Skip to main content

197910 Byte Magazine Vol 04 10 Genealogy

  • PublicationBYTE
  • Pages304
  • Source197910_Byte_Magazine_Vol_04-10_Genealogy.pdf
← Magazines 197910 Byte Magazine Vol 04 10 Genealogy
/ 304
Source: VintageApple.org — Complete 1975–1998 run, restored by Steve M.
Page 1
Loading…
Text content (OCR)
OCTOBER 1979 Volume 4, Number 10 $2.00 in USA/$2.40 in YP § a | the small systems joufsnal A MCGRAW-HILL PUBLIGATION GENEALOGY $/09 THE MIGHTY MICR MC6809 PROCESSOR—20-BIT ADDRESS BUS DIRECTLY ADDRESSES UP TO 768K OF RAM Performance and capabilities never before possible are now available to you in the SWTPC S/09. Computer System.The $/09 uses the Motorola MC6809 processor, the most powerful 8-bit general purpose MPU available. It features more addressing modes than other 8-bit MPU’s and an optimized consistent instruction set enhanced by powerful 16-bit instructions. This, plus 24 indexing submodes, promote the use of modern programming techniques like position independent code, re-entrancy and recursion, The 20-bit address bus makes possible direct addressing of up to 768K of memory without any slow or clumsy pro- cesses such as bank switching. RAM memory is designed with independent control and array cards for economical expansion of memory. The DMA and the processor boards can access memory independently for different tasks. Multiuser capability is ‘‘built-in’’. No additional hardware is required to operate additional terminals. A dynamic memory management system can allocate available RAM in as small as 4K blocks to the various users or tasks. The dual-bus motherboard design used in the S/O9 makes adding I/O ports to the system quick and economical. I/O address decoding for all I/O slots is supplied with the sys- tem. All serial I/O cards may be quickly programmed to run at standard baud rates from 110 to 38,400. Both multiuser and multitasking/multiuser operating sys- tems are available for the S/09, BASIC, PASCAL and an Assembler are immediately available. Editor and Debug programs are also available for use in system development. $/09 complete as shown with 128K bytes of RAM memory, one parallel and two serial I/O ports. . .$2,995.00 128K memory expansion card... ........0000 08 Se ee ee ee ee $1,995.00 Circle 356 on inquiry card. ani ee SOUTHWEST TECHNICAL PRODUCTS CORPORATION 219 W. RHAPSODY SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS 78216 (512) 344-0241 A € Cromemco Low-cost hard disk computers are here 11 megabytes of hard disk and 64 kilobytes of fast RAM In a Z80A computer for under $10K. Two floppy drives, too. Naturally, it’s from Cromemco. It’s a reality. In Cromemeo’s new Model 2-2H you get all of the above and even more. With Cromemco you get it all. In this new Model Z-2H you get net only a large-storage Winchester hard disk drive but also two fleppy disk drives. In the hard disk drive you get unprecedented storage Tete anh price—11 megabytes unfo You get speed—both in the 4 MHz Z80A microprocessor and In the fast 64K RAM which has a chip access time of only 150 nanoseconds. You fe ere Whe commpuner minimum ae execution time of 1 micro: get speed in the hard fia tanuar eit alec memseiiareen EXPANDABILITY You get expandability, too. The high-speed RAM can be expanded to 512 kilobytes if you wish. And the computer has a full 12-slot card cage you can use for additional RAM and interface cards. BROADEST SOFTWARE SUPPORT With the Z-2H you also get the broadest software support in the Circle 80 on inquiry card. microcomputer field. Software Cro- Ae is known for, Software like st with more coming all the time, SMALL, RUGGED, RELIABLE With all its features the new Z-2H, Including its hard disk drive, is still housed in just one small cabinet. Cromemco (ence 0 en (on ar tere ea Included in that cabinet, too, Is Cromemeo ruggedness and reliability, Crememeo is time-proved. Our maT ae Is a survey winner for bility. Of eourse, there's Cro- memeo’s all-metal cabinet. Rupeedl solid. And, there’s the ty power supply (30A @ BV, 15A @ Pathan Ae he = 18V) for elr- ry you'll sooner or later want to Bue ita theRe Tree earaeee CALL NOW With Its hl formance and low arlee your KNOG Inte nba) aH going to be a smash. Look into It tight now. Contact your Cromemeo computer store our sales literature, Find out you ean see it, Many dealers will be showing the 22H soon—and you'll want to be there when they do. 280 BERNARDO AVE., MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA 94040 + (415) 964-7400 Tomorrow's computers now BYTE October 1979 1 The single card computer with the features ee Circle 80 on inquiry card. iH a tig RE, d romemco C80 fe pe oO cha Fg: ‘Specialists in computers and peripherals 280 BERNARDO AVE., MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA 94040 © (415) 964-7400 7 le, ua ue ands : i a c a 2 BYTE October 1979 a ee uu it Foreground 22 TRACING YOUR OWN ROOTS by Stan W Merrill Genealogical research with a microcomputer 48 POWER HELPS ANALYZE ELECTRIC BILLS by Karen S Wolfe Determine power usage from appliance ratings 58 SELF-REFRESHING LED GRAPHICS DISPLAY by Steve Ciarcia Add a digital display to your computer system 12 4. INTERFACING THE S-100 BUS WITH THE INTEL 8255 by David L Condra Design advice for the person starting out in hardware 1 40 THE XYZ PHENOMENON: Stereoscopic Plotting by Computer by William T Powers Three-dimensional simulation using optical devices and computer graphics 150 CURVE FITTING WITH YOUR COMPUTER by Fred R Ruckdeschel A simplified approach to nonlinear regression 196 SPACE GAME by Loring C White Develop your reflexes with this fast-moving game 200 EASY TO USE HASHING FUNCTION by Don Kinzer Random symbol distribution aids recall process page 58 Background 76 PICKING UP THE PIECES by Alfred S Baker Recovering from disk write errors 90 VARIABLES WHOSE VALUES ARE STRINGS by Dr W D Maurer String variables can be easy to use 100 IBM COMPATIBLE DISK DRIVES by Jefferson H Harman Floppy disk sectoring rules 11 3 THE TRS-80 SPEAKS by Tim Gargagliano and Kathryn Fons Discussion of a vocal output peripheral for the Radio Shack TRS-80 168 LOW-LEVEL PROGRAM OPTIMIZATION: Some Illustrative Cases by James Lewis How to decrease memory requirements and increase execution speed 186 SOME LAWS OF PERSONAL COMPUTING by Dr T G Lewis Some unnatural, natural laws SUS =. 206 BUDGET BUILDING ON A BARE BOARD by Dan S Parker x e Building computer systems inexpensively A ores Nucleus Editorial, 6 Clubs and Newsletters Directory, 210 Letters, 16 Book Reviews, 242 Technical Forum, 70 Programming Quickies, 246 BYTE News, 107 What's New?, 249 Event Queue, 162 Unclassified Ads, 295 Languages Forum, 174 Reader Service, 296 BYTE’s Bits, 192 BOMB, 296 Cover Art: Genealogy by Tina Mion BYTE's Bugs, 209 ‘BYTE Is published monthly by BYTE Publications inc, 70 Main St, Peterborough NH 03458, a wholly-owned subsidiary of McGraw-Hill, Inc. Address all mail except subscriptions 10 above address: phone (603) 924-7217. Address subscriptions, change of address, USPS Form 3579, and fulfillment questions to BYTE Subscriptions, PO Box 590, Martinsville NJ 08836. Second class postage paid at Peterborough NH 03458 and at additional mailing offices—USPS Publication No. 102410 (ISSN 0360-5280), Subscriptions are $18 for one year, $32 for two years, and $46 for three years in the USA and its possessions. in Canada and Mexico, $20 for one year, $36 for two years, $52 for three years. $32 for one year air delivery to Europe. $32 surtace delivery elsewhere. Air delivery to selected areas at additional rates upon request. Single copy price is $2 in the USA and its possessions, $2.40 in Canada and Mexico, $3.50 in Europe, and $4 elsewhere. Foreign subscriptions and sales should be remitted In United States funds drawn on a US bank. Printed in United States of America. Address all editorial correspondence to the editor at the above address. Unacceptable manuscripts will be returned if accompanied by sufficient first class postage. Not responsible for lost manuscripts or photos. Opinions expressed by the authors are not necessarily those of BYTE. Entire contents copyright © 1979 by BYTE Publications Inc, All tights reserved. ‘BYTE® Is available in microform from University Microfiims International, 300 N Zeeb Ad, Dept PR, Ann Arbor Mi 48106 USA or 18 Bediord Row, Dept PR, London WCIR 4EJ ENGLAND. Subscription WATS Line: (800) 258-5485 Office hours: Mon-Thur 8:30 AM - 4:30 PM Friday 8:30 AM - Noon October 1979 © BYTE Publications Inc 3 la This BYTE Putting you in touch with yourself and improving family relationships are just two of the rewards of Tracing Your Own Roots. The microcomputer is a perfect companion in the search for ancestors, Stan W Merrill introduces some simple ways to compile your genealogy, and provides a BASIC program to involve your computer in the quest. Page 22 Since your computer is using precious (and often high priced) electricity, it seems only right that it should help analyze your electric bill. Karen S Wolfe has developed a program called Power, and tells us how Power Helps Analyze Electric Bills. Page 48 There are a variety of output devices which could be added to your computer system. One About the Cover This month's cover theme is provided by an article on using one’s personal com- puter for personal genealogy tasks, “Genealogy” by Tina Mion. Taking off on this theme, autumn colors, and the day of the great pumpkin at the end of October, artist Tina Mion has created an autumnal tree with some ghostly leaves reflecting a history of science and technology. such device is an LED display. Steve Ciarcia discusses several methods of interfacing an LED display to a computer, and culminates his discussion with a Self-Refreshing LED Graphics Display. Page 58 Disks provide much more convenient storage than tape. When write errors occur, however, they can also be much more catastrophic, Alfred $ Baker provides a brief descrip- tion of the two main data file organizations used on floppy disks, and also describes a major problem that can occur when using one of them. Don't give up hope. A program is provided which will aid you when Picking Up the Pieces. Page 76 At some time almost every programmer has wanted to write a program containing variables whose values are strings. Dr W Douglas Maurer explores two techniques for im- plementing this task in Variables Whose Values Are Strings. Page 90 Jefferson H Harman describes how IBM Compatible Disk Drives should perform. Not all manufacturers who say that they are IBM compatible mean fully compatible, Page 100 The talking computer is now within the grasp of personal computer users. Tim Gargagliano and Kathryn Fons discuss the Votrax voice syn- thesizer that is available for the Radio Shack TRS-80 in The TRS-80 Speaks: Using BASIC to Drive a Speech Synthesizer. Page 113 The Intel 8255 programmable peripheral interface is a large scale integration part that makes interface designing easy. David L Condra gives advice on the procedure and includes a design in Interfacing the 5-100 Bus With the Intel 8255. Page 124 Using a principle invented years ago, simulated three- dimensional graphics may be produced on a personal com- puter equipped with a plotter or similar device. William T Powers explains the method in The XYZ Phenomenon. Page 140 In Curve Fitting With Your Computer, Fred R Ruckdeschel describes a simplified method for obtaining a reasonably accurate equation as a “best fit” to a collection of data points. Page 150 When working with time- critical or memory-critical pro- grams, optimization techniques are often employed. James Lewis discusses some of these in his article on Low-level Pro- gram Optimiz Some Illu- strative Cases. Page 168 What is the "Conservation of Agony?” It is one of the rules of personal computing proposed by Dr T G Lewis in his thought provoking article, Some Laws of Personal Computing. Read it and find out why Dr Lewis sug- gests that “software should be shared, but hardware should be replicated,” Page 186 Loring C White describes a real-time Space Game which re- quires you to maneuver a ship within gun sights and then destroy the enemy. Page 196 Hashing is a common method of handling lists, widely used in assemblers and compilers for handling the symbol table. In this issue Don Kinzer discusses an Easy to Use Hashing Func- tion for the 6800 micropro- cessor. Page 200 Many companies are offering blank $-100 compatible com- puter boards. Dan S Parker describes the substantial savings that can be achieved by popu- lating these boards and fol- lowing some simple guidelines in Budget Building on a Bare Board. Page 206 New Clubs, Newsletters Charles Freiberg Publishers Dratting Virginia Londoner Jon Swanson es lamson 5 Assocjate Publisher ae uth M Walsh John € Ha} larion Gagnon Assistant bom Tes Janet Ames. Sie Callihan wvid William Hayward ‘Ann Graves Editorlal Director on Cari T Helmers dr tive Editor RouinM Moss Christopher P "Morgan Anthony J Lockwood Raymond © A Cote Elen Eingh n Bingham Senior Book Editor Production Art Biaise W Liffick Wai Chiu Li ors Christine Dixon Richard § Shutord jolly Carmen LaBossiere Gre Deborah Porter Renton Pypearanners Dealer Sales Bob Braisted chery Aas Ginnie F Boudrieau Editorial Assistants Te Anne M Baldwin Gale Britton ‘Sherry McCarthy fae a oer Manesenagata Products Editor Mats eaaied National Advertising Sales Representatives: Hajar Associates Inc East 280 Hill Needham Heights MA 02194 (617) 444-3946 521 Fifth AV New York NY 10017 (212) 682-5644 $64 N Michigan Av Gticago I 60ett Gal seere West, Southwest 4000 Elwell Ct Suite 227 Palo Alto CA 94 (ais) Ses o7oet 18) 40664 Officers of McGraw-Hill Publications Company: Gordon L. Jones, President; Group Vice Presidents: Daniel A, McMillan, Jam joddorf; Senior Vice Presidents: Russell F. Anderson, R. Schulz, Editorial; Vice Presidents: James E. Hackett, Controller; Thomas H. King, Manufacturing; Robert L. Leyburn, Circulation; John W. Patten, Sales; Edward E. Schirmer, international. Officers of the Corporation: Harold W. MoGraw Jp., President, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board; Robert F, Landes, Senior Vice President and Secretary; Ralph J, Webb, Treasurer. 