors). With our FRIEZE™ frame grabber you can pull graphics created by any program right off the screen into PC Paintbrush. So you can take your Paintbrush and pallette anywhere, improving the looks of things as you go. And having a lot of fun on the way. In addition, our optional slide show package, PC PRESENTATION, allows you to program your graphics into a first class presentation with fades, zooms, quick cuts and animation. PC Paintbrush supports 19 video graphics cards and 30 printers and plotters. For more information on PC Paintbrush, call or write us at the address below, or ask your computer dealer for a demonstration. Z-SOFT PC Paintbrush Inquiry 380 Corporate Headquarters: ZSoft Corporation, 1950 Spectrum Circle, Suite A 495, Marietta, GA 30067, 404/980-1950 West Coast Sales Office: 160 Sir Francis Drake Blvd., San Anselmo, CA 94960, 415/456-0955 PC Paintbrush is a trademark of ZSoft Corporation. Lotus, 1-2-3, and Symphony are registered trademarks of Lotus Development Corporation. IBM and Enhance Graphics Adapter are registered Irademdrks of International Business Machines, Corp. Number Nine Revolution is a trademark of Number Nine Computer Corp. Summasketch is a registered trademark of Summagraphics Corp. MARCH 1986 -BYTE 31 LETTERS At the very least, a crossover connector would have to be used in all cases. Furthermore, the use of such crossover connectors creates another, even more subtle, problem. Suppose an extension cable is needed. Since all units require crossovers and all connectors are the same, in practice all cables will contain crossovers. Then, adding an extension cable to an already existing cable will result in two crossovers, which bring the same (rather than the complementary) functions together again (i.e., transmit is again connected to transmit). The fact that all cables have identical connectors at both ends would make it impossible to distinquish a straight-through extension cable from a "normal" crossover cable without making continuity checks. With the current scheme, crossover Why buy 3 packages to get a complete multi-user dBASE* System? $695 $2385 After all, FoxBASE is a compiler, an interpreter and a multi-user dBASE sys- tem all in one. That means single vendor support and no problems with product incompatibility. Not only that, FoxBASE actually outper- forms dBASE and other dBASE compiler products: its program execution speed is far superior to the competition and its compiler runs up to 60 times faster than other compilers. And FoxBASE is available FoxBASE does it better. For less. $995 for the widest variety of machines and operating systems. In addition, FoxBASE is interactive and 100% dBASE compatible (including full macro usage). The only thing you won't get is all those annoying dBASE bugs! Best of all, FoxBASE costs less than half the other packages. So call (419) 874-0162 now, and ask for a copy of our comparative analysis (including benchmarks). After all. . . Nothing Runs Like a Fox. Fox Software, Inc. 27475 Holiday Lane, Perrysburg, OH 43551 (419) 874-0162 •dBase is a registered itademark of Ashton-Tats FoxBASE is a trademark of Fox Software, trie; Clipper" is a trademark of Nantucket cables are required only when both ends have the same kind of connector (male or female); a cable with a male connector at one end and a female at the other is a straight-through extension cable. I agree with Mr. Klammer that the cur- rent standard is not perfect; nevertheless, after considering the alternative I have come to the conclusion that it seems to be the best compromise among many conflicting factors. Howard Mark Suffern, NY Comparing the Motorola 68000 and Intel iAPX86 It was intriguing to note the comparison G. Michael Vose made of the Motorola 68000 and Intel iAPX86 families ("Intel and Future IBM PCs," inside the IBM PCs. Fall 1985, page 4). I agree with his first and second conclusions, especially that the "open, flexible architectures" of the M68000 family leaves more room for "in- novations in software" on the part of pro- grammers, and that such innovations do indeed "keep our industry vital." It seems to me that Mr. Vose glossed over one aspect of the comparison that, 1 feel, should have influenced his third conclusion. The "rigid and formal" architectures of the iAPX86 that realize more fixed solu- tions in hardware also produce more stan- dardization. While standardization may seem like a restraint to the inventive pro- grammer, it is a boon to the commercial software producer, who must create pro- grams that run on many machines. I think that software standardization should be the overwhelming considera- tion in Mr. Vose's third conclusion about which family will dominate the "classic single-user microcomputer." It is the iAPX86 family that will likely continue to support the vast majority of standard end- user programs that "we all want on our desk or at home to play and tinker with." Of course, that conclusion may depend on who you consider "we all." If the em- phasis is on "we," i.e., computer profes- sionals like the editors and contributors of BYTE, then the flexibility of the 68000 might be decisive. However, if the emphasis is on "all," don't forget that the vast majority of single users are not programmers but commercial program end users. I think this point is often forgot- ten amidst the professional enthusiasm at BYTE. William S. Johnson Palo Alto, CA [continued on page 360] 32 BYTE • MARCH 1986 Inquiry 137 Microsoft languages speak for themselves* %?«?& P **^ ,€ **H&* Mta**** 1 *^ crosoft Pascal Microsoft C First with the pros* "Microsoft C is the cornerstone of all our future development projects. Not only is the code more efficient, we can really exploit the PC's architecture with Microsoft Cs NEAR and FAR pointer types" Ray Ozzie, President of IRIS Associates and key Symphony developer. "The code optimization is impressive— especially the register declarations'.' Jim Bean, Peachtree Software. When you need code that's small and fast, Microsoft® C is the language. Our optimizing compiler lets you squeeze the maximum out of your machine with minimum effort. Tighter code runs faster. And virtually every program will run faster with Microsoft's C Compiler than with any other MS-DOS compiler. Our advanced memory models give you unmatched flexibility. No arbitrary limits on code and data. Use large or small memory models as the application demands. Exclusive features like our NEAR and FAR pointers let you com- bine different models without sacrificing performance. Our extensive math libraries are another plus. The floating point package supports 8087 operation when speed is the key. There's also floating point emulation for unendowed PCs. And the altmath package gives you an extra burst of speed when you really need it. A bundle of other features can save you programming time. There's inter-language calling support. So you can use existing library routines. Unsurpassed XENIX compatibility. And docu- mentation that reviewers have praised for its clarity and thoroughness. If Microsoft C amazes you, don't be surprised. After all, our C is the choice of the leaders. Companies like Lotus: Ashton-Tate. And IBM? Microsoft C Compiler Version 3.0 for MS-DOS Microsoft C Compiler ♦ Produces compact code and fast executable*. ♦ Implements register variables. ♦ Small, medium and large memory model libraries. ♦Can mix models with NEAR and FAR pointers. ♦Transport source and object code between MS-DOS and XENIX 286 operating systems. ♦ Library routines implement most of UNIX™ System V C library. ♦Choose from three math libraries and generate in-line 8087/80287 instructions or floating point calls: -Floating Point Emulator (utilizes 8087/80287 if installed). — 8087/80287 coprocessor support. — Alternate math package provides extra speed without an 8087/80287. ♦ Link your C routines with Microsoft FORTRAN (version 3.3 or higher), Microsoft Pascal (version 3.3 or higher) or Microsoft Macro Assembler. ♦ Supports MS-DOS pathnames and input/output redirection. ♦File sharing, record locking and file locking are supported. ♦ Do source level debugging with the Symbolic Debug Utility, available separately with Microsoft Macro Assembler. Library Manager ♦Create, organize and maintain your object module libraries created with Microsoft languages. Object Code Linker ♦ Simple overlay linker combines relocatable object modules created using Microsoft languages into a single program. ♦ Link very large programs (over 1 megabyte) using overlays. Microsoft EXE File Compression Utility ♦A new utility to compress sequences of identical characters from an executable file and optimizes the relocation table. Microsoft EXE File Header Utility ♦ Display and modify EXE file header, allowing you to tune the stack size and initial memory allocation. Macro Assembler The quickest* Bar none* Our Macro Assembler has long been the most complete package on the mar- ket. Now it's also the fastest. Three times faster than before. And faster than any- one else. Period. Of course, it's still the most powerful assembler on the market. It supports the standard 8086/8087 opcodes. And the new 186/286/287 instruction set. So you can make the most of the new machines. Debugging is quicker, too. Thanks to our interactive symbolic debugger, SYMDEB. Now you can refer to variables and source code instead of getting lost in hex dumps. And this debugger also works with Microsoft languages like C, FORTRAN and Pascal. So now you can set breakpoints and trace execution— using source code for reference. SYMDEB is just part of our complete set of utilities. Tools that make program- ming as fast as it should be. There are the linker and library managers you'd expect. Plus a new version of MAKE, our main- tenance utility, with improvements like macro expansions and inference rules. We've also revised the manuals. Our new Macro Assembler has a lot to offer, so we added more examples. Now our manuals are not only thorough, they're clearer than ever before. For quick development and assembly, the choice is obvious. Microsoft. There's nobody faster. The Macro Assembler's symbolic debugger lets you debug Microsoft FORTRAN programs at either the source or object code level. Set break points, observe the con- tents of variables and expressions, and examine the contents of the stack. ; 90 18 I = 1,8191 18 FLAGS(I) = .TRUE. ! DO 91 I=L8191 ; IFCHOT. FLAGS(I). P8IHE =1 + 1 + 1 : 289 POMATUMS) 17: K = I + P8IHE -1* .14 V 3: PMffi = I ♦ I ♦ 1 1AEF:88S9 A16240 1AEF:§86C 83C8 ADD 1AEF:886E 48 INC \w-.mi mm mu 16: COUNT = count + 1 1AEF:8872 FF86G848 INC 17: mmmm K 3 I + PRIME "1 <1) ". E| COUNT = COUNT + 1 Microsoft Macro Assembler Version 4.0 for MS-DOS Macro Assembler ♦ Fastest macro assembler for MS-DOS computers. ♦Supports the 8086/8087/8088 and the 186/286/287. ♦ Define macros. ♦ Conditional assembly. ♦ Optional case sensitivity for symbols. ♦ 100% upward compatibility from earlier versions of both the Microsoft and IBM Macro Assemblers. Interactive Symbolic Debug Utility ♦ Source level debugger for programs written in Microsoft Macro Assembler, C Compiler, FORTRAN, and Pascal. ♦ Screen swapping helps debug highly visual applications. ♦ Set breakpoints on line numbers and symbols. ♦ Single step to follow program execution. ♦ Disassemble object code. ♦ Display and modify values. ♦ Full I/O redirection. Program Maintenance Utility ♦ Rebuilds your applications after your source files have changed. ♦Similar to UNIX MAKE utility. ♦Supports macro definitions and inference rules. Library Manager ♦Create, organize and maintain your object module libraries created with Microsoft languages. ♦ Set page size from 16 to 32678, to create compact and granular libraries. Object Code Linker ♦ Simple overlaying linker combines relocatable object modules created using Microsoft languages into a single program. ♦ Load Map generation. ♦ Specify from 1 to 1024 segments. Cross-Reference Utility ♦ Creates a cross-reference listing of the definitions and locations of all symbols used in an assembly language program, which makes debugging programs easier. Microsoft EXE File Compression Utility ♦ Packs EXE files for smaller size on disk and faster loading at execution time. Microsoft EXE File Header Utility ♦ Display and modify EXE file header, allowing you to tune the stack size and initial memory allocation. FORTRAN The overwhelming favorite. View the FORTRAN source code. Set a break point at line #14- Run the program (g) and use the expression evaluator (?) to examine the contents of a vari- able. Then use the trace command (t) to observe the program flow. Microsoft FORTRAN Compiler Version 3 3 for MS-DOS and XENIX 286 Microsoft FORTRAN Compiler ♦ Implements most ANSI 77 standard features, plus extensions. ♦Easily port mainframe/minicomputer programs with little or no modification. ♦ Overlay support in the compiler and linker. ♦ Common blocks and arrays greater than 64K. ♦ Supported by the largest number of third party libraries. ♦ Includes a full set of math libraries to select from: -8087/80287 emulation. — 8087/80287 coprocessor support. -Floating Point without 8087/80287 — BCD Floating Point. ♦ Conditional compilation. ♦ Link your FORTRAN routines with Microsoft C Compiler (version 3.0 or higher), Microsoft Pascal (version 3.3 or higher), and Microsoft Macro Assembler. ♦MS-DOS 3.1 network support and IBM local area network support. ♦ Source code compatible between MS-DOS and XENIX 286. ♦ Do source level debugging with the Symbolic Debug Utility, available separately with Microsoft Macro Assembler. Object Code Overlay ♦ Simple overlay linker combines relocatable object modules created using Microsoft languages into a single program. ♦ Link very large programs (over 1 megabyte) using overlays. Library Manager ♦ Create, organize and maintain your object module libraries created with Microsoft languages. Microsoft EXE File Compression Utility (MS-DOS only) ♦ A utility to pack EXE files for smaller size on disk and faster loading at execution time. Microsoft EXE File Header Utility (MS-DOS only) ♦ A utility that allows you to display and modify the fields in EXE file headers. How did Microsoft FORTRAN get so popular? It could be the mainframe compati- bility. Our compiler makes porting applications a cinch with overlays and the ANSI features you need. It could be our support for arrays and COMMON blocks larger than 64K. So you can tackle mainframe-size problems. It might be the shelves and shelves of third party support libraries. No other FORTRAN comes close. It could be the extensive math sup- port. Our collection of math libraries is simply the largest available. Tackle real problems with direct 8087 support or emulation. Use IEEE floating point or— for extra speed— the altmath package. It could be the comprehensive set of utilities. A powerful linker and library manager combination. Plus tools like EXEMOD and EXEPACK. Standard. It could be the XENIX and MS-DOS source-level compatibility. Or the direct interlanguage calling to Microsoft C, Pascal, and Assembler. Or the ability to work with our Macro Assembler's symbolic debugger. It could be the value. Nobody offers a FORTRAN package this complete at this low a price. Why is Microsoft FORTRAN the most popular FORTRAN? All the above. COBOL The interactive edge. close transaction-file. pliB-read-and-pwcess. read transaction-file into work- 1 ran s-rec at end none on-ualue to end-of-file-SM, if transaction-status = " else if transaction-status ) "II mue on-value to enw-sti, end-of-file-SH. IRANSACIIOtHIAIUS [011 MORK-TMNS-REC [0 a [iTOTftL-RECORIKOlJOT [B80091 Breakpoint 1 Step Count Breakpoint 2 Step Count on Entry of MW-MfiMh>WOCESS on line nuMber 86 COMMAND: Breakpoint Display Find ffl Help Options Quit transfer user Uiea Hindou Breakpoint 1 Step Count 8 on Entry of PI10-REAHHD-PROCKS Current line: 81 Status: Breakpoint 1 UiewCob: lates Microsoft COBOL gives programs a new look. With dazzling support for inter- active programs, and more. Our new COBOL Compiler brings applications to life in several ways. Our extended screen section lets you create programs that you'd never thought could be written in COBOL. Quickly, easily. Performance is top notch as well. Our ISAM lets your applications blaze through files. After all, our ISAM is the fastest on the micro market. Of course, Microsoft COBOL complies with the ANSI standard. Amazing performance, without runtime license fees. No wonder our COBOL is the choice of manufacturers like IBM, AT&T, DEC, HP and Wang. Another breakthrough: Microsoft COBOL Tools. Only Microsoft makes debugging this easy. Our COBOL Tools is the perfect companion to our COBOL Compiler. A complete set of utilities. Tools that make debugging and maintenance easier than you'd thought possible. The star of the show is ViewCOB, our advanced interactive debugger. ViewCOB lets you control and examine programs easily. Open windows on variables and procedures while watching the source code execute. ViewCOB is simply the most advanced COBOL debugger you can get. Microsoft COBOL and COBOL Tools. An unbeatable team. Microsoft COBOL Compiler Version 2.1 for MS-DOS and XENIX 286 Interactive extended screen section ♦Cursor positioning, auto skip, and automatic data field formatting. ♦ ACCEPT or DISPLAY a screenful of data with a single statement. Fast multi-key ISAM ♦ Split keys, alternate keys, duplicate keys. 4 Benchmark results of 2500 reads, writes and rewrites to an ISAM file. Microsoft Micro Focus Ryand McFarland COBOL native code COBOL 2.0 Seconds 846 4073 1177 Source code compatible between MS-DOS and XENLX 286. Microsoft COBOL Tools for MS-DOS and XENLX 286 •Cross reference utility speeds program development. ♦ Menu generator allows you to use Microsoft Word style menus in your program. ♦ Mouse interface allows you to create programs that use the mouse (MS-DOS only). Advanced interactive debugger ♦ Use trace, single step, and execution history to follow the program flow. ♦Observe the contents of variables and memory while the program is executing. ♦ Set breakpoints and change the contents of variables. ♦Trap fatal runtime errors. ♦ Use the menu driven windowing user interface with on-line help. Pascal When you've outgrown the others. Only Microsoft Pascal is powerful enough to push the outer limits of your PC. With more features than any other Pascal compiler. Microsoft Pascal handles large programs with ease. No 64K boundaries — use multiple code and data segments up to a megabyte. Create your own libraries of pre-compiled Pascal modules. Separately-compiled modules can be overlayed or linked together into one file. Our Pascal comes complete with the BCD and 8087 math libraries you'd ex- pect. Including an IEEE floating point emulator. And Microsoft Pascal is com- pletely compatible with IBM's Local Area Network and MS-DOS Networking. Added features without added costs. Microsoft Pascal also supports direct interlanguage calling to modules written in Microsoft C, or Microsoft FORTRAN or assembly language. And it's compat- ible with our Macro Assembler's sym- bolic debugger. So you can track down those subtle logic errors with breakpoints instead of guesswork. Microsoft Pascal. Nobody does it better. Microsoft Pascal Compiler Version 3.3 for MS-DOS and XENIX 286 Microsoft Pascal Compiler ♦ Separate module compilation. ♦Large program support; up to 1 megabyte code and multiple data segments. ♦Overlay support. ♦Contains four math libraries to choose from: —8087/80287 coprocessor support. — Fast IEEE floating point. — 8087/80287 floating point emulation. — BCD decimal math. ♦ Link in your routines or third party software routines written in Microsoft FORTRAN (version 3.3 or higher), Microsoft C Compiler (version 3.0 or higher) or Microsoft Pascal (version 3.3 or higher), or Microsoft Macro Assembler. ♦Source code compatible between MS-DOS and XENIX 286. ♦Supports file sharing and record and file locking. ♦Supports MS-DOS pathnames and input/output redirection. ♦Do source level debugging with the Symbolic Debug Utility, available with the Microsoft Macro Assembler. Library Manager ♦Create, organize and maintain object module libraries created with Microsoft languages. Object Code Linker ♦ Simple overlay linker combines relocatable object modules created using Microsoft languages into a single program. ♦Link very large programs (over 1 megabyte) using overlays. Microsoft EXE File Compression and File Header Utility (MS-DOS only) ♦ Compress, modify and examine executable files and their headers. Microsoft QuickBASIC BASIC just got faster. Microsoft's new QuickBASIC Com- piler gives your programs an extra burst of speed. Without sacrificing BASICA compatibility. Your compiled programs will run just like before, only faster. Three to ten times faster. With little or no modification. QuickBASIC makes structured pro- gramming a snap. New extensions like alphanumeric labels make program- ming easier too. And separately com- piled subprograms let you test and compile individual routines one at a time. Microsoft QuickBASIC. All the features of a compiler, with BASICA compatibility to boot. Microsoft QuickBASIC Compiler Version 1.0 for IBM PC and Compatible Computers BASICA compatibility ♦ Sound statements including SOUND and PLAY ♦ Graphics statements including WINDOW VIEW DRAW GET, PUT, LINE, CIRCLE, LOCATE and SCREEN. Results of the Sieve benchmark BASICA QuickBASIC seconds per iteration 71 0.5 Structured programming support ♦ Subprograms can be called by name and passed parameters. Both local and global variables are supported. ♦ Multi-line functions can be called by name and return a value. ♦ BASICA structures are supported including WHILE/ WEND, IF/THEN/ELSE, FOR/NEXT, GOSUB/RETURN, and event handling. Alphanumeric labels ♦ Can be used to make your programs more readable. Line numbers are not required but are supported for BASICA compatibility. Modular programming support ♦ Separate compilation allows you to create compiled BASIC libraries to use and reuse in your programs. ♦Named common gives you control of data flow between individual modules. Large program support ♦ Code can use up to available memory. ♦ Data can use up to 64K RAM. LISP The language of Artificial Intelligence. What's Microsoft LISP got going for you? It runs significantly faster than the competition. And this new version adds several advanced libraries. Over 400 Common LISP functions, macros and special forms. Most implemented in machine code. If you're putting AI on your PC, Microsoft LISP is your language. muMATH Mainframe math on your PC. From solving equations to high preci- sion calculations, muMATH is the ticket. Microsoft muMATH handles tasks from algebra to calculus and vector analysis. Now your PC can do numeric analysis based on symbolic expressions. And give you exact answers. If you crunch numbers— or equa- tions— muMATH is just what the CPU ordered. Sort Versatility without compromise. Microsoft Sort makes fast sorting easy. A powerful, programmable interpreter lets you choose ASCII, EBCDIC or cus- tom sequences. Sort handles files from any Microsoft language. Without limiting the size of your file, the number of search keys, or your record length. Microsoft Sort. The speed and power you need. Easily. The leadership edge* No other languages are backed by as massive a collection of third-party soft- ware. Here are just a few of the companies that speak our languages: Blaise Computing, Graphic Software Systems, Greenleaf Software, Inc., IMSL, Media Cybernetics, Microrim, Numerical Analyst Group, Phoenix Software, Solution Systems, Spruce Technology, Trio Systems, and Virtual Microsystems. This is just a sample. For a complete list, call Microsoft at the number below. An added value for our readers. We're proud of the way our family works together, so we're offering a $25 rebate on our Macro Assembler when you purchase Microsoft C, Pascal or FORTRAN.* For more details, upgrade informa- tion or the name of your nearest Microsoft dealer, call toll free (800) 426-9400. In Washington State and Alaska, call (206) 828-8088. In Canada, (800) 387-6616. Microsoft Corporation Bellevue, Washington USA Microsoft Ltd. Reading ENGLAND Microsoft GmbH Miinchen DEUTSCHLAND Microsoft SARL Paris FRANCE Microsoft Canada Inc. Toronto CANADA QN1X Microsoft Seoul KOREA Microsoft AB Stockholm SWEDEN Microsoft Far East Tokyo JAPAN Microsoft Pry Sydney NSW AUSTRALIA Microsoft SpA Milano ITALIA 'Rebate offer valid only in the United States. Microsoft, MS-DOS. and XENIX are registered trademarks and The High Perfc Software is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation. Microsoft Lisp and muMATH developed by Soft Warehouse. Inc. Microsoft Languages The High Performance Software™ 0286 Pnrt Number 098-400-20] FIXES AND UPDATES UPDATES BYTES BITS Better BASIC 2.0 PC Paintbrush Subsequent to Art Huston's review of Summit Software's BetterBASIC version 1.1 (October 1985, page 277), we learned of version 2.0, scheduled for shipment at the beginning of 1986 and providing the following enhancements: Increased IBM PC BAS1CA compatibility: Random file I/O, program interrupts, as- sembly-language calls compatible with BASICA, error handling, dynamic strings, dynamic arrays, CHAIN with COMMON, BLOAD and BSAVE, and FIELD structure for random I/O. The only BASICA statements not now supported by BetterBASIC are MOTOR, PEN, ON PEN, ON STR1G, STRIG, STICK, and VARPTR. A translator now allows BetterBASIC to read tokenized BASICA programs directly. New features: Support for arrays to the limit of memory, support for virtual arrays to 4 gigabytes, multiple display windows, support for graphics and sound, user-pro- grammable support for foreign-language character sets, TRACE facility for con- tinuous or stepwise program debugging, plus the capability to set breakpoints and to continue execution of programs after modification of data or program code. BetterBASIC version 2.0 also allows pro- grammers to eliminate declared variables or to globally change the name of a vari- able in an existing program. Version 2.0 uses the IEEE format for floating-point numbers to both improve execution speed and ensure compatibility with BASICA. Summit Software also has a new address and phone number: 106 Access Rd., Nor- wood, MA 02062, (617) 769-7966. Sold in the USA A February What's New item (page 402) describing TDI's Modula-2/ST and UCSD Pascal for the Atari 520ST listed an ad- dress in England and prices in pounds. Soon after that page went to press, we found that both packages are available in the U.S. Each program costs $79.95. Con- tact TDI Software, 10410 Markison Rd., Dallas, TX 75238, (214) 340-4942. PC Paintbrush, which Robert Tinney used to create the cover of our November 1985 issue, has been released in a new edition. ZSoft Corporation (1950 Spectrum Cir- cle, Suite A-495, Marietta, GA 30067) says version 3.0 has 16 added features, includ- ing automatic curve drawing, variable font- stroke widths, rounded boxes, increased speed, rubber-band circles, lasso capa- bility, editing of pictures larger than the screen, and fully adjustable palettes. The user interface and the screen remain "almost the same." Report on Word Processors The PC Technical Group of the Boston Computer Society has released a report covering scientific/technical word- processing and typesetting programs for the IBM PC, XT, and AT. According to the BCS, the summary represents several hun- dred hours of evaluation and comparison. "IBM PC & Compatibles: Technical Word Processor Review Summary" costs $8, which covers the cost of reproduction and mailing. For more information, contact Carl A. Hein, Dunster House, Apt. 7, Swan- son Rd„ Boxborough, MA 01719. FIXES Two Books One and the Same Addison-Wesley's Marketing Coordinator has informed us of an error in "An An- notated Bibliography of Recent Books," which appeared in our 1985 special issue, Inside the IBM PCs (page 14). One book was listed twice: once under its correct title, once under a title it had prior to publica- tion. The correct title is The IBM Personal Computer from the \nside Out (ISBN 0- 201-06896). It is written by Murray Sargent 111 and Richard L. Shoemaker. Although \n- terfacing the IBM Personal Computer to the Real World is listed in Bowker's Books In Print, Addison-Wesley said it has never pub- lished that title and has no plans to do so. True BASIC and the Math Coprocessor In a review of True BASIC (May 1985, page 279), it was stated that the language can automatically sense and use the Intel 8087 coprocessor. True BASIC Inc. sent us the following information. Version 1.0 of True BASIC for the IBM Personal Computer does not correctly detect the Intel 80287 numeric data pro- cessor. Owners of version 1.0 can get the software fixed by sending the original disk to the company's Customer Support Dept, 39 South Main St., Hanover, N.H 03755. Mark 'Attn: 80287 patch" on the package, and don't forget to include your return address. How to Access and Use BYTEnet Listings To access BYTEnet Listings, call (617) 861-9764. When you get the carrier tone, enter two or three carriage returns so that our software can deter- mine your operating parameters. Optimum modem settings are 8 bits, 1 stop bit, and no parity at full duplex, or 7 bits, 1 stop bit, and even parity at half duplex. Acceptable operating speeds are 300 or 1200 bps. At this time, BYTEnet Listings does not sup- port 2400-bps transmissions. The BYTEnet Listings software itself is menu-driven. Programs may be downloaded using ASCII, Kermit, Tele- Link, and XMODEM protocols. BYTE listings are also available on BIX. After connecting with the system, type join listings at the main prompt. (For more information on BIX, phone (800) 227-2983 between 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. Eastern time.) MARCH 1986 -BYTE 33 YOU CAMT GET A GOOD FEEL FOR A SOFTWARE PACKAGE FROM AM AD. If you're searching through the ads in this magazine for the "right" software pack- age, good luck. Let's say you're looking for a data base manager. You read a dozen ads. Each one offers its list of features. Each one talks about the ideal combination of power and ease of use. And each one promises to "solve your problems", "answer your needs", or both. Don't Believe Anybody We could make the same claims for DATAEA5E. Even before Release 2.5, tens of thousands of users made DATAEA5E the corporate data base standard. We could tell you that they found DATAEA5E to be an invalu- able productivity tool because of its fully relational capabilities, full screen editor and unique combi- nation of menus and com- mands. But don't believe us. More than 100 reviewers from major publications agree with our productivity claims. Data Decisions called DATAEA5E "per- haps the most effective blend of ease-of-use and performance available for PC users to date." But don't believe the reviewers. Application developers, MI5/DP/ IC managers, and all kinds of other users from Fortune 1000 companies throughout the country have reached strikingly similar conclusions. A user at General Instruments reports that "those same factors that make DATAEA5E preferable for non-programmers — ease of use and speed of development — make it the program of choice for many technical types, too." But don't even believe other users. Nobody knows what you Know. Even if all these people are absolutely rightabout DATAEA5E, does that mean it's the right product for you? The best way to know if DATAEA5E fits your needs is to get your hands on our free sam- ple diskette. Fifteen minutes with the sample will give you a feel for our best DATAEA5E yet — Release 2.5. It has features that appeal to all users; from developers to data entry people: A complete procedural lan- guage; quick reports at the press of a button; a direct inter- face to Lotus 1-2-5; the ability to move rapidly from file to file on a common piece of data; and built-in scientific, mathematical, financial, date, time, and string functions. Productivity takes more than a good product. It takes a good company, too. Buying a software package is the beginning of a relationship. Technical support, product upgrades, special corporate and dealer programs and informa- tional seminars should all be part of this relationship. If the only thing you get is a product, forget about productivity. At Software Solutions, you find more than a product. You find software solutions. Find out for yourself. The advances in DATAEA5E's Release 2.5, and the support behind it, offer you practical advantages that leave all the other data base managers far, far behind — including R:Base 5000® and dBase III®. But don't believe us. Call or write for information and your free sam- ple diskette today. Software Solutions, Inc. CALL OR WRITE FOR YOUR FREE SAMPLE DI5KETTE. Send information and a free DATAEA5E sample diskette for my PC (check one): l~~l IBM LJ WArlG d DEC \Z\ Tl Include materials relating to: I I Corporate Client I I Retailer I I MI5/DP/IC Professional \Z\ VAD I I Other flame: Title: Phone: Company: Street: City: State: .Zip: BYT 3/86 Mail to: 5oftware Solutions, Inc., 12 Cambridge Drive, Trumbull, CT 0661 1 Telex: 703972 Don't like samples? Then just call us. We'd be happy to talk about your information management needs and advise you. 800-243-5123 ®1985 Software Solutions, Inc. Trademarks are of their respective companies. Scandinavia Switzerland, France United Kingdom West Germany, Austria West Soft A/5, Alesund, Norway; (47) 7 1-41141 Softsource, 5&A 1222 Vesenaz, Switzerland, 022-35 18-55 Sapphire Systems, Essex; 01-554-0582 M&T Software Verlag, Munich; 089-4613-0 Inquiry 317 MARCH 1986 -BYTE 35 ■ft. ■ Advanced Digital's PC-Slave is the solution to your multi-user or local area network problems.