{"id":35830,"date":"2025-08-27T14:06:48","date_gmt":"2025-08-27T18:06:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/?p=35830"},"modified":"2025-09-20T12:21:51","modified_gmt":"2025-09-20T16:21:51","slug":"byte-april-1985","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/2025\/08\/27\/byte-april-1985\/","title":{"rendered":"Byte (April 1985)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"\/magazines\/index.php?twg_album=Computer_Magazines%2FByte%2FByte_1985-04&amp;twg_foffset=0,0&amp;twg_show=Byte_1985-04_001.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Byte_1985-04_001-730x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"730\" height=\"1024\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-35834\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Byte_1985-04_001-730x1024.jpg 730w, http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Byte_1985-04_001-214x300.jpg 214w, http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Byte_1985-04_001-768x1077.jpg 768w, http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Byte_1985-04_001-1095x1536.jpg 1095w, http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Byte_1985-04_001-86x120.jpg 86w, http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Byte_1985-04_001.jpg 1153w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 730px) 100vw, 730px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>You really got your money&#8217;s worth when you bought an issue of Byte in the 1980s. For only $3.50 per issue (less if you were a subscriber), you got a whopping 500+ pages. And the cover story in April 1985? Artificial Intelligence. Contents of this issue includes:<\/p>\n<h1>Features<\/h1>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Ciarcia&#8217;s Circuit Cellar: Build The Home Run Control System<\/b> &#8211; The first part of a series on building a home control system using X-10 modules, sensors and a single board computer.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Coprocessing in Modula-2<\/b> &#8211; Writing concurrent programs in Modula-2.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><b>A Million-Point Graphics Tablet<\/b> &#8211; A guide to building a low cost graphics tablet for the Zenith Z-100.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"\/wordpress\/?attachment_id=35833\" class=\"attachment wp-att-35833\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Byte_1985-04_004-730x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"730\" height=\"1024\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-35833\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Byte_1985-04_004-730x1024.jpg 730w, http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Byte_1985-04_004-214x300.jpg 214w, http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Byte_1985-04_004-768x1078.jpg 768w, http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Byte_1985-04_004-1094x1536.jpg 1094w, http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Byte_1985-04_004-86x120.jpg 86w, http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Byte_1985-04_004.jpg 1155w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 730px) 100vw, 730px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<h1>Themes<\/h1>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Communication With Alien Intelligence<\/b> &#8211; How we might communicate with aliens from an artificial intelligence perspective.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><b>The Quest to Understand Thinking<\/b> &#8211; Attempting to understand how the brain works starting with the simplest steps.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><b>The LISP Tutor<\/b> &#8211; Developing a computer based tutor effective at teaching the LISP programming language.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><b>PROUST<\/b> &#8211; A knowledge based systems for automatically debugging Pascal programs.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Architectures for AI<\/b> &#8211; Improving computational throughput for artificial intelligence.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><b>The LISP Revolution<\/b> &#8211; LISP was the first language primarily used for AI applications. It is still used today though Python and C++ seem to be the main players now.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><b>The Challenge of Open Systems<\/b> &#8211; In this context, &#8220;open systems&#8221; refer to systems of interconnected and interdependent computers.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Vision<\/b> &#8211; Computer Vision was one of the earliest applications of artificial intelligence. This article discusses methods of making computers see.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Learning in Parallel Networks<\/b> &#8211; Building learning systems with parallel networks.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Connections<\/b> &#8211; Comparing parallelism in nature with artificial intelligence.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Reverse Engineering The Brain<\/b> &#8211; Creating artificial intelligence by simulating the brain.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><b>The Technology of Expert Systems<\/b> &#8211; Expert Systems were another early implementation of artificial intelligence concepts.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Inside an Expert System<\/b> &#8211; Developing an Expert System using Pascal.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"\/wordpress\/?attachment_id=35832\" class=\"attachment wp-att-35832\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Byte_1985-04_005-728x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"728\" height=\"1024\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-35832\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Byte_1985-04_005-728x1024.jpg 728w, http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Byte_1985-04_005-213x300.jpg 213w, http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Byte_1985-04_005-768x1080.jpg 768w, http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Byte_1985-04_005-1092x1536.jpg 1092w, http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Byte_1985-04_005-85x120.jpg 85w, http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Byte_1985-04_005.jpg 1154w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 728px) 100vw, 728px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<h1>Reviews<\/h1>\n<ul>\n<li><b>The ITT XTRA<\/b> &#8211; An IBM compatible computer with 256K of RAM, two double-density 5.25&#8243; floppy drives, and monochrome display for $2395.