4 October 1979 © BYTE Publications Inc WHY CUT? WHY STRIP? WHY SLIT? WHY NOT... () wre WRAPPING TOOL e@ AWG 30 Wire @ .025” Square Posts @ Daisy Chain or Point To Point @ No Stripping or Slitting Required «JUST WRAP «... @ Built In Cut Off @ Easy Loading of Wire @ Available Wire Colors: Blue, White, Red & Yellow U.S.A.,FOREIGN PATENTS PENDING traditional Wire Wrapping i) =: JUST WRAP Wire-Wrapping JUST WRAP TOOL WITH ONE 50 PT ROLL OF WIRE COLOR PART NO. US.LIST PRICE BLUE JWiB $1498 WHITE jwiw 1498 YELLOW JWLY 1498 RED JWR 1498 EPLACENENTS KOU OF WIRE SOFT. BLUE $ 2.98 WHITE R iW Ww 2.98 YELLOW RW Y 2.98 RED R: 2.98 ' JUST WRAP-UNWRAPPING TOOL ‘ L._juwi $349 j OK MACHINE & TOOL CORPORATION 3455 CONNER ST., BRONX, N.Y. 10475 (212) 994-6600/TELEX 125091 ‘* MINIMUM BILLING § 25.00/ADD SHIPPING CHARGE § 2.00/NEW YORK CITY/STATE RESIDENTS ADD APPLICABLE TAX. Circle 291 on inquiry card. BYTE October 1979 5. Altos Computer Systems 2378-B Walsh Avenue Santa Clara, CA 95050 Apple Computer 10260 Bandley Dr. Cupertino, CA 95014 Digital Microsystems Inc. (Formerly Digital Systems} 4448 Piedmont Ave: Oakland, CA 94611 Imsai Mfg. Corporation 14860 Wicks Blvd. San Leandro, CA 94577 Industrial Micro Systems 633 West Katella, Suite L Orange, CA 92667 North Star Computer 2547 9th Street Berkeley, CA 94710 Percom Data 38 Barnes Garland, TX 75042 Polymorphic Systems 460 Ward Dr. Santa Barbara, CA 93111 Problem Solver Systems 20834 Lassen Street Chatsworth, CA 91311 Processor Applications Limited 2801 E. Valley View Avenue West Covina, CA 91792 SD Sales 3401 W. Kingsley Garland, TX 75040 Smoke Signal Broadcasting 6304 Yucca Hollywood, CA 90028 Technico Inc. 9130 Red Branch Road Coiumbia, MD 21045 Texas Electronic Instruments 5636 Etheridge Houston, TX 77087 Thinker Toys 1201 10th Street Berkeley, CA 94710 Vista Computer Company 2807 Oregon Court Torrance, CA 90503 “).Shugart 6 — October 1979 @ BYTE Publications Inc Designing the Logic of the System — Processor Board Design, Part 2: Will the Parts Fit on the Board? by Carl Helmers This month’s editorial is the latest in a series begun last July describing a new homebrew 6809 personal computer system. The general backplane design was presented last month. This month we describe the processor board. Its ideal features would include: @ 6809 processor (40 pins) and buffers for external signals. @ 4 K bytes of 2708 read-only memory for systems software. © Interrupt flags for lines IO through I7 and peripheral interface adapter (PIA) port with its interrupt request (IRQ) output tied to the fast inter- rupt request (FIRQ) input of the processor. @ If it fits, logic for a primary serial terminal port and connector. In order to find out whether this is a reasonable allocation of function for the 4.5 by 9.0 inch area of 1 card in the system, we must systematically estimate the parts required for each of these segments of the logic. The series of photographs 1a through 1d show how integrated circuit sockets are used as markers in the layout of the board space requirements. Each socket has a sticky paper label attached which is marked with its assigned number. Place- ment of the socket on an unused prototyping board can be done to help plan the layout. Processor Logic Requirements The processor alone occupies a 40-pin socket, which we will call IC1 since it is the most important part of the whole computer. In addition, the discrete components of the clock crystal’s parallel-resonant circuit will conservatively require the space equivalent of 1 24-pin socket. The buffers required for the data bus are a pair of DM8833 tristate, bidirectional bus buffers. These are labeled IC2 and IC3. Three SN74367 tristate drivers provide the buffering for the 16 address lines, Two sections of 1 of the address buffer chips remain un- used. These circuits are labeled IC4 through IC6. Another SN74367, which will be labeled IC7, is required so that 3 of its 6 buffer sections can be used for the ENABLE, QENABLE, and RW signals of the backplane. These 7 socket positions plus the 1 24-pin dummy for the clock crystal and related discretes are shown in position for layout purposes in photo 1a. In order to provide a uniform connection to the backplane bus, every major segment of the system will be isolated by a set of bus buffers, such as the DM8833 parts which are included in the processor section. For the remainder of the logic on the processor board which will interface to the data bus, a pair of DM8833 parts labeled IC8 and IC9 will suffice to define a local bus exten- sion. This local bus extension will service the 2708 read-only memory, the peripheral interface adapter used for interrupt logic, and the asynchronous communications interface adapter (ACIA) used for the primary terminal of the system. Shugart invented the minifloppy in 1976. Today there are more than 100,000 of the little drives in use. That's because users want the affordable random access data storage of the minifloppy. Shugart packs years of proven floppy drive technology into this tiny package. Up to 110 kbytes of data storage. Fast random access of about one-half second. And high speed data trans- fer of 125 kbits per second. Plus sensible, maintenance-free features like write protect to prevent accidental data loss, an activity light to indicate when the drive is selected by your computer and a door interlock to protect your media from damage. Our proprietary read/write head provides maximum data interchange margins, and it is positioned precisely on the selected track by a patented spiral cam actuator. The DC drive motor with integral tachometer assures accurate diskette rotation and low heat dissipation. A die cast aluminum base plate provides a solid foundation for the drive. At Shugart, technology leadership is more than a slogan, it’s a commitment. Get reliability and value when you invest your money for floppy disk storage. Ask for the standard of the industry, minifloppy. If it isn’t Shugart, it isn't minifloppy. SA. Shugart Associates 435 Oakmead Parkway, Sunnyvale, California 94086 ‘TM minitloppy Is registered trademark of Shugart Associates BYTE October 1979 7 (a) Photo 1: By using a prototyping board as a matrix, it is easy to mark wire-wrap sockets with logical identification numbers and use them as markers in creating a layout of parts for the board. This series of photographs documents the discussion of the main parts of the central processor card of the new 6809 homebrew system (a) The first segment of the layout is the processor itself and its crystal timing standard, data bus extension buffers, and address buffers. (b) The second segment of the layout adds 4 read-only memory circuits and 2 socket positions needed to decode and select the indi- vidual 1024 byte segments (10, 11, 12 and 13). (c) The third segment of the layout process adds a peripheral port (16) and logic associated with 8 interrupt flags. Miscellaneous logic at this stage includes decoding of the address of the parallel port. (d) Finally, the logic of the central processor card is completed with the addition of a communications adapter, 25, and associated decoding and buffer circuits. The next logic item to consider is the read-only memory bank, Four 2708 parts will be used to store up to 4K (4096) bytes total. This memory bank will contain the resident systems software of the machine, including the fixed handlers for the 3 different classes of interrupts, the power on reset routines, etc. We will thus require 4 24-pin sockets for these integrated circuits, IC10, IC11, IC12 and IC13. In addition to the requirements of the read-only memory parts, we also require logic to decode the high-order 6 bits of an address and the read signal. The read-only memory bank must overlap addresses FFFO to FFFF in order to provide the vector addresses for interrupts. Thus decoding logic should be provided to place this 4 K segment of memory at the upper end of the memory address space of the 6809, locations F000 to FFFF. Decoding the high-order 4 bits of addressing can be done with one half of a 7420 integrated circuit, IC14. The active-low output of this 7420, along with the RW signal and the next 2 address bits (A11 and A10) can then be decoded by a single 7442 integrated circuit, IC15, to pro- duce a 1 of 4 selection for the active-low chip select lines of the 2708 read-only memory parts. Photo 1b shows the tentative layout of the board with the addition of the read-only memory parts and the local bus extension buf- fers. The handling of interrupts in this processor will be pro- vided by use of a single 6821 peripheral interface adapter which will be used to read a bank of 8 set-reset flip-flops found in a pair of SN74279 integrated circuits. The 6821 called 1C16 will require address decoding for its location 8 — October 1979 © BYTE Publications Inc in memory address space. This leads to the problem of allocating address space within the whole system, for the parts needed to decode an address differ depending upon what address is chosen. So far, the only address commitment we have made is the placement of the read-only memory segment at ad- dresses FOOO to FFFF so that it overlaps the hardware requirements of interrupt vectors at FFFO to FFFF. Let us build an address space allocation which takes into ac- count some of the future expansion possibilities: E000-->FFFF read-only memory (upper 4 K imple- mented initially). Do00--> DFFF 1/O (input/output) and peripheral ad- dresses (sparsely populated). 0000--> CFFF 52 K main memory space (lower 16 K implemented initially). The decision to allocate 8 K bytes for read-only memory space is a conservative one which allows for the addition of up to 4 more 2708 sockets on another board. The 4096 byte address space reserved for I/O will be more than adequate. The balance of the 64 K address space is left to the main memory. Within the 1/O address space of D000 to DFFF, let us arbitrarily decide that all parallel I/O will be via peri- pheral interface adapters, and that these parts will be located at address DOOO and continuing through DOFF. Since each 6821 requires 4 address locations for its inter- face, this gives a maximum of 64 such parallel ports in the ld ner o gna” ue peti’ I've seen Lanier, Vydec, Xerox, Olivetti, and Wang. ’'ve chosen WORDSMITH from MICRO DIVERSIONS. dee a i. 3) Congressman Charlie Rose Chairman, Policy Group on Information and Computers jmorRosmMith’ TEXT EDITOR Yes, I’d like to learn more about Wordsmith.