- Just plug Advanced Digital's PC-Slave board / into your PC expansion \ slot, a connecting cable, a /low-cost dumb terminal or a PC look-alike terminal and \ • you're in business. As many as 31 low-cost workstations may be added \ to your IBM-PC, AT, XT, and the com- patibles. Share a common data base \ / without loss of speed or efficiency since \ /# each PC-Slave has its own 8088 CPU, 256- \ 768K RAM dedicated to each user. Advanced \ Digital provides additional software which sup- ports File & Record locking and print spooling. Advanced Digital's slave concept provides the best multi-user PC system available today! Forthe location of the dealer nearest you contact: Advanced Digital Corporation 5432 Production Drive Huntington Beach, CA 92649 (714) 891 -4004 (800) 251 -1 801 Telex 18321" «™'«»"-^" utqu \ Advanced Digital U.K. Ltd. 27 Princes Street, Hanover Square London W1R8NQ-United Kingdom (01 ) 409-0077 (01 ) 409-3351 TLX 265840 FINEST Regional Distributors; In California, Thomas Data Systems, Inc. (213) 214-4661; in Ontario, Canada, B&L (416) 299-7660; In Australia, Archives Computers (03) 699-8377; in New York, Ouinn Data (914) 939-0002 WHAT'S NEW Drawing and Painting Program for Amiga Electronic Arts has released a graphics package for drawing and painting with the Amiga. Deluxe Paint, first in a series of arts software for the Commodore machine, has 20 drawing tools, 7 painting modes, 14 special-effects tools for brushes, 10 built-in brush shapes, and a palette of 32 colors (out of a possi- ble 4096). Deluxe Paint's drawing tools include magnify and zoom functions that let you split the screen into a nor- mal image and a magnified portion of the image. As you zero in on and alter details in the magnified win- dow, changes are reflected in the normal window. An- other tool lets you customize paintbrushes. Anything you can draw can be framed, picked up, and used as a new paintbrush. The package offers four types of brushes: circles, squares, dots, and airbrush. You can rotate any brush 360 degrees, flip it vertically or horizontally, stretch it into new shapes, or shear its angles. Shading and smear- ing capabilities help with texture and nuance. You can create animation effects with what Electronic Arts calls "color cycling- cycling a variety of colors through a static picture to concoct the illusion of mo- tion. You can use three dif- ferent color cycles and speeds per picture. Five color controls let you handle the mix of red, green, and blue and adjust the hue and brightness of Images created with Deluxe Paint and an Amiga. each color. The software enables the Amiga to auto- matically generate the shades of color between any two pigments you pick. Deluxe Paint, priced at $79.95, is designed to work with two other programs still in the Electronic Arts workshop, Deluxe Print and Deluxe Video Construction Kit (reportedly slated for April release). It requires 2 56K bytes of RAM and Kickstart 1.1. Contact Elec- tronic Arts, 1820 Gateway Dr., San Mateo, CA 94404, (415) 571-7171. Inquiry 550. Video Controller Combines Popular Standards Video-7's VEGA is an enhanced graphics adapter for the IBM PC, XT, AT, and compatible personal computers. VEGA uses surface-mounted CMOS VLSI technology, with four custom chips and 28 integrated cir- cuits, to provide four video- display modes. 12 graphics/ text-display modes, and 256K bytes of RAM on a 4.2- by 5-inch short-slot card. The four video-display modes offered by VEGA are the functional equivalents of the IBM Enhanced Graphics Adapter, the IBM Color Graphics Adapter, the IBM Monochrome Display Adapter, and the Hercules Graphics Card. Each mode is 100 percent compatible with the corresponding popular standard. You can move between enhanced color, color, and mono- chrome modes using a tog- gle switch on the back panel of your computer. The board has 10 graphics and 8 alphanumeric display modes. This includes a high- resolution color display with 640 by 350 pixels and 16 colors from a 64-color palette. A RAM-based char- acter generator allows up to four sets of 2 56 different characters or two sets of 512 different characters for multiple character fonts. Each character cell can be up to 32 dots high and 8 dots wide. The board also lets you split your screen horizontally when in EGA mode. The VEGA has a DE-9 female connector, a 32-pin "feature connector," RCA phono connectors, and a 6-pin keyed light-pen con- nector. It will run with a monochrome display adapter or a color-graphics adapter in another slot. It {continued) Inquiry 6 for End-Users. — Inquiry 7 for DEALERS ONLY. MARCH 1986 IYTE 37 WHAT'S NEW sells for $599 and is also marketed by Quadram as the QuadEGA. Contact Video-7 Inc., 550 Sycamore Dr., Milpitas, CA 9503 5, (408) 943-0101. Inquiry 551. MS-DOS Portable from Sony Sony's IBM PC- compatible computer, the M35, is a 13-pound unit with a CMOS 80C88 micro- processor, 640K. bytes of RAM, and two 3 /2-inch 720K-byte floppy-disk drives. The portable also has serial and parallel ports, com- posite video and analog RGB ports, and an internal 300-bps modem. Options in- clude a 25-line LCD screen and a 514-inch floppy-disk drive. Sony says its MS-DOS- based machine can be con- nected directly to its dedicated word processors. The M3 5 will have a list price of approximately $2695. Contact Sony Com- munications Products Co., Sony Dr., Park Ridge. NJ 07656, (201) 930-6432, Inquiry 552. Spreadsheet for the Amiga Lattice has developed an electronic spreadsheet for the Commodore Amiga called Unicalc. The software provides a processing area of 2 56 columns by 8192 rows, dual-window capability, context-sensitive help screens, floating dollar signs, negative balance indicators, and punctuated numbers. Cells can contain numeric data, algebraic formulas, or text. Unicalc has a library of algebraic and conditional functions. Calculations can Sony's MS-DOS portable, the M35. be made automatically as you are entering data or later with a single com- mand. Several sheets can be joined into one. You can customize the column widths, titles, displays, prompts, and help screens. Lattice says its package is compatible with Lotus 1-2-3. SuperCalc, and similar soft- ware. Unicalc costs $79.95. which also gets you a manual, telephone support, and a 30-day money-back guarantee. Contact Lattice Inc., POB 3072, Glen Ellyn, 1L 60138, (312) 858-7950. Inquiry 553. Optical Scanner/Printer Image Communications is selling an optical scanner/ printer for the IBM PC and the Apple Macintosh. Called Image Blue, it can digitize and print images (on elec- trostatic paper) at a resolu- tion of 200 dots per inch. The scanner can transmit in- formation at up to 9600 bps over its serial port or up to 2400 bps through its in- tegral telephone jack. Optional software ($80) lets you load images into a PC or Mac and manipulate the images using PC Paint- brush or MacPaint. Scanning requires about 3 minutes per page. Two scanners can be used together as a fac- simile system. Image Blue has a list price of $1295. Contact Image Communications Inc., 640 West Putnam Ave., POB 4809, Greenwich. CT 06836-0086, (203) 661-0607. Inquiry 554. Polyglot Word Processor Multi-Lingual Scribe, from Gamma Produc- tions, is a word-processing package for the IBM PC. It can type English, Russian. Greek, Hebrew, and Arabic texts and can display all those languages on a single line. The texts are shown with or without accents and vowel points and can be printed on most popular printers. The English font in- cludes most European-lan- guage characters. Selecting a language re- quires a single function-key command. The processor in- cludes standard word- processing features and of- fers block move, search and replace, headers and footers, print preview, sub- and superscripts, and unlimited document size. Its format- ting commands include col- umns, centering, propor- tional spacing, boldface, underlining, mixing small and large fonts, and micro- justification. Special features such as wordwrap in both left-to-right and right-to-left modes are also part of Scribe's repertoire. Along with the software, you get keyboard layout charts and press-on keyboard labels for all four foreign languages (including both standard and mnemonic for Hebrew). A built-in Font Generator utility lets you use on-screen graphics to customize the characters and keyboard lay- out or to build an entirely new set. You can compose text in either 40- or 80-column mode. The print preview feature lets you see how the text will appear when it is printed. You can also use another word pro- cessor and engage Scribe to make that software print proportionally spaced text or to add foreign characters to the files generated by that software. Multi-Lingual Scribe 2.0 costs $349.95 and requires an IBM PC. XT. or AT DOS 2.0 or higher, at least 320K bytes of RAM, an IBM or Hercules color-graphics card, and one disk drive. It can print to Epson, IBM Graphics, Okidata (with Plug 'n Play IBM emulation). C. Itoh Prowriter, or NEC 802 3 A dot-matrix printers. Contact Gamma Produc- tions Inc., 710 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 609, Santa Monica. CA 90401. (213) 394-8622. Inquiry 555. {continued) 38 BYTE • MARCH 1986 Using Lotus 1-2-3 without Reflex is like driving at night without lights J.f you use Lotus 1-2-3 you need Reflex, the Analyst'" because it shows you what 1-2-3 either hides in the dark or can't show you at all. Reflex shows you relationships and inter-relationships in your data that you can't afford omiss. Keflex includes the best Report Generator for Lotus 1-2-3. Reflex includes the Report, Generator that 1-3-3 should have included - but didn't. With Reflex, you can generate reports, graphs, charts and diagrams .torn your 1-2-3 worksheets that are impossible to generate with 1-2-3. You can do sales reports, letters, memos, invoices and mailing labels — to name a few — and you can see a few of them on this page. Reflex is the best database for 1-2-3 users and it's also the easiest to use. Reflex is the first database that separates the trees from the forest. The first database that understands that what you see depends on how you look at it. The first database that probes relationships — then shows them to you in various graphic forms — scatter, line, bar, stacked bar and pie charts. The first database to break the bonds of traditional database management and give a dramatic visual turn to data analysis. Reflex makes graphic leaps far beyond 1-2-3. With Reflex, when you look, you see. Reflex gives you five new and different views of what's hidden in your 1-2-3 worksheets. Form View, List View, Graph View, Crosstab and Report View. Form View lets you create your database. List View shows you your data in tabular list form, just like a spreadsheet. Graph View gives you instant interactive graphic representations; Crosstab View gives you amazing "cross-referenced" pictures of the links and relationships hidden in your data. Report View allows you to use information from 1-2-3, and then print out reports in all sorts of different formats. The commands for all five Views are consistent — so you're not stuck learning five different ways to get something done. And because Reflex uses advanced windowing techniques, you can see several views on the screen at the same time — without having to switch back and forth. You get the picture, and the pictures, all at once. Whether you're a 1-2-3 user or not, Reflex answers all your "What Ifs?" and leads you to the right conclusions. With Reflex when you modify a number all your Views — List, Form and Graph — are immediately updated, on-screen. Let's say you're analyzing "Traveling Expenses by Salesperson" and you ask, "What if they stayed at a Motel B'A instead of the Presidential Suite of the Howl Chief?" "Show me." So Reflex shows you. "What if they could no longer order $ 100 wines, but had to stick to the stuff that matures in the truck?" "Show me." So Reflex shows you. Instant answers. Instant pictures. Instant analysis. Instant understanding. Of course Reflex can do all of the above with or without 1-2-3. Reflex Is a complete database management and analytical tool that stands on its own feet and helps you stay on yours because it's only $99.95! Borland's $99.95 Reflex could be the best business investment you'll ever make. Buying 1-2-3 was a good idea. Reflex is an even better idea because now you can see what you're doing, what you've done, and what you need to do. Think of Reflex as an "automatic product," a "stan- dard" that every up-to-speed PC owner should have on hand. It's only $99.95, and you get our 60- day money-back guarantee. We don't believe in copy- protection, but we do believe in quality, performance and reasonable software prices. So keep driving your old 1-2-3, but get Reflex today, because then you can see where you're going. Inquiry 46 for End-Users. Inquiry 47 for DEALERS ONLY. it Everyone agrees that Reflex is the best-looking database they've ever seen Adam B. Green, InfoWorld The next generation of software has officially arrived Peter Norton, mm PC Week 77 ^r BORLAND INTERNA T I N A L 45)5 scons valley orive SCOTTS VALLEY, CA 95066 (408) 438-8400 TELEX. 172373 YES! Rush Reflex to me. Send me . . copies at: $99: 95 This price includes shipping to all U.S. cities. 60-DAY MONEY-BACK GUARANTEE NOT COPY-PROTECTED To order by credit card call (BOO} 255-8008, CA (800) 742- 1133 Available at belter dealers nationwide Shipping Address: City. . State: . Zip: Telephone: . Outside USA add $ 10 per copy CA res. add $6 tax per copy Amount Enclosed Payment: VISA MC Bank Draft Check Credit Card Exp Date / card „ I I I I System requirements: R15 IBM^ pc. XI AT, or compatibles 384K RAM minimum. IBM Color Graphics Adapter*. Hercules Monochrome Graphics Card", or equivalent PC DOS® 2.0 or greater Hard disk and mouse optional. CODs and Purchase Orders WILL NOT be accepted by Borland. California residents add 6% sales tax Outside USA add $10 per copy and make payment by bank draft payable in US dollars drawn on a US bank Reflex is a trademark of Borland/ AnaJyUca Inc. 1-2-3 la a registered ■-rademark of Lotus Development. Corporation. IBM and PC DOS are registered trademarks and PC, XT, AT, and Color Graphics Adapter are trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation. Hercules Graphics Card is a trademark of Hercules Computer Tech. Copyright 1986 Borland Internauonal BI-1031. WHAT'S NEW Flip Puck, Change Type Metatext from Image Computer Systems converts the dotty font of a dot-matrix printer into letter- quality type. The package consists of software and what Image calls a puck; the puck is approximately the size and shape of a black- board eraser and, like a mouse, rests on the table next to the computer. The program resides per- manently in RAM. If you want letter-quality type, the software intercepts the characters sent to the printer and converts them into high-resolution plot data. To switch between draft and letter quality, you flip the puck to the appropriate- ly labeled side. When the "draft" side is up, output goes to the printer in the usual fashion. When the "quality" side is up, Meta- text intercepts the charac- ters. The package works with IBM PCs and compatibles and drives most dot-matrix printers that recognize Epson control codes. No hardware or software modifi- cations are necessary. Meta- text contains six fonts and emulates the IBM Graphics Printer. It costs $129. Con- tact Image Computer Sys- tems. POB 647, Avon, CT 06001, (203) 678-8771. Inquiry 556. Data-Acquisition Software Discovery, from Cyborg Corp., is a menu-driven program designed for data acquisition and analysis. It can handle area-under-the- Metatext print enhancer from Image Computer Systems. curve calculations, FFTs and smoothing, and instrument control. Discovery's calculation and signal-processing functions let you build a table of selected values and transfer summary data to Lotus 1-2-3 for further analysis and pre- sentation. You can scroll through graphs of data and zoom in on regions of in- terest, mark points for calcu- lation, and expand the x- or y- axis. The program also lets you store sequences of up to 10 operations for repeated use; sequences can loop and trigger from a variety of sources, including time of day, a single keystroke, and a value read from the signal source. Other operations and func- tions include integration, dif- ferentiation, auto-correlation, cross-correlation, and win- dowing. Discovery also cal- culates variance, mean, stan- dard deviation, slope, and change using the 8087 or 80287 floating-point co- processor if installed. Discovery runs on the IBM PC, XT, and AT and requires 512K bytes of memory and a hard-disk drive. The pro- gram costs $1190. For more information, contact Cyborg Corp., 5 5 Chapel St., Newton, MA 02158, (617) 964-9020. Inquiry 557. Apple-like Laser 128 The Laser 128 is a por- table computer that re- portedly runs "nearly all" the software for Apple's lie and He. The 12-pound machine houses I28K bytes of RAM, 32K bytes of ROM, a 5 14 -inch floppy-disk drive, both a serial and a parallel printer interface, a modem port, and a 50-pin Apple- compatible expansion slot. You can also hook up an additional disk drive, a mouse or joystick, and a monitor. Like the Apple lie, the Laser 128 uses a 65C02 pro- cessor. The keyboard, which has 10 function keys and a numeric keypad, can be switched between QWERTY and Dvorak layouts. The computer can produce dou- ble high-resolution graphics and has 16-color capability. Other features include a built-in speaker with volume control, 40- or 80-column text, and text in inverse or flashing mode. Data trans- mission can be set at seven rates, ranging from 110 to 19,200 bits per second. The Laser 128 has a sug- gested retail price of $479. Two companies are selling the machine. Contact Video Technology (U.S.) Inc., 2633 Greenleaf Ave.. Elk Grove Village, IL 60007, (312) 640-1776, or Central Point Software Inc., 9700 Southwest Capitol Highway, Suite 100, Portland, OR 97219-9990, (503) 244-5782. Inquiry 558. Calculation Boxes Boxcalc, a calculation program for the IBM PC line, resembles a spread- sheet but does not limit you to predetermined rows and columns. Instead, you can place and move "calculation boxes" anywhere on the screen (using a special func- tion key). Formulas can be entered in the boxes to establish their mathematical relationship to other boxes. The software can handle complex expressions as well as sum, date, and time. You can specify the order in which boxes are calculated; iterative calculations are permitted. Each Boxcalc file can hold as many as 800 boxes, and as many as 99 pages of figures and text can be created, stored on disk, and printed. Full replication features are designed to facilitate entering multiple formulas into boxes. Boxcalc sells for $40 and comes with an instruction manual and without copy (continued) 40 B YTE • MARCH 1986 See a live demonstration of HP PC Instruments... an affordable, easy way to automate testing! Now you can perform test and measurement tasks easily, quickly and cost-effectively with affordable, rackable PC Instruments from Hewlett-Packard. Soft front panels make HP PC Instruments easy to use. By simply touching the HP Touchscreen or using a mouse with the IBM PC, you can set functions, ranges and values, and take measurements. You can also develop programs faster. A few easy-to-remember commands, like OUTPUT and MEASURE, control your PC Instruments from Microsoft® BASIC. And you can use the soft front panel to enter many of the instrument parameters that have been traditionally typed into a system. In addition, with optional HP Data Acquisition Software, . you can be doing voltage scanning and temperature measurement in no time at all. Add-on HP-IB libraries can also turn your PC into a versatile HP-IB instrument controller. And you can use them to control both PC Instruments and HP-IB instruments from the same BASIC program. PC Instruments now available include: • 4Vz Digit Digital Multimeter • 50 MHz Digital Oscilloscope • 5 MHz Function Generator • 100 MHz Universal Counter ■ Relay Multiplexer • 12 bit Dual Voltage Digital-to- Analog Converter • 16 bit Digital Input/Output • Relay Actuator Microsoft® and Microsoft BASIC® are U.S. registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. AD 2101552 11 To see a live demonstration, or for immediate shipment call 1-800-523-2121 ext. 960 HEWLETT PACKARD Inquiry 156 MARCH 1986 -BYTE 41 WHAT'S NEW protection. A demo sells for $5. Running the program re- quires 256K bytes, PC-DOS 2.0 or later, and a color monitor. Contact Cotton Software Inc., 2 510 Ander- son Rd„ Suite 364, Coving- ton, KY 41017, (606) 727-1600. Inquiry 559. Define Your Digital Waveforms Adtron's Data Generation System operates with IBM's PC or PC XT to pro- duce user-defined digital waveforms. It consists of a plug-in data-generator board and a full-screen waveform editor. The hardware/soft- ware combination is de- signed to offer the capabili- ties of pattern, word, and pulse generators. The system can serve as a signal source for these ap- plications: laboratory data generator, communications data emulator, pseudoran- dom noise source, automatic test stimulus, and pulse and timing generator. The editor, called Pulse- Ed. enables you to design, modify, store on disk, and print waveforms. Adtron says the program resembles a text editor in operation and a logic analyzer in ap- pearance. Once you've de- fined a waveform, you can send it to the board for ex- ecution or transfer it to an- other system via disk or modem. During execution, the board does not require processor support. Dual-channel operation of- fers 32,768 bits per channel, bit widths from 50 nanosec- onds to 9.999 seconds, and external clock and sync in- puts. The system runs on any IBM PC, XT, or compati- Data-generator board from Adtron's system. ble with 128K bytes of RAM, one double-sided floppy-disk drive, and MS- DOS 2.0 or later. List price is $2175; quantity discounts are available. Contact Adtron Corp.. 11415 East Redfield Rd.. Chandler, AZ 8522 5, (602) 926-1461. Inquiry 560. Calculator Kit for the Macintosh Calculator Construction Set from Dubl-Click Soft- ware enables you to design your own calculators, clocks, and calendars and install them as Macintosh desk ac- cessories. No programming is required; you drag parts onto a calculator shell and then "wire" the functions. The package contains math- ematical, scientific, business, date/time, and conversion functions. The kit's box of parts holds various-size keys, switches. LEDs, clock/calen- dar displays, and a resizable scrolling paper tape that prints to the Imagewriter printer, the Mac Clipboard, or a Mac text file. You can map on-screen calculator keys to any alphanumeric keyboard or keypad (as an alternative to using a mouse). You can customize calcu- lator cases using MacPaint- style tools for drawing, painting, filling, stretching, and typing. Calculators can be saved as work files, ac- cessory mover files, or self- installing calculator files. Calculator Construction Set runs on any Macintosh and is Switcher-compatible. List price is $99. Contact Dubl- Click Software. 18201 Gresham St.. Northridge. CA 91325. (818) 349-2758. Inquiry 561. Utilities for dBASE Programmers Gryphon Microproducts has developed a set of utilities that expand the memory capability of dBASE from 63 variables to more than 8 million. Called dB/RA, the package consists of 22 commands that can be called directly from dBASE, letting programmers work with databases in memory in the form of arrays. Gryphon says dB/RA takes advantage of the Lotus/Intel Extended Memory Specifica- tion. It has commands for table-lookups and range searches of as many as 100 arrays. Functions include in- stant screens, pop-up color windows, and Lotus-like menu operations. The utility set costs $200; a demo is $20. For more in- formation, contact Gryphon Microproducts, POB 6543. Silver Spring, MD 20906, (301) 946-2585. Inquiry 562. Gizmo Extends AT Memory The AT Gizmo is a card that installs between the IBM PC AT's motherboard and 80286 processor and enables PC-DOS applications to use 4.6 megabytes of ex- tended memory. The 3- by 5-inch device remaps ad- dresses that access memory allowing extended memory to become addressable memory. Extended memory becomes addressable because the AT Gizmo makes all the machine's memory operate in native mode, compatible with PC- DOS. The memory usually accessed in protected mode is accessible from native mode with the card. The AT Gizmo sells for $295. Contact The Software Link Inc., 8601 Dunwoody Place NE, Suite 632, Atlanta. GA 30338. (404) 998-0700. Inquiry 563. {continued on page 399) 42 BYTE • MARCH 1986 Evercom™... 1200 baud, $249 Now the EVEREX Evercom modem is available on a half-size card, perfect for the short slots in the IBM XT, Portable, and many compatibles. EVEREX has combined innovative engineering and technology to produce a quality Hayes-compatible 1200 baud modem that out performs the competition at a lower price. EVEREX engineering is the key ingredient that delivers QUALITY and FEATURES without sacrificing PRICE. Before you buy a modem, check these features: i 300/1200 hps Hayes-compatihie > Half-si>e card ' Automatic dialing, answering. and redialing ' Call Progress Monitoring ' Configurable from COMI - COM4 ' Internal Speaker with software adjustable volume control ' Tone and pulse dialing • Automatic data-to-voice transition ► Detects receiver off-hook ' Reports speed mismatch ' Supports 132 columns » Communications software included ' Extended Hayes command set 1 List price EVERCOM YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES $249 HAYES 1200B YES NO YES NO NO NO YES NO NO NO NO NO $489 Demonstration ~ FREE Brochure Remember, before you buy a modem, check the features, check the price, and then call EVEREX to set up a demonstration at your local dealer. When you call, we will also send you the total solution brochure describing EVEREX's complete line of IBM microcomputer peripherals. 1-800-821-0806 in California 1-800-821-0807 EVER lor Excellence 48431 Milmont Dr. Fremont CA 94539 (415)498-1111 Evercom is a trademark of Everex Systems, Inc. IBM PC and XT are registered trademarks of International Business Machines Corp. Hayes 1 200B is a trademark of Hayes Microcomputer Products Inc. Inquiry 128 for End-Users. Inquiry 129 for DEALERS ONLY MARCH 1986 -BYTE 43 ASK BYTE Conducted by Steve Garcia Color Graphics Dear Steve, 1 recently purchased an IBM PC without a video board. I am looking at what is available in color-graphics boards. I have found two bare boards, one from J. C. Computer Inc. in Anaheim, California, and another from Computer Parts Galore in Batavia, New York. Are you familiar with either board? I will be using a television at first, so I will have to employ an RF modulator. I have one that requires + 5 V, but the IBM color-graphics board supplies +12 V. I assume that most of the others also sup- ply + 12 V. Is it a minor modification that would be necessary to change my modulator to accept +12 V? Finally, have you considered a construc- tion article on an IBM PC-compatible video board or perhaps a memory-expan- sion board? Bob Dowell Radcliff, KY I am not familiar with the two boards you mention, but the one from Computer Parts Galore claims to be like a Persyst board and compatible with the IBM color-graphics board. This seems like a good choice, but don't forget to get the character ROM. I couldn't find I. C. Com- puter in recent issues of Computer Shopper, but I did find a C. J. Computers in Anaheim. They sell components to build your own PC but apparently not bare boards. Another source of bare boards for IBMs is Micro Mate Associates. You can pick up the needed + 5 V DC for your modulator from pin 5 of the light-pen connector on the color-graph- ics board. I don't have any plans to make either an IBM-compatible graphics board or memory-expansion board. There are many of each to choose from, including the bare multifunction board from Com- puter Parts Galore. Addresses of the companies men- tioned above are Computer Parts Galore, 56 Harvester Ave., Batavia, NY 14020, (800) 431-9008; C. J. Computers Corpora- tion, 2424 West Ball Rd., Suite B, Anaheim, CA 92804, (714) 821-8922; and Micro Mate Associates, POB 742, Station B, Willowdale, Ontario M2K 2RI, Canada. —Steve P.S. I have a super graphics-board proj- ect in the works. Striated Letters Dear Steve, I have just purchased a Tandy 1000. It works great, but I'm not too crazy about the display— the letters appear striated. I've tried various monochrome monitors, but they all give the same striped look. Is there a monitor that I can use with the 1000 that will give solid letters on the screen? I've seen the IBM 5151 monochrome monitor hooked to an IBM PC, and it looks wonderful. Unfortunately, the monitor con- nector on the PC is not the same as on the Tandy 1000. Do you know if I could make some sort of adapter to hook the 5151 to the 1000, and, having done that, will I get the same sharp letters I have seen on the PC? Duff Kennedy Santa Barbara, CA The striped look you describe is typical of display systems that emulate the IBM PC color-graphics-display adapter. It comes from the 200-line vertical-resolu- tion limit imposed by the TV-compatible scan rates combined with the noninter- lace mode used to avoid jitter. This is a characteristic we learn to live with. The high-quality character display you see on the IBM 5151 monitor is the result of using faster horizontal sweep and slower vertical sweep to give 350 or so lines of vertical resolution, combined with wider video bandwidth (frequency response) to provide 720-line horizontal resolution. The display board also has a different character-generator ROM to take advantage of the higher resolution. If you try to use the 5151 monitor with your Tandy 1000 graphics display driver, you not only won't get an improved char- acter display, you will also probably burn out the monitor's power supply due to the incompatible sweep rates. It might be possible to put a display driver like the IBM monochrome display adapter into the Tandy 1000 and use the IBM 5151 or an equivalent monitor if you can find one that fits. The problem is that the Tandy's expansion slots are shorter than IBM's, so the IBM board won't fit. There may also be a memory conflict or other incompatibility that prevents use of both displays. This would be some- thing to discuss with the Radio Shack people if you are interested.