• Tag Archives retrocomputing

  • PC Magazine (March 20th, 1984)

    Posted on by Azrael Comment

    Source: PC Magazine – March 20th, 1984

    PC Magazine was one of the two biggest magazines dedicated to IBM PCs and compatibles from the early 1980s into the 2000s (the other being PC World). The March 20, 1984 issue of PC Magazine includes:

    Cover Stories

    • Getting Your C-Legs – An introduction to programming in C with some simple program examples.
    • The MWC-86 C Compiler – A C compiler for the PC offering enhancements such as new data types, structure passing, nested comments, and longer identifiers.
    • The Whitesmiths C Native Compiler – A professional C compiler with idiosyncracies.
    • New Improved Lattice C – Version 2.0 of this compiler adds more memory, functions to the C library, and faster procedures.
    • C Into The Future – An interview with Tom Plum about the future of the C programming language.

    Features

    • PC Program Editors: The Next Generation – IDE’s weren’t really a thing yet but this article looks at the next genreation of editors including SPF/PC 1.6, micro/SPF 2.0, Professional Editor, and TED 1.2.
    • The Decision Makers – A look at two program, Decision and Decision-Analyst, designed to help make business decisions such as who to hire and what office equipment to buy.
    • PC-Powered Manufacturing – A look at MAX, a PC powered manufacturing system.
    • Packet Switching Puts You In Touch – An overview of packet switching networks and their advantage over other types of networks.
    • PC’s Powerful Cousin: The IBM CS9000 – A computer designed for the laboratory featuring a 68000 processor and an OS called CSOS.
    • When One PC Is Not Enough – A look at PC GT, an expansion card for the PC that turns it into a multi-user system.
    • Assembly Language: The Nature of DOS – An excerpt from “Assembly Language Primer for the IBM PC”.
    • An Illustrated History of The Chip, Part 2 – An excerpt from the book “State of the Art: A Photographic History of the Integrated Circuit”.
    • Office Writing: Word Processing for Business – A look at two word processors for business use, OfficeWriter and Form Writer Version 1.1.
    • A Gallery of Computer Art – A look at the Tech Graphics 2, a $50,000 machine (including various peripherals) for creating computer based art.
    • Taking The PC To The Cleaners – How laundries are making use of personal computers.
    • Checking Inns With The PC – Ramada Inn installs 635 PC’s, each equipped with 128K RAM, monochrome monitor, two 320K drives, printer, and Hayes 1200B modem, along with a centralized mainframe system for reservations.
    • MIT Goes On The 5-Year Plan – MIT is paying millions for PCs to help design bridges.
    • Waking Up To Computer Education – Wake County, North Carolina installs 135 IBM PCs across middle schools to help with computer literacy.
    • Beating The System – A look at an inexpensive kit that allows you to use a single expansion slot for two cards.
    • Exploring A Nonmanual Alternative – A look at IBM’s “Exploring the IBM Personal Computer”, a program designed as an alternative to manuals.

    Pro Columns

    • Getting Organized On Your PC – Using a database along with a word processor to help organize notes for writing.
    • Exploring Electronic Estimating – How PCs are being used to help contractors calculate estimates to outbid their competitors.
    • MUMPS Fever – MUMPS was originally a programming language for medical applications on mainframes. This article looks at some microcomputer version.
    • Two Boards In One – A look at Amdek’s Multiple Interface Adapter, a PC display card.
    • Educating The Individual – How the computers are making instruction more individual.
    • MUMPS: A Cure For Swollen Programs – A new medical oriented programming language, now available for PCs, offers more efficient programming.
    • Going By The Board – The keys to being a good BBS sysop.

    Departments

    • PC News – IBM introduces PC/IX, a UNIX OS for PC; PC Bartendr, a bartending app with 101 alcoholic beverage recipes; Commodore cuts prices; Atari launches AtariSoft software label; and much more.
    • Pitfalls Of Corporate Copying – Illegal “sharing” of programs within corporations and the trouble with copy protection.
    • Letters To PC – Letters from readers about the Palantir word processor, Word Proof, computer furniture, MicroAstrology, Telex, Memex, assigning strings to keys, and more.
    • Phantom Ruling From The IRS – IRS may deny tax-exempt status to PC user groups.
    • Unearthing The PCjr’s Secrets – A look through the PCjr’s technical manual with Peter Norton.
    • The PC Compatibility Test – A guide to figuring out how compatible your computer is to the IBM PC.
    • Greed And Egyptian Adventures – A look at two new adventure games including Infidel from Infocom and Ulysses and the Golden Fleece from Sierra On-Line.
    • Help For Experts And Novices – A review of the book “dBase II in English I”, a book that is supposed to make dBASE II easier to learn.
    • New On The Market – The Sweet-P Six Shooter (a multiple-pen plotter), ENVAX 600 (an intelligent communications processor), DTC Style Writer (a daisy wheel printer), DXY-800 Plotter, SNA Encryptor 305 (a data encryption board for communicating between a PC and an IBM mainframe), HP Digital Wand (bar code reader), PLP-8 Matrix Printers (a series of 80 and 132 columnt dot-matrix printers), QumeTrak 142 (320K 5.25″ floppy drive), and much more.
    • User-To-User – A way to keep track of files on floppies in DOS 2.0, a BASICA bug, a simple way to view and delete unwanted text files, and more.
    • PC Tutor – An automated way to use DISKCOPY, using single and double precision numbers, power converters, friction feed with the Epson MX-80 F/T printer, and more.
    • Software Licensing Questions – How the courts might distinguish between licensed and sold software.

