Source: Computer & Video Game Magazines – BYTE – January 1984

BYTE was a computer magazine published from 1975 until 1998, appearing not long after the first commercial computer kits started being advertised. It covered a vast array of computers over the years and included technical content as well as hardware and software reviews. The January 1984 issue was a massive 560+ pages and included:

Columns

• Build the Circuit Cellar Term-Mite ST Smart Terminal, Part 1: Hardware – Thanks to advancing technology, you can construct an intelligent video terminal with just 21 integrated circuits.
• BYTE West Coast: Beyond the Word Processor – Tomorrow’s text editors may facilitate text composition from the earliest conceptual stages to the analysis of finished documents.
• User’s Column: too Many Leads, or What in *;?!#”*? Goes First? – Jerry covers a lot of territory this month, beginning his journey of a thousand words with a trip to the Circuit Cellar.

Themes

• 1984 and Beyond – The year calls up inevitable associations with George Orwell’s novel of a futuristic, technologically oppressed society and raises questions concerning the present and future significance of technology to our own culture.
• Reason and the Software Bus – The Reason research project, exploring artificial intelligence, has developed a software bus that may have a significant effect on future software. As a hardware bus uses ICs, so the software bus manipulates various program components to provide integration, networking, and multitasking.
• A General-Purpose Robot-Control Language – By bridging the communication gap between people and robots, a plain-language system called Savvy increases the usefulness of these mechanical assistants.
• 1984, the Year of the 32-bit Microprocessor – As manufacturers rush to introduce their 32-bit designs, it’s time to take a look at what these microprocessors are and what they’re good for.
• Memory Cards: A New Concept in Personal Computing – Picture a microcomputer without a keyboard, without a power supply, and small enough to fit in your wallet. That’s just one possible application of memory-card technology.
• Computer-aided Design – CAD capabilities on desktop systems can simplify a variety of tasks, from flowcharting to product design, but the choices in hardware and software can be baffling.
• Speech Recognition: An Idea Whose Time Is Coming – While the multidisciplinary nature of the technology may slow its advance, speech recognition is well on its way to becoming a major factor in our interactions with machines.
• Using Natural-Language Systems on Personal Computers – Artificial intelligence offers possible solutions to the problems of communication between people and computers.
• Portables – 1984 and Beyond: Idea-Processing Software and Portable Computers – When your personal computer leaps off your desktop and into your briefcase, what type of software will accompany it?
• Beyond the Application Program: A Different Approach to Integrated Software – Element managers that implement objects such as spreadsheet tables and paragraphs may supplant the traditional concept of the application program.

Reviews

• Reviewer’s Notebook – This month’s notes touch on Seequa Computer Corporation’s Chameleon Plus and new trends in the printer market.
• The Zenith Z-100 – Supporting both 8-bit and 16-bit software, the Z-100 also offers impressive color graphics.
• Pinball Construction Set – Tired o fthe same old pinball games? Try creating your own with this software-design package.
• The TRS-80 Model 16B with Xenix – Once of the most significant features of Radio Shack’s new computer is its Unix-derived operating system.
• Naturallink to Down Jones News/Retrieval – A new software package from Texas Instruments simplifies access to a financial database.
• The Vamp DVM-1 Computer/TV Interface Kit – The picture quality of your display can suffer when you use a radio-frequency modulator to interface your computer’s video output to a standard color television, but a kit from Vamp offers an alternative.
• The Einstein Compiler – In addition to speeding up Applesoft BASIC programs, the Einstein compiler provides statistical information on the programs compiled and can function as a debugging tool
• The Basis 108 – Apple compatibility is just one of this German import’s interesting features.

Features

• Bubbles on the S-100 Bus, Part 1: The Hardware – Using Intel’s BPK 72 Bubble-Memory Prototype Kit, you can put together a 128K-byte bubble-memory board for an S-100 bus system.
• Mockingbird: A Composer’s Amanuensis – The chief purpose of this music notation editor from Xerox is to help composers capture their ideas by speeding up the notation process.
• The VU68K Single-Board Computer – You can construct a 68000-based system for under $200.
• Translating the SAS Language Into BASIC – A preprocessor program that translates SAS-like statements into equivalent BASIC statements permits SAS-like programs to run on a microcomputer.
• A Software Review Method That Really Works – The group walk-through, a process of “playing computer,” provides a workable means of correcting programming problems.
• Real-Time Clocks and PC-DOS – A device-driver program for the clock chip on a typical multifunction board takes advantage of special provisions in the IBM PC operating system.

Nucleus

• Editorial: Revisiting the Luddites
• MICROBYTES
• Letters
• BYTE’s User to User
• Ask BYTE
• Software Received
• Event Queue
• Books Received
• Clubs and Newsletters
• What’s New?
• Unclassified Ads
• BYTE’s Ongoing Monitor Box, BOMB Results
• Reader Service

…and more!