— Steve CP/M and Graphics Dear Steve, Is it true CP/M can't manage any graph- ics, or am I imagining that? I recently added a Z80 Plus card to my Apple lie so I could run Turbo Pascal. The Apple II, with its 6502 processor, is well known for its graphics capabilities, but Borland offers its Turbo Graphix Toolbox only for the IBM PC and Zenith Z-100 computers. Turbo Pascal itself comes with some turtle graph- ics but only for IBM PCs. Is my Apple, running CP/M, able to make use of an RGB monitor for sophisticated graphics displays? If it can, why don't Borland and other companies implement these capabilities for us 8-bit CP/M users the way they do for 16-bit computers? I know that many owners of 8-bit machines running Turbo Pascal would love to have the sophisticated graphics offered to IBM owners. What's the problem? Chad Gagnon Crescent City, CA There is nothing specific in CP/M that prohibits graphics. Historically, however, most of the computers using CP/M had no graphics hardware, and those that did had no standard to follow. Thus, in most cases, if you want graphics, you must write the drivers yourself. It seems as though one could use the Apple BIOS graphics routines with the CP/M board since the 6502 still handles I/O. I haven't tried this, but you could write drivers into CP/M to send the data and graphics commands to the 6502, at least for assembly-language program- ming. The probable reason Borland, Micro- soft, and other language vendors don't write graphics into their CP/M languages (continued) 44 BYTE • MARCH 1986 COPYRIGHT © 1986 STEVEN A. C1ARCIA. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. u Small Plain 1 1 |" SBjf SFL.ftahcs XlilliJ -^* Pretorian Roman3A c ^^^ Romital J[ — I See What You Can Do Fontasy printed all of these. Presentations! Newsletters! Flyers! Signs! Overhead Foils! Invita- tions! Menus! Logos! An- nouncements! Banners! Layouts! When you need a goodlooking visual quickly you need FONTASY — superb typefaces and simple drawing in one easy to use package. FONTASY gives you a "what-you-see-is- what-you-get" picture, as you type and draw on the graphics screen of your IBM-PC. You can create a page at a time, see a mini pic- ture of that page, print it, and save it on disk. Page size is limited only by memory, not by screen size. Features Proportional space, justify, kern, bold face, rearrange, magnify, black/white rever- sal, rotate, mirror image, lines, rectangles, ovals, draw, fill-in, undo (and un-undo). on- line help, 200 page book, and easy control from keyboard or mouse. Corporate licenses available. Fonts, fonts, and more fonts! We have over 275 typefaces in our growing library, and will be happy to send you free print samples on request. When you deal directly with the manufac Hirer (that's us), you pay rock-bottom dis- tributor prices. If you order FONTASY now, we will give you 28 fonts (a $50 value) at no extra charge. With so many features at such a low price, FONTASY belongs in your soft ware library even if you already have a "font" program. Inquiry 284 With Equipment Needed IBM-PC, XT, AT, or true compatible (Compaq. etc.) with IBM or Hercules graphics adapter and graphics monitor. 256K memory needed for partial pages, 448-640K recommended for mil pages. Dot- matrix printer. Mouse optional. MS-DOS 2.00 or above. FONTASY supports: IBM graphics primer. Proprinteri Epson FX, JX, LX, MX, RX. and LQ-1500; C. [ton 8510, 15<>0, 1570. Pro writer-Jr; H-P LaserJet, Thinkjct; Microllne y2, 93; Gemini 10X, 15X; Radio Shack DMP 105- 430, 2100; Toshiba 351, 1340-1351; Star; and most Epson-compatibles. Money-Back Guarantee Fontasy is not copy-protected and has a 30-day money-back guarantee. So. take advantage of our breakthrough price and order now TOLL-FREE: 1-800-824-7888, operator 669 [orders only) For further information and same day shipping, call: (818 ) 765-4444 PRomm® 7248 Bellairc Ave., Box 560 No. Hollywood, CA 91603-0560 Name FONTASY Tax Shipping Total $49.95 Address City, Slate, ZIP Visa/MC Computer . Company _ Telephone Exp. Date . . Memory - Printer Terms: M/C. Visa, checks. Please add S 3.00 shipping and handling in U.S. or Canada. $20.00 overseas, 12.00 for C.O.D., and sales lax in Calif. I .J MARCH 1986 -BYTE 45 Inquiry 332 The fraffic light: EnGarde™ EnGarde™ is the only surge sup- pressor with the added protection of an LED ground indicator. It warns you when an electrical out- let is improperly grounded, pro- tecting your computer from need- less and costly hardware damages. An anti-static touch pad and a multi-peripheral master switch are also built into the total protection of EnGarde™ EnGarde™ also protects your computer from power surges caused by changes in electrical loads and other electrical disturbances. It includes a limited five-year warranty. EnGarde™is a product of Sys- tems Control, manufacturer of power protection systems for the nation's utility companies. Ask your dealer for the total pro- tection of EnGarde™ Or call toll free 1-800-451-6866 to order (in Michigan call collect 906/774-0440). If unsatisfied, return EnGarde™ within 30 days for a full refund. TM EnGarde A product of Systems Conlrol, a division of M.J. Electric, Inc. ASK BYTE is the lack of graphics hardware stan- dards. If you write for a Motorola 6845 video controller, it won't run on machines using any other controller. You can. how- ever, write subroutines or procedures in assembly language to be called by high- level-language programs if you can write the CP/M drivers to begin with. Using an RGB monitor is possible in the Apple II only if you have an accessory board that provides that capability- hardware limitations again.— Steve Mythology Dear Steve. I see relatively few letters and articles pertaining to Atari computers in BYTE. I thus have been unable to find out more about the similarity between the Atari and the Apple, especially since it is well known that the original Apple was built out of an Atari. Has anyone repeated this feat? If so, where could I go to upgrade/emulate the Apple with my Atari 800XL? Sue Paolini Hoboken. N) Like many things that "everyone knows," this one just isn't true. Apple Computer was formed in April of 1976 to sell the original Apple kit. In June of 1977, the company ran its first ad in BYTE for the Apple II, of which today's Apple lie is a variation. Atari announced its first computer in December of 1978, but it did not become available until late 1979. Even though Apple and Atari use the same processor, nearly everything else I ROM, I/O, graphics, etc.) is different. Emulating an Apple on the Atari is theo- retically possible but would be very dif- ficult. I have not been able to locate any product to accomplish this.— Steve TNT Dear Steve, I have a TNT, and I've tried a few times to interface it to my IBM PC. My PC has Figure I : The diagram for construction of a null-modem cable. an internal Qubie modem with a serial port. I made a few attempts at building a connection, but whenever I ran a program in BASIC. I got the error message "device time out." ITSHAK MlHAELI Staten Island, NY There are several possible reasons for your troubles. First, be sure the serial port in the Qubie board is connected as COMI:. If it is COM2:, use the OPEN COM2: statement in BASIC on the IBM side to open the serial port. Also, make sure both computers are set to the same data-transmission rate. Next, be sure you have connected the two computers as shown in figure I. This arrangement is called a null modem. If you are already using this arrange- ment and your cable has no bad connec- tions, you should test each port with a loopback plug to find out which one is causing the problem. A loopback plug is a DB-25 (RS-232C) connector with the following pin pairs connected together: 2 to 3, 4 to 5, and 6 to 20. This plug makes the computer send data to itself and can be used to test each computer's serial port for proper function. —Steve Chips Dear Steve, With the recent sharp price cuts in 256K- bit RAM chips, it seems that replacing the 4164s on the motherboard of an IBM PC or a Compaq would offer many advan- tages over an add-on memory board. I've heard that the 412 56 chips can be sub- stituted in some cases, but 1 don't know what sort of trace cuts or jumper settings might be required. Can you help? Brian Underdahl Ballwin. MO The 256K-bit 41256 chip pin-out is identical to the 4164, except for pin I, which is NC on the 4164 and address A8 on the 41256. This allows 9-bit row ad- dress by 9-bit column address. The IBM PC has no provision for implementing the pin I address, and I don't think the Com- paq does either. Changes on the board required to make this swap with jumpers would be extensive but probably not impossible. There were a couple of companies con- verting the early IBM I6K- to 64K-byte motherboards to use 64K-bit chips for 256K bytes total on the motherboard. Maybe someone will offer a similar ser- vice for the 256K-bit chips now that the [continued) 46 BYTE- MARCH 1986 Only the Hayes Transet 1000 @ canget you out of this one ?LM) lOAMi Now your PC can do three things at once instead of making you wait while it does one thing at once. We call it tri ple taskin g." It means you can work with your PC while the Transet 1000 receives your electronic mail and runs your printer for you simultaneously. Three jobs at once. No waiting. When you're away from your desk, or at night while your PC is turned off, Transet 1000 serves as an electronic mailbox. Because it has its own indepen- dent 128K or 512K memory. To get the messages that come in through the night, you can call them up on your PC. Access them through a remote modem if you're away from the office. Inquiry 151 Or even have them waiting for you in hard copy. By now it's dawning on you Hayes - Say yes to the future with Hayes. "Manufacturer's estimated retail price. ©1986 Hayes Microcomputer Products. Inc. that Transet 1000 can make your PC about three times as produc- tive as it is now. Which is no small statement. You've also figured out it's more than just a print buffer. More than just a communica- tions buffer. And probably costs a lot. Right? Wrong! It costs only $399* for the 128K model which stores up to 90 pages. And only $549* for the 512K version with up to 360 pages of storage. For more information and specifications, contact your authorized Hayes dealer. Or Hayes directly at (404) 441-1617. Hayes Microcomputer Prod- ucts, Inc., P.O. Box 105203, Atlanta, Georgia 30348. MARCH 1986 -BYTE 47 MEGA-16 BAR CODE READER BAR CODE READER WITH KEYBOARD EMULATOR FOR IBM PC/XT, AT only $395.00 Your PC wil! become a BAR CODE SYSTEM by using our "MEGA-IB" bar code reader With Built-in "KEYBOARD EMULATOR" in our "MEGA-16", it can read the bar code data directly WITHOUT adding any software or hardware. All you have to do is just plug in the "MEGA-16" bar code reader to your PC instead of PC's keyboard plug. APPLICATIONS: M INVENTORY CONTROL ■ ASSET MANAGEMENT ■ FILE OR DOCUMENT TRACKING I ORDER ENTRY I WORK-IN-PROCESS I RETAIL POINT- OF-SALE FEATURES' m IBM PQ PC/XT, PC/AT PLUG-IN COMPATIBLE ■ WITH KEYBOARD EMULATOR, NO EXTRA SOFT- WARE, OR HARDWARE IS NEEDED ■ READ THE MOST OF CURRENT CODES ■ BIDIRECTIONAL SCANNING ■ AUDIBLE "BI" FOR CORRECT READING ■ COMPACT SIZE, LIGHT WEIGHT. AND NO EXTRA POWER SUPPLY IS NEEDED ■ VISIBLE INDICATOR ■ EASY TO INSTALL, AND EASY TO OPERATE ■ NO CARD SLOT REQUIRED/SIMPLE INTERCONNECT ■ READ HIGH. MED & LOW DENSITY LABELS ■ HIGH FIRST READ RATE ■ SWITCH SELECTABLE OPTIONS ■ SELF-TEST DIAGNOSTICS ■ CAN READ 6 KINDS OF BAR CODES-UPC, EAN, JAN, 2 OF 5, 3 OF 9 Si CODE BAR PROGRAM 4 EPROMS 'NEW" EPROM WRITER CARD MEGA EPW-4 simultaneously SIZE: 2716 UP TO 27256. 27512 FOR YOUR IBM PC/XT, AT AND IBM COMPATIBLES Our EPROM Writer Cards can be used under MS-DOS System. They are designed to be multifunctional, user-friendly, and highly reliable. FEATURES: M EPROM SIZES: 2716, 2732, 2732A. 2764, 2764A, 27128, 27128A, 27256, 27256A, 27512 27512A ■ VOLTAGE ADJUSTABLE TO 25V, 21V. 12.5V, ETC. ■ CAN PROGRAM BLANK-CHECK & VERIFY 4 EPROMS SIMULTANEOUSLY ■ EXTREMELY HIGH SPEED - 8 TIMES FASTER THAN GENERAL EPROMS ■ VERY EASY TO USE ■ CAN LOAD PROGRAMMED DATA DIRECTLY FROM DISK ■ CAN SAVE EPROM DATA ON DISK ■ CAN DISPLAY, PRINT AND MODIFY EPROM DATA ■ SOFTWARE INCLUDED ONLY *219. 00 MEGA AT BARE BONE KIT Including: M IBM AT Compatible 8 mHz Mother Board with 640K. Assembled with AT Style Case and 200W Power Supply ■ One 1.2MB High Density Drive ■ WD Hard & Floppy Drive Controller ■ AT Style Keyboard ■ Color Graphic Card ■ Operation Manual : '.. ■ ; ■ ::. :: w. : : : :' : .- ! ' MEGA XT | f-~— m BARE BONE KIT 1 tJ___ _. 1« Including: ■ Step-by-Step Assembly Instructions and User System Operations ■ IBM PC/XT Fully Compatible Mother Board with 640K and Bios ■ Color Graphics Card ■ Floppy Disk Controller Card ■ One DS/DD Slim Drive {Optional 2nd Drive $95.00) ■ Flip Top Metal Case with Speaker f.Lv | only *1885. 00 ONLY $ 795. 00 I 135W Power Supply I Keyboard PLEASE CALL FOR AT, XT ADD-ON CARDS POWER SUPPLY KEYBOARD MEGA EXTERNAL SYSTEM FOR PC/XT AND AT 13S Watts XT Power Supply rv 200 Watts AT Power Supply ASK FOR OEM PRICES FOR POWER SUPPLIES IN STOCK! To Be Used On Both PC/XT and AT NO SWITCH, AUTOMATIC SELECTION! BTC 5060 AT FEATURES: ■ Solid-state capacitance low-profile key switches ■ Positive tactile feedback ■ Sculptured profile ■ Large-scale integration encoding ■ N-key rollover ■ Reliable electronic shiftlock with LED indicator ■ Auto repeat OEM Prices - Only «6a°° (min. order: 10 pes.) POWER CONTROL, HARD DISK DRIVE OR TAPE BACK-UP DRIVE. «»[♦<• ■BES3. ONLY *175. 00 SPECIFICATIONS: ■ DIMENSIONS: 15 ,, xl9'/i"x3'/!" (LxWxH) ■ SYSTEM INPUT 110-120V AC, 60Hz ■ SYSTEM OUTPUT: 4 SWITCH SOCKETS. 110-120V AC ■ OVERLOAD 15 AMP RESET CIRCUIT BREAKER ■ POWER SUPPLY: +5V, +12V DC OUTPUT WITH TWO FOUR-PIN DRIVE CONNECTORS ■ DRIVE SLOTS: SPACE FOR TWO HH DRIVES, HARD DISK; TAPE BACK-UP OR DISKETTE STORAGE ■ CONTROL SWITCH: FIVE SWITCHES-ONE MASTER SWITCH CONTROLS THE SYSTEM, FOUR ACCESSORY SWITCHES CONTROL ONE OUTLET EACH ■ COOLING FAN: DC 12V ■ SURGE PROTECTOR: EMI FILTER C.J. COMPUTERS CORPORATION (Manufacturer & Distributor) 2424 W. Ball Rd., Suite A&B, Anaheim, CA 92804 ORDER AND INQUIRY HOT LINE (714) 821-8922 (5 LINES) TLX: 3720117 JC COMPTR •90 days warranty on pans and labor. IhJIhACni&TP HPI l\/PDVI *[BM is the trademark of International Business Machines Corporation. ItvtWlCUirW L. UCl—l IrLn I I 48 BYTE- MARCH 1986 Inquiry 54 for End-Users. Inquiry 55 for DEALERS ONLY. ASK BYTE prices are down. The advantages may not be as big as they first appear, however, because almost everyone wants a battery-backed clock/calendar and one or two serial ports, etc. This being the case, it is usually economical to buy one of the multifunc- tion expansion boards that provides these, along with 384K bytes of memory. MS-DOS won't allow easy use of more than the 640K bytes this provides.— Steve PC AND VCR Dear Steve, I plan to buy an IBM PC or a PC-com- patible microcomputer. I would greatly ap- preciate it if you can cite any references that show how to interface it to a video- cassette recorder. P. L. K. Sastry Bombay, India The July 1984 issue of BYTE contains an excellent article on interfacing a video- cassette recorder to the TRS-80 Color Computer. "Computer Control of a Video Recorder" by Cy Tymony (page 1 79) de- scribes the hardware and software nec- essary to control a VCR with any com- puter capable of generating sound. The same issue of BYTE also contains articles on interfacing videodisc players and in- teractive video programming. Once you can control your VCR from your computer, you may want to use your computer to capture and modify video images. Chorus Data Systems (6 Con- tinental Blvd., POB 370, Merrimack. NH 03054) sells hardware and software for the IBM PC that allows you to capture video data and save it in your PC. Photo- base software from Chorus Data Systems lets you create a database containing both text and digitized video information. —Steve Atari Home Control Dear Steve, How plausible is it to convert an Atari 2600 to a home controller, monitor, and security system? It seems to me that the 2600 has suitable graphics, I/O, and such to do so. Is it possible to do it through the ROM cartridge connector? Has anyone published specs and schematics for the machine? It seems that it would not be dif- ficult, knowing the memory map, switches, and resident routines, to build a piece of hardware to use this machine. The firm- ware could be developed on another ma- chine. 1 have in mind applications like laboratory monitoring, robotics, weather (continued) Meet The Princeton Graphic Systems family The right monitor at the right price. Princeton Graphic Systems offers you a complete family of high performance personal computer monitors. Monitors that deliver the compatibility, resolution, and reliability you need for any application and any budget: from word processing to sophisticated business graphics. HX-12E. High resolution RGB monitor 640x350 lines noninterlac- ed - .28 mm dot pitch -Compatible with IBM Enhanced Graphics Adapter -Nonglare screen -$785 HX-12. High resolution RGB monitor -640 x 200 lines noninterlaced -.31 mm dot pitch tube-Nonglare screen -$695 MAX-12. Amber monochrome -720 x 350 lines -Enhanced to in- terface with IBM color or monochrome adapter card -Nonglare screen -Can display 16 shades of amber -$249 HX-9/9E. Nine inch, high resolution RGB monitor non- interlaced -.28mm dot pitch tube -9E compatible with IBM Enhanced Graphics Adapter -Nonglare screen -Green/amber switch -Apple/IBM colors - Etched dark glass screen -$650/$750 (9E) SR-12P. PGS's top of the line RGB monitor 640x480 lines , noninterlaced - .26 mm dot pitch - Analog input allows for the display of 4,096 possible colors -Compatible with IBM Professional Graphics Adapter -Nonglare screen -$999 SR-12. Super-high resolution RGB monitor -640 x 400 lines noninterlaced -.31 mm dot pitch tube - Nonglare screen - Requires interface card -$799 Princeton Graphic Systems. The only real choice. For office or home use, Princeton Graphic Systems has a monitor that's right for you. Inquire at your local computer store about our complete line of high resolution color and monochrome monitors; monitors that live up to the Princeton Graphic Systems 'tradition of quality, perfor- mance, and vaiue. Princeton Graphic Systems. 601 Ewing Street, Bldg. A, Princeton, N.J. 08540. (609) 683-1660 Telex: 821402PGSPRIN (800) 221-1490. Ext. 304. Princeton accessory product line. Undergraduate tilt/ swivel monitor base, ColorView card, Green/Amber switch, RGB-80 card and Scan Doubler card. PRINCETON IBM IBM Enhanced Graphics Adapter, and IBM Professional Graphics Adapter are Irademarks ol International Business Machines. Inc Compaq is s trademark of Compaq Computer Corp. Corona is a Irademark ol Corona Data Syslems, Inc. Apple is a Irademark ol Apple Computer Corp. PC World is a Irademark ot CW Communicalions Inc. SR-12 screen couhesy ol Mouse Syslems. Inc. GRAPHIC SYSTEMS AN INTELLIGENT SYSTEMS COMPANY Inquiry 279 MARCH 1986 -BYTE 49 WE STOCK WHAT WE SELL! If You Don't See It Listed Here, Call Us!! PERSONAL COMPUTERS Transportable Dual Drive 5/8 Mhz %* QQQ ZFA-138-42 1,033 Entry Level Desktop Dual Drive 5/8 Mhz %* ■* en ZF-148-42 I, 103 Professional Desktop Dual Drive 5/8 Mhz %■* nnn ZF-158-42 l,/33 Portable Dual Drive, Battery Operation %■* Q(\(\ ZFL-171-42 1,033 "AT" Compatible jn CQQ ZF-241-81 L,J33 "AT" Compatible Winchester System jo CQO ZW-241-82 0,033 =$=SPER*Y Professional Desktop Dual Drive Monochrome 5/8 Mhz $-i 7/m MODEL 200 I, itS Professional Desktop 1 Floppy, 1 20 Mg Hard Drive Monochrome 5/8 Mhz $n nil MODEL 400 LjO'W "AT" Compatible Single Floppy Drive System $n -iqq PC/IT BASIC L, 1 33 "AT" Compatible 1 Floppy, 1 44 Mg Hard Drive $0 -fan PC/IT EXPANDED J, I 33 MONITORS ZVM-122/123 $ 79 ZVM-1220/1230 $ 89 ZVM-1240 $149 ZVM-131 $189 ZVM-1330 $459 PRINTERS SG-10 $219 SG-15 $399 SG-10C $249 SR-10 $439 SR-15 $589 SB-10 $593 NB-15 $CALL Gemini 10X $169 Powertype $328 LEceno 808 $155 880 $199 1380 $280 CP-VII $840 3*sfiP Plotters SP100 $215 SP600 $818 MODEMS lilobotics Password 1200 $195 Password 300 $129 Microlink 1200 $329 Courier 2400 $429 Microlink 2400 $429 MULTIFUNCTION CARDS STS Systems Video Cards Chauffer $259 High Resolution EGA $399 Graphix + II $269 Mono + $159 SYS Systems Memory Cards Video 300G $1Z5 Big Byte 64K(384K Capacity) $129 Video 310A $153 ^J^m^m* .. . , ... color 300 $244 CCG Mainframe Links Color 600 $432 Irma Board $869 Color 722 $539 Smart Alec $759 Prices Quoted Reflect Cash Discount. Add 3% for Master Card or Visa. Prices and Availability Subject to Change without Notice. Add 3% for Shipping and Handling, $5.00 minimum. 15% Restocking Charge on All Returns. REXWIL ADVANTAGE • 60 Years in the Electronics Field. • Toll Free Technical and Service Support. • Quality Products. • Service Facilities on Premises. • There is No Limit and No Deposit on C.O.D. Orders. • We accept purchase orders from qualified corporations. Subject to approval. • Educational discounts available to qualified institutions. Use Our Convenient Toll Free Order Line. 1-800-CALL-REX Telephone Orders Only. 8:30 AM — 5:00 PM (Eastern) Mon.-Fri. P.O. Box 4585 • Philadelphia, PA 19131 Dealer Inquiries Welcome *™«M\ TOLL FREE 1 -800-CALL-REX ONICS IN PA 1-800-821-1059 Mailing Address'. REXWIL ELECTRONICS P.O. Box 4585 • Philadelphia, PA 19131 ASK BYTE monitoring, security, and climate control. I would buy your designs, but I am a medical student living on borrowed money, and the Atari 2600 is cheap. Sam Hunter Galveston, TX There are several good reasons not to use an Atari 2600 game machine as a home controller. The RAM and I/O capa- bilities are limited, and a second com- puter would have to be used for software development. Also, specs and schematics are available only to service centers; you may have a difficult time getting them. Why not use an Atari 400 or 800? You can often find a used machine in good condition for as little as $25 that would provide a programming language and ex- cellent I/O capabilities. Documentation, information, and finished products are readily available. You might want to refer to "Control Your Environment with the Atari 400/800" by David Alan Hayes (July 1983 BYTE, page 428).— Steve Scientific Databases Dear Steve, 1 would like to know where addresses of Canadian and American scientific data- bases are available. Technical databases in the field of graphic arts in connection with CAD, CAE, and CAM are especially important to me. Thanks. Claus Sternberg Salzburg, Austria The October 1984 issue of BYTE con- tains the article "Low-Cost On-Line Data- bases" (page 167). The author, Matthew Lesko, publishes a monthly newsletter that lists current free and low-cost data- bases. Contact Information USA, 4701 Willard Ave., Chevy Chase, MD 20815, (301) 657-1200. -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 do 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 Steve Ciarcia and cannot be returned. Be sure to include "Ask BYTE" in the address. The Ask BYTE staff includes manager Harv Weiner and researchers Larry Bregoli. Bill Curlew. \eannette Dojan, ]on Elson, Roger lames. Frank Kuechmann, Edward Nisley. Dick Sawyer. Andy Siska. and Robert Stek. 50 BYTE • MARCH Inquiry 296 MICROSOFT LANGUAGES NEWSLETTER Vol. 1-3 News about the Microsoft Language Family Structured programming in QuickBASIC— Part 1— Subroutines The Microsoft® QuickBASIC Compiler provides powerful structured programming features that go far beyond BASICAs FOR/NEXT, WHILE/WEND, and GOSUB statements. True subroutines with scalar and array parameters are easy to use in QuickBASIC. All variables in subroutines are local unless they are declared as shared global variables in the current module, as shown below. CALL MySort (howbig, ArrayQ) 'sort Array () 'Sieve is 1-dim 'global variable SUB MySort (limit, Sieve (1)) STATIC SHARED bubbles . . . 'MySort subprogram body END SUB QuickBASIC modular programming with separate compilation and subroutine libraries will be covered in Part 2. Interlanguage calling support added to C, FORTRAN and Pascal The current releases of Microsoft C, FORTRAN and Pascal have been enhanced to support interlanguage calling. This was accomplished by extending the language syntax in each language and by sharing the major components of the runtime libraries— program start-up, memory models, memory allocation and floating point math support. For example, in FORTRAN these extensions allow programs to call C functions with value parameters and variable length argument lists. Under XENIXf the interlanguage calling support allows the standard XENLX C libraries to be accessed from Microsoft FORTRAN and Pascal. Mixed model dynamic memory allocation in Microsoft C— Part 2 During program start-up in Microsoft C, any memory beyond the 64K limit of the default data segment is released to MS-DOS® (The amount returned can be increased by using the /CPARMAXALLOC switch to LINK or the EXEMOD utility.) This allows C programs to "exec" child programs. The first call to the near heap allocation routine, -nmalloc, creates the near heap which can use the remaining free space in the default data segment. The first call to the far heap allocation routine -fmalloc, creates the first far heap segment by requesting a block of memory from DOS rounded up to the nearest 8K (power of 2 equal or larger than the global variable _ amblksiz)- Subsequent -fmalloc calls will expand the last far heap segment up to 64K before allocating another far heap segment. When all far memory has been used, -fmalloc will try to allocate the memory from the near heap. Write tot Microsoft Languages Newsletter 10700 Northup Way, Box 97200 Bellevue, WA 98009 for product and update information. Or phone: (800) 426-9400. In Washington State and Alaska, call (206) 828-8088. In Canada, call (800) 387-6616. Microsoft, XBNIX and MS-DOS are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporaikin Latest DOS Versions: Microsoft C 3.00 Microsoft COBOL 2.10 Microsoft FORTRAN 3.31 Microsoft Macro Assembler 4.00 Microsoft Pascal 3.31 Microsoft QuickBASIC 1.00 Call for latest prices. FREE SHIPPING in the Continental United States via UPS Ground. NO SURCHARGE FOR BORe Seagate HD o Western Digital Controller 20 MEG Hard Disk System for PC" a Internal $449 External $599 For Xebec 1220 Combined Floppy /Hard Disk Controller add $75. Includes Seagate Hard Disk, Western Digital Controller, Cables, Manual, Software, and Mounting Hardware. Boots From Hard Disk 65 MS Access Time One Year Warranty • Our Hard Disk Systems are compatible with the latest versions of the following Computers: IBM PC, IBM XT, AT&T 6300, Compaq Portable, Tandy 1000, Tandy 1200, PC's Limited Turbo PC, leading Edge PC (Both Models), Sperry PC, Wysc PC, Televideo PC, Faraday Mother Boards, Corona PC, Eagle PC, ITT PC, and most other Compatibles. PLEASE SPECIFY YOUR COMPUTER TYPE WHEN ORDERING. Seagate 20 and 30 MEG High Speed 40 MS Access Time Hard Drives for AT™ Uses Linear Voice Coil Activator. Heads park automatically at power down. 20 MEG $579 30 MEG $699 Includes Seagate Full Height Hard Disk, Cables, Manual, and Mounting Ralls. Boots from Hard Disk. One Year Warranty. ■ 64K RAM Sd Of 9 Chips, 200 or 150 Nanoseconds $10 per set 256KRAM $29 $ —" d * J 150 Nanoseconds 300/1200 Baud Hayes Compatible Modem Fits in Short Slot $159 PC'S LIMITED Six Function Card • Includes J84K • ClocklCalendar • Includes Software • Parallel Port • Serial Port • Game Port Two Year Warranty ■ W/384K $129 PC's Limited AT Multifunction Card • Expandable To 3 Meg (1.5 on Board/1.5 on Piggy Back Board) • Supports 64 or 256K. Rams • Parallel Port • Serial Port (2nd Serial Optional) $199 w/0K Piggy Back Board J59 w/OK PC's Limited PC-576 RAM Board W/OK • Expandable to 576K • Supports 64K or 256K RAMS • Fits in Short Slot $69 SOLVE YOUR POWER PROBLEM. XT POWER 135 W $89 Directly replaces power supply in PC." Fully XT'" compatible. One Year Warranty ' d 52 B YTE • MARCH 1986 Inquiry 266 PRICES AND MACHINES THAT OUTRUN THE COMPETITION. OH PC'S LIMITED T ™° High Performance Competitive Price V. $795 One year warranty. PC'S LIMITED AT High Performance Competitive Price » ■■ l^P^^^]; $1995 Includes: System Unit, 640K on Mother Board, 360K Floppy Drive, Keyboard, 135W Power Supply. Hum oil Major Software written for the IBM PC and PC/XT', 40% taster, without modifitationi. (PrMtim) 16-blt 8088-2, 4.77 or 6.66MHZ Chick Speed. (Expmuion Slc-li) :8; 7 arc araiiabl* In a bo v. configuration. GW Basic $95 * IBM DOS 3.1 $85 * 8087-2 $149 One Year Warranty. * 8MHZ Option included at no extra charge. Includes: 80286-based System Unit, 102-iK on Mother Board, 1.2 MegFloppy Drive, Combined Floppy and Hard Disk Controller Card, AT Keyboard, 192W Power Supply, 2 Serials and I Parallel Port, and Clock/Calendar with Battery Backup. Rwu all Major Software written (or the IBM PC, PC XT", and PC AT". (Prwauar) Intel 80286 running of 6MHZ. (I Ipansion Stall) :8. Sam* Bw> Con figure Hon ai IBM PC AT". GW Basic $95 • IBM DOS 3.1 $85 • 80287 $195 PC's Limited Mini I/O • Serial Port • Parallel Port • Clock • Software • Fits In Short Slot PC's Limited Monochrome Graphics Fully Hercules Compatible • Text Mode 80 X 25 • Graphics Mode 720 X 348 Pixels • One Parallel Printer Port $159 Floppy Disk Drive TEAC 55-B, Half-Height, DS/DD Tcrai [lucwnurloirpriiciind niunntctiii illBcnhi»diKiior».o«BWdprodiicl,ilfulti r Out. Call Itthaicil inpport lot return lu ibo fill ( ion Dumber oo ill wirrutT rrpiin Aiii auatborUrd nun iBbjtci to i ID* rn KxUtf 'ub|«cl to change without no $109 Also available for AT"" in Gray Color. PANASONIC Half-Height, DS/DD MITSUBISHI ELECTRONICS Half-Height, DS/DD PC's Limited Universal Video Adapter $259 • Replaces numerous cards, including IBM, Hercules, Plantronics. • Provides 132 column text— color or mono ■ Supports all parallel printers and plotters • Emulates color software on monochrome monitor in 16 shades PC'S LIMITED SALESCALLS OUTSIDE TEXAS, 1-800-426-5150 1611 Headway Circle, Building 3, Austin, Texas 78754 Sates Calls from anywhere in country, (512) 339-6962 Technical Support Calls, (512) 339-6963 Customer Service Calls, (512) 339-6964 Telex No 9103808386 PC LTD MX (512) 339-6721 rtiniroolct.llchtc 'ca(.ilr. leilcrn Digital, AT1T, Cd«piq, Tjfidf. It j din| Edge, Spcrry. Vyee, Tc In Idea, hndi), Coram, t ig.tr. and ITT ire regltlcred Irldt mi/it of their nipt I lite computet. IBM PC. IBM XT. IBM AT. ire tndcmirii of IBM CorponiloD. LcuJIog Edge PC, Sperry PC. H" PC. TelcrJdco PC. Coroni PC. Ei|)c K. AT*T 6300, Tindy 1000 lad niroilcd Warranty Ad Number 403 O Inquiry 266 MARCH 1986 -BYTE 53 Inquiry 140 UNIX Multi-Link The BOSS BOAR D' High Performance MULTI-USER UPGRADE KIT for PC DOS Programs • IBM.PC, XT, AT Compatible • Up to 16 Megabytes of RAM • Unlimited Users • Supports Most Popular Terminals late T(§©Gd P.O. Box 41223 Brecksville, Ohio 44141-0223 (216) 237-4900 Excellent VAR/ISO Programs Full Line of Support Products Terminals, Cables, Memory Boards, Serial Port Boards, and Multi-user Application Programs. IBM PC® 3. PC DOS® are irademarks ol IBM Corp. Multi-Link® is a trademark ol The Software Link. Inc UNIX® is a trademark ol AT 3. T, Bell Labs CLUBS AND NEWSLETTERS Macintosh Enthusiasts of San Antonio (MESA), 61 34 Calderwood, San Antonio, TX 78249. Public-domain software library, newsletter, meetings. Annual fee: $12. TheKepner Letter, 145 Grove St., Peter- borough, NH 03458, (603) 924-9450. TRS-80 computers featured. North American One-Eighty Group (NAOG), POB 2781, Warminster, PA 18974, (215) 443-9031. Users group for the SB1 80, Steve Ciarcia's single-board computer (see September 1985 BYTE). $15 per year in- cludes 12 issues of newsletter. Sanyo User Group of the San Fran- cisco Bay Area, 1260 Westwood St., Red- wood City, CA 94061, (415) 369-2034. Monthly newsletters and public-domain software library access. Annual fee: $20. Casa Mi Amiga, c/o Kinetic Designs, 1 187 Dunbar Court, Orange Park, FL 32073. 