Byte (January 1980)

Byte had already been around for a few years by 1980. It’s page count was already near 300 pages and still ramping up but the introduction of the IBM PC was still more than a year away (along with other popular machines like the Commodore 64). The January 1980 issue includes:

Foreground

Computerize A Home – Automating your home using a Z-80 based computer and X10 controllers (which were pretty new at the time).

A Computer Controlled Light Dimmer, Part 1: Design – Building a computer controlled dimmer using AC phase control.

A Furnace Watchdog – Monitoring the burner cycles of a gas heater using a homebrew 8080A based computer.

Telephone Dialing By Computer – Building a dual-tone multiple-frequency dialing device that interfaces with an ASCII computer terminal. This is basically a computerized dialer where you can select the number to dial from a menu.

Analysis of Polynomial Functions With The TI-59 – The second part of a guide to working with polynomial functions on a TI-59 calculator.

Alpha Lock For Your ASCII Keyboard – A guide to basically building your own CAPS LOCK key…not a given on keyboards of the time.

Relocating 8080 System Software – When upgrading your system, sometimes it was necessary to relocate system software to different memory locations. Here is a guide to do so.

Eighteen With A Die, A Learning Game Player – A game that learns as it plays.

Background

Making Color Slides With An Intercolor Microcomputer – Creating slides (which most people use PowerPoint for today) used to be a much more complicated process and also involved photography and transparencies.

What Computers Cannot Do – Non-terminating searches and more.

Indirect Addressing For The 6502 – The 6502 has thirteen addressing modes but not all modes can be used with all instructions. This article discusses how to implement indirect addressing with jump to subroutines instructions among other things.

The Plot Continues – Building a plotter.

A Computer-Generated Reminder Message – A BASIC program that will scroll reminder messages with the ability to define one time or periodic events.

Nucleus

Editorial: The Era of Off-the-Shelf Computers Has Arrived – In the early days of personal computing, you mostly had to build your own machines. By 1980, there were a number of off the shelf solutions including various CP/M machines, the TRS-80, Apple II, and others.

Letters – Letters from readers about Tic-Tac-Toe, UNIX-style file systems, and more.

BYTE News – 32-bit CPU rumored from Intel; 2-inch floppy drive developed in Japan; flat panel terminal displays (plasma) becoming available; 64K EPROMS available by mid-year; and more.

Technical Forum – Tips for receiving weather satellite photos and a program for creating mazes.

Programming Quickies – A Pascal program for balancing your checkbook, a French/English dictionary written in BASIC, and more.

Book Reviews – Reviews of Illustrating BASIC and Implementing Software for Non-Numeric Applications.

What’s New? – A brief look at new software including Apple Writer, Dental System I, a C compiler for the 8080 and Z80, a Pascal compiler for the 6800, a Lisp interpreter for the Apple II, and more. Plus new hardware including the AmZ8000 System from AMD, The Discovery Computer System MP Series A multiprocessor S-100 CP/M Computer, the SDK-86 kit with an 8086 processor, the Texas Instruments TI-99/4, a new motherboard for the KIM-1, SYM-1, and AIM-64, and more.