™ Send me your information packet. C Micro Diversions, Inc. pets 8455-D Tyco Road, Address Vienna, Virginia 22180 CC — . - n (703) 827-0888 BYTE October 1979 9 system. At the same time, thinking ahead, let us allocate 6850 asynchronous communications adapters to address locations D100 through D1FF. This reserves 128 logical slots for potential 6850 parts — again far in excess of what will actually be implemented. The main reason for making these allocations start at even hexadecimal digit boundaries (DO and D1 in the high-order) is to simplify interpretation of machine code and references to ad- dresses in the hand-assembled systems software to be created later. We could just as easily have compressed the allocations into a contiguous segment of address space without holes. After this detour into address space allocation, we can return to the problem of estimating the parts needed to decode the 6821 peripheral interface adpater used for the interrupt flag input. First, we note that the decoding of the DOxx and Dixx addresses for the 2 peripherals on this board will share common logic for 7 bits of high-order information. These 7 bits include 3 which must be logical 1 and 4 which must be logical 0. Two 8-input 7430 NAND gates, IC17 and IC18, will be used to form the high-order decoding logic, with 1 7404 hex-inverter package (IC19) used to invert the 4 bits which must be logical 0. An additional 7404 section will be required for the DO decode to invert bit line A8. The outputs of the 2 7430 parts are active-low selections of high-order ad- dresses DOxx and Dixx. Returning to the 6821 part, IC16, let us allocate its detail addresses as D000 to D003. The 2 register select inputs of the circuit will get connected to the low-order the microcomputer people® THE VITAL INGREDIENT: EXPERTISE Before you buy your new microcomputer, chances ore thee hove a lot of questions. Important questions that could mean the difference between a working system and a wasted system. The vital ingredient Is expertise. The microcomputer people at Computer Mort ore expert at answering your questions and helping you put together the best system for your application. Whether It’s for business, the home, or the laboratory; come see the experts at Computer Mort of New Jersey. We hove the vital ingredient. ‘Computer Mart of New Jerse) _ 501 Route 27 “| Iselin, N.J, 08890 (201) 263-0600 ont nat 100m, Tuesday through Saturday 10 = October 1979 © BYTE Publications Inc Circle 66 on inquiry card. address lines, AO and Al. We need to verify that all bits, A7 through A2, are 0 when these addresses are selected: to do this, logic of another 7404 inverter IC20 and a 7430 8-input NAND gate IC21 is required. The final result is the definition of 1 chip select input to the 6821 from the high-order address selection of DO and a second chip select input from the low-order address selection from IC21. With its addresses decoded, the 6821 now talks to the bus extension of the system, but we have one more item to consider: the 74279 interrupt flag chips and pull-up resistors. We will assign the numbers IC22 and IC23 to the flag registers, and assign the number IC24 to a 16-pin socket which will be used to hold 8 resistors which tie the 8 interrupt lines (I0-I7) up to +5 V when no input is pre- sent. Photo 1c shows a layout of the board after all the sockets connected with the interrupt peripheral interface adapter have been added, 1C16 through 1C24. The one remaining device to consider is the addition of a 6850 asynchronous communications interface adapter which we will call IC25. This will be the terminal port through which initialization information will be sent in an American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII) encoded form from the primary computer and mass storage device of the multiple processor system. In separate tests of the 6809 system, this port can be driven by a terminal, since the initialization sequences will use standard ASCII characters as opposed to a more compact binary form. The address decoding for this port was begun in earlier considerations. We have a line decoding the D1 address of serial ports in the high-order, an output of IC18. With an asynchronous communications interface adapter, we have to decode 7 out of 8 low-order bits in order to assign the necessary 2 addresses. Using addresses D100 and D101 for this port, we need a single 7430 8-input NAND gate 1C26 for the low-order selection. The inverted states of address bits A2 through A7 are shared with the decoding of the 6821 part discussed earlier, and inversion of the Al bit can use a spare section from either the 7420 C14 or one of the hex-inverter packages. Also required for the serial interface is some form of a socket header for a D connector attached to a cable and level conversion integrated circuits. Thus IC27 which is an MC1488 and IC28 which is an MC1489 provide our level conversion, IC29 is a socket devoted to attachment of the cable to the D connector. By popping off the plastic cover on a wire-wrap socket, such as IC29, it is possible to insert a small (#20 gauge) stranded wire into the con- tacts of the socket. This wire can then be carefully soldered so that no bridges to the next pin occur, or every other pin can be assigned to this I/O function where only a subset of the 14 or 16 pins is necessary. Photo 2 illus- trates this point of fabrication by way of an example. There is one minor detail which still remains with respect to the communications interface: we need a clock which can supply a frequency of 16 times the data rate of 19,200 bps, or 307.2 kHz. It turns out that given a 5 MHz central processor clock source, we come very close to the desired data rate by simply dividing by 16 to get 312.50 kHz. The error in this frequency is 1.7%, with respect to the proper clock of 307.20. Will this work? Yes, for the Text continued on page 14 WH14 Serial Printer $895 suggested list WH27 Dual Floppy Disk System $2595 suggested list ‘WH19 Smart Video Terminal $995 suggested list ‘WH889 All-In-One ce WH11A 16-bit Computer $1895 suggested list ‘omputer $2295 suggested list HET ERAS VST Chis You get flexible computer systems designed, built and tested to serve you in many ways — priced to pay for themselves quickly. Choose from 8-bit or 16-bit power, then add the peripherals to configure the system that best fits your needs. You get flexi- bility, expandability, reliability. LORE WAT YC The WH89 All-In-One Computer includes two 280 microproc- essors, 5%” floppy, high-resolution CRT terminal, professional keyboard and 16K RAM (expandable to 48K) — all in one com- pact unit. It’s a complete, balanced system ideal for word proc- essing or any small business need. The powerful 16-bit WH11A Computer (DEC® PDP 11/03 com- patible) is designed around the DEC KD11-HA CPU and ac- commodates up to 64K bytes of memory. Add the WH27 Dual 8” Floppy (DEC RX01 compatible) for vast storage capacity and immediate access to programs and data. For video output, add the WH19 Smart Terminal with professional keyboard, direct cursor addressing and eight user programmable keys. The WH19is compatible with the DEC VT52 and ANSII Escape Mode. The WH11A System is ideal for the complex problems of busi- ness and education. Souwore The WH11A Computer runs all systems and applications soft- ware written for the DEC PDP-11/03 and that includes scores of practical programs for business, technical users and educa- tion. It also accepts the powerful DIBEX™ Operating System which is compatible with Dibol, and all Dibol-based software. The WH27's disk operating system was developed in conjunc- tion with DEC and supports BASIC, FORTRAN and Assembly Languages...all available from Heath Data Systems Dealers. The disk operating system for the WH89 All-in-One Computer supports MICROSOFT™ BASIC, MICROSOFT™ FORTRAN and Assembly Languages. Hulmanware The people who build Heath Data Systems hardware stand be- hind it. Service is available from 55 locations throughout the U.S. and at many more locations in Canada and Europe. There’s always someone nearby. Your investment is protected. Takes closenlool, Heath Data Systems are on display at your nearby Byte Shop, Computerland, Heathkit Electronic Center, Microage Dealer or other qualified computer store. OEM discounts They're available and they're generous. Call (616) 982-3361 for details. ed 1 STS Heath Data Systems, Schlumberger Products Corporation Hilltop Road, St. Joseph, MI 49085 DEC is a registered trademark of Digital Equipment Corporations. C5. 74 Circle 99 on inquiry card. When you set your standards high, Pick ADaisy. Diablo invented the Daisy Wheel. Which is why today, more people pel one of over 100 different Diablo aisy Wheels when they want print quality at its finest. So, the next time you want to set your standards high, pick our daisy and youre sure to look your best. Diablo Systems XEROX Diablo® and Xerox are registered trademarks of XEROX CORPORATION. 12 October 1979 © BYTE Publications Inc (a) Photo 2: A good technique for interfacing wire-wrap cards with the external world is to use a socket as a header. Here is an example of how a 14-pin socket has its top cap being popped off (a). Then (b), it is possible to carefully insert small stranded wires which are firmly soldered in place and run the wires to the external device. After popping the top, it is possible to very carefully remove every other pin in order to space out the termin- ations and help eliminate the possibility of a solder bridge. Here we have taken a 14-pin socket and wired it with the following pin assignments for an RS-232C female D connector: RS-232C pin to Socket header pin 1 < -> 1 chassis ground 2 <- “-> 3 output 3 < “> 8 input 4 < = request to send 5 < “> 8 clear to send 7 <- = 1D signal ground comments id pins type IC1 40 6809 microprocessor Ic2 16 DM8833 tristate bidirectional buffers DO-D3 IC3. 16 DM8833 tristate bidirectional buffers D4-D7 Ic4 16 74367 tristate buffers AO-A6 Ics 16 74367 tristate buffers A7-A11 IC6 16 74367 tristate buffers A12-A15 \c7 16 74367 tristate buffers ENABLE,QENABLE,RW Ics 16 DM8833 tristate bidirectional buffers DO-D3 local bus extension Ico 16 O0M8833 tristate bidirectional buffers D4-D7 local bus extension IC10 24 = 2708 ICi11 242708 ICi2 24-2708 1013 24.2708 \C14. 14 7420 C15 16-7442 IC16 40 6821 IC17 14. 7430 IC18 14-7430 IC19 14 7404 C20. 14 7404 IC21 14° 7430 read-only memory, FO00-F3FF read-only memory, F400-F7FF read-only memory, F800-FBFF read-only memory, FCOO-FFFF peripheral interface adpater, D000-D003 interrupt port high-order decode select for IC16 high-order decode select for IC25 low-order decode fo IC16 IC22. 16 74279 interrupt flag latch, 10-13 IC23. 16 74279 interrupt flag latch, 14-17 1C24. 16 =SKohm resistors for interrupt line pullups asynchronous communications adapter, D100-D101 low-order decode for IC25 (C27, 14 = MC1488 TTL to RS-232C line drivers 1C28. 14. MC1489 RS-232C to TTL line receivers C2914 14 pin socket for RS-229° cable termination 1C30 14 7473, divide by 4 for communications clock rate Table 1: List of integrated circuits for new 6809. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Sailor . . . Doctor, Lawyer ... the Chieftain’s here. No matter whether you’re a serious hobbyist or a serious businessman, the Chieftain 6800 microcomputer with ca- pabilities that surpass the Z-80 is made for you. Smoke Signal’s quality-packed Chieftain I features two 5.25-inch mini- floppy drives and Chieftain II fea- tures two 8-inch floppy drives. Bothmicrocomputers provide 32K static memory, two serial I/O ports, a 2 try MHz processor board, a2K Ls RAM monitor, a nine-slot motherboard with built- 4" in baud rate generator (@ and gold connectors for high reliability. The Chieftain’s stylish leath- er-grained cabinet houses the above with its own cooling fan and regulated power supply. wo NM ng yi ee Every Chieftain is complete with system software and is totally burned-in as well as tested to further insure high reliability. And it’s expandable to 64K memory with up to 2 megabytes floppy disk storage. So see your nearest Smoke Signal dealer, he’ll be glad to show you how to get your wampum’s worth. Systems start at $2,595. O Send information on your Chieftain microcomputer C Send name of nearest dealer Name. Address Company I I 1 ‘| | | i pa CS | | | | I I | | \ State/Zip 31336 Via Colinas. Westlake Village. California 91361, (213) 889-9340, Hail to the Chieftain Smoke Signal Broadcasting, 31836 Via Colinas, Westlake Village, CA 91861, (213) 889-9340 Circle 328 on inquiry card. BYTE October 1979 13 Circle 224 on inquiry card. Improve TRS~80 performance with new DOS* Enjoy the wizardry of your TRS-80 to its fullest: maximize and expand all of its magical capabilities with the new DOS+. Just look at the capabilities you can evoke. Modifications, corrections, and enhancements to Radio Shack’s TRS DOS 2.1 © A Basic REFerence command for variables and numbers. © Asuper-fast machine language RENUM program execu- table under BASIC. @ A built in kevboard-debounce routine. ‘© Aprint screen option under DOS or BASIC to your line printer. Simply press JKL keys. ‘© New copy commands for backup, allows you tocopy from drive to drive keeping the same filespec. ‘© Execution of DOS commands while in BASIC. © New BASIC scrolling and invocation commands and more. © Apparat’s own SUPERZAP, a Hex dump utility to examine or or modify disk or memory jocations. © Modified EDITOR ASSEMBLER with Disk /O and new cross reference feature. ¢ Asuper-fast machine language DISASSEMBLER program. © ALOAD MODULE for transferring machine tapes to disk. © Faster disk access. © Level | ROM relocated in Level i! RAM. © The capability of storing and retrieving Level I programs on Disk. @ An improved DISKDUMP program. © ADIRCHECK program to test a directory & lst/display the contents in alphabetical order with extensions. You don't have to pull a rabbit out of a hat ... Send $99 forthe Apparat/MT! New DOS-+ (on diskette). See all the magic unfold before your eyes. INTRODUCTORY SPECIAL NEW DOS+ and the very Best of Apparat's disk utility programs $99,00(a $250.00 value). 40-Track Version $110.00. To order your diskette of tricks, write or call one of our dealers. Al MICROCOMPUTER 6000 E. Evans Ave... Bldg. 2 CK Benver, 60 Boa22 NOPE RD Bo rssr2r8 2080 South Grand Ave. pporat. Inc. Santa Ana. CA 92705 (714) 979-9923 14 — October 1979 © BYTE Publications Inc Text continued from page 10: total time of 1 character, the error in the last bit sent is what counts. A character is a sequence of 11 bit times; 1 bit has a width of 1/11th or 9.1% of the total time in- volved. The worst case of the last stop bit in the 11 bit se- quence (start bit, 8 data bits, 2 stop bits) will have the full timing error of 1.7% of the total period for 1 character. Wecould probably get away with as much as a 5% to 6% error in the frequency of the data rate clocks. Thus by providing a 2-bit divider in the form of a 7473 circuit IC30, we get the clock needed for the communica- tions circuit from the crystal controlled 1.25 MHz ENABLE output of the processor. It turns out that the serendipity of the 5 MHz junk box crystals really worked in planning this system. If it is necessary to use a 4 MHz crystal for the system because the 6809 will not run 25% faster than its specification then use of a divisor of 13 in- stead of 16 produces a data rate of 307.7 kHz which is only 0.2% off the desired 307.2 kHz rate. In this case of a 4 MHz source, a 74193 would be used instead of a 7473 for IC30, and input to the 74193 would be taken from the tank circuit through a relatively high-impedance buffer. This completes the preliminary consideration of the central processor card design. As can be seen in photo 1d, the 30 integrated circuits sockets required for this central processor design fit the space available on the proto- typing card with room to spare. Table 1 summarizes the integrated circuit and socket list as it stands now. This verbal discussion ahead of drawing a diagram of the cir- cuit is an experiment. In past designs, 1 have jumped right in to the drawing of a logic diagram. The actual circuit diagram has not been drawn as of this writing (June 18 1979), and 1 or 2 integrated circuits may be necessary to provide an additional random logic gate or inverter beyond those anticipated in this discussion. In the next installment of this series on building a homebrew general purpose computer for use as a com- munications controller, we shall start with a verification of these design considerations as an actual diagram, then proceed to discuss construction and testing of this first card in the system. As emphasized in the earlier com- ments in this series, the timing of the publication of these notes depends upon the amount of spare time I have available to devote to this activity. The intent of this series is to show our readers how simple it is to assemble homebrew systems out of standard parts, using design information which is available in various publications put out by semiconductor manufacturers. @ Articles Policy BYTE is continually seeking quality manuscripts written by indi- viduals who are applying personal computer systems, designing such systems, or who have knowledge which will prove useful to our readers, For a more formal description of procedures and requirements, potential authors should send a large (9 by 12 inch, 30.5 by 22.8 cm), self-addressed envelope, with 28 cents US postage affixed, to BYTE Author's Guide, 70 Main St, Peterborough NH 03458. Articles which are accepted are purchased with a rate of up to $50 per magazine page, based on technical quality and suitability for BYTE's readership. Each month, the authors of the two leading articles in the reader poll (BYTE's Ongoing Monitor Box or “BOMB") are presented with bonus checks of $100 and $50. Unso- licited materials should be accompanied by full name and address, as well as return postage. Circle 335 on inquiry card, —a SSM “BLUE BOARDS” The Standard of Value CBI 8080 CPU Board If you're looking for ~~ Zt outstanding value in Ses S-100 boards you can't Avdiele afford to overlook the“Blue assembled Boards” from SSM. The best c bree Wits combination of design, quality and price available anywhere. Innovative designs that feature versatility and reliable performance. Quality backed by a strong warranty. And prices that won't let you down. But value goes beyond the boards themselves. It's reflected in the company that stands behind them. And SSM has been known for unparalleled customer service since the beginning of the personal computing industry. With one of the broadest product lines in the S-100 marketplace, it's likely that SSM has the board you need. So, if youre looking for value, ask for the “Blue Boards’ They're available at over Our product line includes CPU, Video, ; i 1/0, RAM, EPROM, EPROM Programmer, Music, 150 computer stores nationwide and abroad. Prototyping, Terminator, Extender and Mother boards SS > 2116 Walsh Avenue Send for our free brochure and find out why SSM has wea FIT Santa Clare,CA 95050 (408) 246-2707 become the favorite of discerning Hobbyists and OEMs. We used to be Solid State Music. We still make the blue boards. Circle 73 on inquiry card. mw CRI SENSATION! You have been reading about our astounding Pascal MICROENGINE™* CPU that executes an LSI-f1 and 3x 1. Your orders show 90. Now meet another sensation in our X-pert Systems" configuration. CRT Model "ib DISPLAY/EDIT TERMINAL Model X-320 $968* pl $8567 (without 18 tunction keys) STANDARD FEATURES (partial list) ' Microprocessor controlled * Serial RS232C and 20 ma current loop ‘© TO baus rates—75 to 19,200 = 24lunes x 80 characters = 96 ASCII dispiayable characters '* Upper and lower case © 12x 10character resolution = Qual intensity display ‘© Clear (ull intensity data only ‘+ Programmable reverse video * Programmable underline ' 105 keys with alpha lock © Wékey numeric pad with decal © 16 sp thon key: * 8.edkt lunction keys ' 2 black transmission keys * Self test mode * Protect mode © Block mode * 80slorable tabbing * Inseet‘deiete character and line * Sceolling * Addressable cursor * Rhos! of other features. including cursorcontrols ‘and remote commands such as clear fo nulls, ‘spaces, endot line, end of screen: set hilo.zero intensity: set blink: ete * Optional screen print & 2nd page memory Ht For our system or for yours. in commercial technical. educational or personal applications, the Computex X-920 is unmatched in its price class. Coming soon is ou Model X-8000. This high “performance 16-bit CPU. using the 2-800. addresses 8M bytes of memory directly! All features of the Hazeltine 1400 and ADM-3A, Plus: 128 ASCII characters 7x iOmatrix. Reverse video... Print key Shiftlock Transparent ‘mode... Backspace Tabbing ...Integrated umeric pad. * $799 List price S956* PERKIN-ELMER (Model 550) Off the shelf delivery now on the Model X-920 and P-E Model 550. Same day shipping on all orders with certified cash payment. Specify shipping and add 40 Ib cost. Any difference relunded. A $25 connecting cable tree with every CRT ordered before December t; Customer satisfaction is guaranteed, Full refund with the return of any product within 10 days. Service contracts available. Systems catalog $1. Pascal MICROENGINE” owners manual $19.95 (postpaid). “LIMITED TIME cash price. 10%downguarantees priority. IL. residents add 5% sales fax, Master Charge and VISA accepted. (312) 684-3183 COMPUTEX “The Computer Expens 5710 Drexel Avenue Chicago. iL 60637 16 October 1979 © BYTE Publications Inc ULIRASONIC IRANSUDUCEHKS LOCATED Just a short note to ask for a helping hand and to let you know that your articles in BYTE are read and enjoyed. In your article “Building a Computer Controlled Security System for Your Home"(March 1979 BYTE, page150) you showed a circuit for generation and detection of ultrasonic signals, Would you be so kind as to note a company or two that I could contact for transducers? I have an application for ultrasonics and need a little help in knowing where to write, Thank you for your help, and again 1 enjoy your articles, Tom Yocom, WAIRTD 21 Bayberry Rd Acton MA 01720 Author Ciarcia Replies: The particular transducers used in the March article are from MASSA in Hingham MA, I obtained them through Bullet Electronics, POB 401244E Garland, TX 75040, (214) 278-3553. I suggest calling them to determine price and availability. Since I usually purchase components in large quantities long before I actually need them for an arti- cle, I hesitate to quote a price and a definite source. The MASSA units had an output frequency of 23 kHz. LONG DISTANCE COMMUNICATION . I saw your article in the May issue of BYTE (“Communicate on a Light Beam,” page 32) and became very interested. I have an application which requires sen- ding data up to a kilometer at speeds from 2000 to 9600 characters per second (cps). Your descriptions of the fiber optic cable and the light-emitting diode (LED) transmission circuits seem to be ideal, if they are cost effective. Could you give more details of the distances which the circuits can drive and the addresses of the suppliers of the fiber optic components? RH Fields 1 Wythegate Riverside Rd Staines, Middlesex United Kingdom Author Ciarcia Replies: Realize, of course, that the circuits presented, while possibly usable in com- mercial applications, are presented more to introduce the reader to the concept of fiber optic communications than solve any particular application problem. Their usability in a 1 kilometer data link depends upon more than just the elec- tronic parameters of the circuit. The laser probably can drive such a length, but cable losses and mechanical/optical connections are going to be an impor- tant factor in any success. When you speak of 9600 cps that is approximately 100 k bits per second (bps) and is a reasonable transmission rate. However, response time of the receiver electronics is going to be much more critical than a 10 k bit rate. Given the length of cable as 1 kilometer, I would caution you that a certain inten- sity must be maintained at the ouput to achieve this response. Rather than try to reinvent the wheel or try to second-guess the technical people who really know the field, I think you would be better off purchas- ing a commercial system. The following isa list of American companies which deal in fiber optics. I am sure they will have a cost-effective solution for you: Corning Glass Works Telecommunications Dept Corning, NY 14830 (607) 974-8812 Dupont Co Plastic Products and Resins Dept Wilmington, DE 19898 (302) 774-7850 Fiberoptic Cable Corp POB 1492 Framingham, MA 01701 (617) 875-5530 Galileo Electro-Optics Corp Galileo Park Sturbridge, MA 01618 (617) 347-9191 eneral Cable Corp 500 W Putnam Ave Greenwich, CT 06830 (203) 661-0100 WT Electro-Optical Products Div Roanoke, VA 24019 (703) 563-0371 Quartz Products Corp 688 Somerset