24-hour BBS for Amiga owners at (904) 733-4515. Public-domain software. Send SASE. THe Pilot SIG, ADCIS International Head- quarters, Miller Hall Room 409, Western Washington University, Bellingham, WA 9822 5. Only members of Association for the Development of Computer-Based In- structional Systems eligible. Meetings, newsletter, workshops. Stout Microcomputer User Group (SMUG), lohn Wright, Tech Wing 248, University of Wisconsin— Stout, Menom- onie, Wl 54751. Student group, public- domain software library, meetings. MicroPublishinc Report. 2004 Curtis Ave. #A, Redondo Beach, CA 90278, (213) 376-5724. Small computers in publishing. 12 issues: $175. Free BBS, Marshfield Technologies Inc., Data Processing Services Dept., POB 761, 171 South Central Ave., Marshfield. Wl 54449. 1200-bps BBS at (715) 387-4028. Panhandle Computer Society, POB 30545, Amarillo, TX 79120-0545. Twelve SIGs, calendar, newsletter. Apple /// Users of Northern Califor- nia (ATUNC), 220 Redwood Highway #184, Mill Valley, CA 94941. Meetings, newsletter. Annual subscription: $20. Come-adore the 128, 7102 Leavitt Rd., Amherst, OH 44001, (216)986-6114. Sup- port for C-64 and 128, newsletter. Send SASE. Manasota IBM Users' Group, Robert Moss, 111 Sunset Dr., Nokomis, FL 33 555, (813) 484-1458. Meetings in Sarasota. Computer Aided Selling. The Denali Group, 1111 Third Ave., 7th Floor, Seattle, WA 98101, (206) 382-6668. News for sales- people. Annual subscription: $87. The Calgary Osborne Users Group, Greg King, 24 Edgedale Way NW, Calgary, Alberta T3A 2P8, Canada. Best for 8-bit CP/M users. Meetings. Seattle Chapter of the International Interactive Communications Society, POB 31273, Seattle, WA 98103, (206) 248-4968. Interactive video applications. Connecticut IBM PC Users Club, John McGinley, POB 291, New Canaan, CT 06840-0291, (203) 762-0229. Meetings, newsletter, public-domain software. Survival Communication Forum, 1435 Sebastopol Rd., Suite 210, Santa Rosa, CA 95407. 300- and 1200-bps, 24-hour, free BBS at (707) 545-0746. Resources for the survivalist community. Wolf's Den BBS, (316) 838-9456. 24-hour, 300-bps BBS with variety of features. SAMNA Pipeline. SAMNA International User's Group, 1088 Bishop St., Suite 407, Honolulu, HI 96813. Monthly newsletter on using SAMNA. ■ CLUBS AND NEWSLETTERS is an acknowledgment of new clubs and newsletters received at BYTE. Please allow at least (our months for your club's mention to appear. Send information to BYTE, Clubs and Newsletters, POB 372, Hancock. NH 03449. 54 BYTE • MARCH 1986 The future ... a little sooner than you expected] The Panasonic Exec. Partner. What makes it an execu- tive? The 7.16 MHz 8086-2 microprocessor for high-speed processing. So you can do more in less time. What makes it your partner? Like all ambitious achievers the Panasonic Exec. Partner gets along with others. Namely, IBM hardware and software. You'll also accomplish more with the new high-resolution plasma display. It lasts four times longer, offers clearer defini- tion and is easier to read than an ordinary screen. The Exec. Partner's built-in dual mode printer will help ACHIEVE THE POWER AND SPEED OF TOMORROW'S TECHNOLOGY TODAY. INTRODUCING THE EXEC. PARTMER ™FROM PANASONIC 5 you make a good impression. From silent, draft-quality mode to correspondence quality. The 256K internal memory has built-in expandability to 640K. So the Exec. Partner will run the most sophisticated data base management programs. And its expansion slot allows you to fulfill the needs of specific applications like telecommunications and Local Area Networks. Tomorrow's technology Donocnni^ for today's executives. The rdlWaUIIW* new Panasonic Exec. Partner. Industrial Company Get a carrying case (model FXZC751 ) at no charge with any Exec. Partner purchased through 3/31/86. For the location Of yOUr nearest participating dealer, Call 1-800-PIC-8086. IBM is the registered trademark of International Business Machines, Inc. Inquiry 2M F O R SORE Y E S THOMSON To those of you who stare and stare— and stare at computers, blessed relief has arrived. Thomson™ monitors.We promise clearer, crisper resolution, remarkable colors and print-like text. Thomson builds a full line of monitors, from basic monochrome to high- resolution color models. All are designed to fulfill your needs today, and sophisticated enough to fulfill your needs in the future. Thomson monitors are designed and built by Thomson, a $6 billion international corporation. They re going to change the way America looks at computers. Ask your local computer dealer for a Thomson monitor, or call 1-213-821-2995, ext. 34, for the Thomson dealer nearest you. Then take a stare at a Thomson monitor. It's a sight for sore eyes™ Telex 3720233. Thomson is a trademark of Thomson S.A. Model CM :ti:!l 1S1. lirdi.'iKonnl. .31mm (lol pitch RGB! color monitor with text switch and non-ejare tinted screen. THOMSON O © 1985 Thomson Consumer Products Corporation 56 BYTE • MARCH 1986 Inquiry 347 BOOK REVIEWS [ P ! I ! THE PETER NORTON PROGRAMMER'S GUIDE TO THE IBM PC Peter Norton Microsoft Press Bellevue, WA: 1985 426 pages. $19.95 THE COMPUTER CULTURE Denis P. Donnelly, editor Fairleigh Dickinson University Press Cranbury, NJ: 1985 176 pages. $24.50 MICROSOFT MACINATIONS Mitchell Waite, Robert Lafore, Ira Lansing Microsoft Press Bellevue, WA: 1985 497 pages, $19.95 THE COMPUTER LAW ANNUAL 1985 Miles R. Gilburne, Ronald L. Johnston, Allen R. Grogan, editors Harcourt Brace Jovanovich New York: 1985 405 pages, $60 THE PETER NORTON PROGRAMMER'S GUIDE TO THE IBM PC Reviewed by Donald Evan Crabb Although the information Peter Norton provides in The Peter Norton Programmer's Guide to the IBM PC is not new or unique, reading it is an education. The book picks up where Norton's \nside the IBM PC (Robert J. Brady Co., 1983) left off. Whereas the earlier book concentrates on the hardware components of the IBM Personal Computer and how they work together, the new book is written strictly with the PC programmer in mind. Both works combined provide a comprehensive technical reference to the PC. As you might expect, these books cover some material in common. For example, both explore the ROM BIOS of the PC. But the discussion in The Programmer's Guide is de- signed for the programmer. In fact, this book should be useful to anyone who needs to understand the technical NORTON PROGRAMMER'S GUIDE TO TO IBM PC details involved in creating PC pro- grams. Norton makes the distinction right from the start that he is pro- viding more than just PC program- ming knowledge. He is trying to im- part concepts about PC program- ming. Norton also concerns himself with the philosophy of programming the PC. He laces the book with explana- tions about the design concepts that permeate the entire IBM PC line. Due to Norton's wealth of experience working with PCs, this information is synthesized so that it is more useful than the usual dry engineering discus- sion that you often get in books of this kind. He carefully divides the ROM in- formation into four chapters: ROM BIOS basics, ROM BIOS video services, ROM BIOS disk services, and ROM BIOS keyboard services. The Programmer's Guide details the original PC. But keep in mind the subtitle of this book: "The ultimate reference guide to the entire family of IBM personal computers." Nor- ton explains differences between the design, construction, and systems software of the other members of the PC family and the PC. Most of the examples and information describe the Intel 8088 microprocessor and how it's pro- grammed through the services provided by the ROM BIOS and by DOS. Many of the programming examples use BASIC as the representative high-level language. Pascal and C-language examples also appear. Norton shows how to write 8088 assembly-language interface programs for each of these languages. The scope of the book extends to a number of program- ming areas. From video and disk basics, Norton moves from how the keyboard operates in programs to all the programming aspects of DOS. The final two chapters, "Pro- gram Building" and "Programming Languages," are worth the price of admission alone. Norton covers the concep- tual basics of writing, compiling and interpreting, linking, and executing programs. Especially informative are the discussions of the DOS LINK program and the logical or- ganization of assembly-language programs. Norton discusses both the IBM Pascal compiler and the generic Microsoft Pascal compiler. He discusses Pascal data formats on the PC and how to work with them, as (continued) PHOTOGRAPHED BY PAUL AVIS MARCH 1986 -BYTE 57 Western computer BREAKS THE PRICE/PERFORMANCE BARRIER WESTERN COMPUTER AT TURBO STANDARD FEATURES: ■ IBM PC/AT Compatible with 512K RAM ■ Switch Selectable 6 or 8 MHz operation ■ Up to 2 Megabytes of RAM on Main board ■ One Parallel Port & Clock/Calendar on Main board ■ Enhanced PC/AT style keyboard ■ Various mass storage and video display options available ■ One Year Warranty WESTERN COMPUTER PC/XT TURBO STANDARD FEATURES: ■ IBM PC/XT Compatible with 256K RAM ■ Switch Selectable 4.77 or 8 MHz operation ■ Up to 1 Megabyte of RAM on Main board ■ Two 360K Floppy disk drives and controller ■ 750 x 350 Monochrome graphics controller or IBM CGA compatible controller ■ Amber or green display monochrome monitor ■ Enhanced IBM PC style keyboard ■ Various mass storage, I/O, and Video display option available ■ One Year Warranty Western Computer 1381 WARNER AVE. WARNER CORPORATE PARK #8, TUSIN. CA 92680 (714) 259-7755 EUROPEAN HEAD OFFICE BELECTRONIC SA, RUE CENTRALE 43 CH-1880-BEX, SWITZERLAND PHONE (025) 631250 TELEX 456 168 ASWERBACK BELE CH. IBM PC/XT/AT/CGA are trademarks ol IBM Corp. Inquiry 374 for End-Users. 58 BYTE • MARCH 1986 Inquiry 375 for DEALERS ONLY. BOOK REVIEWS well as integers, strings, SETs, and floating-point numbers. A quote about compiler compatibility illustrates the book's usefulness: "For compatibility reasons, note that version 1 of the compiler has a floating-point format com- patible with BASIC, and that version 2 has formats com- patible with most other languages." Visual Effects Besides the intended audience, the other noticeable dif- ference between this book and \nside the IBM PC concerns the writing and editing. Norton has always had a good informational writing style, but The Programmer's Guide shows a writer who has improved at his craft. And the design, graphics, and editing of this book are superior to those of the earlier one. Illustrations are used to good effect. Pointing-hand icons are used to refer you to related material elsewhere in the book. Small logos and symbols frequently appear in a second color and differentiate discussions about the different members of the PC family: original PC, PC XT, PCjr, Portable PC, and PC AT. The 14-page index eases specific research. Three appendixes that enhance the already relevant material are entitled "In- stallable Device Drivers," "Hexadecimal Arithmetic," and "About Characters." Though I looked for them, I couldn't find any errors of fact. Norton does point out some errors, however, in IBM's own technical documentation. The Peter Norton Programmer's Guide deals primarily with the PC and the PC XT but also discusses some of the hard- ware and programming concerns of owners of the PCjr, the PC AT, and the IBM Portable PC. I recommend this guide to PC programmers and to those people who need the technical information. While the prices of technically oriented softcovers have risen, the $19.95 price of Norton's guide is reasonable consider- ing all the information that's packed into its 400-plus pages. Norton traces his selected territory well, providing helpful references to other PC publications. If you plan on some serious programming using an IBM Personal Computer, this book will be a good companion to ease you through the rough spots. Donald Evan Crabb is director of instruction and laboratories at the University of Chicago (Department of Computer Science. Ryerson Hall 163, 1 100 East 58th St.. Chicago. IL 60637). He is on the review board of InfoWorld. THE COMPUTER CULTURE Reviewed by Hugh Kenner The six talks in this book were delivered by six speakers at a symposium that Siena College staged in 1981, and aging for five years has not improved them. Universi- ty presses have a natural abhorrence of symposia— some won't consider symposium proceedings at all— and once [continued) Those who insist on C compiler performance are very big on Mark Williams. And the compiler is just part of our total C Programming System. Mark Williams' C compiler has earned a place in some very big companies for some very good reasons: it proves the benchmarks right with the speed, code density, consistent performance and expert support required in professional development environments. But a total development tool shouldn't stop with compiling. Or go on and on with extras that add up and up. Only Mark Williams' C Programming Systems includes the csd C Source Debugger with true source level debugging to speed your programming job. And only Mark Williams' new 30 version includes utilities like "make" to make quick work of even the largest projects. From source code to final product, only one takes you all the way: Mark Williams' C Programming System. All for only $495. Ask about our 60-day money back guarantee when you call 1-800-692-1700 to order today.* f|Y||| Mark You'll be big on die total C |l|||| Williams Programming system from \A/ Company Mark Williams, too. <^^?y utilities now included in the C ^jj^/r Programming System: J?"/ ' make: compiles only what's necessary f from multiple modules, a powerful pro- gramming discipline • diff: identifies differences between two files • m4: macroprocessor expression editing and substitution • egrep: extended pattern search • MicroEMACS: full screen editor with source COMPILER FEATURES • Runs under MS-DOS • Full Kernighan & Ritchie C with recent extensions including void and enum • Register variables for fast, compact code • Full UNIX™ compatibility and complete libraries • Large and small memory models • MS-DOS linker compatibility • 8087 Support • One-step compiling • English error messages • ROMable code • Linker, assembler, archiver • Extensive third party library support csd C SOURCE DEBUGGER • Debugs at C source level without assembly language • Separate evaluation, source, program and history windows • Can execute any C expression • Capabilities of a C interpreter, but runs in real time • Set trace points on any statement or variable © 1985 Mark Williams Company UNIX is a registered trademark of Bell Labs. Inquiry 220 *In Illinois call 312-472-6659- 1430 West Wrightwood Chicago, Illinois 60614 MARCH 1986 -BYTE 59 solutely the Best IBM " Compatibles! Starter System . . . $395 Case, 135 Watt Power Supply. Enhanced Keyboard, Motherboard, 8 Slots Basic System . . . $795 All the Above PLUS 256K RAM, 1 DS/DD 360K Disk Drive, 1 Srial, 1 Parallel, 1 Game Port and Floppy Disk Controller Business System.. $995 All the above PLUS RAM expanded to 640 K and a second DS/DD 360K Floppy Disk Drive Pro System ..$1575 All the above PLUS 20 Meg Hard Drive with Controller Card Ask about other configurations of these fine compatibles. Both of these machines run all major software written for the IBM. All have been thoroughly checked by our techs and have been burned-in for at least 48 hours. Both come with FREE Word Processing Software and limited use Phone Directory Software. AT Starter System . $1875 Case, 190 Watt Power Supply. AT Style Keyboard, 640K Motherboard, 8 Slots, Combination Disk Conlroller Laser Beam Printer Many Advantages over HP, No additional Cost, Quantity Discounts IBM Parallel Interface It can THINK! It's a Diablo 630 4 Resident Fonts Downloadable Fonts Choose number of copies from keyboard or software Best Price .. ..$1995 on the Market live From AB Now there is no need to lose thousands of dollars trading in your PC or XT to get a faster machine. Many programs run as fast as the AT!!! PLUS - WE BUY YOUR OLD MOTHERBOARD!!! Kit A- $399 Kit B- $499 Kit C- $1099 A-40 Impact Dot Matrix Printer Near letter quality 23 x 18 matrix, 140 cps, 3 kinds of Graphic Image, IBM Printer Compatible, Selectable Linefeeding, Push Feed Adjustable Tractor, Fanfold Single Sheets Multipart Copy Paper Usable Many More Features Only $259 A-50 $399 A-55 $550 Attention - PC Owners! DON'T Trade in Your PC or XT TURBO-IZEMI Controls 2 Floppy Disk Drives and 2 Hard Disk Drives on a 'A card!!! Great for all portable, Tandy. IBM and Compac owners who need to use a half slot card to maximize their machine capability. USE THAT 1/2 SLOT TO DO TWO JOBS - NOT 1!!! 1 $199 5 -$189 10 & up -$180 [H«.»M=*'ii.t>-> Reg. $169 BUILD YOUR OWN PC Famous Manufacturer Daisy Wheel Printer 22 cps Uses Diablo Hy-Tyge Ribbon and Wheei only S349 Tractor $69 Sheet Feeder . . ,$169 135 W Power Supply • 4 Drives Power Plugs , • Side Switch Model like IBM 1 -$109 2-3 $105 4-10 $100 Enhanced Keyboard for IBM PC Fully ism Compatible Enlarged Return Key & Shift Key LED Indicators on Cap's Lock & Number Keys 1 - $89 2-3 $85 4-10 $80 PC Case with Hinged Top Easy, Quick Access. Fits IBM PC/XT Mother Board, Hardware for Mounting 2 - 4 Drives - Quality Case, All Metal 1 -$69 2-3 $68 4-10 $65 PC-XT Mother Board IBM " Fully Compatible 8088 Micro-Processor with 8087 Math Pros Socket, 8 I/O Slots, 256K on Board Memory Assembled & Tested Board & All Components 1 -$229 3-4 $219 4-10 $200 Over 10 Call Add-Ons for IBM " PC & Compatibles Disk Controller Card 59 • Color Graphics Card 89 Disk I/O Card (2 Ser, Par. Clocks, Game).. .139 • Color Card/Parallel Port 119 Parallel Printer Card 35 • Mono Graphic Card/Printer Port 119 Hi-Res Mono Card 79 • Speaker 4.00 Serial Card 35 • Game Adapter 25 • I/O Plus Card 89 Timrm I data <^" — ] systems 2 OS/00 360K Disk Drive 384 RAM Memory, Amjer 20 MHz Monitor PI3 Built in ROM Diagnostics, 1 Expansion Slot CZF-148-428U 1 , 350 One PIUS 7 Expansion Slots CZF-158-42BU 1 ,850 One PtUS Hard Disk System. 20 Meg Winning 1/DS/DD 360K 384 RAM Memory. 8 MHz with 7 Expansion Slots CZW-158-42BU 2,429 Trans Portable 128KRAM 24.2 ids. 2 DO 360K Drives CZF-138-21 Call LEASES A VAILABLE 1 Ca " ,or auo,e ' 3S * lor Mr Morpnus. Use our Toil-Free Order Line, Mon.-Fri. 9 am - 6 pm EST New Advance Technology PC IBM PC/AT Compatible Single DS/DD 1.2 Meg Disk Drive 512K RAM, Serial Parallel Amber 20 MHz Monitor (Pi3) Expandability for up to 12 simultaneous users CZF-241-81 Call FOUr PlUS Hard Disk System Same as above including 40 Meg Hard Disk CZW-241-82BU Call Portables 14.3 ibs. 250K ram 2 Standard DS/DD/360K Drives CZ171-42 Call -822-1211 ^ COMPUTERS In Pennsylvania: 215-822-7727 252 Bethlehem Pike, Colmar, Penn 18915 BOOK REVIEWS Some pages in The Computer Culture, like the ones covering on-line conferencing, are so archaic they give off an odor of lavender. they do decide to move, their production speed can be an order of magnitude slower than the computer culture requires. I'm willing to guess that someone at Fairleigh Dickinson University Press saw "social issues" seeming to be addressed and finally gave a green light on the princi- ple that social issues evolve less quickly than hardware. The symposium was "part of Siena College's integrated humanities program" (translation: nothing too technical here), and the editor, Denis P. Donnelly, dithers mightily to persuade us that the jargon of social science, of which he is far from being a native speaker, can confer humane generality on something as rinky-dink as "the transistor switch." Here's a sample: "When changes effect quantitative dis- placements, they also become agents of qualitative change in a given environment whether one is logging in a forest or waging war on a battlefield, for example." If prose, like Pascal, required writers to declare their vari- ables, a sentence like that would detonate error messages. What it's trying to say is probably something like, "The transistor by its sheer speed has changed everything: so grab your hat and read on." Like most of the introductory matter, what it's also say- ing is, "These big themes require big ponderous sen- tences. We address major issues here. The world we all grew up in slips from our grasp. Accredited themes for worry are well known: big machines, big changes. Big Brother. We'll all be worrying along." Let me get most of this out of the way quickly. Some pages, like the ones covering a discussion of on-line con- ferencing, are so archaic they give off an odor of lavender. Elsewhere familiar worries are reinforced. While the com- puter can model fearfully complex interrelationships, we must beware of assumptions that get built into the model: "We are never free from the potential for misuse." That is something we'd all heard before we came in. Likewise, "We need computer systems and the information they pro- duce, but somehow their limitations must be recognized." Somehow! You could glean as much from any op-ed page. The first half of the book is about "Artificial Intelligence," the second half about "Computer Influences in Modern Culture." The former is unexpectedly rich: I'll come to it. The latter does contain one chunk of meat: Alan F. Westin's discussion of privacy, technology, and regulation. The market, Westin reminds us, "deserves our continued respect" because "much of what could be done by com- [continued) 60 BYTE- MARCH 1986 Inquiry 4 Now the biggest name in C compilers comes in a size everybody can afford. Let's C: $75 Introducing Mark Williams' $75 C compiler. Want to explore C prograrnming for the first time? Or just on your own time? Now you can do it in a big way without spending that way. With Lets C. This is no little beginners model. Let's C is a powerful programming tool, packed with all the essentials of the famous Mark Williams C Programming System. The one chosen by Intel, DEC, Wang and thousands of professional programmers. The one that wins the benchmarks and the reviewers' praise: "(This compiler) has the most professional feel of any package we tested. . ."—BYTE "Of all the compilers reviewed, (it) would be my first choice for product development."— David W. Smith, PC WORLD And now for more big news. Get our revolutionary csd C Source Debugger for just $75, too. Use this coupon or charge by calling toll-free: \iou can breeze throueh 1-800-MWC-1700. In HI. call 312-472-6659. A . k4 ». ^ debugging at the C source level ignoring clunky assembler code. Affordable, powerful, debuggable. Mark Williams Lets C is the big name C compiler at a price you can handle. Get your hands on it now Mark Williams Let's C • For the IBM-PC and MS-DOS • Fast compact code plus register variables • Full Kernighan & Ritchie C and extensions • Full UNIX" compatibility and complete libraries • Small memory model • Many powerful utilities including linker, assembler, archiver, cc one-step compiling, egrep, pr, tail, wc • MicroEMACS full screen editor with source • Supported by dozens of third party libraries • Upgradeable to C Programming System for large scale applications development Let's C Benchmark Done on an IBM-PC/XT, no 8087. Program: Floating Point from BYTE, August, 1983. Exec Time in Seconds Let's C 134.20 MS 3.0 347.45 ORDER NOW! 60-DAY MONEY BACK GUARANTEE! Mark Williams Let's C Please send tad copies of Lets C and copies of csd ( C Source Debugger ) at 575 each. (111. residents add 7% sales tax.) LJ Check LJ Money Order CI Visa, MasterCard or American Express Address- City_ Zip_ Card#_ . Exp. Date- Signature _ 1430 West Wrightwood Chicago, Illinois 60614 Mark Williams Company Inquiry 221 © 1985 Mark Williams UNIX is a trademark of Bell Labs. Inquiry 335 Uirbo Pascal Programmers: Ihrbo-Task will make your program resident just like Sidekick! You only need to add two lines to your source code. One declares Turbo-Task as an external procedure and the other is a call to Turbo-Task. There is only one parameter to pass, the numerical value of the key that will invoke your program. When you call Turbo-Task your program is installed in memory and can then be invoked at any time by pressing the "invoke key." The user can pop in and out of your software at will without disturbing any program in operation. Up to 16 programs can use Turbo-Task at the same time, each with its own invoke key and independent window. Turbo-Task does not interfere with SIDEKICK. Works with TURBO EDITOR and GAMEWORKS. Ram-Page changes the Display Buffer Address Hard to believe, right? But it works. Ram-Page pulls a fast one on Turbo Pascal and changes the value of the display buffer segment. This allows you to make a text page in the heap and then use any of Turbo's text handling procedures just as if you were writing to the screen. Write, Writeln, Clrscr, InsLine, DelLine, Gotoxy will be redirected to work on thetext page. Ram-View allows you to display any portion of the text page on the screen. This "window" is automatically updated as writes are made to the text page. Ram-Page handles up to 16 pages of any size. 256k of heap can be allocated as 80 chars by 1600 lines! The statement "Gotoxy (1, 1600)" is now a reality. Turbo Linker breaks the 64k Code Segment Barrier Turbo-Linker performs two important functions: it allows your program to grow beyond 64k, and it eliminates the need to continually recompile debugged routines. Turbo-Linker will convert a set of your procedures into a module that can be loaded into the heap at run time. These procedures will operate in the heap thus freeing space in the code segment for the main program. In effect, it is using the heap for overlays, except these "overlay" modules can be shared by any number of programs. Once you create a module, you never have to recompile it. You can maintain a library of modules of your frequently used procedures. You can load up 16 modules into a program, each with up to 64 procedures or functions. All these utilities - ONLY $70 Tangent" 180 North Wacker Drive • Suite350 • Chicago, IL 60606 • (312)263-0024 MC/VISA Supports version 3.0 for PC-DOS and MS-DOS Turbo Pascal, Turbo Editor, Gameworks and Sidekick are trademarks of Borland Intl. j^^ihe J\ m 1 6 gives you Out of This World Performance :«4*S !»** PLUS PC COMPATABILITY! Features: • 8 MHz 80186 microprocessor with true 16-bit data bus. • True PC compatability with our own custom ROM BIOS and PC cardslots for the video of your choice. • Standard 512K zero wait DRAM, 640K or 1M options. • 8087 numeric coprocessor port. • On-board floppy disk con- ^^- troller for up to four 5V<" r^J drives. ^•i On-board SCSI hard disk con- troller port. FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT: NEW LOWER PRICES POTI P.O. Box 128 904 North 6th Street Lake City, MN 55041 (612) 345-4555 Kits • Not So Bare Board $250 • Quick Kit $625 • Full Kit $795 • Assembled and Tested . . . $895 • 128K Add-On $ 90 • V4 MEG Add-On $240 • XT Style, Flip Top Enclosure $ 85 • 150 Watt Power Supply . .$135 • 5'/4" 48TPI DS Vi Height Floppy Disk Drive $125 Total Solutions: Assembled and Tested Systems • Mono-Chrome System . .