    …and more!


    📂This entry was posted in Computer Arcana DOS 📎and tagged

  • Compute! (February 1985)

    Posted on by Azrael Comment

    Source: Compute! – Issue Number 57 – February 1985

    Compute! was a great magazine for those with home computer in the 1980s, at least if you had one that it covered. In 1985 that meant the Commodore 64, VIC-20, Atari 8-bit, Apple II, and IBM PC. Many computer magazines were more technically oriented this one but if you were just looking for more typical articles and reviews then it was very solid. It still had type-in programs which was a great way to get software for almost free (minus the cost of the magazine and your time of course). The February 1985 issue includes:

    Features

    • The New Atari: Q & A With Sigmund Hartmann – An interview with Sigmund Hartmann, President of Atari Software, about Atari’s future. On the immediate horizon were new machines including two new Atari 8-bit computers (the Atari 65XE and Atari 130XE) as well as their new 16-bit Atari ST.

    • Fame Games – A look at games using the names of famous authors and stars. Some of these include Amazon (Michael Crichton), Fahrenheit 451, Rendezvous With Rama, Ghostbusters, and many others.

    • Michael Crichton: Reflections Of A New Designer – Michael Crichton discusses the creation of his adventure game Amazon.

    • Birth Of A Computer Game – Game designers Chris Crawford, Jon Freeman, Bill Budge, Bruce Carver, and Dan Bunten discuss their creation process.

    Reviews

    • Dinosaurs – An educational game for preschoolers featuring dinosaurs for the Apple II and Commodore 64.

    • The Syn Series For Atari – A look at SynCalc, SynTrend, and SynFile+ for the Atari 8-bit. SynCalc is a spreadsheet program, SynTrend is a statistics and graphing program, and SynFile+ is a database program.

    • PC-Write Word Processors For PC & PCjr – A low cost shareware word processor capable of running in only 64K on the PC/PCjr.

    Columns And Departments

    • The Editor’s Notes – Reflections on the attributes of the perfect computer.

    • Readers’ Feedback – Readers write in about DOS, the need for two disk drives, memory on the Atari 800XL, transferring/translating BASIC programs between Sinclair computers, POKE and PEEK (or the lack thereof) in TI BASIC, and more.

    • The Beginner’s Page – Conditional logic and IF-THEN statements.

    • Programming The TI: Programming Without A Math Background – Knowing a little math is, of course, useful when programming but an advanced degree in mathematics should hardly be a pre-requisite.

    • Machine Language: Multiplication, Part 2 – The second part in a series on multiplying numbers in machine language.

    • Computers And Society – Word processors and their effect on writing.

    • IBM Personal Computing: Inside King’s Quest – A look at how King’s Quest was made. Incidentally, this game was created as a result of IBM asking Sierra to develop a game that would show off the color graphics of the PCjr.

    • INSIGHT: Atari – A BASIC benchmark for the Atari.

    • Telecomputing Today – Using a “lap computer” with a modem while traveling for business and pleasure, the latest updates on information services including CompuServe, Dow Jones News/Retrieval, and The Source, as well as a look at two new services, People/Link and Play/Net.

    The Journal

    • Acrobat – A type-in game for the Atari, Commodore 64 and VIC-20 in which you must use various acrobatic moves to make your way through various environments and obstacles.

    • Plus/Term For VIC & 64 – A type-in terminal program for the Commodore 64 and VIC-20 with 1200bps support.

    • Adding Sound Effects To Atari – Five short type-in programs for generating various sounds on the Atari.

    • How TurboTape Works – TurboTape is a program that speeds up loading programs from tape that was published in the previous issue. This article explains how it works.

    • IBM Rebound: All Machine Language Game For PC & PCjr – A type-in game for the IBM PC and PCjr that is similar to breakout.

    • Apple Bowling Champ – A type-in bowling game for the Apple II for up to four players.

    • Advanced Sound Effects On The 64 – Includes a type-in program for experimenting with different sounds without programming.

