Byte was really meant more for computer hobbyists than just your average user. As such, it tended to have more technical content though it had plenty of typical reviews and other coverage as well. The July 1986 issue includes:

Feature

• Ciarcia’s Circuit: Parallel Interfacing: A Tutorial Discussion, Part 1: Basics – The first in a series of articles on building your own parallel interfaces. This month covers building a parallel keyboard interface and a Centronics printer inteface.

• Programming Project: A Spreadsheet Program – An implementation of a spreadsheet program in Modula-2 for the Macintosh.

• Programming Insight: Anagram Solving in Pascal – An algorithm in Pascal for solving anagrams.

• The Definicon 68020 Coprocessor, Part 1: The Hardware and Operating System – The first part of a very detailed look at this 68020 based coprocessor board for the IBM PC and compatibles.

• Engineering on a Micro – A bridge-truss analysis program written in BASIC.

Theme: Engineer’s Toolbox

• Computer Circuit Simulation – A look at how to analyze linear and non-linear circuits.

• Analog Circuit Analysis – An analog circuit modeling and simulation program for the Commodore 64.

• An 8031 In-Circuit Emulator – Creating an emulator to help with debugging.

• Structural Analysis – Using an IBM PC to implement the finite-element method.

• Stress Analysis – Using the boundary-element and finite-difference methods to to perform stress analysis on underground mine layouts.

• A Material Selection Program – A look at MSP, a public domain material selection program that provides a method for finding the appropriate material for construction.

• Small-Scale Engineering Applications – A program for estimating properties and liquid viscosities of chemicals and building a database for physical property estimation.

Reviews

• The Commodore 128 Personal Computer System – A favorable review of what would turn out to be Commodore’s last 8-bit machine. The Commodore 128 was unique in that it was really three machines in one. It had a native Commodore 128 mode, a fully compatible C64 mode, and a CP/M mode.

• The ITT XTRA XP – An IBM PC AT clone with a 6-MHz 80286 CPU, 512K of RAM, and a 20-megabyte hard drive for $4595.

• The Conquest Turbo PC – A PC XT clone with an 8088-2 CPU that can run up to 8-MHz, 256K of RAM, and two double density floppy drives for $1239.

• BYSO LISP and Waltz LISP – A comparison of two LISP implementations for IBM PC compatibles.

• ExperOPS5 – An implementation of the OPS5 programming language for Macintosh computers.

• Five Laboratory Interfacing Packages – An overview of five different software packages that can interface with either the Tecmar Lab Master and/or the Data Translation DT2801 interface boards for data acquisition.

• The IBM Wheelprinter E – A daisy wheel printer from IBM that produces high quality output.

Kernel

• Computing at Chaos Manor: Traveling Computers – A look at a variety of products including Fastback from Fifth Generation Systems, Los Angles on a Disk from Klynas Engineering, MCI Mail from MCI International, the NEC PC-8201 from NEC Home Electronics, Traveling SideKick from Borland International, the TRS-80 Model 100 from Tandy, and more.

• According to Webster: Programming Tools – A look at programming tools including the product of the month which is Personal Pascal for the Atari ST.

• BYTE U.K.: Personal Supercomputers – A look at Inmos’s Transputer as well as the Computing Surface, a machine that makes use of it.

• BYTE Japan: A Japanese COMDEX and More – A report on the COMDEX show in Japan and a look at a couple of new machines including the Oki ifCOM7 laptop and NEC PC-9801VM4.

• Applications Only: Cheap Stuff – A look at some low cost software including It Figures, Dac-Easy Word, AI: Typist, and Datatext.

…and more!