$1,865 Includes: 640K, Power Supply, Enclosure, Keyboard, Monitor, Two Drives, and Printer Port. • Color System Call " Quantity Discounts Upon Request • Call For Info on Add-Ons, Hard Disks, Etc. BOOK REVIEWS puters will be done on a large scale in the United States only if someone can make a great deal of money from it or if the government is willing to pay for it." Most of the Big Brother talk we've heard implies "awesomely ex- pensive" implementation, and "Information is a power resource that nobody gives freely." In fact, "We can . . .often give greater protection to in- formation in a computer system than in the highly decen- tralized, leaky manual-record era." No, Westin's not sanguine, but "as long as we keep on struggling, pointing out the potential abuses. . .we will not be caught un- aware." He discerns "an interesting marriage between the liberal political and the strong conservative viewpoints on limiting information abuse," and he's right. That is one rewarding stretch in this book, and the other is the AI section. MIT's Marvin Minsky and Yale's Roger C. Schank set up a discussion that never gets off the ground because on page 79, "Influences in Modern Culture" drearily takes over. I don't downplay Minsky if I call Schank especially interesting. Minsky's format didn't allow him to canvass particulars the way Schank's did, and Schank gives as lucid an account of his script-recognition work as you'll find anywhere. How does a program work its way through a story so effectively it can answer questions the story leaves im- plicit? By translating downward into a more general lan- guage with, for instance, just 1 1 "verbs." "Eleven primitive actions can express all human activities that there are in the world." A fascinating claim, and we're shown the list. Schank is saying that if we stay inside a system of words we can hope to generate whatever additional words may be required to pass Turing's test. (Turing's test implied that a machine might as well be called "intelligent" if a ques- tioner couldn't tell it wasn't.) In a "Postscript" the Siena audience apparently never heard, Skidmore's Warren Hockenos denies that radically. You cannot, he implies, reduce "meaning" by altering strings of tokens to other strings of tokens; "meaning" implies an intending in- telligence. When I say "horse" I assert my perception of a horse, "real" perhaps or hallucinatory perhaps, but somehow perceived, by me, and that matters. How it matters we might have learned if Schank had answered, but as far as I can tell they never heard each other. That's the major botched opportunity in a botched book. Hugh tenner is a professor of English at ]ohns Hopkins University {Baltimore. MD 2 12 18). MICROSOFT MACINATIONS Reviewed by Scott L. Norman Microsoft Macinations is an excellent self-teaching guide to Microsoft BASIC as implemented on the Macin- tosh. Mitchell Waite, Robert Lafore. and Ira Lansing have {continued} 62 BYTE- MARCH 1986 Inquiry 265 A NEW SOLUTION from Microcomputer Accessories. Inc. OPEN AND SHUT CASE. Shut— LOCKIMQ SO DISK +HFILE Holmes, it's criminal — these "sloppy disks" all over the desk! How can we keep them secure and dust-free and still have access to the active ones? Mystery solved, Watson. This new 50 + 4 Locking Disk File provides a locking, smoked plastic enclosure for up to 50 5V4" diskettes, plus an open, up-front, instant access, swap-rack for 4 diskettes. Let me call your attention to the built-in handle, and the adjust- able dividers with adhesive labels. Note the rear storage pocket for extra labels. By Jove, Holmes, open and shut simulta- neously! It's perfect for those powerful integrated, multi-disks systems — and no one's thought of it before! Holmes, you never cease to amaze me. Elementary, my dear Watson. Microcomputer 0* t Accessories, Inc. ^|JP Built-in carry handle USA: P.O. Box3725, Culver City, CA90231. Telephone 213/641-1800. EUROPE: Rue de Florence 37, 1050 Bruxelles, Belgique. Telephone02/538.61.73- Inquiry 235 for End-Users. Inquiry 236 for DEALERS ONLY. MARCH 1986 ■ B Y T E 63 VIP SERVICE ' Anoek 8 - T | {& ::r ~\ n ' - k * ■i .11. J* 1 r & - » 1 If you 're a serious PC user, you know that even the finest personal computer products can develop problems. When that happens, Micro Mart customers know they can trust us to get them on-line again. We have the largest in-house service de- partment in the Southeast. Our experienced technicians offer the fast, reliable service that business needs. Plus expert advice and information to help you select the right PC options from our $15 million inventory. Micro Mart service and support. For some very important people. Our customers. Call us today. COMPUTERS AT&T Color and Mono Systems in stock Start at $1 795 MULTIFUNCTION BOARDS We have a complete line of Multi- function Boards compatible with the Portable, XT/AT. SIX PAK 64-384K, multifunc I/O MINNIE I/O shortboard for Portable & AT New low Price! ADVANTAGE 128K-3Mb, expansion for AT RAMPAGE 64K-2Mb NEW! QUADRAM QUADBOARD Loaded, 384K CALL! 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KENSINGTON MICR0WARE MasterPiece $99 CURTIS Accessories, Pedestals, cables, etc. $45 GRAVIS Joysticks QUADRAM Microfazer print buffer 8-1 28K From $1 29 TRIPPELITE ISOBAR surge protectors, 4 & 8 plug From $49 POLAROID Palette_ $1245 MONITORS AND CRTS PGSMax12(E),HX12,HX12(E), & SR-12 New Low Prices! AMDEK Color 600 CALL! AMDEK 722, New alternative to IBM enhanced monitor $569 AMDEK 300A/300G/ 310A $129/$119/$165 ©Copyright 1986, Micro Mart, Inc. Technology Corporate Campus 3159 Campus Drive Norcross, Georgia 30071 Prices are subject to change without notice and are similar, but may vary at over 20 Micro Mart Retail Stores. Leasing and financing options are available. MasterCard/VISA or ask for Micro Mart Blue Chip Credit. YOUR PKRSONALaUIF.CHIP CARD 1234 567 890 123 (404) 449-8089 Orders only 1-800-241-8149 BT3/86 America's PC Specialist Inquiry 233 MARCH 1986 I Y T E 65 1 .....,...£.- ™. <-urjufciu>»i.>ijuiS) iiiuiiuuntmernirpuiauuii. LUUIL-UNbl ~lX?uii.-untT" and COMPKEHENSION" are trademarks ofThundcrctone Corporation, a division of Ex pansiun Pnigratus International, and tequite a I28K IBM PC or compatible with at least one diskette drive and run under MS/DOS 2 I and up. Advertising & PR hy TRBA. 40K/25X-270K. Inquiry 65 MARCH 1986 • B YT E 67 FNHANCED GRAPHICS ADAPTER c A L L SUPER DISCOUNT WHOLESALER BTE COMPUTERS, INC. C A L L IBM XT 512K. FLOPPY S19BB IBM XT 512K.20MEG HD J2488 IBM AT 512K floppy $3288 IBM AT 512K. 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BOOK REVIEWS The authors use a simple program fragment to introduce a major topic, then build upon it by describing how to add more polished options. the reader with code that can be used to add menus to BASIC programs. Like the commercial variety, user-written menus can include such niceties as check marks to indicate the last selection made and dimmed lettering for selec- tions that are unavailable at a particular point. The step-by-step approach is characteristic of this part of the book. The authors use a simple program fragment to introduce a major topic, then build upon it by describ- ing how to add more polished options. The attentive reader can wind up with the beginnings of a nice library of core routines for civilized programming. The book then covers video "buttons" activated with a mouse click. There are three types: push buttons, which make things happen immediately, and radio buttons and check boxes, both of which can be used to make selec- tions that will influence some subsequent action. The DIA- LOG function is introduced as the means of determining which button, if any, has been "clicked." Windows, dialog boxes, and edit fields (like the filename box in the "Save As. . ." window) are covered at length. The versatile DIALOG gets a major workout here. The reader can learn how to set up dialog boxes that will ac- cept either the clicking of a "Save" button or the press- ing of the Enter key on the Mac's keyboard to record data in an edit field: another example of using built-in routines to add polish to your own code. QuickDraw The most publicized of the Mac's ROM resources is prob- ably the QuickDraw family of graphics routines, reached from BASIC with a CALL statement. The authors contrast QuickDraw with LINE, CIRCLE, and similar functions of other Microsoft BASICS. The concept of QuickDraw's pen metaphor for drawing leads to other topics: functions for drawing lines and changing the size and pattern of the pen itself. This in turn brings up the idea of representing an 8 by 8 arrangement of pixels (the pen pattern) as an array of hexadecimal numbers for storage in the Mac's memory. There is even a BASIC program. Pattern Editor, with which you can create a pattern in a FatBits-like window; the program then generates the associated integers. In one of the book's few miscues, the backslash symbol for integer division is used in this program without ever being defined in the text. The final topics in the chapter include the PENMODE {continued) 68 B YTE • MARCH 1986 Inquiry 92 Finally! File Names That Make Sense! TM Organizes Your Files, Simplifies DOS, and Speeds Up Your PC Every time you face the maze of 8 character file names in your computer you probably wonder why there isn't a better way. At TranSec Systems we felt the same way. So we developed a better file management program for our own use and after using this new program we knew every PC should have it. The Heart of PCEasy, The heart of the PCEasy system is its expanded 32 character capability to name your files. Thus you can use easily remembered names, plain words, - even dates - to name your files. You can also name file "folders" to place reports, letters, spreadsheets, programs or whatever in their own logical, easy to find place. With PCEasy you can forget those half forgotten or cryptic file names. And to keep it easy, you don't have to type the name again and again to access the file. All you have to do is select the file you want and PCEasy finds it for you -- fast! PCEasy file names work with most of the popular application programs such as Lotus 1-2-3™, Symphony™ dBase III™, and Framework™. In fact, PCEasy works with nearly any program because it translates PCEasy file names to standard DOS file names for your program application - automatically! PCEasy makes your work easier in other ways, too. PCEasy features quick, easy menu access to your application programs and DOS operating commands. You just select the function you want and PCEasy does the rest for you. PCEasy Makes Your Computer Work Faster Too. We've added some other features we think you'll like. Commands are performed faster and DOS runs faster and more efficiently. We've even added an expanded "type ahead" buffer to keep the system speedy. PCEasy Makes Your Work Easier, and is Easy To Use. You can use PCEasy without learning a lot of new, complicated commands and extra keystrokes. PCEasy actually prompts you through DOS commands and on-line help is always available. PCEasy works with any IBM PC, XT, AT or compatible computers. DOS 2.1 or higher and 256K or larger is required. Not Copy Protected Special Introductory Offer! Save 15% Off the Regular Price of $74.95 for PCEASY™ Call Today to Order Your Copy (305) 474-7548 Only $63.50 (For a Limited Time Only) Please Add $5.00 Shipping and Handling (Foreign Orders $15.00) Use your fjj 3 or SQ) Inquiry 357 17:41 C:\DOCUMENT>dir/w Directory of C:\D0ClTIEKT ANGELS HOC DEALERS TXT FMJNLl TXT GEISZPMT 893 1GLSERV TSI I .EASEEND JBG LINTON 1 NOTE TSI POUINEIL IOC RESUME TXT STHLDB91 TSI.CASH TXT ((PRINTER FIL STEARNS PUT BRANCH TXT DFL-TEH1 TSI GEISZ125 LTR GEISZFHT 884 INTKL1HV IOC LETTER HED MANAGING TXT OFFER TSI PFHJ91? EXT RETURN.!) TXT STDCKHLD TXT IIHL0CO TXT Y ACCEPT AN TSI BYTE BEG DFL.SVC TSI GEISZDEC LTR ItT.IFL TSI JIG-CSLT TSI LICENSE HOC MEMO PAY0UT2 TXT PRINTER EXE SALES.HI FN SUIORD IFL USER.INS TXT WPHEX SUP A11UM1 AH1 BYTE LTR DIR1INF0 TXT GEiszmr 881 lcijicnr tsi JIG-TERM TSI LICENSE IGI M1N8B29 TXT PCNEEIL TXT REGISTER CRD SETTLE JIG SUIORD JBG UPFEED FIL .1X1 2,383 7/19/85 18:22. DLRINFO .1X1 1,558 11/18/85 11:58a LEASEAIi.KK 1,848 7/82/85 5:88p FSG_QC_I.TXT 1,554 12/B6/BS 6:48p BYTE 111 2,819 18/25/85 S:S3p POUHEU.BOC 2,648 7/B9/85 S:8Bp PC_UEEK_.TXT 26B 7/82/85 S:88p MMWIM .1X7 9,725 8/13/85 5:3Bp LICENSE IGI 12,141 9/17/85 3:24p STHTD891. 3,719 12/16/85 3:34p ALDUni .AW 3.873 7/16/85 3:33p USE«_ I US . 1X1 28,272 7/82/85 6:B2p UNLOOLU.TXI 1,558 11/81/85 S:12p IEC1STEI.CU PC EASY FILES MENU PfinsRV PROGRAMS]- Framework ■(Morton Utllltlnl DOS T. 16 f> January 19Bfc 5:27:39 i ■-mmw/TTT rrmirnrT^iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiM Con 'I In novo Pllit PI In •olata riloa Prl.t Plln (Otkar BOB Co-.nda] A: (f) 94* I: (t) Idle C: (h) I: (h) S7Z COM: C0M1: [frets Enter for H elp in using puEasy. PC EASY PROGRAM MENU The company that brought you UnLock ™ to remove copy protection TM TranSec Systems, Inc. 1802-200 North University Drive Plantation, FL 33322 DEALER AND VAR INQUIRIES INVITED Trademarks are the sole property of their respective owners MARCH I986 -BYTE 69 Inquiry 281 So you can't get Toshiba Printer Accessories, Bunkie? Any time (24 hours) grab your VISA or MasterCard ffl 800/854-0561 " IN CALIFORNIA CALL 800/432-7257 EXT 837 Type Font Cartridge: P351, P341,P321 Type Font Disks (Downloadable) T/FC011 S69 Bold Face Letter Gothic T/FC012 J69 Elite Italic Gothic 15 T/FC013 JB9 Greek/Math I jv.m^a-dsis APLI ')]VA*+ ,+./«I T/FC014S69 Greek/Math II i " »$*» abtaeez SClPil •■"-*( <,.\' L1 «f*a T/FC015S69 OratorI Orator2 T/FC016S69 Outlinal Sclipt T/FC017S59 Theme Lital ic T/FC018S69 Bl ta l I c 1 OCR-B Ribbon for 3-in-One Printers G/FD051 J50: Sci 4. Sci 5, Sci 124. Sci 125 G/FD052 J25: Miniset G/FD053 $30: Maxisel T/FD016 $69: T Origin 2, L Gothic 2. B Italic 1 . 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Complete instructions included. lr»H!liWR7T.DEALERS WELCOME!! 99% Haves comDatible 300/1200 ' Auto dial, nuio answer (tone or pulse) • 8 status indicators & switch selectable ■ Auto speed selection {0-300. 1200 bps," • Speaker with volume control • Aluminum case, w/adaptor 7 Days Money Back Guaranj (except handling S15) 6 MONTH WARRANTY Modern board completely assembled, & guaranteed. 5 minutes assembly. SEMI-ASSEMBLED MODEM <£-| -jQUISflaEp KIT ™ ™ ALPHA CONCORD MODEM ONLY* $1 39 $129 PC/XT 1200 bps Add 5% Shipping Charge INTERNAL MODEM $125 NEW!! Make PC/XT/Compatible run 30% to 50% £__ __ faster 4.77/6.77 Mhz switchable. Easv to install. $29.95 BUILD YOUR PORTABLE XT/AT XT PORTABLE $399 (Price includes only case, full size keyboard, 9" monitor, 130 watt power supply.) (Fit mega/XT/AT m-board & standard cards.) Replacement & 99% Compatible AT COMPATIBLE MOTHERBOARD Size, weight & look likes Compaq. CONCORD Technology Ltd. 47 W. Broadway, Van., B.C. Canada V5Y 1P1 Ph. (604) 879-3555 or (604) 879-7419 $750 Bareboard SCall XT or APPL lie MOTHERBOARD $155 each tested guaranteed 99% compatible Color card -$70 Control card $45 FACTORY PRICES ON AT/XT or lie cases, cards, keyboards (minimum 25) SCall BOOK REVIEWS Anyone mastering all this material could possbily write a BASIC version of MacPaint. statement and the ways in which its eight modes affect the relationship between the pixels of the pen and pat- tern and the background, and the use of QuickDraw's built- in routines for drawing rectangles, round-corner rectangles, and ovals. Anyone mastering all this rriaterial could pos- sibly write a BASIC version of MacPaint as a final exercise. Microsoft Macinations returns to more conventional topics with a discussion of sequential and random-access disk files. First, the reader is gently led through the commands for opening, closing, writing to, and reading from a se- quential file. Next come the useful Mac-specific functions FlLES$(0) and FILES$(1). The former sets up a dialog box for saving a file, complete with prompting message and push buttons. FILES$(l), on the other hand, allows you to select the name of an existing disk file from a scrolling dialog box. There is a brief discussion of file-type identi- fiers and their use in restricting the names that appear in the box. The coverage of sequential files ends with a little pro- gram that creates a simple employee file and calculates total pay from pay rate and hours worked. The same topic is used as an example in the discussion of random-access files. This portion of the book includes a nice treatment of the necessary conversion of numeric variables to char- acter strings before they can be written to a random- access file. The use of index tables for finding your way around a file is touched upon; no sample programs are developed, however. The last two chapters cover animation and multivoice sound— possibly as rewards for mastering the material on files. The GET and PUT statements, which together with PSET and PRESET form the basics of animation, are in- troduced. The authors present a convenient form of the equation for computing the size of the one-dimensional array needed to store image points. They also explain the use of a two-dimensional array for storing multiple images for animation. The final topic in the animation chapter is interfacing with MacPaint— that is, importing images through the Clipboard. That is as close as the book comes to discussing the Mac's generalized device I/O. Multivoice sound depends on two commands: SOUND and WAVE. The final chapter of Microsoft Macinations deals with them. Here you can find the details of how to set up a data array to simulate the equal-tempered scale. There are numerous routines for adding sound effects to games, programming music chords, and experimenting with nonsinusoidal waveforms. The last program is a rather elaborate waveform tester that allows you to experiment [continued] 70 B YTE • MARCH I986 Inquiry 94 THE PROFESSIONAL'S CHOICE ■£*" Lotus 1-2-3 $319 -^ Lotus Symphony $439 $369 S n $369 $219 Perfect 4-1 $209 Software Word Processing Ed FANCY FONT FINAL WORD MICROSOFT WORD MULTIMATE MULTIMATE ADVANTAGE OFFICE WRITER/ SPELLER PF8: WRITE SAMNA WORD III VOLKSWRITER DELUXE VOLKSWRITER SCIENTIFIC WORD PERFECT 4.1 WORDSTAR WORDSTAR 2000 WORDSTAR 2000+ WORDSTAR PRO XYWRITE lh Database Systems ALPHA DATA BASE MANAGER II CLIPPER CLOUT V 2.0 CONDOR III CORNERSTONE DBA8E III KNOWLEDGEMAN 2 PARADOX PC FOCUS PF8: FILE/PFS: REPORT POWERBASE OUICKCODE III OUICKREPORT R BASE 5000 REFLEX REVELATION Spreadsheets/ Integrated Packages ELECTRIC DESK ENABLE FRAMEWORK II JAZZ LOTUS 1-2-3 MULTIPLAN OPEN ACCESS SMART SYSTEM SPREADSHEET AUDITOR SUPERCALC 3 SYMPHONY itors S139 $179 $219 $219 $269 $159 $269 I209 1199 249 289 259 1189 $209 348 369 $399 319 $135 359 $529 $109 $209 $439 Graphics BPS BUSINESS GRAPHICS CHARTMASTER CHARTSTAR DIAGRAM MASTER EXECUVISION ENERGRAPHICS FREELANCE GEM DRAW GRAPHWRITER COMBO IN-A-VISION MS CHART -NEW OVERHEAD EXPRESS PC DRAW PC PAINTBRUSH PFS: GRAPH SIGNMASTER Project Management HARVARD TOTAL PROJECT MANAGER $279 MICROSOFT PROJECT-NEW $249 PROJECT SCHEDULER NETWORK $339 SUPERPROJECT $209 TIMELINE 2.0 $299 Desktop Environments DESK ORGANIZER $ 69 GEM DESKTOP $ 39 SIDEKICK $ 39 Communications/ Productivity Tools CROSSTALK $ 99 CROSSTALK MKIV $149 PROKEY $ 89 KEYWORKS $ 59 RELAY GOLD SC.II REMOTE $119 SMARTERM $C.II SMARTCOM II $99 SUPERKEY $ 55 Statistics SPSS/PC $695 STATPAK-NWA $329 STATPAC- WALONICK $349 SYSTAT $419 Professional Development LIGHTYEAR $319 THINK TANK $109 Languages/Utilities CONCURRENT DOS C86 C COMPILER Dfl FORTRAN 77 FASTBACK LATTICE C COMPILER MARK WILLIAMS C MICROSOFT C COMPILER MS BASIC COMPILER MS FORTRAN NORTON UTILITIES OUICK BASIC TURBO PASCAL XENIX Accounting BPI GREAT PLAINS IUS EASYBUSINESS ONE WRITE PLUS OPEN SYSTEMS PEACHTREE REAL WORLD STAR ACCOUNTING PARTNER STAR ACCOUNTING PARTNER II $299 $479 $319 $179 $359 $289 $369 $249 $529 Hardware Display Boards AST PREVIEW $279 EVEREX EDGE $309 EVEREX GRAPHICS EDGE $319 GENDA SPECTRUM $Call HERCULES GRAPHICS CARD $299 HERCULES COLOR CARD $159 PARADISE MODULAR GRAPHICS $275 PARAOISE MULTIDISPLAY CARD $285 SIGMA COLOR 400 $489 STB CHAUFFER $279 TECMAR GRAPHICS MASTER $459 TSENG ULTRA PAK $429 TSENG ULTRA PAK-S $369 Multifunction Boards AST ADVANTAGE $389 AST 6 PAK PLUS (64K) $229 AST 6 PAK PLUS 384K) $249 GOLD QUADBOARD (OK) $419 ORCHID BLOSSOM (OK) $199 ORCHID BLOSSOM (384K) $249 ORCHID PC TURBO (256K) $699 PERSYST TIME SPECTRUM (OK) $199 PERSYST TIME SPECTRUM (384K) QUADBOARD (OK) OUADBOARD (384K) SILVER QUADBOARD TECMAR CAPTAIN (OK) TECMAR CAPTAIN (384K) TECMAR JR CAPTAIN (128K) TECMAR WAVE (64K) Emulation Boards AST 5251-11 AST 5251-12 AST BSC AST SNA CXI 3278/9 Plus IRMA IRMALINE Networks AST PC NET CORVUS NET ORCHID PC NET 3COM $249 $189 $219 $219 $199 $229 $289 $209 599 549 489 599 959 799 SCall SCall SCall $Call Mass Storage/Backup EXCEL STREAM 60 TAPE (INT) $899 IOMEGA BERNOULLI BOX-NEWI $2445 IRWIN 310A 10MB TAPE (EXT) $850 IRWIN 110D 10MB TAPE (INT) $499 MAYNSTREAM 60MB TAPE (INT) $1199 MOUNTAIN ORIVECARD 10MB $789 TALLGRASS $Call TECMAR QIC-60AT TAPE (INT) $1199 Monitors AMDEK 310A $169 AMDEK 300/500 $249/349 AMDEK 600/710 $449/469 PRINCETON HX-12 PRINCETON MAX-12E PRINCETON SR-12 PRINCETON HX-12E $559 PRINCETON HX-9 $529 TAXAN 122 AMBER $159 TAXAN 630/640 $469/539 Modems AST REACH 1200 HAYES 1200 HAYES 1200B HAYES 2400 TRANSNET 1000 VENTEL 1200 HALF CARD WATSON $389 $389 $349 $579 $299 $369 $489 Printers/Plotters BROTHER TWINWRITER $939 DIABLO SCall EPSON FX-85 $369 EPSON FX-185 $499 EPSON LO-1500 $999 HP 7475A $C»I JUKI 6300 $699 NEC ELF 350 $439 NEC 3550 $1139 OKIDATA193 $539 QUME SPRINT 1155 $1569 SWEET P 600 $839 Tl 855 $799 TOSHIBA P351 $1129 Input Devices KEYTRONIC 5151 $179 KOALA $109 MICROSOFT MOUSE $129 PC MOUSE W PAINTBRUSH $129 Accessories CURTIS SURGE PROTECTORS DATASHIELD BACKUP POWER GILTRONIX SWITCHES MASTERPIECE PLUS MICROFAZER INLINE (64K) TRIPPLITE BACKUP POWER 256K RAM SET 8087 MATH CHIP JCall Helcules Mountain Graphics Card I Drivecard 10 $299 $789 Quadboard I Six Pak Plus I Smartmodem I Smartmodem 384K 384K 1S00B 2400 $219 $249 $349 $579 •CALL FOR SHIPPING COSTS LOWEST PRICE GUARANTEE!! We will match current nationally advertised prices on most products. Call and compare. free Diskette Library Case with your order TERMS: Checks— allow 14 days to clear. Credit processing— add 3%. COD orders— cash. MO or certified check— add $5.00. Shipping and handling UPS surface— add $3.00 per Item (UPS Blue$8.00 per item). NY State Residents— add applicable sales tax. All prices subject to change. In New York State call (718) 438-6057 ■EZSSH MON.-THURS. 9:00AM-8:00PM ■I SUN. & FRI. 9:00 AM-4:00 PM n -I I lit- Softline Corporation P.O. Box 729, Brooklyn, N.Y: 11230 TELEX: 421047 ATLNUI FAX: 718-972-8346 MARCH I986 -BYTE 71 B36 The right prices. The right IBM HARDWARE AST Lisl Oiirn SixPak Plus 64K $395 $239 SixPak Plus, 384K, S/P/CC .... $895 $269 Advantage Multif Brd lor AT. . . $595 $425 CENTRAL POINT PC Option Board $ 95 $ 81 COMX 130 Walt Power Supply $179 $ 93 CORE Hard Disks for AT ATplus 20 meg for AT «1S95 $1395 ATplus 30 meg for AT $1995 $1695 ATplus 56 meg for AT $3595 $3195 EVEREX The Edge, Color/Mono Board . . $399 $269 HAUPPAGE (HCW) 8087 Chip $175 $125 8087-2 Chip $225 $175 80287 Fast-5 Chip $295 $229 HERCULES Color Card with Parallel Port . . $245 $165 Mono Graphics Card $499 $319 INTEL Above Board 64K for PC $395 $299 Above Board 128K for AT $595 $449 KENSINGTON Masterpiece Plus $180 $129 KEYTRONIC Keyboards KB5151 or KB5151 Jr $255 $189 MICROSOFT Mouse $195 $125 128K Booster with Mouse (Jr) . . $295 $195 MOUNTAIN 20 meg Drive Card $1195 $945 MOUSE SYSTEMS PC Mouse with Paint $220 $145 Mouse with Software (Jr) $220 $138 PERSYST PC Mono Board w/Par Port . . . $250 $159 Color Board $210 $139 QUADRAM Quadboard no RAM to 384K . . . $295 $195 Quadboard 384K S/P/CC/G . . . $595 $279 Quadcolor 1 Board 4 colors $295 $175 RACORE Expansion Chassis Plus (Jr) .... $675 $459 256K Expansion Board (Jr) .... $275 $179 TALLTREE JRAM II board $219 $159 JRAM III 256K Board $399 $309 TITAN PC Accelerator 128K VIDEO 7 Mono Graphics Card MGC with Parallel Port VEGA Board IBM EGA Comp. . . $795 $595 $250 $179 $300 $215 $599 $429 IBM SOFTWARE ASHTONTATE Framework /I $695 $389 dBase 111+ $695 $395 dBase II (req. 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AP, or PR $595 $365 CENTRAL POINT Copy II PC $ 40 $ 22 PC Tools $ 40 $ 22 DIGITAL RESEARCH List Ours CP/M 86 $100 $ 64 Gem Draw $150 $ 95 DOW JONES Market Analyzer $349 $229 FUNK SOFTWARE Sideways NEW VERSION! $ 60 $ 42 HARVARD Total Project Manager $495 $295 HOWARD SOFT 1986 Tax Preparer $295 $199 HUMAN EDGE Mind Prober $ 50 $ 29 UFETREE Volkswriter Deluxe $295 $159 LIVING V1DEOTEXT Think Tank $195 $109 LOTUS 1-2-3 NEW VERSION $495 $329 Symphony $695 $449 MAGNUM COMPUTER Fastrak, RAMdisk & Print Spooler $ 50 $ 39 MICROPRO Easy $150 $ 99 WordStar $350 $189 WordStar 2000 Plus $595 $295 MICRORIM R:Base 5000 $695 $385 R:Base Clout $249 $133 MICROSOFT QuickBASIC $ 99 $ 69 Windows $ 95 $ 69 Macro Assembler $150 $ 99 Access $250 $169 Word $375 $239 MICROSTUF Crosstalk XVI $190 $110 MULTIMATE Multimate $495 $229 Advantage requires 384K $595 $295 PETER NORTON Norton Utilties $100 $ 56 POLYTRON Polywindows $ 85 $ 45 ROSESOFT Prokey $130 $ 80 SATELLITE (SSI) WordPerfect NEW VERSION! . . $495 $229 SOFTWARE PUBLISHING PFS: Write, File or Graph $140 $ 84 DISKETTES CONROY-LAPOINTE DISKETTES™ 10 ea SS/SD 35 trk (Apple) . 100/1000 ea SS/SD, 35 trk . 10 ea SS/DD 3.5" (Mac) .... 50/100 ea SS/DD 3.5" 10 ea DS/DD 40 trk (IBM) . 100/1000 ea DS/DD 40 trk. 10 ea DS/HD 96 TP1 (1BM-AT) $ 13 $ 99/669 $ 25 $115/235 $ 16 $119/799 $ 29 100 ea DS/HD 96 TPI (IBM-AT) $269 GENERIK 10/100 SS/SD 35 TRK (Apple) . $ 8/75 10/100 DS/DD 40 trk (IBM) ... $ 10/79 10/100 DS/HD 96 TPI (AT) .... $ 27/249 MODEMS HAYES Micromodem lie (Apple) $199 $149 Transet 1000 Comm. Buffer . . . $399 $309 Smartmodem 1200B (IBM Int.) . $549 $379 Smartmodem 1200 (External) . . $599 $419 2400 Modem (External) $899 $619 PROMETHEUS ProModem 1200A (Apple) $449 $329 VENTEL PC Halfcard (IBM Internal) $549 $389 APPLE HARDWARE CCS List 7711 or 7710-A Ser. Card $115 CPS/EASTSIDE Wild Card II Copier $140 COMX 16K RAM Card (1 Yr Ltd Wty) . $119 KENSINGTON System Saver Fan $ 90 KOALA Muppet Keys $ 80 Touch Tablet $130 MICRO-SCI 80Col. + 64KCard lie $179 Full or Half Ht Drive ll + ,e .... $269 MICROSOFT Z80 Softcard II, 64K $425 ORANGE MICRO Grappler Plus (Par.Card) $145 Hot Link S-P Cable lie $ 70 TEAC T40 Half Ht Disk Drive $249 TITAN Accelerator He $319 128K RAM Card $329 VIDEO 7 V Color He $130 V Color He $250 APPLE SOFTWARE ADVANCED LOGIC SYS. (ALS) Word or List Handler $ 80 ASHTON-TATE dBase II (req. CP/M) $495 BEAGLE BROTHERS Big U or D Code $ 40 Fat Cat or Pro Byter $ 50 BORLAND Turbo Pascal (req. 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Fortran Excel Business Pak . $ 85 $ 45 . $ 40 $ 22 . $599 $299 . $145 $ 92 $595 $389 . $195 $125 . $295 $199 . $395 $259 . $595 $395 We carry thousands more products than are listed here. If you don't see what you are looking for, call I ... PRINTERS BROTHER HR25 Daisywheel $695 $555 EPSON LX80 100 cps, 16 cps NLQ .... $299 $249 FX286 200 cps, 40 NLQ $749 $609 LQ800 180 cps, 60 LQ $799 $649 LQ1000 180 cps, 60 LQ, 15" . . . $995 $795 LQ1500 200 cps, 67 LQ, 15" . . . $1295 $995 OKIDATA Okimate 20, 182, 84 LOW 92, 192,193, 2410 Pacemark . . . PRICES PANASONIC P1092 180 cps $599 $349 P1093 180 cps 15" $699 $469 P3151 22 cps Daisywheel $659 $439 STAR MICRONICS SG10 120 cps, 30 cps NLQ $299 $249 SD10 120 cps. 40 cps NLQ, 10" $449 $379 MONITORS AMDEK 300G 12" Green Composite .... $179 $119 300A 12" Amber Composite . . . $199 $129 310A 12" Amber TTL (IBM) . . . $230 $159 PRINCETON MAX-12 12" Amber TTL (IBM) . $249 $179 HX-12 12" Color RGB $795 $445 HX-l2e RGB for IBM-EGA $785 $545 ZENITH ZVM-1220 12" Amber Comp.. . . $159 $109 ZVM-1230 12" Green Comp. ... $159 $109 ZVM-1240 & ZVM-135 SAVE ORDERING INFORMATION & TERMS Mail to: 12060 S. W.Garden Place, Portland OR 97223 "Include telephone number" We immediately honor cashiers checks. money orders. Fortune 1000, and Government checks* Personal and other company checks allow 20 days to dear • Advertised prices reflect a 3% discount for cash, so add 3% tor credit card purchases "We ship Federal Express Standard Air* U.S. and Puerto Rico add 3% 05 minimum)* Canada add 12% (JJ5 min)* Foreign add 18% (125 min)* APO. FPO other U.S. Territories add 6% ($10 min)* All prices, availability and specifications subject to change without nolice*AII sales final* We do not guarantee compatibility • You must call for R. A. number to return defective goods. CONROY-LAPOINTE COMPUTER STORES 3 Locations. Retail Sales Only. Store Prices May Vary. San Francisco, CA • 415-982-6212 • Across From The Pyramid On Washington St. Near Montgomery ' Portland, OR • 503-620-5595 • Business Park 217 In Tigard, At Intersection of Hwys 217 & 99W Seattle, WA • 206-455-0206 • Belgate Plaza In Bellevue, 2 Blocks North Of Bellevue Square "We'll give you the best service anywhere" 72 B YTE • MARCH 1986 products. The right choice. B36 Internal Hard Drives 10 meg s$389 with controller *-* 20 meg & $489 with controller «-* Fast access time beats the standard IBM drive by 30% . 90 day limited warranty. 64KRAMs$ 9 9 each, 4164 200 ns chips 1-99 sets $ 1 1 256KRAMs$32 9 each, 4256 150 ns chips 1-99 sets $34 128KRAMs$37 9 each, 4128 150 ns chips 1-99 sets $39 .4// prices subject to change without notice. 90 day limited warranty CDC 360K Floppy Drives HalfHt.,™$ 75 FullHt. s$119 Half-Height for AT $95 Call for quantity prices. 30 day limited warranty. MAGNUM EconoRAM 384Ks$89 • Full 384K of RAM • Short Board • Fastrak Printer Spooler & RAMdisk Software • Snap-In Installation • 1 Year Limited Warranty For IBM PC, XT and compatibles, with 256K of installed memory. MAGNUM PCMasterCard COMX/IRWIN Tape Backup 10 megs$495 Kit s$549 with Tape, Cable & Software 90 day limited warranty. 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C. 640K, 1 Floppy, 10 MB Hard Drive . D. System C plus Tape Backup J. 640K, 1 Floppy, 20 MB Hard Drive. $ 995 $1595 $2295 $1795 Other systems available, please call. Above prices exclude video card and monitor. Our References • First Interstate Bank (503) 643-4678 • Portland Chamber of Commerce (503) 228-9411 • Direct Marketing Association • Dun and Bradstreet • Others On Request «3£S> 1»800«547M289 Oregon Toll Free 1«800'451'5151 Telex 910 380 3980 Foreign. Local (503) 620-9878 hours 6-6 (Pacific) Mon-Fri. 8-4 Sat Customer Service (503) 620-9877 hours 8-5 (Pacific! Mon-Fri Conroy-LaPointe Inquiry 95 for Apple. Inquiry 96 for IBM Peripherals. Inquiry 97 for all others. MARCH 1986 -BYTE 73 Inquiry 53 , GANG PROGRAMMER, A SET PROGRAMMER, A UNIVERSAL PROGRAMMER, Corporation ' I Instrument Systems Division I LIKE THESE: CHNOLOGIES • UP TO 1 MEGA BYTE OF RAM • CENTRONIC PARALLEL PRINTER PORT 1 LIQUID CRYSTAL DISPLAY CH, MUCH MORE. 1ST PERFORMANCE/COST AVAILABLE TODAY .R MODELS AVAILABLE PRICES START AT $995 UV ERASERS FROM $67 AVAILABLE FROM STOCK L NOW TO ORDER (305) 994-3520 1 South Rogers Circle, Bees Raton, FL 33431 ,..5) 994-3520, Telex 4310073 MEVBTC JAPANESE QUALITY AT INCREDIBLE LOW PRICES Fast delivery — We manufacture and control every stage of design and production. Many outstanding and unique products never shown before. We are willing to take care of small orders, too. INQUIRE TODAY EAST DIGITAL CO., LTD. 2nd PI,, No. 432 Kuang-Fu S. Rd. TalpaJ, Taiwan. R.O.C. BOOK REVIEWS with changing the shapes of the waves in two different voices. You can choose from sine, square, or sawtooth waveforms, or you can design your own by drawing with the mouse. The whole thing is also a good review of BASIC'S menu and button commands. Lasting Impressions By the time I acquired Microsoft BASIC for my own Macin- tosh, I'd had five years of experience with the same com- pany's interpreters for the Radio Shack Color Computer and Model 100 portable. As a result, I anticipated little trouble in picking up the details of the new package. That may have been optimistic; the process seemed to take longer than it should have. While I still think it possible for the veteran user to get by with nothing but the Micro- soft manual, a well-illustrated and less terse book can make the learning process a lot easier. Microsoft Macinations is one of the best such books. It is well paced (with the exception of the very early pages), and it is written in a style that avoids Mac-cutesiness. The book's emphasis on special features of the user interface, combined with the useful program components, leads me to believe that I will be referring to my copy for some time to come. Scott L. Norman (8 Doris Rd.. Framingham, MA 01701) is a fre- quent contributor to computer magazines. THE COMPUTER LAW ANNUAL 1985 Reviewed by David A. Price Few industries have created as many difficult legal issues in as short a time as the computer industry. Al- though some lawyers have developed specialized exper- tise in "computer law," as it is now called, the industry is far too large and the issues too pervasive to be left to specialists. Miles R. Gilburne, Ronald L. Johnston, and Allen R. Grogan, the editors of The Computer law Annual 1985, have performed a valuable service by assembling an excellent group of articles about the legal problems that computer businesses often face. Its 20 articles are from a legal journal, The Computer lawyer. They cover a wide variety of issues, most of them perti- nent to computer businesses of all sizes. Not surprising- ly, the topic receiving the most coverage is that of pro- tecting proprietary rights to software. Instead of giving only a recitation of the legal doctrines governing copyright and trade-secret protection, the articles go further by tackling some difficult questions. To what extent can a firm per- missibly "reverse-engineer" a copyrighted software prod- uct by disassembling it? When should a firm require a license agreement for the sale of software and when should it just rely on copyright? When does a program- mer own the copyright to a software product that he or she wrote as an employee? How can a firm enlist the help {continued) 74 BYTE • MARCH 1986 Inquiry 147 BUSINESS SCIENCE EDUCATION STATISTICAL PACKAGES StatSoft m TM data-analysis software from: unbeatable power and flexibility for unbeatable prices! We developed complete, high-performance statistical packages for all computers: 1. STATS-2™ (release 2.0): Statistical supplement for Lotus 1-2-3™ and other spreadsheet programs. 