St Plainfield, NJ 07061 (201) 757-4545 Times Fiber Communications Inc 358 Hall Ave Wallingford CT 06492 (203) 265-2361 Valtec Corp Electro Fiberoptics Div West Boylston, MA 01583 (617) 835-6083 For further descriptive information on the use of fiber optics I suggest you refer to the January 5, 1978 issue of EDN magazine and an article titled “Designer's Guide to Fiber Optics." Text continued on page 18 North Star Horizon- COMPUTER WITH CLASS The North Star Horizon computer can be found everywhere computers are used: business, engineering, home — even the classroom. Low cost, performance, reliability and software availability are the obvious reasons for Horizon’s popularity. But, when a college bookstore orders our BASIC manuals, we know we have done the job from A to Z. Don't take our word for it. Read what these instructors have to say about the North Star Horizon: “We bought a Horizon not only for its reliability record, but also because the North Star diskette format is the industry standard for software exchange. The Horizon is the first computer we have bought that came on-line as soon as we plugged it in, and it has been running ever since!” — Melvin Davidson, Western Washington University, Bellingham, Washington “After | gave a ¥2 hour demonstration of the Horizon to our students, the sign-ups for next term’s class in BASIC jumped from 18 to 72.” — Harold Nay, Pleasant Hill HS, Pleasant Hill, California “With our Horizon we brought 130 kids from knowing nothing about computers to the point of writing their own Pascal programs. | also use it to keep track of over 900 student files, including a weekly updated report card and attendance figures.” — Armando Picciotto, Kennedy HS, Richmond, California “The Horizon is the best computer | could find for my class. It has an almost unlimited amount of software to choose from. And the dual diskette drives mean that we don’t have to waste valuable classroom time loading programs, as with computers using cassette drives.” — Gary Montonte, Ygnacio Valley HS, Walnut Creek, Calif. See the Horizon at your local North Star dealer. Circle 285 on inquiry card. Northstar North Star Computers 1440 Fourth Street Berkeley. Ca 94710 (415) 527-6950 TWX/TELEX 910-366-7001 Text continued: Apple II, uses “V & H” coordinates for 72 border towns to sketch an outline map of the US, Phone Company Maps... In reference to your article on map generation (“Computer Generated Maps,” May 1979 BYTE, page 10) the telephone industry has gridded the US with a system of vertical and horizontal coordinators (“V & H's). A discrete set of four digit “V & H"s for virtually every city, town and village is listed Federal Communications Commission tariffs, “NV & H" coordinates offer a quick and simple way to plot maps of American locations. For example, the program listing, at right, written for an Joseph P Garber 36 Sutton Place S New York NY 10022 64KB MICROPROCESSOR MEMORIES @ S-100 - $750.00 @ LSI - $750.00 @ SBC 80/10 - $750.00 @ 6800 - $750.00 CI-S100 — 64K x 8 on asingle board. Plugs directly into the IMSAI, MITS, TDL, SOL and most other S-100 Bus computers. No wait states even with Z80 at 4Mhz. Addressable in 4K in- crements. Power requirement 6 watts. Price $750.00. Cl-1103 — 8K words to 32K words ina single option slot. Plugs directly into LS! 11, LSI 11/2, H11 & PDP 1103. Addressable in 2K increments up to 128K. 8K x 16 $390.00, 32K x 16 $750.00 qty. one. Cl-6800 — 16KB to 64KB on a single board. Plugs directly into Motorola's EXORcisor and compatible with the evaluation modules. Addressable in 4K increments up to 64K. 16KB $390.00. 64KB $750.00. = Cl-8080 — 16KB to 64KB on single i board. Plugs directly into Intel's MDS the 800 and SBC 80/10. Addressable in —— 4K increments up to 64K. 16KB $390.00. Cl-8080 64K x 8 64KB $750.00 Cl-S100 64K x 8 Tested and burned-in. Full year warranty. i Chrislin Industries, Inc. Computer Products Division 31352 Via Colinas * Westlake Village, CA 91361 © 213-991-2254 18 — October 1979 © BYTE Publications Inc Circle 47 on inquiry card. LT ‘NN HFe +, FN VEC Gm TE hee BB ott Roe fat yO? TE 22 4 PP 5; Fegan $555,2378,539 3067 -2813,53 37,3490, 56 353372 3752-51 113,4037,52 74,4871,51 SRB ESS ST 28 2582. 9113.79 i 28 #79149 49283,2 5 BYTE CONVERSION The “5 Byte Hexadecimal to ASCII Converter” described by Ashwin L Doshi (June 1979 BYTE, page 208) will work on the 8080, but not on the 8085 or Z80. As Doshi points out, the routine depends on the carry and the auxiliary carry being reset at the start of the routine. In practice, the conversion routine is preceded by an instruction ANI OFH to mask off the upper 4 bits so that only the remaining 4 bits of the byte to be converted are passed to the routine, In both the 8085 and the Z80, however, the logical AND instruction sets this flag. The well-known 6-byte routine functions properly on both the 8085 and Z80. Robert G Durnal POB 68 Junior WV 26275 INFORMATION WANTED T have a Heath microcomputer that I am using for market research. I am try- ing to locate a company where I can buy the weekly closing prices of the New York Stock Exchange and the Commo- dity exchanges on audio cassette. T hope one of your readers can help me. Thank you. Earl O Williams 280 Henderson St Apt 7] Jersey City NJ 07302m THEM ALL! u CHECK THESE FEATURES... ©80 or 120 columns (software selectable) © Double width printing ePlain paper, pin feed @125 CPS, 70 lines per minute ©9 x 7 dot matrix ® Vertical format unit ©96-character ASCII (upper and lower case) ® Adjustable forms width © Parallel, serial (RS-232), and IEEE-488 interfaces available How can we make such a claim when the Microtek Printer looks exactly like the ones advertised by other manufacturers? We’re glad you asked. We'd like to clear up the confusion. A large Japanese hardware manufac- turer recently introduced a good, low cost print mechanism into the U.S. market. They also announced a fully packaged printer using this mechanism to the OEM market. Then another company started to sell this printer to hobby, home and small business computer users. We took a long hard look at this printer and liked what we saw. The mechanism was reliable. The case was beautifully designed. What we didn’t care for was the 5 x 7 dot matrix format. We also MICR OUTPERFORMS w CHECK THIS CHART... Mi Anadex| Centronics | Centronics Super Brain FEATURES MT-80 | DP-8000 779-2 730-1 LP-80 (Radio Shack| (Radio Shack 26-1152) 26-1154) Dot matrix format 9x7 9x7 5x7 7x7 5x7 Characters per line | 80/120) 80 80/132 80 80 96 char ASCII (upper + Yes Yes No Yes Yes lower case) ee 70Ipm | 84 \!pm| 211pm 21 Ipm 63 Ipm rate VFU Standard | Standard N/A N/A Standard Bi-directional 4 Santee Yes Yes No No Yes Suiltin aes No No No Yes Unit price | $750* $995 |$1,350-1,559 $970-995 $985 “Parallel interface data from manufacturer's current (August ‘79) literature, NOW CHECK EIS COUPON... SS SSO SSS Serene ses ses 1 Send me more information ! MICROTEK, Inc.,7844 Convoy Court, San Diego, CA 92111 ' (714) 278-0633 | = 1 ee i = —— Address ! iL eepeeee YOUR. FIRST MILLION ‘ a New 1.2 megabyte quad-density disk. $1545. Now you can afford to put a million bytes of memory in your S-100 system Introducing DISCUS 2+2™ full-size quad-density floppy disk system by Morrow. DISCUS 2+2™ gives you 1.2 megabytes per disk- ette (600K bytes of double-density data per side). Andit's all address- able as easily as main memory with the system's exclusive BASIC-V™ virtual disk BASIC software. Best of all, DISCUS 2+2™comes complete, assembied, and ready to run for just $1545. Included in the system price are an S-100 con- troller, factory-mounted full-size disk drive, a complete library of pre-interfaced software, even cables and connectors. But you don't have to get your first million in one big megabyte. Morrow's DISCUS/2D™ single-side double-density floppy disk system gives you 600K per full-size diskette for just $1149, complete and assembled. And when you wantto expand to a full megabyte, just plug inaseconddrive...boththehard- ware and software are expandable. And if economy is areal concern, you can still get started on your million with Morrow's DISCUS I™ 250K single-density disc system. It's delivered complete and assembled for just $995...and will accept up to 3 more drives. All three Morrow disk systems meet the Proposed IEEE S-100 standard and are compatible with 2MHz, 4 MHz and 5 MHz S-100 systems. A dual-drive cabinet is available as an option with any density you choose. Why set your goals low and slow with a mini-floppy system? Get Started on your first million with a DISCUS™ full-size system by Morrow. See your local computer shop. Or write Thinker Toys™ 5221 Central, Richmond, California 94804. Or call (415) 524-2101, 1 10-5 (Pacific Time). Morrow Designs Thinker Toys” Circle 255 on Inquiry card. Tracing Your Own Roots Tracing your own roots satisfies an intangible craving that many people have — a craving to understand your place in a heritage that was developed by people who are perhaps more like yourself (at least genetically) than any other people on Earth. The pro- cess involves untangling puzzles that tax the most intelligent imagination. Relationships must be deciphered from other people’s memories and from bits and pieces of written records that form a fragile and sometimes inadequate link between you and your ancestors. It isa natural application for a microcomputer. Doing Genealogy How does a person go about trac- ing his or her roots? There are several steps that make the process simpler. Some of these steps are enumerated in the following section. Step 1. The best place to start searching for your family is, of course, at home. You should jot down on paper or key into the com- puter all the things that you know (or think you know) about your ancestry, then look for family records, such as Bibles and cor- About the Author Stan W Merrill is a partner in Computer Resource Associates, a Chicago based con- sulting firm which he recently helped found. Between times, he is writing his doctoral disser- tation in sociology at the University of Chicago, Genealogy is a traditional activity in his family, and some of his lines have been traced back several centuries. 22 October 1979 © BYTE Publications Inc Stan W Merrill Computer Resource Associates 914 E 6st St Chicago IL 60637 respondence. Frequently these will contain useful leads that make it easier to document facts later on. Next, contact family members: parents, siblings, the proverbial great-great-aunt, and anyone else who might possess a piece of family information. It is useful to quiz these relatives about parents, events, dates, and places, beginning with those peo- ple who are closest to you in time, and working backward. If other family members are in- terested, it may be possible to establish a family organization that will hold occasional family reunions and share the fun and work of search- ing out ancestors. Such an organiza- tion already exists in many families. It is not unusual for such contact with family members to plunge the new genealogist into the first mean- ingful contacts with some relatives. Such contact draws people into warmer and closer relationship that is, in itself, a substantial reward for the effort invested in genealogy. Step 2. The memories collected from family members cannot usually provide adequate proof of the events recalled, since the human capacity to remember information accurately is imperfect. Memories merely provide hints for where to look for birth, mar- riage, and death certificates (known as vital records), or for entries in church and civil record books that will document the information. These documents provide official informa- tion about particular ancestors, and also give possible clues about other ancestors in the chain. Several sources exist for finding these documents. Often ancestors will have resided in a single locality for several generations. A letter to the clerk of the political jurisdiction (county, province, etc) where they lived, or to the parish cleric in coun- tries where churches kept the vital records, will often elicit copies of desirable information. These places can be visited in person as well. A number of institutions collect and preserve genealogical records on a national or international basis, and make these records available to the public. The institution with what is undoubtedly the most complete col- lection is: The Genealogical Society Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints 50 E North Temple Salt Lake City UT 84102 You do not have to belong to the Church of Latter Day Saints in order to use their genealogical data sources. While the main library is in Utah, branch libraries are scattered throughout the United States and much of the world. The telephone number of a unit of the church can be found in most telephone directories, and a phone call will produce infor- mation about the location of the nearest branch library. Other excellent sources genealogical data include: of “Our reputation rests on digits, decimal points, and details. We wouldn't trust them to anything less than Scotch Brand Data Cartridges” Bill Birkett, Vice President, Trade Graphics, Inc., Livonia, Michigan The unique design of a data cartridge provides great reliability, high storage capacity and long tape life. And where could you possibly get better data cartridges than Scotch Brand, made by 3M, the people who invented the data cartridge system itself? 