    • News & Products – New printers including the Riteman LQ and Riteman Plus; Work Force II home applications package for the Apple II; new games for Atari and Commodore including Market Forces, Break Street, and more; memory expansion for the Atari 600XL; and more.

    …and more!


    📂This entry was posted in Apple ][ Atari 8-bit Commodore 64 Computer Arcana DOS 📎and tagged

  • Digital Archaeology: HP Pavilion m7570n

    Posted on by Azrael Comment

    The HP Pavilion M7570N is a somewhat interesting machine. It was designed to be a multimedia hub and it certainly provided a lot of multimedia related functionality. It includes a DVD-ROM drive as well as a separate CD/DVD writer, a card reader that accepts a variety of media card formats, a TV tuner card, analog video capture capabilities, and of course firewire in addition to USB ports.

    Powering all of this was a Pentium D processor and 2 GB of DDR2 RAM. The one big deficiency was the lack of a dedicated GPU. However, that really only mattered for gaming and not the media oriented tasks this computer was designed for. Hardware in this machine includes:

    • CPU: Pentium D 915 @ 2.8 GHz
    • Memory; 2 GB DDR2 @ 266 MHz (533 MHz)
    • Video: Intel 82852/82855 GM/GME (integrated)

    Plus all of the above mentioned goodies. Check out the output of HWiNFO or CPU-Z for more detailed hardware info.

    The Pentium D was an interesting processor and it was a sort of interesting time for Intel in general. The Pentium 4 was nearing the end of its life as the Netburst architecture ended up being a bust (or burst?) because it couldn’t scale as much as Intel originally thought. At one time, it was thought that the Netburst architecture could reach speeds of 10 GHz. That didn’t happen and still hasn’t for that matter. the Pentium 4 HT and Pentium D were sort of stop gap measures as the Core 2 was being developed. The Pentium 4 HT mitigated the missed branch predictions of the long pipeline of the Pentium 4 modestly my adding an extra thread whereas the Pentium D stuck two Pentium 4 cores together. Both also added 64-bit extensions depending on the specific model.

    The motherboard is built by Asus. The HP model number is the Leucite-GL8E while the Asus model number is the P5LP-LE. It features the Intel 945G (Lakeport-G) chipset which was one of the earliest to use Socket 775. It was featured in a number of HP models including the Pavilion A1512X Desktop, Pavilion A1530N Desktop, Pavilion A1542N Desktop, Pavilion A1550Y Desktop, Pavilion A1560N Desktop, Pavilion A1613W Desktop, Pavilion Media Center M7500Y, Pavilion Media Center M7570N (this machine), and Pavilion Media Center M7658N. There does seem to be a fairly significant upgrade path. According to one random website, supported CPUs include:

    • Core 2 Duo E6x00
    • Core 2 Duo E4x00
    • Pentium D 9×0 Dual Core
    • Pentium D 8xx Dual Core
    • Pentium 4 6×1 series
    • Celeron D 3xx series

    There is a significant spread on possible front side bus speeds depending on the CPU including 533 MHz, 800 MHz, and 1066 MHz. It features a dual channel memory architecture with support for four 240-pin DDR2 DIMMs including PC2 3200 (400 MHz), PC 4200 (533 MHz), and PC2 5300 (667 MHz) DDR2 DIMMs.

    I recently looked at a 3.2 GHz hyperthreaded model and compared to that, this dual core Pentium D feels much snappier despite being clocked slower. The extra core really helps at least with more modern operating systems. You probably wouldn’t notice it as much with Windows XP for example. If this motherboard can indeed support up to a Core 2 Duo E6700 then that would nearly double its speed.

    The sticker on the front says “designed for Windows XP” and “compatible with Windows Vista”. Currently, Windows 7 is installed. As a multimedia center it was pretty nice at the time it was released, however, it became outdated pretty quickly both in terms of features and support. The TV tuner card is analog and doesn’t do HD. Driver support in Windows 7 was an afterthought and those drivers are hard to find. The applications that came with this PC for using the TV tuner card do not work in 64-bit Windows 7. I was finally able to find drivers and the card, at least for video capture, and it seems to work with VirtualDub. I can see how this machine would still be useful if you had any analog video capture needs. However, I doubt that the capture card that is in it would work with Windows 10/11 and I’m skeptical about it working in Linux as well.

    I’ll probably keep this computer around. It’s always nice to have a way to handle legacy media. In theory, I should be able to use this machine to capture VHS, 8mm, and other analog video formats. There are of course analog video options for modern systems, but what fun is that?

    Like pretty much any machine I turn on, if it is capably, I have it crunching tasks for BOINC. Despite the older hardware and OS, it can still crunch tasks for at least MilkyWay@home, World Community Grid, Einstein@home, Universe@home, and Asteroids@home and probably others. You can check out how it is doing overall via FreeDC.


    📂This entry was posted in Computer Arcana 📎and tagged