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D One-year membership for $15 □ Two-year membership for $25 (SAVE $5) □ BOTH Business and Game Software Rental Libraries for $30 add'l. per year — with 30 day rentals "VIP members receive advance notice on limited quantity merchandise specials D MasterCard □ American Express Account Number: Exp. Date _ mo. year □ Check or money order enclosed for $ _ Name _ Address Apt. No. City State 7ip Telephone ( ) III □ My computer(s) is Signature IBM PC L Macintosh IBM-XT □ Other 3 IBM-AT a Apple II (Signature required to validate membership) Copyright ©1985, PC NETWORK INC. "9 8 xX^ X w ''■ I I? k BUTE Features Product Preview: The Atari 1040ST by Phillip Robinson and ]on R. Edwards .... 84 Finding the Titanic by Marti Spalding and Ben Dawson 96 Ciarcia's Circuit Cellar: Real-Time Clocks: A View Toward the Future by Sieve Ciarcia 112 Programming Project A Simple Windowing System, Part I: Basic Principles by Bruce Webster 128 An ANSI Standard for the C Language by Steve A. Hersee and Dan Knopoff 135 Programming Insight Macintosh Explorer by Olav kndrade 145 THIS MONTH, BYTE PRESENTS a preview of Atari's new $999 1 -megabyte machine-the 1040ST. Although the system is similar to Atari's 520ST, it has twice the memory capability, an internal double-sided disk drive, an empty socket for a graphics coprocessor, and it is the first computer to begin its retail life at a cost of less than one dollar per kilobyte. The article also in- cludes an interview with Shiraz Shivji, Atari's vice president of research and development, who discusses the company's plans for the future. In "Finding the Titanic," Marti Spalding and Ben Dawson take a look at the state-of-the-art image-processing equipment used in the underwater explora- tion that located the sunken Titanic. The ship was lost in the Atlantic for 73 years until teams of French and American researchers, with millions of dollars worth of equipment, were able to pinpoint the wreck. In Ciarcia's Circuit Cellar, Steve offers us a choice of real-time clocks. The first one uses a CMOS chip that you attach to the computer through parallel ports. This conventional approach appeals to those who want a quick resolu- tion of a problem. The second clock uses a unique concept that Steve believes will prevail long into the future. It uses a new clock "socket" that requires no independent interfacing and merely plugs in with a static-RAM chip. The Programming Project is the first of a two-part article by Bruce Webster. Bruce mentions that windowing systems can be and have been implemented on most of the more "mundane" computers. The goal of his article is to show you how to do this. In Part 1, Bruce covers basic principles and examines the problems involved in opening a window. As C has become more popular among developers and programmers, it has become necessary to establish a standard to keep C programmers work- ing with the same language. "An ANSI Standard for the C Language," by Steve A. Hersee and Dan Knopoff, describes the standard that has been proposed by the ANSI Standardization Committee and invites participation in establishing the standard. This month's Programming Insight describes a disassembler program. In "Macintosh Explorer," Olav Andrade explains that when using a Macintosh he discovered that the Toolbox/Operating System routines would be vital to his applications. His problem was that he needed to know how the Toolbox calls were made and Macintosh Explorer was his solution. It is written in Micro- soft BASIC for the Macintosh. MARCH 1986 -BYTE 83 PRODUCT PREVIEW The Atari 1040ST A megabyte of memory for $999 Editor's note: The following is a BYTE prod- uct preview. \t is not a review. We provide an advance look at this product because we feel that it is significant. A complete review will follow in a subsequent issue. Atari's new $999 1-mega- byte 1040ST (see photo 1) establishes a price break reminiscent of the Com- modore 64's. And, as table 1 shows, the 1040ST will be the first computer to begin its retail life at a price that represents less than one dollar per kilobyte. The 1040ST is clearly a bargain, with over 1 megabyte of RAM (random-access read/write memory), its operating system in ROM (read-only memory), an internal 720K- byte double-sided drive, an internal power supply, and the same features and functionality that already make the Atari 520ST an attractive pur- chase. (Editor's note: See "The Atari 520ST" by }on R. Edwards, Phillip Robin- son, and Brenda McLaughlin. January BYTE, page 84. | System Description Our coverage of the 520ST adequate- ly describes most of the features of the 1040ST (see also the "In Brief" box on page 86). The new computer has the same keyboard, the same ports (although these are now in new locations, see photo 2), and the same architecture. We remain uncomfort- able with the keyboard, but the key- tops are removable. We suspect that some speedy entrepreneur will pro- vide alternative tapered keys for the ST machines. The most obvious changes are cosmetic: The keyboard/computer unit is 2 inches deeper and 4'/2 pounds heavier than the 520ST and the keyboard provides a much more substantial feel. The mouse/joystick ports are now located under the bot- tom right front of the unit, a signifi- cant improvement for left-handed users. A number of changes are more than cosmetic. The internal power supply eliminates two of the external power supplies needed by the 520ST (wire haters rejoice). We left the unit on for five days and experienced no dif- ficulties with overheating. There is no internal fan, but the unit appears to adequately dissipate heat. The inter- nal disk drive supports both single- and double-sided disks. An RF (radio frequency) modulator will allow you to hook up the 1040ST to a television set; you might, therefore, obtain the high-resolution monochrome system for word processing and program- ming without sacrificing the use of low- and medium-resolution color. However, we received a preproduc- tion unit lacking the RF modulator that will accompany the final product; therefore, we were unable to test the television quality of the computer's output. The megabyte of RAM in the 1040ST isn't crammed into the case. The 520ST uses a custom Memory Controller chip to handle its sixteen 2 56K-byte dynamic RAM chips. The 1040ST uses the same Memory Con- troller. Because the controller can handle 32 RAM chips at a time, the Atari engineers simply had to find room for 16 more 2 56K-byte dynamic RAMs on the 1040ST circuit board to pump RAM capacity to a full mega- byte (see photo 3). In fact, the Memory Controller can also govern 1 -megabit dynamic RAM chips. Atari should have little difficulty designing an ST with 4 megabytes of memory. Undoubtedly, the most interesting addition to this computer, apart from the extra memory, will be an empty socket for a graphics coprocessor. Our preproduction unit also did not include the socket, and it may not be offered with the first releases of the 1040ST Phil Robinson discussed this and Atari's future plans with Shiraz Shivji, vice president of research and development for the company (see the text box "An Interview with Shiraz Shivji" on page 90). TOS IN ROM With TOS (the operating system for both the 520ST and the 1040ST) in ROM, the 1040ST boots more quick- ly than the 520ST. [Editors note: Atari is currently supplying the ROM chips to 520ST developers and will be making the chips available through users groups.] Booting with a nonsystem disk takes less than 6 seconds, down from 37 [continued] Phillip Robinson is a senior technical editor, and \on R. Edwards is a technical editor for BYTE. They can be contacted at BYTE. POB 372, Hancock. NH 03449. 84 B YTE • MARCH 1986 by Phillip Robinson and Jon R. Edwards Photo 1: The Atari 1040ST. PHOTOGRAPHED BY PAUL AVIS MARCH 1986 • BYTE 85 ATARI 1040ST IN BRIEF Name Atari 1040ST Company Atari Corp. 1196 Borregas Ave. Sunnyvale, CA 94086 (408) 745-2000 Price With monochrome monitor, $999 With color monitor, $1199 Microprocessor Motorola 68000, a 32-/16-bit microprocessor (32-bit internal architecture with 24-bit, nonsegmented, external data bus) running at 8 MHz Main Memory 1024K bytes of dynamic RAM ROM 192K-byte TOS in ROM, not including the desktop accessories Graphics Three modes: 640- by 400-pixel monochrome, 320 by 200 with 16 colors, and 640 by 200 with 4 colors Sound Three independent sound channels from 30 Hz to 125 kHz Floppy-Disk Drive Internal 3'/2-inch double-sided double-density drive with capacity of 720K bytes. System supports maximum of two floppy-disk drives. Keyboard 94-key Selectric-style QWERTY keyboard with numeric keypad, cursor controls, and rhomboid function keys Interfaces MIDI in and MIDI out ports Monitor port (supports RGB analog, high-resolution monochrome) RF modulator Centronics parallel printer port (supports Epson-compatible printers) RS-232C serial port Floppy-disk port Hard-disk port (10-megabit-per-second DMA transfer rate) 128K-byte ROM cartridge port Ports for mouse or two joysticks Bundled Software Atari Logo ST BASIC Optional Peripherals SF354 single-sided drive SF314 double-sided drive Planned Expansion Graphics coprocessor, SMM801 dot-matrix printer, SDM121 daisy-wheel printer, 10-megabyte fixed disk, 8-slot expansion interface, CD-ROM, local-area network for MIDI port seconds on the 520ST. After booting, the color system displays blue and yellow crossbars instead of the multicolor display shown on the 520ST. The desktop icon also appears in much brighter green on the 1040ST, which Neil Harris of Atari explains is more effective on color television screens for those who will make use of the RF modulator. Although it increases the time to 1 7 seconds, you may prefer to boot with a nonsystem disk that includes the desktop accessories. By so doing, you can maintain access to the Con- trol Panel (to change the back- ground color, for example), the RS-232 Port Configuration, and the In- stall Printer facilities. You also have the option of placing the operating system (38 seconds), and presumably any alternative operating system, in- to RAM. The ROM TOS appears to be func- tionally identical to the first release of TOS in RAM, but there have been some additions. In the interest of sup- porting business applications, the ROM TOS raises the limit on open files from 30 to 100. A new dialog box informs you if you have insufficient memory to run an application. The earlier versions of TOS simply return you to the desktop. Two new GEM functions, form button and form keyboard, will allow developers to bring up dialog boxes without freez- ing the current application. You could, for example, postpone your response until you finish a task. Most of the other changes involved crunching the code from over 200K bytes to 192K bytes (Landon Dyer, software design engineer for Atari, reports that the production ROMs are a mere 14 bytes short of 192K bytes), but there have also been a number of modifications and corrections, many in response to the experiences of ST developers. Early versions of TOS did not allow you to print from the desktop if you set your printer to the serial port. Now you can. Full type-ahead buffers will no longer eat characters. And icon grabbers can take comfort in the fact that rapid movements of icons into the 86 B YTE • MARCH 1986 ATARI 1040ST menu bar can no longer crash the system. A Sample Session We obtained similar results on BYTE's standard benchmark tests for both the 520ST and the 1040ST. Using ST BASIC (see photo 4), both machines ran the Sieve of Eratosthenes in 85 seconds and the Calculations bench- mark of 10,000 multiplication and 10,000 division operations in 32 seconds. Both formatted single-sided disks (3 57,376 available bytes) in 54 seconds. The 1040ST took 102 seconds to format a double-sided disk (726,016 available bytes). It took 16 seconds with the 520ST to transfer a 40K-byte file from one single-sided drive to another. It took 17 seconds to transfer the same file from the 1040ST's internal drive to an external single-sided drive. In conducting the tests, we had two small problems. First, when we con- nected an external single-sided drive and took a directory of the internal drive, the 1040ST appeared to poll both drives. We got the directory we requested, but the fact that the inter- nal drive is so quiet made it seem that we had inadvertently addressed the external drive. The whirring of the external drive was a continual annoyance. Second, Atari's ST BASIC reserves approximately 160K bytes to buffer graphics, store arrays, and so on. On the 1040ST with TOS in ROM and when booting with the desk acces- sories, you still obtain a workspace in excess of 700K bytes. On the 520ST with TOS in RAM, we obtained a work- space of only 5K bytes. To run the Sieve, which dimensions an array to 7000 elements, we had to boot with- out the desk accessories (a savings of about 30K bytes), eliminate graphics buffering (an additional savings of 32K bytes), and dimension the array as an integer array. Using a real array, the 1040ST ran the Sieve in 90 seconds. Software The earliest critics of the 520ST be- moaned the lack of software, but the [continued] Table 1: The Atari 1040ST is the first computer with an original list price that represents less than a dollar per kilobyte. The price-per-kilobyte figures were determined by using the original list price for each system on the chart. Prices reflect those for the original system configurations; many but not all of the systems were originally bundled with disk drives and monitors. MARCH 1986 -BYTE 87 ATARI 1040ST list of available packages has grown and is still growing. The major criticism left is that most of the early products are ports that don't take ad- vantage of the ST's full capabilities. A significant exception is DEGAS from Batteries Included, a full-featured paint package that makes the color monitor worth having (see photo 5). For those of you who are anxious for information about available soft- ware: Michtron has a variety of utilities for the ST machines, including a printer spooler, a RAM disk, and ter- minal software. SST Systems has Chat, version 1.2, a terminal program with support for XMODEM. A variety of word processors are available, in- cluding Mince and Final Word from For some time, the Atari 1040ST \M be the dear leader in price/performance. Mark of the Unicorn, Express from Mirage Concepts, Haba Writer from Haba Systems, Regent Word from Regent Software, and both 1st Word and ST Writer from Atari. The last of these is in the public domain. DB- Master One from Atari, Hippo Simple from Hippopotamus Software, and Zoomracks from Quickview Systems are database managers. Regent Soft- ware also offers a spelling checker with full GEM features. VIP Systems offers The Professional, a Lotus-like spreadsheet. And XLENT software of- fers Typesetter ST, which supports DEGAS and Neo formats and Pro- writer, NEC, and Epson printers. Conclusion The 1040ST has a remarkable price, and for some time it will be the clear leader in price/performance. More- over, the graphics coprocessor chip may convince skeptics to take a sec- ond look at the ST. Some of our criticisms of the Atari 520ST remain: The desktop is less effective than the [continued) £U (C) Photo 2: The 1040ST has the same ports as the 520ST. but in different locations. The joystick and mouse ports are underneath the right front of the unit, (a) The disk drive is on the right side, (b) On the left side are the MIDI out and MIDI in and the \28K-byte ROM cartridge port, (c) From left to right on the back panel are the RS-232C serial port, the 25-pin Centronics parallel printer port, the DMA (hard-disk) port, the floppy-disk port, the monitor port, the onloff switch, the AC power connector, and the reset button. 88 BYTE • MARCH 1986 ATARI 1040ST ■c o a. >. Q. a. _o LL B S O EC 3 a. o (O .9- o CD 5 CD o E CD ■g > B O T3 O DC Photo 3: T/ie 1040ST motherboard. MARCH 1986 -BYTE 89 ATARI 1040ST Photo 4: The Sieve of Eratosthenes in ST BASIC. The screen shows the high- resolution monochrome display. Photo 5: The main menu of DEGAS, a deluxe paint package from Batteries Included, in low-resolution color graphics. Macintosh's and the keyboard has an awkward feel. But the 1040ST ad- dresses most of our concerns. It will have an RF modulator, the power supply is internal, and TOS is in ROM. And given the outstanding price, our overall impression is even more positive. Who knows, perhaps the next price break will be on Atari's coming ef- forts: 2- and 4-megabyte machines and 640- by 592-pixel graphics. Editor's note: This text box contains portions of Phil Robinson's December 1985 interview with Shiraz Shivji. Atari's vice president of research and development. The Graphics Coprocessor BYTE: Tell us about the graphics coprocessor. When will there actually be a socket waiting for it in the machine'} Shivji: That's up to the marketing peo- ple, but perhaps by April or May. I really am pushing for the machines to be upgradable— at least to have sock- ets—and it may not happen in the first machines. As far as the engineering is concerned, we have some artwork in the 1040 footprint ready to go that has the socket for it. BYTE: How far advanced is the design of the chip? Shivji: We're running checks on the lay- out right now. We expect to see parts by the end of January [1986]. BYTE: It's not going to be an expensive addition? Shivji: No, very inexpensive. You'll on- ly need to put in the coprocessor and change the ROMs. It's not a simple part, it's quite complex. That's why we waited until now to get it out. But it's going to be fairly inexpensive. We're doing it in a 2-micron, double-metal CMOS [complementary metal-oxide semiconductor] process, which is the latest process you can get. BYTE: What kind of power will it add and how? Shivji: Some of the screen operations will become about 20 times as fast. BYTE: What kind of screen operations? Life blitting one area over another? Shivji: Yes, it does fairly sophisticated blit operations. I believe we have some nice features that some of the other blit chips don't have. The problem with some of the other blit chips is that the way they glue to the bus is not very good. I have a blit chip from an out- side vendor right now that has just 90 B YTE • MARCH 1986 ATARI 1040ST An Interview with Shiraz Shivji CONDUCTED BY PHILLIP ROBINSON come out, but the chip needs a lot of glue around it; in fact, it needs exter- nal counters and so on. I would say we do as much as what's in the Amiga chip, and we have some things in it that make it nice in the way it fits on the bus. The cleanliness of the architecture is very important to us. It's a 68-pin PLCC (plastic leaded chip carrier| part. It sits on the bus. It's benign unless it's ac- tivated, and then it comes over and takes the bus. But again, a lot of the things like the DMAs |direct memory accesses! are not affected because the DMA will preempt the chip; it has the same priority as the processor. BYTE: How does it share time with the processor? Shivji; It takes over stuff from the pro- cessor, but it doesn't hog it complete- ly. We allow the processor to have a few cycles. BYTE: How many gates? Is it a gate array or will it be a fully custom-designed chip? Shivji: It will be a fully custom chip. As far as complexity is concerned, I would say it's around 20,000 transistors, so it's medium complexity. One of the things that is important in any design is how you partition things. I feel we have the best partitioning, as good as you can get. And again, it's like the early days of computers where things were hard- wired and the concept of having sub- routines came along. That was a tremendous breakthrough— to be able to modularize stuff. This is what I feel we've done on the ST We are modular. For example, the blit is completely coordinate-free. We will use the same part in the new version of the ST, which is high-resolution. So, it's nice the way we can do those kinds of things and not have it tied to the machine. Emulating the IBM PC BYTE: The V20 board that's in the lab for emulating the IBM Personal Computer— is that experimental? Shivji: No. We will actually show it at an upcoming CES (Consumer Elec- tronics Show]. In fact, we can either run an 8088 or a V20. We're running it at 8 MHz, and we're going through the DMA channel to get the speed for the display. BYTE: You're going through the DMA chan- nel, so this is going to be an external board in a little box? Shivji: It's a self-contained box with its own power supply. It will have quite a bit of its own memory, it has the 8088. it also has an 8253 because a lot of people go directly to the timers in the IBM PC. But the problem in any kind of an emulation is the speed of scroll- ing things on the screen because you have to effectively reproduce what is being done in the PC environment into something else, and it's very slow. We don't think it will be that slow in the case of the ST. Our graphics modes are a superset of the IBM PC's anyway. BYTE: Are you using some BIOS [basic input/ output system] from an outside source? Shivji: Actually, we have the work done on a machine that provides IBM PC compatibility with the 800XL. Initially there was an Atari project that was compatible with the IBM PC, the Apple II, and the 800XL. They eventually abandoned the Apple II compatibility, but they made it compatible with the 800XL. We're essentially following from that effort; we're using a lot of software from that era. Future Machines BYTE: Will the next machine be 2 or 4 mega- bytes? Shivji: We are using the base architec- ture for future machines. We will have a 2-megabyte version out fairly soon, perhaps in the same case. As you know, the chip is designed to handle 1-megabit parts. If I-megabit parts are in sufficient quantities, then today we can use sixteen 1-megabit parts: that's a 2-megabyte machine. And if you use 32 parts, which the chip is designed to handle. . . . BYTE: You'd just need to have a new board layout, drill new holes. Shivji: Yes. And as a matter of fact, it would be easy to upgrade a 1040 .... 1-megabit parts are 18-pin parts. It would not be that difficult to upgrade your 1040 to make it a 4-megabyte machine by using 1- megabit parts. BYTE: How would you do that? Shivji: You have two banks, you'd have to remove the chips, but you could do it because it's not that difficult. In fact, we have built a prototype with 1-mega- bit parts. Choice of the 68000 BYTE: About the 68010 and the 68020. You were saying that the 68010 didn't improve ST performance that much. Shivji: Not as much. We designed the ST in part as a front end for a compute engine through the DMA channel. That's where we're going to put our compute engine, whatever it is. The people that have bought STs and are buying STs in the future will have the capability of expanding painlessly and using their existing peripherals and everything and get on to a full 32-bit machine such as a 68020. {continued} MARCH 1986 -BYTE ATARI 1040ST BYTE: So you're thinking more in terms of a box out back with a 68020 in it and not of an internal 68020. Shivji: Yes. We now know how to do a good job in putting a 68000 as part of something that drives video displays in various modes. In fact, we have not run out of steam yet as far as band- width of data is concerned for even dis- plays that are 1024 by 1024. We think 1987 is approximately when we might have another generation of machines where the base I/O |input/output| driv- ing the video, and so on, may not be enough, especially if you're talking about 4 to 8 planes of 1024 by 1024. Then you need something like a 68020. But even that is not enough. You couldn't run just raw 32-bits. You would probably have 64- and 128-bit-wide data paths to take care of all the planes that you're talking about. We have the architecture sketched out; we are doing the custom parts for it. By the way, these parts are fully custom. Some of the chips we've met are really huge. You wouldn't be able to do it even with semicustom. You cer- tainly could not use gate arrays; there's no gate array built at the moment that can handle one of the chips we're talk- ing about. It would be the equivalent of about 25,000 gates. It's also very high speed. We're looking, in some cases, to run things at about 100 MHz. BYTE: Do you have to go to bipolar then in the custom chips? Shivji: We will actually have custom chips at 2-micron, double-metal CMOS. But then there's going to be an inter- face chip to drive external things. The reason we can go to high speeds is because the structures we're using are very regular. There's no loading. Sup- posing you run a shift register. There's no loading in between cells. All you're doing with a flip-flop cell is driving another cell, and so on. You can get quite a bit of performance if you use such a structure, and we're using a similar structure. BYTE: And when you're 'at 2-micron, too. Shivji: Yeah, 2-micron double-metal is quite fast. So we can run close to 100 MHz, but only on a small section of the chip. Everything is not running at that speed. CD-ROMs and Floppies BYTE: What about the disk memories? the CD-ROM? Shivji: We're waiting for audio. The first version of the CD-ROM players was a small unit; the power supply was a separate box. The second batch has a built-in power supply. Now Sony has a third batch, starting around April, which has audio as well as digital. That's the one that we're waiting for. We feel that if a customer spends $600, he might as well have audio, too. BYTE: What about the floppies? Is there go- ing to be a change at some point, going to higher densities, 1.2 megabytes? Shivji: Two megs is almost here. The thing that's going to be important is the media, because it is special media that can handle 2 megs. Some of our Japa- nese friends who are drive manufac- turers are working on a 10-megabyte floppy in the 3.5 format. They think that sometime around mid to late 1986 there will be 10-megabyte drives. Multitasking BYTE: What about multitasking? When will that be coming as an option, or do you see that as necessary at all? Shivji: To get useful multitasking you have to have things like protection, which is not the case in many existing machines. Although we have protected space, as you've noticed, it's not very much. The architecture is there to pro- vide more protection, and in future ver- sions of the machine we may provide a lot more protection. BYTE: That's why you're looking at the memory-management chips and such? Shivji: Yes, we're looking at memory- management chips, but doing logical- to physical-address translation is perhaps not as important as the pro- tection feature for multitasking. So we're looking closely into protection. Again, the future versions of the ST ar- chitecture could have more; we have only 2K bytes at the moment, and we could probably protect about half a megabyte. And then that would make it a lot easier to run a protected kernel and then multitask. BYTE: What about UNIX System V? Shivji: We're looking at System V now. We're constantly looking at multitask- ing, and we're constantly getting pro- posals for a multitasking environment. As a matter of fact, I think it has become a bit of a buzzword. But it is something that people now are look- ing forward to having in their machines. So with the amount of memory the 1040 has, it will not be out of place to have a multitasking operating system that could run, coexist with TOS perhaps, by at least the third quarter of 1986. BYTE: What about peripherals? Is Atari go- ing to get in the business of printers and modems and the like? Shivji: Yes, we have printers. We are working on a modem. We feel that a 1200-baud modem should be inexpen- sive. There have been a lot of advances in technology (such as the modem chips from Sierra Semiconductor). We hope that around the middle of 1986 we will have something to show. BYTE: What about higher-end printers? With Atari leading this price/performance curve now, what about laser printers? Shivji: We started talking to the peo- ple, around the time that the laser printers came out from Apple and Hewlett Packard. We have talked to a lot of the manufacturers. We're looking at something that costs about $1200 retail, but we don't feel that it's really a mass item. Although imagine an ST in an engineering environment where you can get prints. Yes, we were looking at it. As a mat- ter of fact, the interesting thing is that the cost of building the ST board is so low that we were thinking of using the ST board as a driver for the printer. At 300 dots per inch, if you want to have a full page in the unit, you've got to have about one and a half meg of RAM. And we actually can support more than that. It's something that's in the pipeline. We unfortunately don't have control over the manufacturers. We actually looked at the LCS tech- nology—the liquid-crystal shutter— which is similar to that. Casio uses that. It wasn't quite as good. Nowadays peo- ple are also pushing the LEDs | light- emitting diodes). The company that is farthest along the line of good printers in LEDs is NEC. They have a really nice 92 BYTE • MARCH 1986 Inquiry 144 ATARI 1040ST one. We've been talking to them about getting their engine for quite a while. But right now it's too expensive. We could probably get it down to about SI 500 right now. We're looking more toward SI 200 and then under $1000. BYTE: What about sound capabilities? Shivji: We had a project here started during Alan Kay's tenure— a chip called Amy. And the ST was designed to have the Amy. But the Amy did not happen. We had silicon, the first pass, in Oc- tober or November, and we had severe problems with it. It was kind of an or- phan project. There were a lot of peo- ple who had worked on it. And if you have a chip that has six or eight peo- ple who have worked on it at different times, chances of the chip working are slim. But it's a good design. BYTE: What does it do? What's so special about it? Shivji: The approach of others is that during horizontal-refresh time you go out to some place and put some mem- ory out automatically, and that goes through a DAC |digital-to-analog con- verter! and you have sound. Essential- ly you're sampling at 1 5.75 kHz, which is the typical frequency. So it's like a digital tape recorder. You have a digi- tized sound and you're just putting it out. And it needs enormous amounts of memory. The key is: How do you en- code sound? From an information- theoretic point of view, there are two problems with this approach. One is it's an enormous waste of memory. Because you could encode whatever sound you're going to play, as far as data is concerned in a sound piece, the data rate is extremely low. And doing it in the digital tape recorder way, you're wasting an awful lot of band- width and a lot of memory. The second problem with other implementations is that you only have 8 bits and it's not really that good. Especially with CDs coming out. Amy was a chip that had 16 bits of information coming out. So you could have 96 decibels of range. What you could hear! Amy was a complete digital sound chip. It's called an additive- digital synthesizer. It had an adder and 64 independent oscillators. It has a model for sound and you feed it the parameters. But if you do that you have to do an awful lot of preprocessing. We had hired a lot of people. We had a VAX 780 devoted to it. We had equip- ment, fast floating-point array pro- cessors, and so on, to analyze notes. We would get a tape of piano playing and then the VAX would analyze it and would take the Amy model and give the parameters. To play anything you only needed to have parameter tables and feed it to the chip. BYTE: Is it still a possibility then? Shivji: It is still a possibility. We were going to have the Amy, and then it didn't happen. Then we said, look, we want to have a base machine that's a good machine. Everybody doesn't really care about great sound, right? So let's not penalize people that don't care. Let's put something that will allow people who really care about sound to be able to play things. That's how the MIDI came in. And so if you get Amy, we could even have it out as a MIDI device. It's a great chip. Essentially all you do is you load it up. Off line you're doing an analysis of all the different things, and then you have it in table form. And you can play it any time you want. And you're not using up the bus that much. BYTE: 1/ it has that kind of processing capa- bility, it could probably build models for voice, too. Shivji: Exactly. We actually could reproduce opera sound. As a matter of fact, we had a sound lab. The type of sound that you could hear from that chip was just incredible. Again, 16-bit. Actually, the chip could even give you 17 bits if you wanted it to. The two problems are it needs too much mem- ory and it hogs the bandwidth. The bandwidth you could probably get around. However, that's not the whole thing. You still have to move all that data around. Of course you don't get the data at the right place for free. For example, you have to move it somehow from a disk drive. BYTE: So the Yamaha chip is in there just to give it the basic sound? Shivji: Yes. just the basic sounds you need. Though, of course, the ports are very useful. ■ STOP SOFTWARE PIRACY . . . . . . with one of our new sophisticated copy prevention products. lie* For Hard Disk Protection • Fixed Disk Locker For Disk Security High Level Security • PADLOCK II DISK • SAFEGUARD DISKS • COUPON DISKS Low Level Security User Installable Protection • PC-PADLOCK Why should your valuabledata or useful software program become available in the Public Domain? Call or write for more information. GLENCO ENGINEERING INC. 3920 Ridge /Arlington Hts., IL 60004 (312)392-2492 MARCH 1986 'BYTE 93 Dont let debris wo through In every specially marked diskette kit purchase. can't protect you from, box often SVa" 3M disk- Why are we doing this? Yourself, ettes you'll find a free head We've done everything If you let your recording cleaning diskette sampler but chant and burn incense heads collect dust and debris kit that'll clean your disk to take the worry out of without cleaning them, drive heads three times. diskettes by making the you have to be prepared for Plus a coupon good for most reliable, worry-free the possibility of data loss a $2.00 rebate from 3M product possible. or errors, on your next head cleaning But there's one thing we But not to worry. 