3M contro) is every step in manu- facturing. Top quality magnetic tape and precision componentsare part of every Scotch Data Cartridge. Over twenty-five years of service to the computer industry assure you of the utmost reliability. Scotch Data Cartridges are available in miniature DC 100A, the standard-size DC 300A and now, an extra-length DC 300XL with 50% more storage capacity. They are compatible with most cartridge systems including Hewlett-Packard, IBM, NCR, Tektronix and TI. To find out where you can find Scotch Data Cartridges or virtually any other data recording medium, call toll-free: 800-328-1300. (In Minnesota, call collect: 612-736-9625.) Ask for the DataRecording Products Division. If it’s worth remembering, it’s worth Scotch Data Recording Products, Circle 368 on inquiry card. BYTE October 1979 23 Central Reference Div National Archives Washington DC 20408 Library of Congress Washington DC 20540 Newberry Library 60 W Walton St Chicago IL 60610 New York Public Library Sth Av and 42nd St New York NY 10018 This list is not exhaustive, but writing or visiting one of these places will help anybody get started. It is also useful to talk to a reference librarian at a local library. They will often know of nearby sources of genealogical information. Step 3. It is fairly easy and pleasant for most people to trace back their ancestry 3 or 4 generations. But when a line migrates across an ocean, or when records become less complete (as they invariably do when going further back in time), ingenuity comes into play. Passenger lists, cen- suses, and tax lists may provide clues to the identity of ancestors who can- not be located in vital records. A knowledge of history is acquired while searching for clues about mass movements in which ancestors may have participated. This is where the computer comes in. To know what is missing becomes increasingly difficult as the number of ancestors for whom you have infor- mation increases. It scarcely needs to be said that computerizing the records makes it much simpler to keep track of the data. Still more helpful is the use of the computer to solve puzzles. Suppose, for instance, that you cannot find any more family members in a certain line, but you notice from the output data that a related family line has moved to a new locality at about the same time. You have been given a hint that the first family line may also have migrated there, and you can begin to search for information in the records of that particular place. Using the Program You need not be a genealogical expert to utilize the program that is listed here. Item 1 on the program's menu (table 1) automatically prompts the user for the most important infor- mation about each ancestor. (See listing 1.) This information includes birth date and place, parentage, mar- riages, and date and place of death. The program asks for the sources of information too, so that the inevi- table need to check entries will be easier. To list the information for any or all of the names that have been entered into the file, you can use item 2 on the menu, An example of a listing for one individual is shown in listing 2. A person can be located by name or by number. Because it is possible for there to be more than one individual in the file with the same name, you should make certain that the person listed is the correct one, The program as now written will not search beyond the first occurrence of a name unless the all option is selected. When all is typed in response to the prompt, the subroutine will read sequentially through all of the records in the file. WE HAVE IT What is IT? The New Pascal Microengine. IT features the new Western Digital 16 Bit Pascal Microengine CPU, 64K RAM, (2) RS232 ports, (2) parallel ports & (2) REMEX RFD 4000 double sided double density disk drives. IT will directly execute Pascal generated P-Code (the only CPU on the market designed to directly execute a high level language), & IT will run compiled BASIC. Wait, that’s not all — IT normally sells for $4,495, but you can have IT for $4,195. Dealer prices are much lower. Plus we have peripherals and soft- ware galore. Call us about IT at (803) 756-6000. THE PASCAL MICROENGINE FROM THE COMPANY THAT GIVES YOU TOMORROW’S INVENTIONS TODAY 24 =~ October 1979 © BYTE Publications Inc Circle 369 on inquiry card. CCS has everything to expand your Apple IT” Friendly Frankie's roadside Apple Ii stand has plenty to whet your appetite for expansion. So, if you're ready to have your Apple II computer interface with the outside world, wheel around to Frankie's stand today. Expand to your heart's con- tent with our full range of delicious Circle 38 on inquiry accessories, including: prom modules, asynchronous and synchronous serial interfaces, arithmetic processors, program- mable timers, parallel interfaces, A/D converters, and Apple I! compatible boards galore. Let Frankie connect your Apple II to the rest of the world faster, and for a lot less bucks. For all the mouth-watering details, contact our northern California headquarters or your local roadside computer store. If Frankie's out, ask for Dennis or Jerry. They'll be glad to help you *Appie Il is a registered trademark of Apple Computers, Inc. vd jBYTE Ostober 1979-25. LL. In addition to listing file entries, menu item 2 will revise entries. If a revision is made because new infor- mation has been found, simply enter the number (or name) of the person for whom the revisions are to be made, and then select the type of information that is to be updated. The revision subroutines are docu- ment oriented, that is, each asks for all of the information that is com- monly found on a particular vital record. For example, the marriage revision subroutine requests the date of marriage, the spouse’s name, the place where the marriage was per- formed, and the source from which because all of these items are found on a marriage certificate. The docu- ment orientation of the revision routines suits the genealogist’s situa- tion well, for the need to update information about an ancestor will usually arise from the discovery of a new document. If you wish to revise an error that was made while entering information the first time, you should first finish entering all of the information requested by the program. The com- puter will then prompt for changes by going back to the original menu. Item 2 will also generate blank data-collection forms which can be enter into the computer. This is done by putting a special symbol in the data fields for every relevant name, PLEASE ENTER THE NUMBER OF THE PROCEDURE YOU WANT: (1) ENTER INFORMATION (2) READ OR REVISE INFORMATION (3) LIST PEDIGREE (4) END THE PROGRAM ? Table 1: The genealogy program prompts the user for a specific use. The user can enter and modify information, list a son's pedigree for 4 generations, or fi the information was obtained, TASK: ADD GENEALOGICAL INFORMATION TO THE FILE WHAT IS THE PERSON’S NAME? (USE MAIDEN NAME WHERE APPROPRIATE) 2 THOMAS MERRILL TO PREVENT THOMAS MERRILL FROM BEING CONFUSED WITH SOMEONE ELSE WHO MAY HAVE A SIMILAR NAME, HE/SHE. SHOULD HAVE A UNIQUE NUMBER IN THIS FILE. HAS A NUMBER ALREADY BFEN ASSIGNED? 7 YES PLEASE ENTER THE NUMRER: 14 I WILL ASK YOU FOR SOME DATES. PLEASE ENTER DATES IN THE FOLLOWING FORMAT: DAY MONTH YRAR EXAMPLE: 23 APRIJ. 1949 IF YOU DON’T KNOW A DATE, ENTER ‘UNKNOWN’. WHEN WAS THOMAS MERRILL 2? 20 NOVEMBER 1715 BORN (DA MO YR)? WHERE WAS HE/SHE BORN? 2 HARTFORD CONNECTICUT WHAT WAS THOMAS MFRRILL *S FATHER’S NAME? (IF YOU DON’T KNOW, ENTER ‘UNKNOWN’ ) ? ABEL MERRILL DOES ABEL MERRILL 7” ALREADY HAVE A NUMBER? PLEASE ENTER HIS NUMBER: 215 WHAT WAS THOMAS MERRILL. “S MOTHER’S NAME? (USE MAIDEN NAME IF POSSIBLE. IF YOU DON’T KNOW HER NAME, ENTER “UNKNOWN” ) ? MEHITABLE FASTON used for gathering information to the program use. DOES SHE ALREADY HAVE A NUMBER? y PLEASE ENTER HER 216 NUMBER : WHERE DID YOU GET THE INFORMATION AROUT THOMAS MERRILL “S BIRTH AND PARENTAGE? (BE SPECIFIC) 2 BIRTH CERTIFICATE 13347A HOW MANY TIMES WAS THOMAS MFRRILL (ENTER A DIGIT FROM 0 TO 99) 21 MARRIED? ENTER A DATE FOR MARRIAGE # 1 2 5 OCTOBER 1755 (DA MO. YR) WHAT WAS THE SPOUSE’S FULL NAME? (USE MAIDEN NAME WHERE APPLICABLE) 2 MARTHA WOOD WHERE WERE THEY MARRIED? ? HARTFORD CONNECTICUT WHERE DID YOU GET THE INFORMATION AROUT MARRIAGE # 1 ? 2 MARRIAGE CERTIFICATE 3445 B WHEN DID THOMAS MERRILL DIF (DA MO YR)? (IF YOU DON’T KNOW, ENTER “UNKNOWN’. IF HE OR SHE IS STILL LIVING, ENTER “ALTVF.’.) 2:16 SUNE 1814 WHERE DID HE/SHE DIE? 2 HARTFORD CONNECTICUT WHERE DID YOU GET THE INFORMATION ABOUT HIS/HER DEATH? ? DEATH CERTIFICATE 3988 C Listing 1; When adding information to the file, the program prompts you for every input and describes the form that it should take. If an error is made during input, the rest of the information should be completed and the revise option chosen from the main menu upon completion. 26 — October 1979 © BYTE Publications Inc MOVING DATA AT A SNAILS PACE BECAUSE YOU'RE FLOPPY BOUND? Let Corvus Systems put you back in the race! = For TRS-80T, Apple? (including Apple Pascal), S-100 Bus—and now LSI-11. Fully compatible hardware/software. 10-million byte disk: IMI-7710. Proven Winchester technology. Z-80 based Corvus disk controller. Comprehensive disk diagnostics. Up to 4 disks per system. System $5350, add-on disk $2990. stews <A sere oe Corvus offers a complete systems solution to the mass storage problem of micro computers. In a package smaller thana briefcase, we provide an intelligent controller, disk, and personality module. (Cail or write today for additional information. Get up to speed with Corvus. Now! Corvus SPEAKS APPLE™ PaSCAL™! TASK: DO YOU WISH TO SEARCH BY ‘NAME’ OR BY ‘NUMBER’? 2 NUMBER PLEASE ENTER THE NUMBER: 214 GENEALOGICAL INFORMATION FOR: THOMAS MERRILL NUMBER: 14 BORN: 20 NOVEMBER 1715 BIRTHPLACE: HARTFORD CONNECTICUT ABEL MFRRILL MEHITABLE EASTON MARRIED TO: MARTHA WOOD DATE: 5 OCTOBER 1755 PLACE: HARTFORD CONNECTICUT DEATH DATE: 16 JUNE 1814 PLACE OF DEATH: HARTFORD CONNECTICUT RECORDS SOURCF: BIRTH AND PARENTAGE: DFATH: DEATH CERTIFICATE 3988 C DO YOU WISH TO CHANGE ANYTHING? ?NO WOULD YOU CARE TO EXAMINE ANOTHER RECORD? 