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Insight &#8211; A Knowledge System<\/b> &#8211; Review of this rule-based knowledge system for the IBM PC.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h1>Kernel<\/h1>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Computing At Chaos Manor: Over The Moat<\/b> &#8211; A look at various products including CP\/M Utilities, WRITE, dBASE III, Framework, S1 Operating System, Symphony, System Backup, The World Plus, and more.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><b>BYTE West Coast: Lasers, Office Publishing, and More<\/b> &#8211; A look at products from Canon, Imagen, Interleaf, Kurzwil, Ricoh, Sun Microsystems, Tardis Software, and Xerox.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><b>BYTE U.K.: New Database Ideas<\/b> &#8211; A look at Frame Theory for use in database management systems.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><b>BYTE Japan: The Fifth Generation in Japan<\/b> &#8211; A look at the Hitachi S-810 family of vector super computers. The S-810 was the second super computer from Japan and the first from Hitachi. The fastest of them could reach about 630 MFLOPS.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Editorial: Golfers and Hackers<\/b> &#8211; A comparison of golfing and hacking.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Microbytes<\/b> &#8211; An IBM PC emulator for Macintosh users; a memory upgrade for the Mac; Microsoft releases C compiler; Zenith releases new portables with backlit LCD displays; Proteon offers 80 megabits per second networking ($8000 per node); and more.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Letters<\/b> &#8211; Readers write in about the Fujitsu Micro 16, the Apple II, Wordstar .BAK files, manual from Apple, and more.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><b>What&#8217;s New<\/b> &#8211; A brief look at new products including the General Electric 3-8100 thermal printer, SuperKey, GE TVs that can be used as 80-column monitors, 300bps direct acoustic modem from GE, the Kaypro 286i IBM PC AT compatible computer, the Alphacom Aero printer (Epson RX-80 compatible), 30-megabyte hard drive from Control Data Corporation, S-100 graphics cards, and more.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Ask BYTE<\/b> &#8211; Questions answered about switching power supplies for the S-100 bus, high resolution graphics, and more.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><b style=\"color: initial;\">Book Reviews<\/b><span style=\"color: initial;\"> &#8211; Reviews of Build Your Own Expert System by Chris Naylor, Artificial Intelligence In BASIC by Mike James, The Cognitive Computer: On Language Learning And Artificial Intelligence by Roger C. Schank.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul> \t<lib>\n<\/lib><\/ul>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Byte_1985-04_510-713x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"713\" height=\"1024\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-35831\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Byte_1985-04_510-713x1024.jpg 713w, http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Byte_1985-04_510-209x300.jpg 209w, http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Byte_1985-04_510-768x1103.jpg 768w, http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Byte_1985-04_510-1070x1536.jpg 1070w, http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Byte_1985-04_510-84x120.jpg 84w, http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Byte_1985-04_510.jpg 1128w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 713px) 100vw, 713px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&#8230;and lots more!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You really got your money&#8217;s worth when you bought an issue of Byte in the 1980s. For only $3.50 per issue (less if you were a subscriber), you got a whopping 500+ pages. And the cover story in April 1985? Artificial Intelligence. Contents of this issue includes: Features Ciarcia&#8217;s Circuit Cellar: Build The Home Run Control System &#8211; The first part of a series on building a home control system using X-10 modules, sensors and a single board computer. Coprocessing in Modula-2 &#8211; Writing concurrent programs in Modula-2. A Million-Point Graphics Tablet &#8211; A guide to building a low cost graphics tablet for the Zenith Z-100. Themes Communication With Alien Intelligence &#8211; How we might communicate with aliens from an artificial intelligence perspective. The Quest to Understand Thinking &#8211; Attempting to understand how the brain works starting with the simplest steps. The LISP Tutor &#8211; Developing a computer based tutor effective at teaching the LISP programming language. PROUST &#8211; A knowledge based systems for automatically debugging Pascal programs. Architectures for AI &#8211; Improving computational throughput for artificial intelligence. The LISP Revolution &#8211; LISP was the first language primarily used for AI applications. It is still used today though Python and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35834,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[367,486,2835,2362],"class_list":["post-35830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-computer-arcana","tag-byte","tag-computers","tag-magazine","tag-retrocomputing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35830"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35830\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35944,"href":"http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35830\/revisions\/35944"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}