94 BYTE- MARCH 1986 dust and tries run your head Our free head cleaning kit will help get you in the habit of cleaning your heads. So the most reliable floppy in ALU-512 FB-512 t HK68 SINGLE-BOARD COMPUTER SERIAL I/O ARGO COMMAND AND CONTROL I ARGO DIGITAL DATA ACQUISITION VIDEO- DISC AND TAPE OPERATOR CONSOLE Figure 3: The video image-processing system on the Argo and Knorr. The cameras and frame stores on the Argo are shown on the lejt and the processing and display hardware on the Knorr to the right. MARCH 1986 • BYTE TITANIC to the FB-512. Since a separate sum is kept for each of the more than 2 50.000 points (512 by 512 bytes) in the image and is updated 30 times per second, the ALU-512 performs over 7,000,000 sums, multiplies, and shifts (divisions) per second. A last pass through the ALU-512 divides the final sum to produce the average. It should be noted that if the image changes, this averaging process results in a blurred image. The human eye performs a similar averaging, so that fast-moving objects appear Photo 8: The bow of the Titanic, showing the port and starboard anchor chains and capstans. Photo 9: Histogram of the image values in photo 8. The horizontal axis represents the gray level and the vertical axis represents the number of pixels that have that gray level. The menu shown is part of the Image Action software package made by \maging Technology. INft&f ANALYSIS 11 »(i«! IT.. El FIHDER i ih! Hot Hi'ifC i IN! P101 HEKT : ins | : ' i.i-f., ! ! " T ■* " roh L -"!* •• ; ' ."-•■" !•■.-' ■■•: blurred. To avoid this problem, the Argo sent the same stored image re- peatedly while in snapshot mode and used fewer images while in con- tinuous mode. The illumination provided by the strobe light in snapshot mode was very brief. Because the SIT camera has a nonlinear signal decay, the video image transmitted was so de- graded that only one field of informa- tion was used. Thus, in snapshot mode, the spatial resolution of the image was 240 by 512 pixels. In both modes, the system used ad- ditional frame stores to hold and dis- play the last average from each of the three cameras while new averages were being accumulated. Photo 1 shows one of the first video images of the Titanic taken with this video system. Real-time video imaging and subse- quent processing were keys to finding the Titanic. After locating the ship, the ANGUS provided thousands of addi- tional 35mm film images. Although of a much higher quality than the video images, these images are fuzzy due to suspended particle scattering and limited and nonuniform illumination. If enough information is available in a photograph, however, image pro- cessing can improve its apparent quality. Note that image processing cannot magically create new informa- tion, but it can enhance existing information. To show how this might be done, we digitized two images (photos 8 and 1 1 ) and processed them using an IBM PC XT containing a PCVISION Frame Grabber made by Imaging Tech- nology. In this case, the system could average only two to four images before blurring, due to the motion of the Argo. Because fewer images were averaged, the resulting images were noisier than snapshot images; how- ever, their resolution was double that of snapshot-mode images, as con- tinuous illumination provided the sys- tem with full frames (two fields total- ling 480 by 512 pixels) for averaging rather than the single field (240 by 512 pixels) of snapshot mode. 106 B YTE • MARCH 1986 TITANIC Contrast Enhancement One class of image-processing opera- tions modifies the intensity values at each image point to enhance the ap- parent contrast of the image. Because these operations work only on a single image point, they are known as point processes. For example, if the intensity values in an image range from to 100, the apparent contrast of the image may be increased by multiplying the value of each image point by 2. The range of intensity values can be determined by a histogram operation, that is, by counting the number of pixels of each intensity. The histogram of photo 8, for example (photo 9), shows that the intensity values range from 130 to 2 5 5. The contrast of this photo can be improved by transforming each pixel point by the following equation: transformed pixel value = M * (original pixel value- K) where K= 130 and M = 2. This results in "sliding" the value of all pixels down the gray scale by 130, followed by a linear "stretch" of the values by 2. In essence, this makes the lightest pixels white, the darkest pixels black, and linearly arranges the intermediate intensities to span the range of to 2 55. This transformation can be done by lookup tables (LUTs) on the frame grabber. To understand the action of an LUT, consider that the LUT is a small block of memory that receives an 8-bit address as an input and out- puts the 8-bit data stored at that ad- dress. The input addresses are pixel values and the values stored at these addresses are the transformed values that are output. Thus, rather than do- ing the transform on each and every pixel, the system checks the LUT to find the precalculated value. This saves time since, for example, every pixel with an intensity value of 200 will have a transformed value of 140. Any arbitrary intensity transform can be generated and loaded into the LUT. We programmed the transform shown above into the LUT and the resulting enhancement and contrast of photo 8 is shown in photo 10. Edge Enhancement Another class of image-processing operations uses the information from the area surrounding each pixel to change the spatial contrast of the image. When an area operation is used to sharpen or enhance the edges in an image, it is called an edge enhancement. Edge enhancements (continued) Photo 10: The result of contrast-enhancing the image shown in photo 8. The process adds no new information to the image but adjusts the pixel values to improve the contrast. Photo 1 1 : Digitization of a photo taken by the ANGUS. This image shows the foredeck of the Titanic directly in front of the bridge, with the entire starboard crane, the boom of the port crane, part of the mast, and an open hold. MARCH 1986 • BYTE 107 TITANIC Photo 12: The result of contrast-stretching and edge-enhancing the image shown in photo 11. These operations improve the contrast and accentuate the high-frequency information components of the image, resulting in a sharper image. Figure 4: Edge enhancement involves taking an image {a), multiplying the intensity values in each 3- by 3-pixel area (as in the heavily outlined area) by the corresponding values in a preset kernel (b), summing the products, and placing the results in the center pixel. The result of performing this process on [a) is shown in (c). Note how edge enhancement makes the dim inner square of (a) easier to view in (c). can use convolution to implement a spatial filter that accentuates high frequencies. The convolution operation consists of multiplying pixels in the "neighbor- hood" of a given pixel by constants, summing and scaling, and replacing the center pixel by the result. The con- stants used for the multiplication are called the kernel of the convolution. If the neighborhood is 3 pixels hori- zontally by 3 pixels vertically and the center pixel is at location (x,y), the convolutions operation can be repre- sented by the following formula: 0(x,y)=M,[I(x-l,y-l)|+M 2 |I(x,y-l)] + Ms(I(x+ l,y- l)|+M 4 |I(x- l,y)]+M 5 [I(x,y)|+M 6 |I(x+l,y)]+M 7 [I(x-l.y+ . l)|+M 8 [I(xy+l)|+M 9 |I(x+l,y+l)| You can extract the kernel values (M-i to Mg) and represent them as a single table. For an edge enhance- ment, you can use the following kernel table: -1 9 -1 -I -1 -1 To see how this accentuates edges (changes) in an image, imagine one area of an image with intensity values as shown in figure 4a. If you overlay the kernel table (see figure 4b) on each 3- by 3-pixel section of the image, multiply the corresponding numbers, add all the products, and place the result in the center pixel, the resulting image is shown in figure 4c. The effect of the convolution is to enhance spatial changes in intensity. In this example, the brighter square (with the original value of 20) is accen- tuated by decreasing the surrounding values to and increasing the edge values to 70 at the corners and 50 in between. Note that areas that do not have any spatial change in intensity are left unchanged— the area sur- rounding the center square is still of intensity 10, and the center of the square is left at intensity 20. Some of the resulting values of the convolution operator are negative numbers. Because negative intensity [continued] 108 B YTE • MARCH 1986 IBM's AT forgot The Answer! Every time IBM builds an AT computer, it forgets to put in a Serial/Parallel adapter and a full memory. That's a problem. Because without the adapter, the AT cant communicate with a printer (or anything else). The answer to the problem is The Answer!™ The Answer/ is an easy to install multi- ' function board. It has just what the AT can use with PC DOS — without making you pay extra for options it cant use. There's a parallel printer port. Two 50 to 19.2K baud serial ports for communica- tions or serial printer hookup. An optional game port. Plus 128K of RAM to bring the 512K AT up to its 640K PC DOS limit. Plus all necessary cables of course. The Answer! is fully assembled. Fully tested. And backed by our 3-year u No -\ Sweat" Warranty. Which is 3 times longer fr £fKmJr? rT^— than the warranty on the AT itself. < Pxj ^° w ^ en Y ou 9 e t an IBM AT, make sure you get The Answer! And you wont have a problem. For complete details, ask your dealer, circle the Reader Service Number, or contact: SMT, Inc., 1145 Linda Vista Dr., San Marcos, CA 92069. 619/744-3590. The Answer!™ IBM AT is a registered trademark of IBM Corp. The Answer is a registered trademark of SMT. SYSTEMS MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGY. INC. Inquiry 333 for End-Users. Inquiry 334 for DEALERS ONLY. MARCH 1986 'BYTE 1*9 Inquiry 77 Diskettes BV YCenTecIi The Colorful Solution to Data Organization'" TIMELESS WARRANTY SS-DD QTY.IOO DS-DD Color Bulk 890 $-|05* 690 *R l ir- \J\J\J Color Boxed " 99b Color Bulk 96 TPI , $1 98 * • I13MPC-AT Compatible Color Bulk I DS-HD 100% error-free beyond 75% clipping level. Available in 12 useful assorted colors. Custom Labeling/Branding available. "A" Color Bulk wTyvek sleeves add 6c Label Kits 2c. ■jt Pre-packaged in Plastic Library Case/12. A S4.95 value case lor 20cdisk extra DISKS ABE OPAQUE' TREE! 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DISK STORAGE Amray Media Mate 50 $7.99 Disk Minder II-75 si) 99 Micro Disk Mindcr-36 ... $7.75 PRICE PROMISE: We will betler any lower delivered price on the same products and quantities advertised nationally. TERMS: FREE USE OF VISA AND MAS- TERCARD. American Express also accepted. Shipping: Add S3.00 per 1 00 diskettes or frac- tion thereof. Other items add S3.00 for disk storage or headcleaning kit or dozer ribbons or COD. orders. P.O. accepted from recog- nized institutions and schools on 2%-IQ Net 30. Utah residents add 5- ( 4^fe sales tax Minimum order £30.00 TOLL FREE ORDER LINE: 1-800-233-2477 INFORMATION AND INQUIRIES: 1-801-942-6717 2028 E. FT. UNION BLVD.. 105 « SALT LAKE CITY. UTAH 84121 ompuier CALL; ,.boo-affairs IffairS, inC. HOURS: 9AM-6PM M-F (Mln, Time) TITANIC Glossary Arithmetic Logic Unit (ALU): Hard- ware that performs arithmetic functions such as add or subtract and logical functions such as AND or OR. Digitize: The process of converting an analog (in this case, video) signal's amplitude to digital values. Display: The device in which an image is converted from electrical to optical signals: typically, a television monitor. Field: In an interlaced scanning sys- tem, the set of even or odd lines into which a frame is divided. Filter: In image processing, an opera- tion that changes the spatial and inten- sity characteristics of an image. Frame: The total number of lines of scan that represent an image. Frame Buffer: A high-speed memory designed to store a single image and allow simultaneous video display, ALU processing, and CPU (central process- ing unit) access. Frame Memory: Any area in memory (host-computer memory or frame- buffer memory) that is used to store an image. Frame Store: A high-speed memory designed to temporarily store a single image. Image Processing: The alteration and analysis of a picture for such purposes as enhancement and recognition. Intensity: The strength of light at a particular point in an image. Pixels represent intensity values that are per- ceived by the eye as brightness. Interlace: The means by which an image is scanned in standard video for- mat, where the odd and even fields are displayed alternately. Lookup Table (LUT): Hardware that provides map values for transforming or modifying pixels. Each pixel in the frame buffer has a value ranging from to 2 55. LUTs allow you to modify these values for purposes of enhanc- ing the image. Pixel: The smallest unit of storage in a digital image, addressed by that unit's horizontal and vertical coordinate or location within an image. Real Time: In image processing, an operation or a function that is com- pleted in one frame time is said to be performed in real time. For standard television (RS-170) equipment, a frame time is 1/30 of a second. Resolution: In image processing, the number of bits of accuracy or number of gray levels that can be represented in a pixel: for example, 8 bits = 256 levels, 6 bits = 64 levels. Spatial Resolution: In image process- ing, the number of pixels into which an image is divided, indicating the preci- sion or accuracy horizontally and ver- tically. For example, a spatial resolution of 480 by 512 pixels means that the im- age has 480 lines, with 512 pixels each (for a total of 245,760 pixels). is meaningless, we have changed these values to 0. The image shown in photo 1 1 , two cranes on the foredeck of the Titanic, was enhanced using the LUTs and convolved with an edge-enhancing kernel (see photo 12). Conclusion Deep-sea exploration is just one of the many applications in which image processing is being used. For exam- ple, image processing is used in medical imaging for digital radio- graphy, microscopy. X-ray averaging and recording, and in factory inspec- tion for robotic vision, quality control on production lines, and X-ray inspec- tion. Finding the Titanic is certainly a spectacular example of the processes that scientists and technicians in a variety of fields are using to coax useful information from two-dimen- sional images. ■ ACKNOWLEDGMENT We thank Robert Squires and Stewart Harris of the Woods Hole institution Deep Submergence laboratory for information and assistance in prepar- ing this article, hob and Stu are part of a team of scientists and engineers on the Titanic expedi- tion and under the direction of Dr. Robert Ballard, who designed and built the hrgo. 110 BYTE • MARCH 1986 /// YOU'RE LOOKING AT 4,096 COLORS 4CHANNEL STEREO 32 INSTRUMENTS 8 SPRITES 3-D ANIMATION 25 DMA CHANNELS A BIT BLITTER AND A MALE AND FEMALE VOICE. ONLY AMIGA GIVES YOU ALL THIS AND A 68000 PROCESSOR, TOO. Three custom VLSI chips working in combi- nation with the main processor give Amiga" graphic dazzle, incredible musical ability and animation skill. And they make Amiga the only com- puter with a multi-tasking operating system built into hardware. All these capabilities are easy to tap because Amiga's open architecture pro- A vides you with access to the 68000 main bus in addition to the serial, parallel and Sj floppy disk connectors. Complete tech- Jj nical manuals enable you to take full * advantage of the custom chips and the software support routines in the writable control store on the Kickstart™ disk that comes with every Amiga computer. You can access these resources in a number of development languages, includ- ing Amiga Macro Assembler,'" Amiga C, Amiga Basic (Microsoft 6 — Basic for the Amiga), Amiga Pascal and even Amiga LISP. So Amiga not only gives you more creativity, it gives you creative new ways to use it. Amiga by Commodore. GIVES YOU A CREATIVE EDGE. A " Amiga is a trademark of Commodore-Amiga, inc. ""Kicksiart is a trademark of Commodore-Amiga, inc. '"Amiga Macro Assembler Is a trademark of Commodore-Amiga, Inc. 'Microsoft Is a registered trademark of Microsoft, Inc. 112 BYTE • MARCH 1986 PHOTOGRAPHED BY PAUL AVIS CIARCIAS CIRCUIT CELLAR REAL-TIME CLOCKS: A VIEW TOWARD THE FUTURE by Steve Garcia One of these clocks also provides nonvolatile RAM Ever have one of those occasions when every- thing is progressing smoothly and then you hit a big snag? Here 1 was, standing on a 6-foot lad- der with screwdrivers in my back pockets, electric drill in my right hand, hammer in my belt, mouth full of screws, a pencil over my ear, and the audio/ video multiplexer that I described last month balanced in my left hand. A pre- carious climb if ever there was one, I assure you. I had solved the ever-present do-it-your- self problem of forgetting some needed tool by dragging everything along with me up the ladder. 1 cursed as I banged my head on an overhead heating duct and swore that the next time I set aside an area to mount all this home-control junk, I'd know every- thing I was going to put on it in advance and leave plenty of room. Instead of a con- venient shoulder-high location where life would be easy, I was halfway up under the floor joists sniffing concrete dust and soot. (Installing this stuff is getting about as pleasurable as writing software for me these days. Back when all I had was 48-instruction processors and lots of empty wall space, everything was copacetic.) The only saving grace to this temporary agony was that it would soon be relieved by the enhanced automatic living afforded through the intelligent audio/video multi- plexer (AVMUX). Using the BCC-52 com- puter and a smart terminal board from a couple of previous Circuit Cellar projects, the AVMUX would take inputs from a vari- ety of audio and video sources and chan- nel them to any of a number of specific out- puts. My intention was to enhance my pres- ent level of automatic living to include pro- grammed light, sound, and music. I wiped my brow after turning the last mounting screw for the AVMUX and instinc- tively dodged another floor joist as I looked down at the card cage containing the com- puter that I still had to mount. I had in- cluded all the necessary cabling and mount- ing hardware between it, the multiplexer, and the Home Run Control System (HCS) already in operation. My control program was already written and saved in EPROM (erasable programmable read-only mem- ory) so that it would automatically start when I powered up the system. Depending upon the day, time, direct signals from the HCS, and a yet-to-be-designed remote- (conlinued) Steve Garcia (pronounced "see-ARE-see-ah") is an electronics engineer and computer consultant with ex- perience in process control, digital design, nuclear in- strumentation, and product development. He is the author of several books about electronics. You can write to him at POB 582, Glastonbury. CT 06033. COPYRIGHT © 1986 STEVEN A. CIARC1A. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED MARCH 1986 113 CIRCUIT CELLAR control interface, specific or dynamically variable I/O (input/output) configurations would be mapped into the AVMUX. By retaining the different I/O maps in RAM (random-access read/write memory), the controller could switch among different com- mand situations easily and rapidly. Time? Memory maps? Uh-oh. It's terrible getting revelations on a lad- der. Instead of the normal reaction- stand up, slam my hand on the desk, and yell "That's it!"— 1 had to be cogni- zant of the limited headroom and the dust I would raise by yelling. In actuality, I had discovered nothing— nothing except a realization that what I had remembered was what 1 had forgotten to incorporate in my controller design. While the BCC-52 had a real-time clock/calendar within BASIC, it lacked the capability of retaining the I/O maps in RAM or the time if a power failure occurred. (a) AO TO A3 ADDRESS INPUTS v DD C 1 —^T~ 18 "J HOLD WRITE WRITE ENABLE WRITE C ? 17 3XT READ READ ENABLE HOLD COUNT HOLD READ C 3 Jb "J XT CS CHIP SELECT A C 4 IS D ±30 ADJ DO TO D3 TEST DATA INPUT/OUTPUT TEST INPUT Al C 5 MSM 5832 14 7J TEST ±30 ADJ + 30-SECOND CORRECTION INPUT A 2 C 6 13 7J GND XT a XT XTAL OSCILLATOR CONNECTIONS ft 3 C 7 1? D D 3 Vdd + 5V SUPPLY GND GROUND cs C 8 11 Zl D 2 D C 9 10 =!D, (b) BCC-52 ADDRESS & ( CONTROL BUS 29 30 34 35 D7 D6 D5 D4 03 D2 Dl DO RD WR A0 Al Vcc 8255 BCC-52 J5 PARALLEL-PORT CONNECTOR (PIN NUMBER) + 5V _k il PA0 PA1 PA2 PA3 PB0 PB1 PB2 PB3 PC4 PC5 PC6 10K TYPICAL (11) (26) (24) (22) (9) 19 I (7) 20 (5) (17) 11 I (13) DO Dl D2 D3 A0 Al A2 A3 HOLD READ WRITE Vcc rti BCC-52 BOARD 5-35pF -)h XTAL 32.768KH2 20pF ^p"VF ^ 4001 Q \4 9 — I 1N34A lOOfl 13 i I m INTERFACE CIRCUIT Figure I: (a) Pin-out of the Oki MSM5832 clock chip, (b) Schematic diagram of a real-time clock circuit using the chip from (a) and an 82 5 5 P1A (already on the BCC-52). 114 B YTE • MARCH 1986 CIRCUIT CELLAR The EPROM-resident control program was self-initiating and would not be destroyed. But it would start up with a time and date of zero and RAM cleared. My first reaction was to consider a UPS (uninterruptible power supply) or backup battery power for the whole computer. Either option was expen- sive and would consume a lot of cir- cuit-board real estate that 1 didn't have. Even if successful, what good is powering the whole computer system unless all the peripherals that it con- trols are operational as well? In reali- ty, all I needed to power was less than IK byte of RAM and whatever com- ponent or system functions as the real-time clock/calendar. Of course, powering the whole computer would indeed provide nonvolatile memory and an uninterruptible clock/calendar. Another trek up this ladder to mount a half-dozen rechargeable bat- teries didn't appeal to me. 1 needed a self-contained, battery-backed real- time clock that operated indepen- dently of the BCC-52 yet could be in- terrogated periodically regarding the time. Along the way, I'd look into mak- ing some portion of RAM nonvolatile. Within seconds, I was down the lad- der and shuffling through my junk box: piles of unopened news releases and an eyebrow-high pile of trade publications. The dimensions of this pile are usually affected only by an earthquake or a desperate search for some new technical idea around arti- cle time. Fortunately, my search was rewarded, and I came upon two solu- tions. One of them uses conventional technology; the other one is rather innovative. This month, I'll describe two real- time clock/calendars and let you be the judge of which one you want to implement in your application. While both circuits are applicable to any computer, I was specifically looking to attach a clock and nonvolatile RAM to the BCC-52. Also, since I have covered the basics of real-time clocks and the specific attributes of the BCC-52 computer in previous Circuit Cellar articles, I refer you to them for additional information: "Everyone Can Know the Real Time" (May 1982, page 34) and "Build the BASIC-52 Computer/Controller" (August 1985, page 104). The first device uses a CMOS (com- plementary metal-oxide semicon- ductor) clock/calendar chip that at- taches to the computer through paral- lel ports. Easy to exercise in software but consumptive of I/O, this conven- tional approach appeals to many of us who simply want a quick resolution of a problem and are not concerned about the I/O costs or having to manufacture thousands of them. The {continued) READ CYCLE \ D0-D3 (DATA OUT). XE 3=8 THEN N(5)=N(5)-8 320 PRINT (N(5)*10)+N(4)," : " , (N(3)*10)+N(2) , " : ", (N(1)*10)+N(O) 330 PRINT 340 RETURN 350 REM SET TIME 360 XBY(P4)=80H : REM SET PORTS A.B.&C AS OUTPUT 370 REM MSB OF REG 5 12(0)/24(1) HRS & MSB-1 AM(0)/PM(1) 380 FOR A=0 TO 12 390 PRINT "REGISTER", A, : INPUT X 400 XBY(P2)=A : XBY(P1)=X 405 REM WRITE STROBE 410 XBY(P3)=10H : XBY(P3)=50H : XBY(P3)=10H : XBY(P3)=00H 420 NEXT A 430 XBY(P4)=90H : REM RESTORE READ PORT SETTINGS 440 PRINT 450 RETURN you take it on faith that I've had the answer up my sleeve all along? While the previous circuit works very well, and many of you no doubt will build it, it is l/O-intensive. The value of a single-board computer like the BCC-52 is that it is often desirable to implement it as a single-board con- trol solution. As such, the parallel ports might be needed for the ap- plication and not be available for the clock interface I've described. Not using the PIA means that the clock chip must be connected to the bus and addressed as memory or ad- ditional I/O. Short of using one of the already-decoded 8K-byte memory- block address strobes and building the clock to plug it in in place of a memory chip, it would appear that the only alternative is to attach the clock circuit through the external expansion-bus connector. That, how- ever, would be the traditional answer to the problem. Using one of the RAM-chip loca- tions sounds like the most logical ap- proach, until you realize that you are sacrificing 25 percent of the available on-board RAM (the BCC-52 holds 32K bytes of RAM in four 8K-byte chips on board) for less than 1 bytes of clock data. It would be much better if both (continued) MARCH 1986 -BYTE 117 CIRCUIT CELLAR PIN CONNECTIONS Dl 28D-1 Vcc D2 27 D D3 26 CH D4 25 D D5 24 D 06 23d □ 7 22 D DS1213 D8 21 D D9 20 D CE □ 10 19 D Dll 18 D Dl2 17D d 13 i6 n GND Dl4 15 D PIN DEf •INITIONS ALL PINS PASS THROUGH EXCEPT 20. 26. 28 PIN 20 CONDITIONED CHIP ENABLE PIN 26 SWITCHED V cc FOR 24-PIN RAM PIN 28 SWITCHED V cc FOR 28-PIN RAM PIN 14 GROUND Figure 5: A pin-out diagram of the SmartSocket. the clock and the RAM could share the memory-block address and any locations not those of the clock could be RAM. Better yet, why not keep all the RAM and attach the clock as a phantom interface that is there only when you need it? Just as 1 was cleaning off the solder- ing iron to build the ultimate real-time clock, I discovered that such a device was just introduced by Dallas Semi- conductor (43 50 Beltwood Parkway South, Dallas, TX 75244, (214) 450- 0470). Called SmartWatch, it does everything I had hoped in a single package and has some startling side benefits, like 8K bytes of nonvolatile memory. This latter revelation neces- sitates starting at the beginning and discussing a few additional Dallas Semiconductor products that are in- corporated in the SmartWatch. The most notable of these is the DS1213 SmartSocket. Nonvolatile RAM The DS1213 is a 28-pin 0.6-inch-wide DIP (dual in-line package) socket with a built-in CMOS controller circuit and lithium battery (see figure 5). It ac- cepts either a 28-pin 8K by 8 or 24-pin 2K by 8 lower-justified IEDEC (Joint Electronic Device Engineering Coun- cil) byte-wide CMOS static RAM. When the socket is mated with a CMOS RAM, it makes the RAM con- tents nonvolatile by automatically switching the RAM to battery opera- tion and write-protecting it upon any occurrence of power interruption. The SmartSocket performs five cir- cuit functions necessary for imple- menting battery backup on a CMOS memory. First, a switch is provided to direct power from the battery or V cc supply, depending on which is greater. This switch has a voltage drop of less than 0.2 V. The second func- tion is power-fail detection at input voltages less than 4.75 V. The DS12 1 3 constantly monitors the V cc supply. When Vcc falls below 4.75 V, a preci- sion comparator detects the condition and inhibits enabling of the RAM chip. The third function accomplishes write protection by holding the chip- v ceo + 5-V OUTGOING VBAT1 " +BATTERY 1 TOL - POWER-SUPPLY TOLERANCE GND - GROUND CE - CHIP ENABLE INPUT CEO - CHIP ENABLE OUTPUT VBAT2 " + BATTERY 2 Vcci - +5-V INCOMING PIN NAMES FROM DECODER 5 DS1210 VcCO V BAT1 V BAT2 Vcc CMOS RAM /77 PIN CONNECTIONS Figure 6: The pin-out and functional diagram for the DS1210 nonvolatile- RAM controller. PIN CONNECTIONS RST Dl 28 D-] D2 27 □ D3 26 CH D4 25 n D5 24 O □ 6 23 D D7 DS12U D8 22 D 21 D □ 9 20 D D10 19D Dll 18 D D12 17D D13 16 D Dl4 15 □ PIN DEFINITIONS ALL PINS PASS THROUGH EXCEPT 20. 