2 YES Listing 2: A file may be found and read by either name or number. When the data has been reviewed, the user may update the file using the revision command. place, date, and source in item 1. (A question mark (?) makes a good sym- bol for this purpose. The number 0 can be used when the computer prompts for a number for the indi- vidual and his parents. The number 1 is a good response when the computer asks how many times the individual was married.) Either the special sym- bol or the number assigned by the program to the special form is then used in item 2. The number or symbol can be requested repeatedly to obtain as many copies of the form as are desired. The program assigns a unique number to each ancestor so that it can differentiate between people with the same name. (My own genealogy con- tains cases where as many as 3 indi- viduals have identical names.) Uti- 28 — October 1979 © BYTE Publications Inc RFAD AND REVISE FILE INFORMATION (NUMBER: (NUMBEI BIRTH CERTIFICATE 13347A MARRIAGE # 1 :MARRIAGE CERTIFICATE 3445 B TASK: LIST PEDIGREE. (ENTER HIS/HER 214 THE SYMBOL ‘F’ THE SYMROL ‘M* 15) 16) THOMAS MFRRILL. Fr:ABEL MERRILL lizing these numbers, the program will link up any person in the file with 4 generations of his or her ancestors, thus forming a pedigree chart. An example of such a pedigree is shown in listing 3. It is not necessary that everyone in the file be related. The program can tell who is related to whom on the basis of the number assigned to each person. Other Ideas The genealogy program in listing 4 prompts you to enter important identifying information about your ancestors. It will print back this infor- mation and allow revisions. It will also print a 4 generation pedigree for any person in the file, but its usefulness need not stop there: your own imagination can provide per- M:MEHITABLE EASTON FF; JOHN MERRILL FM:SARAH WATSON MF; JOHN EASTON MM: ELIZABETH (EASTON) FFF:NATHANIEL MERRILL FFM:SUSANNAH WOLTERTON FMF: JOHN WATSON FYM:MARGARET SMITH WHOSE PEDIGREE WOULD YOU LIKE PRINTED? NUMBER, PLEASE) STANDS FOR ‘FATHER STANDS FOR “MOTHER ® PEDIGREE FOR PERSON # 14 (NUMBER: 15 ) (NUMBER: 16 ) (NUMBER: 17 ) (NUMBER: 18 ) (NUMBER: 19 ) (NUMBER: 20 ) (NUMBER: 21 ) (NUMBER: 22 ) (NUMBER: 25 ) (NUMER: 26 } MFF: JOSEPH EASTON (NUMBER: 27 ) MFM:HANNAH (EASTON ) (NUMBER: 28 } MMF : UNKNOWN (NUMRER: 0 ) MMM: UNKNOWN (NUMBER: 0 ) Listing 3: When a pedigree is requested, a person's ancestry is traced back 4 generations. If the ancestry is unknown, then this is stated. sonal additions. You might wish to expand the pedigree section to print out more generations, or write a subroutine which will sort persons of the file into nuclear family groups. You might choose to add a subroutine to calculate age of death for each ancestor and average age of death for subgroups of ancestors. This could provide insight into the impact of historical conditions on longevity in your family, and could even be applied toward figuring out your own life expectancy. Along these same lines, you could add a prompt for cause of death — an item usually found on a death certificate. Inspec- tion of the cause of death for a large number of ancestors might even alert you to special diseases that occur regularly in your family. New easy-to-use educational module. Your best ticket tothe microprocessor world. Ideal for teaching. Yourself. Or others. TI’s new TM990/189 University Module is a stand-alone learning lab. Fully assembled and designed for maximum hands-on experience, To ease and simplify learning and teaching. Outstanding features include powerful 16-bit microprocessor with easy-to-learn, easy-to-use minicomputer ruction set; 45- key alphanumeric keyboard and ten-digit seven-segment display for easy assembly-language pro- gramming; ROM-resident software including system monitor for pr gram debug and symbolic assem- bler; audio cassette interface; easy-to-add EIA and TTY inter- face; 1K-byte RAM expandable to 2K; 4K-byte ROM and 2K-byte expansion EPROM socket; 16-bit Circle 372 on inquiry card. ‘© 1978 Texas instruments Incorporated programmable J/O controller; user addressable LEDs, and sound indicator. A 570-page tutorial text accom- panies the module. It is a detailed guide for self-paced learning. Or the basis for a three-hour univer- sity course, Chapters include an “1 TM990/519 power supply is available for $65.00. TEXAS INSTRUMENTS INCORPORATED overview of microprocessors; pro- gramming exercises; assembly language; memory systems; I/O concepts and designs; software engineering; product developme a variety of lab experiments, and much more. Also with the module: a 300-page user’s guide. The University Module complete with tutorial text and user’s guide is only $299.00. Order your University Module from your authorized TI distrib- utor. For more information, write Texas Instruments Incorporated, P.O. Box 1443, M/S 6404, Houston, Texas 77001 TEXAS INSTRUMENTS MOVING AHEAD IN MICROCOMPUTERS Our MacroFloppy’ oes twice the distance. or °695. Introducing the Micropolis MacroFloppy™:1041 and :1042 disk drive sub- systems. For the S-100/8080/Z-80 bus. Packing 100% more capacity into a on floppy disk than anyone else. 143K bytes, to be exact. For as little as The MacroFloppy:1041 comes with the Micropolis Mod | floppy packaged inside a protective enclosure (without power supply), And includes an S-100 controller. Interconnect cable. Micropolis BASIC User's Manual. A diskette con- taining Micropolis BASIC, and a compatible DOS with assembler and editor. The :1041 is even designed to be used either on your desk top, or to be inte- Corporati 7 703-1121. grated right into your S-100 chassis. _ . The MacroFloppy:1042 comes with everything the :1041 has, and more. Such as d.c, regulators, its own line voltage power supply, and, to top it off, a striking cover. Making it look right at home just about ai e, Both MacroFloppy systems are fully assembled, tested, burned-in, and tested again. For zero start-up pain, and long term reliability. Theyre also backed up by our famous Micropolis factory warranty. And both systems are priced just right. $695 for the MacroFloppy:1041 and $795 for the MacroFloppy:1042, You really couldn’t ask for anything more. At Micropolis, we have more bytes in store for you. For a descriptive brochure, in the U.S. call or rte Micropolis ion, 7959 Deering Avenue, Canoga Park, California 11304. Phone Or better yet, see your local dealer. MICROPOLIS' More bytes in store for you. Listing 4: The genealogical program source listing in BASIC Plus 2. Only the input and output statements will need to be changed to adapt this program to most microcom- puters with disk storage. This genealogy program was written on a DECsystem 2050 at the University of Chicago, using 00010 PRINT TAR(19); “GENEALOGICAL PROGRAM’ DEC's BASIC Plus 2. The file 1/O 00020 1 (input/output) under BASIC Plus 00030 1 WRITTEN BY STAN W. MERRILL 2 differs from that in many other 00040 1 OF COMPUTER RESOURCE ASSOCIATES 00050 1 914 EAST SIXTY-FIRST STRERT BASICs pra Pkimsie oro. 00060 | CHICAGO, ILLINOIS 60637 revision when running the pro- 00070 | (312) 363-6183 gram under another interpreter or 00080 | ‘compiler. For instance, the MAP 00090 ALLOCATE FILE AND COUNT NUMBER OF CASES ALREADY IN IT statement, which BASIC Plus 2 poli | SET. COUNTERS: uses to allocate space for variables, 00120 PRINT\PRINT\PRINT is unnecessary in some versions of 00130 ON FRROR CO TO 350 BASIC. 00140 MAP GENDATA B,C$(3)=16,D$=25,E$=16,F, G$(3)=25,H$=20, J$=16,K$(3)=20 »L$=20,Q$=25,S$=25,R,T,D1$=40,D2$(3)=40,D3$=40 00150 130 OPEN ‘GEN’ AS FILE #1, SEQUENTIAL VARIABLF, MAP GENDATA, INVALID To make the program smaller, reduce the number of prompts. Another possibility is to break the program into smaller programs, 00160 LET 12=0 2 4 00170 LET 13=0 ! I3 COUNTS NUMBER OF CASFS IN FILE each of which can be loaded into 00180 ! memory independently as needed. 00190 PRINT "WOULD YOU LIKE A LIST OF THE NAMES CURRENTLY" The 3 major subroutines (labeled 00200 PRINT “IN THE FILE?" “procedure subroutines” in listing goad be wis 4) are almost self-sufficient, that is, they can red a: rat 00230 IF W1$="Y" THEN PRINT "THE FILE CONTAINS THE FOLLOWING NAMES ae fam Des ere oe, is he 00240 IF W1$="YES’ THEN PRINT "THE FILE CONTAINS THE FOLLOWING NAMES:" Pp g 4 . y s 00250 PRINT modification. However, procedure 00260 GET #1 subroutine 2 calls several revision 00270 LET 13=13+1 subroutines (lines 4170 thru 4850) 00280 IF Wl$="Y’ THEN PRINT DS,B which should be included with it, if 00290 IF W1$="YES° THEN PRINT DS,B Listing 4 continued on next page 30 — October 1979 © BYTE Publications Inc it is made into a separate program. MetaFloppy’ goes The Micropolis MetaFloppy™ gives you more than four times the capacity of anyone else's 54-inch floppy. Because it uses 77 tracks instead of the usual 35. ____ The field-proven MetaFloppy, with thousands of units delivered, comes in a complete family of models, And, like our MacroFloppy™ family oF disk e drives, MetaFloppy is designed for the S-100/8080/Z-80 bus. For maximum capacity, choose our new MetaFloppy:1054 system. Which actually provides you with more than a million bytes of reliable on-line stor age. For less money than you'd believe possible. . . The MetaFloppy:10S4 comes complete with four drives in dual config- uration. A controller. Power supply. Chassis. Enclosure. All cabling. A new BASIC re package. And a DOS with assembler and editor: There's even a built- in Autoload ROM to eliminate tiresome button pushing. If that's more storage than you need right now, try our MetaFloppy:1053, with 630,000 bytes on-line. Or our Meta- Floppy 4043, with 375,000 bytes on-line. Either way, you can to over a million bytes on-line in easy stages, when you need to. Or want to. . In other words. if your application keeps growing, we've got you covered. With MetaFl opp. The system that goes beyond the floppy. ; ; For a descriptive brochure, in the U.S. call or write Micropolis Corporation, 7959 Deering Avenue, Canoga Park, California 91304, Phone (213) 703-1121. Or better yet, see your local dealer. MICROPOLIS" More bytes in store for you. Another use for the information in Listing 4 continued: the file is for studying naming tradi- tions. Do certain names appear over 00300 ! + a 00310 IF B>I2 THEN LET 12=B and over in the family? Are surnames 99399 tf R>12 THEN LET 12=R commonly used for given or middle 99339 tf T>12 THEN LET 12#T names? Perhaps the file contains ideas 00340 co To 260 for naming your own children (pets, 00350 RESUME 390 etc). Studying names can help in the 00360 understanding of implicit family 00370 ! MENU'OF PROCEDURES values and the transfer of power and 0d 380 ige in the famil 00390 PRINT\PRINT\PRINT Prestige in the family. _ 00400 PRINT “PLEASE ENTER THE NUMRER OF THE PROCEDURE’ You may wish to add a subroutine 00410 PRINT “YOU WANT:” for collecting biographical anecdotes 00420 PRINT about ancestors. This is a real pro- 00430 PRINT TAB(10);°(1) ENTER INFORMATION” gramming challenge, given the 00440 PRINT TAB(10);°(2) READ OR REVISE INFORMATION rime ‘ . dae 00450 PRINT TAR(10);°(3) LIST PEDIGREE” limited string handling capabilities of 99469 print TAR(10)3“(4) END THE PROGRAM’ most versions of BASIC. 00470 INPUT A 00480 IF A=1 THEN GOSUB 570 ENTER INFORMATION Conclusion 00490 IF A=2 THEN GOSUB 2000 EAD THE INFORMATION Genealogy matches you and your 00500 IF A=3 THEN GOSUB 3090 —!LIST PEDIGREE computer against exciting and worth- 00510 IF A=4 THEN GO T0 4900 | END PROGRAM while puzzles that challenge the best ooaag cael HINEOPHERROR-TKE ACen abilities of both man and machine. Its 99549 t PROCEDURE SUBROUTINE #1 rewards include a closer relationship 00550 t BIRTH CERTIFICATE INFORMATION with your family, increased know- 00560 ledge of history gleaned froma search 00570 PRINT\PRINT for facts that may have affected 00580 PRINT “TASK: ADD GENEALOGICAL INFORMATION TO THE FILE” ancestral migration and marriage pat- 00590 OPEN “GEN’ FOR INPUT AS FILE #1, SEQUENTIAL VARIABLE, ACCESS APPEND, MAP GENDATA, INVALIN 130 terns, and a self-knowledge derived 99600 pRINT\PRINT from examination of people like 00610 PRINT "WHAT IS THE PERSON’S NAME?" yourself, Listing 4 continued on page 32 October 1979 © BYTE Publications Inc 31 Up Your Output. TEMPO MULTI-TASKING! The TEMPOS Operating System is quickly becoming the standard in Multi- User, Multi-Tasking operating systems for 8080 and 280 microcomputers. Multi-Tasking means that, even with only one user at one terminal, more than one job can be running on the system simultaneously! If you have ever had to go get a cup of coffee while you wait for your computer to print list- ings, you know the advantages of a system that will handle one job while you are working on another. TEMPOS is a true time sharing system, and the maximum number of jobs is limited only by your memory. MULTI-USER! Want to shareyourcomputerwithanother user? With TEMPOSallit takes is another terminal .. .up to seven_ interactive terminals are allowed! And with Re-Entrant programs, each user does not need a complete copy in memory. We include three Re-Entrant programs (the OPUS/THREE High- Level Language, the TEXTED Text Editor, and FILES, a disc file directory/manipulator) or write your own! In addition, we include an assembler, a linking loader, over a half-dozen other utility programs and cover 60 system subroutines, callable by the programmer! PROVEN! With TEMPOS, you get a package that has been tested in our facilities for over two years, and in the field at over 50 different installations. We have used this system ourselves for everything from writing high-level languages todeveloping applications to text editing to games. TEMPOS is undoubted- ly the most flexibie software tool on the market. .. and you can have it for much less than you think! COMPATIBLE! TEMPOS is available for many different systems; pre-written drivers may include yours. Or, using our interactive System Generation Routine, you can add your own. Call or write now for our free catalog and the name of a dealer near you. The TEMPOS Operating System is available for $787.00, the manual set (price may be credited toward the purchase of the TEMPOS package) for $21.50 (prices include shipping within the US.). ADMINISTRATIVE OOOQINC. 