You really got your money’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’s Circuit Cellar: Build The Home Run Control System – 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 – Writing concurrent programs in Modula-2.

• A Million-Point Graphics Tablet – A guide to building a low cost graphics tablet for the Zenith Z-100.

Themes

• Communication With Alien Intelligence – How we might communicate with aliens from an artificial intelligence perspective.

• The Quest to Understand Thinking – Attempting to understand how the brain works starting with the simplest steps.

• The LISP Tutor – Developing a computer based tutor effective at teaching the LISP programming language.

• PROUST – A knowledge based systems for automatically debugging Pascal programs.

• Architectures for AI – Improving computational throughput for artificial intelligence.

• The LISP Revolution – 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.

• The Challenge of Open Systems – In this context, “open systems” refer to systems of interconnected and interdependent computers.

• Vision – Computer Vision was one of the earliest applications of artificial intelligence. This article discusses methods of making computers see.

• Learning in Parallel Networks – Building learning systems with parallel networks.

• Connections – Comparing parallelism in nature with artificial intelligence.

• Reverse Engineering The Brain – Creating artificial intelligence by simulating the brain.

• The Technology of Expert Systems – Expert Systems were another early implementation of artificial intelligence concepts.

• Inside an Expert System – Developing an Expert System using Pascal.

Reviews

• The ITT XTRA – An IBM compatible computer with 256K of RAM, two double-density 5.25″ floppy drives, and monochrome display for $2395.

• Insight – A Knowledge System – Review of this rule-based knowledge system for the IBM PC.

Kernel

• Computing At Chaos Manor: Over The Moat – A look at various products including CP/M Utilities, WRITE, dBASE III, Framework, S1 Operating System, Symphony, System Backup, The World Plus, and more.

• BYTE West Coast: Lasers, Office Publishing, and More – A look at products from Canon, Imagen, Interleaf, Kurzwil, Ricoh, Sun Microsystems, Tardis Software, and Xerox.

• BYTE U.K.: New Database Ideas – A look at Frame Theory for use in database management systems.

• BYTE Japan: The Fifth Generation in Japan – 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.

• Editorial: Golfers and Hackers – A comparison of golfing and hacking.

• Microbytes – 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.

• Letters – Readers write in about the Fujitsu Micro 16, the Apple II, Wordstar .BAK files, manual from Apple, and more.

• What’s New – 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.

• Ask BYTE – Questions answered about switching power supplies for the S-100 bus, high resolution graphics, and more.

• Book Reviews – 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.

…and lots more!