26, 28 PIN 20 CONDITIONED CHIP ENABLE PIN 26 SWITCHED V cc FOR 24-PIN RAM PIN 28 SWITCHED V cc FOR 28-PIN RAM PIN 1 RESET PIN 22 OUTPUT ENABLE PIN 27 WRITE ENABLE PIN 11 DATA INPUT/OUTPUT PIN 14 GROUND Figure 7: A pin-out for the DS1216 SmartWatch. 118 BYTE- MARCH 1986 CIRCUIT CELLAR enable signal to the memory to within 0.2 V of V cc or battery supply. If the chip-enable signal is active at the time power-fail detection occurs, write pro- tection is delayed until after the memory cycle is complete to avoid corruption of data. During nominal power-supply conditions, the memory chip-enable signal will be passed through to the socket receptacle with a maximum propagation delay of 20 nanoseconds. The SmartSocket's fourth function is to check battery status and warn of potential data loss. Each time that V cc power is restored to the SmartSocket, the battery voltage is checked with a precision comparator. If the battery supply is less than 2.0 V, the second memory cycle is inhibited. Battery status can, therefore, be determined by performing a read cycle after power-up to any location in the mem- ory, recording the contents of that memory location. A subsequent write cycle can then be executed to the same memory location, altering the data. If the next read cycle fails to verify the written data, the contents of the memory are questionable because the battery may not have re- tained it. The fifth function is battery redun- dancy. In many applications, data in- tegrity is paramount. The DS1213 SmartSocket has two internal bat- teries. During battery-backup time, the battery with the highest voltage is selected for use. If one battery fails, the other automatically takes over. The switch between batteries is trans- parent to the user. A battery status warning occurs only if both batteries are less than 2.0 V. Each of the two lithium cells contains 3 5 milliampere/ hour capacity, making the total 70 mA/hr. If you are contemplating a new design and want the benefits of non- volatile static memory, the essential ingredients of the SmartSocket are available in chip form. Designated as DS1210, DS1224, and DS1212, they coordinate and perform the above de- scribed backup and write-protect functions for banks of 1, 4, or 16 in- (conlinued) SMART WATCH COMPARISON- REGISTER DEFINITION HEXADECIMAL i=E 7 h— VALUE C5 3A A3 5C C5 3A A3 5C 1 1 1 1 c± 1 1 1 1 >J n< 1 1 1 ] >"" lz£ 1 1 1 1 >J czE 1 1 1 1 >-l czE 1 1 1 1 T-l izE 1 1 1 1 >J : 1 1 1 1 >-" NOTE: THE PATTERN RECOGNITION IN HEXADECIMAL IS C5 3A, A3, 5C. C5, 3A, A3 , 5C THE ODDS OF THIS PATTERN ACCIDENTALLY OCCUR- RING \ND CAUSING INADVERTENT ENTRY TO THE SMARTWATCH ARE LESS THAN 1 IN 10 1 9 Figure 8: The SmartWatch's comparison bit pattern. REGISTER SMARTWATCH REGISTER DEFINITION 7 0.1 SEC 0.01 SEC 7 10 SEC SECONDS 1 7 10 MIN MINUTES 1 7 12/24 lCv/ /A/P HR HOUR 1 7 OSC RESET DAY 7 10 DATE DATE 7 10 MONTH MONTH 7 10 YEAR YEAR RANGE (BCD) 00-99 01-12 00-23 01-07 00-99 Figure 9: The SmartWatch's registers. MARCH 1986 -BYTE 119 CIRCUIT CELLAR dividual CMOS RAM chips. (Contact Dallas Semiconductor directly for data sheets.) The DS1210 is shown in figure 6. The DS1216 SmartWatch A new socket-style device called the DS1216 SmartWatch retains the non- volatile-RAM capability of the Smart- Socket and adds a calendar time func- tion (see figure 7 for the pin-out). The SmartWatch includes its own crystal time base and maintains time infor- mation, including hundredths of seconds, seconds, minutes, hours, day of week, day of month, month, and year. The date at the end of the month is automatically adjusted for months with fewer than 31 days, in- cluding correction for leap year. Hours of the day can be tracked in both 12- and 24-hour formats. Communication with the Smart- Watch is established by pattern rec- ognition on a serial bit stream of 64 bits that must be matched by execut- ing 64 consecutive write cycles con- taining the proper data on DQO. All accesses that occur prior to recogni- tion of the 64-bit pattern are directed to memory. After recognition is estab- lished, the next 64 read or write cycles either extract or update data in the SmartWatch; memory access is inhibited. Data transfer to and from the time- keeping function is accomplished with a serial bit stream under control of chip enable (CE), output enable (0~E), and write enable (WE). Initially, a read cycle to any memory location using the CE and OE control of the Smart- Watch starts the pattern-recognition sequence by moving a pointer to the first bit of the 64-bit comparison register. The next 64 consecutive write cycles are executed using the CE and WE control of the SmartWatch. These 64 write cycles are used only to gain access to the SmartWatch. Therefore, any address to the memory in the socket is acceptable. However, the write cycles generated to gain ac- cess to the SmartWatch are also writing data to a location in the mated ' RAM. The preferred way to manage this requirement is to set aside one Listing 2: A BASIC program that sets and reads the SmartWatch. 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120 130 140 150 160 170 180 190 200 210 220 230 240 250 260 270 280 290 300 310 320 330 340 350 360 370 380 390 400 410 420 430 440 450 460 470 480 490 500 510 520 530 540 550 REM REM APPLICATION PROGRAM USING ONLY BASIC TO DEMONSTRATE SMARTWATCH REAL TIME CLOCK ON BCC52 COMPUTER CONTROLLER BOARD CLEAR STRING 200,15 $(1)="SUNDAY" $(2)="M0NDAY" $(3)="TUESDAY" $(4)="WEDNESDAY" $(5)="THURSDAY" $(6)="FRIDAY" $(7)=" SATURDAY" REM REM ********* MAIN MENU ******** REM PRINT "0=READ DATE/TIME 1=ENTER NEW DATE/TIME ?" G=GET GOSUB 1350 : REM GET NUMBER 0-9 PRINT CHR(18),CHR(27),"Y" : REM CLR & HOME TERMITE IF G=0 THEN GOSUB 790 : REM READ & DISPLAY DATE/TIME INFO IF G=1 THEN GOSUB 250 : REM GATHER & SAVE NEW DATE/TIME INFO GOTO 150 REM REM ********* GATHER $ SAVE NEW DATE/TIME INFO REM J=XBY(4000H) : REM SAVE BYTE LOCATED IN 4000H TO REPLACE WHEN DONE GOSUB 1420 : REM SEND PATTERN RECOGNITION CODES PRINT "ENTER DATE MMDDYY" G=GET FOR Z=6 TO 8 : REM USE G(6) FOR MM. G(7) FOR DD, G(8) FOR YY GOSUB 1350 : REM GET NUMBER 0-9 PRINT G, : REM ECHO NUMBER 0-9 H=G*16 : REM STORE NUMBER IN UPPER NIBBLE GOSUB 1350 PRINT G, G(Z)=H+G : REM COMBINE NUMBERS 1 IN UPPER NIBBLE. 1 IN LOWER NIBBLE NEXT Z PRINT G=G(6) : REM G(6)=G(7) : REM G(7)=G : REM G(1)=0 : REM SET TENTHS & HUNDREDTHS OF A PRINT "DAY OF THE WEEK SUN=0 M0N=1 TUE=2 THU=4 FRI=5 SAT=6 ?" G=GET GOSUB 1350 PRINT G PRINT G(5)=G.OR.10H : RESET FROM PIN 1 PRINT "ENTER TIME G=GET STEP -1 SWAP 6 & 7, NOW 6,7.8 IN DD/MM/YY REM OR BIT4 TO IGNORE SECOND = WED=3 HHMMSS" FOR Z=4 TO 2 G(3) FOR MM. G(2) FOR SS GOSUB 1350 PRINT G, H=G*16 GOSUB 1350 PRINT G, REM USE G(4) FOR HH, 120 BYTE- MARCH 1986 CIRCUIT CELLAR 560 570 580 590 600 610 620 630 640 650 660 670 680 690 700 710 720 730 740 750 760 770 780 790 800 810 820 830 840 850 860 870 880 890 900 910 920 930 940 950 960 970 980 990 1000 1010 1020 1030 1040 1050 1060 1070 1080 0=24 HOUR FORMAT 1230 : "TODAY STRIP OFF / / REM SEND PATTERN RECOGNITION CODES REM READ SMARTWATCH REGISTERS IS ",$((G(5).AND.7H)+1) : DAY OF WEEK REM INITIALIZE DATE STRING G(2)=H+G NEXT Z PRINT PRINT "IS THE TIME IN 1=12 HOUR FORMAT ?" G=GET GOSUB 1350 IF G<>1 THEN 680 : REM IF NOT 1 THEN JUMP G(4)=(G(4).OR.80H) : REM OR BIT7 TO INDICATE 12 HOUR FORMAT PRINT "IS IT 0=AM 1=PM ?" G=GET GOSUB 1350 IF G=1 THEN G(4)=(G(4).OR.20H) : REM OR BIT5 TO INDICATE PM REM HOLD FOR TIME SYNCHRONIZATION PRINT "HIT '0' TO GO SET THE NEW DATE/TIME" GOSUB 1350 IF G<>0 THEN 700 GOSUB 1530 : REM STORE DATE/TIME INFO TO SMARTWATCH XBY(4000H)=J : REM REPLACE BYTE TO 4000H G=0 RETURN REM REM ********* READ & DISPLAY DATE/TIME REM J=XBY(4000H) GOSUB 1420 GOSUB PRINT REM $(8)=" Z-7 : REM X=1 : REM AT POSITION 1 GOSUB 1630 : REM GET 2 AND PLUG INTO STRING $(8) Z=6 X=4 GOSUB 1630 Z=8 X=7 GOSUB 1630 $(9)=$(8) : REM SAVE IT IN $(9) FOR ANY FUTURE USE PRINT $(9) $(8)=" . " : REM INITIALIZE TIME STRING G(9)=Gf4) IF (G(4).AND.80H)=0 THEN 1020 : REM IF BIT7=0 THEN 24 HR FORMAT, JUMP IF (G(4).AND.20H)=0 THEN ASC($(8) , 13)=41H : REM IF BIT5 = 0, PLUG A IF (G(4).AND.20H)=20H THEN ASC($(8) , 13)=50H : REM IF BIT5 SET, PLUG P ASC($(8),14)=4DH : REM PLUG M G(9)=(G(4).AND.1FH) : REM STRIP OFF FORMAT FROM HOUR REGISTER Z=9 X=1 GOSUB 1630 ASC($(8),3)=3AH : REM PLUG IN THE CHARACTER FOR COLON Z=3 X=4 GOSUB 1630 (continued) USE G(7) MM REGISTER PLUG CHARACTERS INTO STRING STARTING CHARACTERS FROM G(Z) address location in RAM as a Smart- Watch scratchpad. When the first write cycle is ex- ecuted, it is compared to bit 1 of the 64-bit comparison register. If a match is found, the pointer increments to the next location of the comparison reg- ister and awaits the next write cycle. If a match is. not found, the pointer does not advance, and all subsequent write cycles are ignored. If a read cycle occurs at any time during pat- tern recognition, the present se- quence is aborted, and the compari- son-register pointer is reset. Pattern recognition continues for a total of 64 write cycles until all the bits in the comparison register have been matched (this bit pattern is shown in figure 8). With a correct match for 64 bits, the SmartWatch is enabled, and data transfer to or from the timekeep- ing registers can proceed. The next 64 cycles will cause the SmartWatch to either receive or transmit data on DQO, depending on the level of the OE pin or the WE pin. Cycles to other locations outside the memory block can be interleaved with CE cycles without interrupting the pattern-rec- ognition sequence or data-transfer se- quence to the SmartWatch. The SmartWatch information is con- tained in eight registers of 8 bits each, which are sequentially accessed a bit at a time after the 64-bit pattern-rec- ognition sequence has been com- pleted. When updating the Smart- Watch registers, each must be handled in groups of 8 bits. These read/write registers are defined in figure 9. Data contained in the SmartWatch registers is in BCD (binary-coded decimal) format. Reading and writing the registers are always accomplished by stepping through all eight registers, starting with bit of register and ending with bit 7 of register 7. A few of the significant bits are the follow- ing: • AM-PM/12/24 mode: Bit 7 of the hours register is defined as the 12- or 24-hour mode select bit. When high, the 12-hour mode is selected. In the (continued) MARCH 1986 (YTE 121 CIRCUIT CELLAR 1090 ASC($(8),6)=3AH 1100 Z-2 1110 X=7 1120 GOSUB 1630 1130 Z=1 1140 X=10 1150 GOSUB 1630 1160 PRINT $(8) 1170 XBY(4000H)=J 1180 G=0 1190 RETURN 1200 REM 1210 REM ******** READ SMARTWATCH REGISTERS 1220 REM 1230 FOR Z=1 TO 8 1240 G(Z)=0 1250 FOR X=1 TO 8 1260 G=(XBY(4000H).AND.1) : REM G = BIT0 1270 IF G=0 THEN 1290 : REM BIT ■ 0, DON'T ADD ANYTHING TO REGISTER BYTE 1280 G(Z)=G(Z)+(2**(X-1)) : REM BUILD REGISTER BYTE FROM BITS RECEIVED 1290 NEXT X 1300 NEXT Z 1310 RETURN 1320 REM 1330 REM ******** GET NUMBER 0-9 1340 REM 1350 G-GET 1360 IF G<48.0R.G>57 THEN 1350 1370 G=G-48 : REM ASC TO 0-9 1380 RETURN 1390 REM 1400 REM ******** INITIALIZE PATTERN RECOGNITION CODES 1410 REM 1420 G(1)=0C5H 1430 G(2)=3AH 1440 G(3)=0A3H 1450 G(4)=5CH G(5)=0C5H 1460 1470 G(6)=3AH G(7)=0A3H 1480 1490 G(8)=5CH 1500 REM 1510 REM ******** SEND REGISTERS TO SMARTWATCH 1520 REM 1530 FOR Z=1 TO 8 1540 FOR X=1 TO 8 1550 IF (G(Z).AND.(2**(X-1)))<>0 THEN G=1 ELSE G=0 : REM STRIP OFF BIT 1560 XBY(4000H)=G : REM SEND BIT TO SMARTWATCH 1570 NEXT X 1580 NEXT Z 1590 RETURN 1600 REM 1610 REM ******* GET 2 CHARACTERS FROM G(Z) REGISTER 1620 REM ******* PLUG $(8) ® X 1630 G=INT(G(Z)/16) 1640 ASC($(8),X)-G+48 ASC($(8) ,X+1 )=G(Z)-(G*16)+48 1650 1660 RETURN 1670 REM 1680 REM ************ END 12-hour mode, bit 5 is the AM/PM bit with logic high being PM. In the 24-hour mode, bit 5 is the second 10-hour bit (20-23 hours). • Oscillator and reset bits: Bits 4 and 5 of the day register are used to con- trol the reset and oscillator function. Bit 4 controls the reset pin (pin 1). When the reset bit is set to logic 1, the reset input pin is ignored. When the reset bit is set to logic 0, a low in- put on the reset pin will cause the SmartWatch to abort data transfer without changing data in the watch registers. Bit 5 controls the oscillator. This bit is shipped from Dallas Semi- conductor set to logic 1. which turns the oscillator off. When set to logic 0, the oscillator turns on, and the watch becomes operational. • Zero bits: Registers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 contain one or more bits that always read logic 0. When writing these loca- tions, either a logic 1 or is accept- able. Reading and Setting SmartWatch in BASIC While it is ultimately smarter to exer- cise the SmartWatch through an as- sembly-language routine, the univer- sality of BASIC suggests that it would be a better tool for demonstrating the intricacies of communicating with SmartWatch. Listing 2 is a BASIC pro- gram that sets and reads a Smart- Watch installed at 4000 hexadecimal on a BCC-52 computer/controller board. This program is more involved than the 5832 clock-chip program described earlier, primarily because it has more reporting features and com- municates with the operator through menus. Embedded among all the REM and PRINT statements are the essential time-setting and read routines that you can translate from BASIC- 5 2 to any other BASIC. An Assembly-Language Firmware Utility The assembly-language interface to the SmartWatch is also done on the bit level. The device requires that a particular pattern of 64 consecutive bits be written to data bit in order to access the time and date registers 122 BYTE • MARCH 1986 CIRCUIT CELLAR of the SmartWatch. Then, 64 more consecutive reads or writes are re- quired to examine or set the watch. The firmware EPROM consists of a set of routines that take care of manipulating the SmartWatch and conversion of the SmartWatch data from BCD to binary format (I call this firmware SmarTime). This allows the use of BASIC to directly read the data in memory with no conversion code necessary in the BASIC- 5 2 program. Year, month, date, day of week, hours, minutes, seconds, and hundredths of seconds are made available in the BCC-52 data memory for reading by the user program. SmarTime uses 24-hour military time (00:00-2 3 : 59) in order to eliminate the need for an AM/PM indicator. If AM/PM time is re- quired, you can convert it to the more standard format in BASIC. The SmarTime system is contained within an EPROM at location 6000 hexadecimal (for this demonstration) and occupies 300 (hexadecimal) bytes of memory (the SmarTime routines can be reassembled to run in any available 300 [hexadecimal|-byte EPROM space on the board). The rest can be used by your application if desired, but be careful to put your data into the EPROM from the top down. SmarTime stores its register save and load areas and date/time informa- tion in the area directly above BASIC-52's current MTOP pointer. Because of this, the MTOP address must be adjusted down by 30 bytes prior to calling the initialization routine at location 6000 hexadecimal. A memory map appears in figure 10. Three basic functions are found in SmarTime (figures 11-14 outline the logic flow of these programs). The first is a routine that sets up the memory environment for SmarTime to use. This routine, executed with a CALL 6000H, creates a load table of infor- mation in the memory above MTOP. The table contains the base address of the SmartWatch device, as well as a pointer to where the time informa- tion is stored. A second routine, invoked with a CALL 6003H, uses the binary data stored in the time and date fields to set the SmartWatch. The required control bits for establishing 24-hour time and for turning on the Smart- Watch internal oscillator are added to the data prior to its being written to the SmartWatch device. The routine also does the binary-to-BCD con- version. The thirdfunction of the software is a routine for reading out the Smart- Watch date and time information, con- verting it from BCD to binary format, and storing it in the memory area above MTOP. It is executed with a CALL 6006H. Using the SmartWatch with Smar- Time is easy. With the DS1216 in- stalled at address 4000 hexadecimal and SmarTime at 6000 hexadecimal, simply enter and run the program SmarTime uses 24-hour military time to eliminate the need for an AM/PM indicator. shown in listing 3. Finally, we are back to simple BASIC programs with the help of a little firm- ware tucked away in an EPROM. As this program runs, you should see the seconds location of the clock/calen- dar printed out once per second. If it is correctly incrementing, the EPROM is installed properly at loca- tion 6000 hexadecimal and the Smart- (continued) Program Memory 6000H-6300H SmarTime EPROM-resident software External Data Offset Above Function Memory MTOP Value DEC HEX. 24 18 YEARS (00-99) 23 17 MONTHS (01-12) 22 16 DATE (01-31) 21 15 DAY (01-07) 20 14 HOURS (00-23) 19 13 MINS. (00-59) 18 12 SECS. (00-59) 17 11 HUNDREDTHS of SECS (0.00-0.99) 16 10 BANK 3 REG 7 LOAD (RESERVED) 15 OF BANK 3 REG 6 LOAD (RESERVED) 14 0E BANK 3 REG 5 LOAD (RESERVED) 13 0D BANK 3 REG 4 LOAD (RESERVED) 12 OC BANK 3 REG 3 LOAD (TIME AREA LOW) 11 0B BANK 3 REG 2 LOAD (TIME AREA HIGH) 10 0A BANK 3 REG 1 LOAD (RESERVED) 09 09 BANK 3 REG LOAD (WATCH BASE) 08 08 BANK 3 REG 7 SAVE AREA 07 07 BANK 3 REG 6 SAVE AREA 06 06 BANK 3 REG 5 SAVE AREA 05 05 BANK 3 REG 4 SAVE AREA 04 04 BANK 3 REG 3 SAVE AREA 03 03 BANK 3 REG 2 SAVE AREA 02 02 BANK 3 REG 1 SAVE AREA MTOP + => 01 01 BANK 3 REG SAVE AREA Figure 10: The SmafTime firmware memory map. MARCH 1986 :YTE 123 CIRCUIT CELLAR Watch at location 4000 hexadecimal. You can now write your own BASIC-52 programs to use SmarTime. In Conclusion Either real-time clock I've presented is applicable and valuable in control applications. Which you use depends primarily upon the application. It took only a few hours to build and test the 5832 circuit, and it proved an im- mediate success for a one-shot prob- lem. In the long run, however, the SmarTime system incorporating the SmartWatch and nonvolatile RAM is a more useful BCC-52 peripheral that can be easily duplicated, especially now that the software is written. Speaking of software, the BASIC listings and a file of the SmarTime ex- ecutable code (to run at 6000 hexa- decimal) discussed in this article are available for downloading from BYTE- net Listings at (617) 861-9764 and the Circuit Cellar BBS at (203) 871-1988. They are also available from BYTE on disk (see page 358). f START J SAVE 8052 CURRENT REGISTERS SAVE OLD REG. BANK 3 REGISTERS CALCULATE ADDRESS OF TIME / DATE AREA SAVE SMARTWATCH POINTER AND TIME/DATE AREA ADDRESS RECOVER OLD BANK 3 VALUES RECOVER SAVED 8052 REGISTERS f RETURN J ( START J SAVE 8052 CURRENT REGISTERS SAVE OLD REG. BANK 3 REGISTERS LOAD OUR REG. BANK 3 REGISTERS READ DATA FROM TIME /DATE TABLE CONVERT FROM BINARY TO BCD AND MASK WRITE SMARTWATCH COMMAND STRING WRITE DATA TO SMARTWATCH RECOVER OLD BANK 3 VALUES RECOVER SAVED 8052 REGISTERS ( EX ' T ) ( START J SAVE 8052 CURRENT REGISTERS SAVE OLD REG. BANK 3 REGISTERS LOAD OUR REG. BANK 3 REGISTERS WRITE SMARTWATCH COMMAND STRING READ SMARTWATCH DATA CONVERT FROM BCD TO BINARY AND MASK STORE DATA IN WATCH AREA RECOVER OLD BANK 3 VALUES RECOVER SAVED 8052 REGISTERS ( EX,T ) Figure 1 1 : The SmarTime firmware flowchart— the initialization routine. Figure 12: The SmarTime firmware flowchart— a routine to set the SmartWatch. Figure 13: The SmarTime firmware flowchart— a routine to read the SmartWatch. 124 BYTE • MARCH 1986 CIRCUIT CELLAR 1 f START J SET BYTE COUNT TO 8 STEP TO NEXT COMMAND BYTE 1 '-, BYTE COUNT = BYTE COUNT - 1 GET COMMAND BYTE FROM TABLE NO /*^\ SET BIT COUNT TO 8 \ DONE y/ ' -, [yes ( DONE J WRITE BYTE TO SMARTWATCH ROTATE BYTE RIGHT 1 BIT. BIT COUNT = COUNT- ] 'AL jr Bl T ^^- to V DO me y YES Figure 14: The SmafTime firmware flowchart- string or data to the SmartWatch. ■a routine to write a command Listing 3: This BASIC program uses the SmafTime firmware to update a seconds counter on screen. Note that comments in parentheses next to the code should not be entered as part of the program. 10 MTOP = MTOP - 30 (RESET MTOP POINTER) 20 DBY(18H)=040H (ASSUME SMARTWATCH AT 4000H) 30 CALL 6000H (INITIALIZE THE SYSTEM) 40 REM NOW SET SMARTWATCH TIME 50 FOR X=MT0P+24 TO MTOP+17 STEP -1 60 READ C 70 XBY(X)=C 80 NEXT X 85 REM ZZ/01/85 14:25:00.00 90 DATA 85,11,01,05.14,25,00,00 100 CALL 6003H (WRITE THE VALUES) 110 CALL 6006H (READ THE VALUES) 120 PRINT MTOP+18 (SECONDS COUNTER) 130 GOTO 110 Circuit Cellar Feedback This month's feedback is on page 3 54. Next Month Beating your own security system: a personal experience. ■ Special thanks to }eff Bachiochi and Bill Curlew for their software expertise. Diagrams pertaining to Dallas Semiconduc- tor components and Oki are reprinted by permission. The following items are available from The Micromint Inc. 2 5 Terrace Dr. Vernon, CT 06066 (800) 635-3355 for orders (203) 871-6170 for information The BCC-52 SmaiTime system consists of a DS1216 SmartWatch and a SmaiTime firm- ware EPROM (ROM C) written in 8052 as- sembly language. The EPROM contains the assembled executable code (address 7D00 hexadecimal) and the power I/O system as described in the December 1984 Circuit Cellar. Using the assembler provided in the optional expansion utilities ROMs A and B. the SmaiTime routine can be reassembled to execute anywhere in memory. The Smar- Time manual contains the source file of the SmaiTime utility. 1. SmaiTime firmware EPROM with Smart- Watch module. BCC-52 clock and SmartROM C. . . .569 2. SmaiTime firmware EPROM with Smart- Watch module and 8K-byte RAM chip. BCC-52 8K clock and SmartROM C . $79 3. DS1216 SmartWatch clock module separately. ' DS12I6 $39 4. BCC-52 computer/controller board with manuals. BCC-52 $239 Please include $5 for UPS shipping and handling in the continental United States, $12 for ground or $18 for air shipment elsewhere. Connecticut residents please include 7.5 per- cent sales tax. Editor's Note: Steve often refers to previous Circuit Cellar articles. Most of these past ar- ticles are available in book form from BYTE Books, McGraw-Hill Book Company, POB 400. Hightstown, NJ 082 50. Ciarcia's Circuit Cellar. Volume 1 covers articles in BYTE from September 1977 through November 1978. Volume II covers December 1978 through |une 1980. Volume III covers July 1980 through December 1981. Volume IV covers January 1982 through June 1983. MARCH 1986 -BYTE 125 Introducing Pc Microsoft® Windows has arrived. For anyone who uses a computer in earnest, that is extremely good news. Windows gives you a practical way to integrate programs. It radically decreases the time it takes to move from one application to another. Dramat- ically simplifies the means of consolidating data from many different programs. And as a graphical extension of the MS-DOS® operating system, it gives you a highly visual way to work and to organize your work. In short, Windows brings efficiency to all those processes of personal computing which have till now been awkward, unwieldy, inconvenient. The joys of job hopping. With the advent of Windows, you can work with multiple applications. And switch from program to program with ease. Start up with one application, then another, and another. Leap back and forth between applications as your work routine dictates. Then pick up right where you left off. The ability of Windows to change quickly from program to program logically and naturally magnifies the utility and productivity of the personal computer. And is a recognition of the way people who exploit the power of PCs really do their jobs. Breaking the 640K barrier. ]ust like you, Microsoft Windows can handle several projects at the same time. Juggle assignments. Deal with frequent interruptions. And Windows will ignore the 640K limit of the PC, especially if you have a hard disk, the Intel® Above™ Board, or expanded memory. It will execute the rather neat trick of working with more programs than memory can hold at one time. Spreading knowledge. Another significant service Windows performs is accelerating the movement of information from one program to another. Collecting and combining that information is as simple as taking a "snapshot" of data in one program. Editing it. Then consolidating it with data from other programs. With Windows, you can enjoy the advantages of conventional integrated programs without their compromises. Because Windows lets you put together the applications that you know, and that get a job 126 BYTE • MARCH 1986 wer Windows. done for you. Choose your best word processor, spreadsheet, database— you name it. They're all there for you at a keystroke. Common ground. Finally, Windows is not only an immensely power- ful tool for today, it's also a solid base for a new generation of Windows Applications. As an introductory offer, two of these— Microsoft Windows Write and Windows Paint— are included in the Windows package. Along with more than a dozen other Windows desktop applications. Including a DOS file management program, calendar, cardfile, notepad, calculator, and a telecommuni- cations program. In Windows Applications you have a common interface which includes drop-down menus, dialog boxes, icons. Along with a richer environ- ment that allows you to mix pictures and text. And to summon different type faces and styles at a keystroke. Windows is a bridge between today's applica- tions and the graphics based software now evolving. A way to work interchangeably with today's programs. And tomorrow's. Of course, all this is going to cost you: $99. A price that makes Windows the most startling value ever offered in software. A comparable collection of programs— a switching program, a graphic interface, desktop applications, a word processor, a drawing program— could easily cost hundreds of dollars more. If you're someone who uses personal com- puting as a natural part of your work life, who capitalizes on the productive powers of sophisticated applications, look into Windows. It offers a new vision of what a computer can do. Mcrosofr Windows The High Performance Software™ For the n In Canac e of your nearest Microsoft dealer, call (800) 426-94O0.1n Washington State and Alaska, (206) 828-8088. rail (800) 387-6616. Nuic. Photo shows color and resolution obtained on an IBM" PC equipped with IBM Enhanced Graphics Adaptec Monochrome display is generated when an IBM Color Graphics Adapter or compatible graphics adapter card is used. Microsoft and MS-DOS are registered trademarks and Tin' High Performance Software- is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation Intel is a registered trademark and Above is a trademark of Intel Corporation. IBM is a registered trademark of International Business Machines Corporation. System Requirements: IBM or COMPAQ Personal Computer lor 100";. compatibles) Z^oK memory, two double-sided, double- density disk drives (5I2K and a hard disk recommended, when usinj: multiple applications or DOS 3.0 or higher J. Graphics adapter card (IBM Color Graphic Monitor Adapter. IBM Enhanced Graphics Adapter. Hercules Graphics Card, or compatible). MARCH 1986 -BYTE 127 fv""'"' 1; i- 1 ■■ ■'■ ■".: '■"■■' Xi. ! 128 BYTE • MARCH 1986 ILLUSTRATED BY ROBERT T1NNEY PROGRAMMING PROJECT A SIMPLE WINDOWING SYSTEM PART 1: BASIC PRINCIPLES by Bruce Webster Windows can be implemented on almost any system with a memory-mapped display The use of windows for user interfaces is not new; the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center has been developing win- dow-based systems for years. But it wasn't until Apple released the Macintosh two years ago that windows became popular. Now, just about every major microcomputer has a window-based user interface available (if not actually bundled), and a wide range of software, from databases to games, uses windows as well. Though windows are most often associ- ated with high-powered bit-mapped com- puters, they can be implemented— and im- plemented well— on nearly any system with a memory-mapped display, be it graphics or text. There is nothing magic or secret about windows; the underlying concepts are easy to understand and usually easy to implement. Windowing systems can be and have been implemented on most of the more "mundane" computers; the goal of this article is to show you how. I will assume that you are using some existing set of graphics or text routines. Only a few rou- tines are essential; a viewport or screen bounds command, to restrict writing or drawing to the current window; a clear screen or fill screen command, to erase the portion of the screen where the window will appear; a cursor-positioning command for text displays, to draw (if desired) a border of characters; and a line-drawing command for graphics displays, also to draw a border. This month's installment will cover the basic principles of windows and then ex- amine the problems involved in opening a window. Next month, I will look at how to close a window, develop a pseudocode im- plementation of a windowing system, and show an actual implementation on a specific computer. Understanding Windows A window is simply a small screen that ap- pears within a larger screen (your com- puter's display). Its function is to let you per- form some task within it, then disappear when it is no longer needed. Often, two or more windows are created, each with its own purpose, and you can then select which window to use. Figure 1 shows an ex- ample of multiple windows in use on the Macintosh. When a window is created— or opened— it hides whatever is behind it, including por- tions of other windows that it might overlap. Usually, a border is drawn around the win- dow to visually set it apart from everything [continued) Bruce Webster is a consulting editor for BYTE. He can be contacted do BYTE, POB 1910, Orem, UT 84057. MARCH 1986 -BYTE 129 PROGRAMMING PROJECT else on the screen; a title is some- pictures, or whatever your software times placed at the top as well. Hav- allows you to do. Attempts to write or ing opened the window, you can then draw outside of the window should be do things within it: write text, draw ignored. This is usually done by using « File Edit Uiew Special RHMdisk 340K in disk 1 198K available Syster 4 items Pascal folder 49K in folder 79K available □ □ \^ o ReadStars.PAS SMap.R StarMap PAS SMap RSRC 5E TP ^=r SysFolder StarMap ReadStars isa o """ ' " . .:., ,. . ' ,.;.. ' ■';■ ' Trasr Figure 1: An example of multiple overlapping windows on a Macintosh screen. 54 68 69 73 69 73 20 20 61 ZO 20 20 74 65 73 74 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 T h 1 s t e s t Memory (Hex) CRT (Text display) 00 FF FF FF FF 00 FF 00 00 FF 00 E0 07 00 00 FF 00 00 FF 00 FF FF FF FF / \