00 1642 S. Parker Road, Suite 300, Denver, Colorado 80231 (303) 755-9694 32 October 1979 © BYTE Publications Inc Circle 8 on inquiry card. Listing 4 continued: 00620 00630 00640 00650 00660 00670 00680 00690 00700 00710 00720 00730 00740 00750 00760 00770 00780 00790 00800 00810 00820 00830 00840 00850 00860 00870 00880 00890 00900 00910 00920 00930 00940 00950 00960 0970 00980 00990 01000 01010 01020 01030 01040 01050 01060 01070 01080 01090 01100 01110 01120 01130 01140 01150 01160 01170 01180 01190 01200 01210 01220 01230 01240 01250 01260 01270 01280 01290 01300 01310 01320 PRINT "(USE MAIDEN NAME WHERE APPROPRIATE)" INPUT DS PRINT\PRINT PRINT "TO PREVENT ";D$ PRINT "FROM BEING CONFUSED WITH SOMEONE ELSE" PRINT "WHO MAY HAVE A SIMILAR NAME, HE/SHE" PRINT "SHOULD HAVE A UNIQUE NUMBER IN THIS FILE." PRINT PRINT "HAS A NUMBER ALREADY BEEN ASSIGNED?" INPUT VS IF VS="¥’ THEN 820 IF V$="YES’ THEN 820 IF V$<>‘N’ THEN IF V$<>’NO’ THEN GO TO 690 LET 12=12+1 LET B=I2 PRINT PRINT "HE/SHE HAS BEEN ASSIGNED THE NUMBER:" PRINT PRINT TAB(10);B GO TO 850 PRINT PRINT "PLEASE ENTER THE NUMRER:" INPUT B PRINT\PRINT PRINT "I WILL ASK YOU FOR SOME DATES." PRINT "PLEASE ENTER DATES IN THE FOLLOWING" PRINT "FORMAT: DAY MONTH = YEAR" PRINT "EXAMPLE: 23 APRIL 1949" PRINT "IF YOU DON’T KNOW A DATE, ENTER ‘UNKNOWN’." PRINT\PRINT PRINT “WHEN WAS ‘;D$;° BORN (DA MO YR)?” INPUT E$ PRINT PRINT “WHERE, WAS HE/SHE BORN?" INPUT HS PRINT\PRINT PRINT "WHAT WAS "3D$;'S FATHER’S NAME?" PRINT "(IF YOU DON’T KNOW, ENTER ‘UNKNOWN’)" INPUT Q$ IF Q$="UNKNOWN’ THEN GO TO 1200 PRINT\PRINT PRINT "DOES ";Q$;" ALREADY HAVE A NUMBER?" INPUT V$ IF V$=’Y’ THEN 1160 IF V$="YES’ THEN 1160 IF V$<>°N’ THEN IF V$<>‘NO’ THEN GO TO 1020 PRINT LET 12=12+1 LET ReI2 PRINT "HE HAS BEEN ASSIGNED THE NUMBER:" PRINT PRINT TAB(10);R PRINT\ PRINT GO TO 1220 PRINT PRINT "PLEASE ENTER HIS NUMBER:" INPUT R GO TO 1220 LET R=O PRINT\PRINT PRINT "WHAT WAS "3D$;""S MOTHER’S NAME?" PRINT "(USE MAIDEN NAME IF POSSIBLE. IF YOU" PRINT "DON’T KNOW HER NAME, ENTER “UNKNOWN’*)"’ INPUT S$ IF S$=’UNKNOWN’ THEN GO TO 1430 PRINT\PRINT PRINT "DOES SHE ALREADY HAVE A NUMBER?" INPUT VS IF VS=’¥’ THEN GO TO 1400 IF V$="YES’ THEN GO TO 1400 IF V$<>’N’ THEN IF V$q>‘NO’ THEN GO TO 1270 Listing 4 continued on page 42 1.2 million instructions per second. Average. Memory to accumulator ADD time — 600NS. JUMP extended — 900NS. o SMIPS: 0 MIPS ‘1.5 MIPS The C4P and the C8P offer more display than other personal computers — 2048 characters — 32 rows of 64 columns with upper and lower case. Long display width makes user instruction easier to program and to read. The effective graphics resolution of 256 x 512 points allows these computers to match the display limit of even the best color television sets. Speed separates the computers from the toys. The faster the processor executes instructions the more elaborate and greater the I/O can be. The C4P and C8P have execution speed that is twice as fastas Apple II, or Commodore PET and over 'TRS-80 B/W THREE times as fast as TRS-80. |/apprencolor They are many times faster than the recently introduced LE Type Computers flock of video game type 7 1 computers. is Ceinacnets = GT OPTION As if that weren't fast enough, the C4P and C8P’s speed is nearly doubled when equipped with the Ohio Scientific GT option. By utilizing a 6502C microprocessor in conjunction | with ultra-fast static memories, a C4P or C8P equipped with the GT option, will yield the following performance: ae tT at * Apple I, Commodore PET, TRS-80, and Atari 800 ere registered trade names of Apple Computer Inc., Commodore Business Machines Lid., Radio Shack, Atari. respectively. $+ 16 COLORS The C4P and C8P offer a bril- liant array of 16 colors includ- ing black available in both alphabetics and graphics. CONSTRUCTION The C4P incorporates a fully RF shielded aluminum case with 2-step baked on enamel finish. It is trimmed with solid oiled walnut and die-cast chromed dress panels. Com- pare its construction to the plastic cases that are standard on other personal computers. The quality doesn't stop at the surface. The C4P and C8P are modular BUS orientated computers with 4 and 8 slots respectively. The internal electronics are built to rigorous industrial standards. Modularity means expand- ability and obsolescence pro- tection. In fact, the original 1977 vintage C2-4P can be upgraded to a C4P by chang- ing PC cards at substantially less cost than purchasing a new computer. Circle 300 on inquiry card. The C4P MF is shown with optional accessories (clockwise). Home Color TV set (requires RF mod- ulator), 2 joy sticks, AG-Remote console and 2 modules, wireless smoke detector and window detector, modem, printer and wireless ramote security console (on top of TV.) JUST LOOK ATALLTHE! O OF THE G4P MF — BUILTIN INTERFACES (Coals) I/O capabilities. The most important feature to look for / when you purchase your next computer. Compare these standard features of the C4P and C8P disk systems to any other computer system. Regardless of price, you'll find none that even come close. CONTROL Model 1-Real time clock and POWER count down timer ON ON/OFF Switch Only on Ohio Scientific C4P MF or C8P DF can offer you all this 1/0. INTERFACES 16 parallel I/O lines HOME SECURITY INTERFACES 1-home security interface with fire and intrusion detection p= iL Aurora, Ohio 44202 Serial FUSE (2A) 110 VAC 60 Hz Fuse RS — 232 PORTS 1-300 baud modem port 1-300/1200 baud printer port Directly connect to an optional modem and AVAILABLE ON THE BACK AND READY TO RUN. ACCESSORY BUS One accessory BUS connector for an external 48 line I/O board, PROM blaster, analog data module or education board. SOUND 1-programmable tone generator 200 — 20KHz 1-8 bit companding digital to analog converter (DAC) for music and voice output Cassette IN (Cassette Versions Only) Color Adj. Video Display SE | — Cassette OUT (Cassette Versions Only) HUMAN INPUT EXPANSION | 2-8 axis joystick interfaces 2-10 keypad a= HOME INTERFACES 1—AC-12 AC remote control interface SOFTWARE Ohio Scientific offers a full comprehensive library of both systems and applications software for the C4P and the C8P. And, because our main language is Microsoft BASIC like most other personal computers, much of your old software can be used on the CAP and C8P with little or no modification except for the special I/O functions and the much faster speed of yournew computer. This would include software from the TRS-80 Level IL, Apple floating point BASIC, Commodore BASIC and many others, SYSTEMS INTEGRATION There is a lot of software avail- able fora lot of computers. FOREGROUND/ BACKGROUND OPERATION This means that your computer can be engaging in home monitoring activities at the same time it is running other programs. As you can see, the C4P and C8P are truly exceptional premium computers with just their standard features alone, Above and beyond that they are easily expandable toadd exciting advanced features like word processing, addi- tional memory, voice I/O, and our new universal telephone interface (UTI). C4P VS. C8P The C4P is a 4-slot portable computer with one open slot for expansion. The CAP is an 8-slot mainframe class computer with five open slots. Itfeatures over 3times the expansion capability of the Unfortunately for the user in almostevery casethe computer isavailable from one supplier, software is available from a dozen independent suppliers and accessory devices are available from yet other suppliers. Ohio Scientific has a different approach. We offer a comprehensive library of systems and applications soft- ware for the 4P and 8P. In fact, we offer more factory sup- ported software than any other personal computer company. For example, say you havea brand X computer and you buy a real time clock from com- pany ¥ which supplies software CAP for advanced home, experimental and small business applications. The C8P's dual 8" floppies store about 8 times the information ofasingle mini-floppy and access it many times faster. ADVANCED FEATURES FOR C8P DF EXPANSION Voice I/O The CBP DF can be optionally equipped with a voice I/O system that includes a Votrax module capable of generating English speech phonetically. It also has provisions for a user populated 5-channel feature extractor for voice input experimentation. Universal Telephone Interface (UTI) Optionally equipped with a Universal Telephone Interface system, the C8P DF has the ability to dial any telephone number, utilizing rotary dial or touch tone telephone lines. It can respond to touch tone or *TRS-A0 Level Il, Appleiloatingpoint BASIC and Commodore BASIC are reqistered trade names of, Rado Shack, Apple Computer Inc.. Commodore Business Machines Lid., respectively. to use the clock. Then you buy an AC controlier from company Z who also provides software. The system works fine as long as you want to monitor time or control AC devices but you are out of luck when you want to use the clock in conjunction with controlling AC devices. With Ohio Scientific's systems you can be monitoring home security, time, controlling AC devices and be playing an exciting video game, all at the same time because the systems software, the applications soft- ware, and the accessories form an integrated package which works together without end user modification. modem signals and can route voice to tape recorders. Itcan answer by touch tone, modem, stored message or Votrax voice output (when equipped with Votrax module or used in conjunction with a CA-14 Voice 1/0.) ACEP DF with UTI, voice output, AC-Remote, home security and its clock yield the home computer of the future with uncannily human-like capabilities to communicate via phone lines and operate and monitor typical home functions. FINAL FACTS Buying a new computer is a serious, long-term investment. So we invite you to shop around and compare. The closest thing you'll ind toa C4P or C8P will cost twice as much and offer less than half the performance. We know. Because there'snothing like these exceptional premium computers at any price, any- where. And probably won't be for a very long time. SPECIFICATION CHART FEATURE Microprocessor type GT option 6502C Full 53-key Keyboard BASIC in ROM BASIC on Disk Minimal Config. RAM Minimal Config. Total Memory RAM + Display +ROM Maximum RAM TV/Video Monitor Cassette Recorder Mini-Floppy Disk Dual Mini-Floppy Disk Dual 8” Floppy Disk Video Display Color Graphics (up to 16 colors), Upper and Lower Case, Graphics + Gaming Elements Effective Screen Resolution Audio Output (200 to 20KHz) DAC for Voice and Music Generation Key Pad Interfaces Joystick Interfaces AC Remote Control Interface Audio Cassette Interface Real Time Clock Home Security System Interface Printer Interface Modem Interface 16 Parallel Lines + Acc’y. BUS GT Option Winchester Hard Disks Option Voice I/O Telephone Interface ; £ ~ 9 SI 1S LS O I Ie Id | 6502 6502 6502 6502A Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes No No Yes No Yes | 8K 24K 8K 32K 19.5K 27.5K 19.5K 35.5K * | eK 48K 32K 48K Acc'y. Acc’y. Acc’y. Acc’y. Acc'y. No Acc'y. No Acc’y. Yes No No Acc’y, Acc'y. No No No No Acc'y. Yes 32 x 64 32 x 64 32 x 64 32x 64 Yes Yes Yes Yes | 256x512 | 256x512 | 256x512 | 256x512 | Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes | Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes No No Yes No Yes No Yes No Yes Yes* Yes Yes* Yes No Yes No Yes No Yes No Yes | No Acc'y. No Acc'y. No No Acc'y. Acc’y. No No Acc'y. Acc'y. No No Acc’y. Acc'y. Circle 300 on inquiry card, ‘*Not wired to connector. Computers come with keyboards and floppies where specified. Other equipment shown is optional SOF

Showing the first 100000 of 1040124 characters.

mp.ls