Source: Byte – July 1982

Byte covered a wide variety of systems over the course of its live form the 1970s until the 1990s. In 1982, the IBM PC was still new and it wasn’t yet clear that IBM PC compatibility would come to dominate both home and business. The July 1982 issue of Byte is an impressive 500 pages plus and includes:

Features

• The Input/Output Primer, Part 6: Interrupts, Buffers, Grounds, and Signal Degradation – The concluding part of a series on computer interfacing with an emphasis on building your own.

• Computer, Fiction, and Poetry – An article on “computer assisted literature”. This concept has come a long way in the days of AI.

• Add Programmable Sound Effects to Your Computer – Building a device to create sound effects with your computer. In this project, the SN76489A sound-generator circuit from Texas Instruments is used as the primary component.

• Breaking the Jargon Barrier: Designing Programs for Humanists – Computer jargon is blamed for the lack of computers in the field of archaeology.

• Microcomputers in the Study of Politics, Predicting Wars with the Richardson Arms-Race Model – How political scientists are using computer. Here, a Pascal program provides insight into two-party conflicts including arms races.

• Software Tools for Writers – Software tools for improving you writing. One advantage using a word processor adds is the ability to easily experiment.

• The Historian and the Microcomputer, A Student of the Past Meets the Machine of the Future – How computers have changed historical research methods.

• Simulating Neighborhood Segregation – Using computers in social sciences by creating models.

• Measuring Attitudes with a PET – A BASIC program for the Commodore PET that measures attitude by giving instructions, asking questions, and measuring your responses.

• Microcomputers in Cultural Anthropology – Using APL to manage data related to the study of Navajo and other cultures.

• User’s Column – Commentary on the M-Drive (basically a RAM disk), dBASE II version 2.3, a recommendation to learn ADA for high paying DoD jobs, and more.

• Upward Migration, Part 2: A Comparison of CP/M-86 and MS-DOS – A detailed comparison of CP/M-86 (basically, CP/M for the IBM PC) and MS-DOS.

• Using the Model I/III RS-232C Port – Detailed instructions for building a data communications interface for the RS-232C port of the TRS-80 Model I and III.

• Programming the Critical-Path Method in BASIC – Determining the optimal trad-off of project cost and time to completion.

• Computers for Humanity – A look at the West Coast Computer Faire. This year there were lots of games for Atari 8-bit computers, TRS-80s, and Apple IIs. Also, new workstations featuring the Motorola 68000 CPU, specifically the Sage II. S-100 and CP/M based systems were also still plentiful.

Reviews

• Scion Color System – A graphics system for the S-100 bus that uses multiple boards to achieve color. I guess in a way this could be though of as a very early version of SLI.

• Mediamix’s ETI^2 – Review of a device that allows you to use an IBM Electronic Typewriter as a printer. The cost is $495 for a parallel version and $595 for a serial version.

• Color Computer Disk System – A 5.25″ disk drive system for the TRS-80 Color Computer. It cost $599 for the first drive and $399 for each additional drive for up to four total drives.

• It All Depends on Your Viewpoint – A review of a $650 video terminal from ADDS (Applied Digital Data Systems).

• Database Management with Ashton-Tate’s dBASE II – A review of dBASE II Version 2.02A. dBASE II was one of the most popular and influential database management systems around.

Nucleus

• Editorial: The Briefcase Computer Market Heats Up – Not yet small enough to really be called “laptops” or “notebooks”, here we have a look at new “briefcase” computers. Some recent models include the Epson HX-20, Toshiba T100, Panasonic Link, the Grid Compass, and there are lots more.

• Letters – Letters from readers about a new file structure (‘skip sequential’), the Base 2 Printer, computer documentation, VEDIT, the Epson MX-70 printer, RSCOBOL (COBOL for the TRS-80 Model III), and more.

• Book Review: Computer Power and Human Reason – A book that looks at the impact of computers on society.

• Technical Forum: INS8070 Series Instruction Set Summary – A table featuring the instruction set of National Semiconductor’s SC/MP processor.

• Ask Byte – Questions answered about computer controlled irrigation, using the ZX81 for home control, an overheating TRS-80 Color Computer, redefining characters on the Atari 800, and more.

• BYTELINES – Recent computer related news: IBM expected to be shipping 1000 personal computers per day by the third quarter of 1982, TRS-80 Model 16 hits the streets, Apple donates computers to schools, Concurrent CP/M-86 released, Smalltalk for more computers coming soon, TI cuts prices, and more.

• Desk-Top Wonders: Draw Poker for the TI-59 – A type in program that implements poker on the TI-59 programmable calculator.

• Programming Quickies – A BASIC program to generate Huffman Codes for a set of characters and phrases and a technique for idiot proof input in Pascal.

• System Notes – A music program that will let you hear a tone and simultaneously displaying it on a musical staff. Written for the RCA VIP. Plus, a hardware modification to allow you to double the vertical resolution on the TRS-80.

• What’s New – The Kaycomp II CP/M portable computer, MC-1000 series 6502 based single board computers featuring 64KB RAM, new 68000 based computers, Xenix compatible single board computer, version 2 of the JRT System Pascal Compiler for CP/M, and lots more.

…and more!