TM

ifuTEnrALC «Sc

MICROCOMPUTING FOR SMALL BUSINESS AND HOME VOLUME 3, ISSUE 1 JANUARY 1978 $1.75

CANADA/MEXICO $2.00 INTERNATIONAL $3.00

Floppy ROm #3

The Word Processor

iteha*1

RETURN

RE PT

CTRL

SHIFT

QWERTY Is Obsolete

Tax Calculation Programs ITledical Receivables Package Report Writing By microcomputer

6800/2 IS HERE

The 6800/2 uses our new A2 processor board with socket space for 8K bytes of ROM/PROM. This makes it possible to use the 6800 in applications where ROM programs are useful without purchasing an expensive PROM accessory board. The A2 board has a DIP switch selector that allows you to replace any 8K block of memory above the RAM memory that extends to 32K with memory external to the processor board itself. This lets you develop special pro- grams that will later be put in PROM in a normal RAM memory card where it can be modified and debugged. The A2 board has a crystal controlled baud rate oscillator and a separate clock driver oscillator whose frequency may be changed with a programming resistor. The A2 processor board gives you the maximum possible flexibility In setting up a computer system.

SWTBUG® Monitor-

The 6800/2 is supplied with our new SWTBUG® monitor. This new monitor is software compatible with the earlier Mikbug® monitor used in the 6800. All major subroutine entry points are identical. SWTBUG® features a resident MF-68 Minifloppy disk boot, single level breakpoints, vectored software interrupt, generation of punch end of tape formatting and automatic interface configuring for either the MP-C control interface or MP-S serial interface.

AC I A Type Interface—

The 6800/2 uses our MP-S serial interface. This RS-232 and

20 Ma. TTY compatible interface may be configured to op- erate serially at the following baud rates: 110, 150,300, 600, 1200, 2400, 4800 and 9600. Complete interrupt con- trol is available through the user's software.

4K Static MEMORY-

The 6800/2 comes wth 4K of static RAM memory on our MP-8M board . The memory may be expanded to 8K by the addition of eight more memory chips. No additional parts are needed. Full buffering of all data, address and control lines is a standard feature. Memory expansion to 32K of continuous RAM memory and up to a 48K mixture of ROM/RAM is possible with this system.

ACCESSORY BOARDS-

Do you have a special job? Our accessory boards make it possible to use the 6800/2 for almost any type of computer application. We have our MP-T interrupt timer with soft- ware interrupt selectable output. Our MP-N calculator inter- face that allows you to do arithmetic functions In hard- ware. Our MP-R EPROM programmer that programs and verifies EPROMs right in the machine— and more coming.

6800/2 Kit . $439,00 ppd Com. ILS.

6800/2 Assembled $495.00 ppd Cont. U.S.

SWTBUG Ts a registered trademark of Southwest Tech. Prod. Corp. Mikbug® Is a registered trademark of Motorola, Inc.

SOUTHWEST TECHNICAL PRODUCTS CORPORATION

219 W. RHAPSODY

SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS 78216

CIRCLE INQUIRY NO. 52

You can now have the industry’s finest microcomputer with that all-important disk drive

YOU CAN GET THAT ALL-IMPORTANT SOFTWARE, TOO

Loading your programs and files will take you only a few seconds with the new Cromemco Z-2D computer.

You can load fast because the Z-2D comes equipped with a 5" floppy disk drive and controller. Each diskette will store up to 92 kilobytes.

Diskettes will also store your pro- grams inexpensively— much more so than with ROMs. And ever so much more conveniently than with cas- settes or paper tape.

The Z-2D itself is our fast, rugged, professional-grade Z-2 computer equipped with disk drive and con- troller* You can get the Z-2D with either single or dual drives (dual shown in photo).

CROMEMCO HAS THE SOFTWARE

You can rely on this: Cromemco is committed to supplying quality software support.

For example, here's what's now available for our Z-2D users: CROMEMCO FORTRAN IV COM- PILER: a well-developed and power- ful FORTRAN that's ideal for scien- tific use. Produces optimized, relo- catable Z-80 object code. CROMEMCO 16K DISK BASIC: a powerful pre-compiling interpreter with 14-digit precision and powerful I/O handling capabilities. Particularly suited to business applications. CROMEMCO Z-80 ASSEMBLER: a macro-assembler that produces relo- catable object code* Uses standard Z-80 mnemonics.

The professional- grade microcomputer for professionals

ADVANCED CONTROLLER CARD

The new Z-2D is a professional system that gives you professional performance.

In the Z-2D you get our well- known 4-MHz CPU card, the proven Z-2 chassis with 21 -slot motherboard and 30-amp power supply that can handle 21 cards and dual floppy drives with ease.

Then there's our new disk con- troller card with special features:

• Capability to handle up to 4 disk drives

* A disk bootstrap Monitor in a IK 2708 PROM

• An RS-232 serial interface for interfacing your CRT terminal or teletype

♦ LSI disk controller circuitry

Shown with optional bench cabinet

Werre able to put all of this in- cluding a UART for the CRT interface on just one card because we've taken the forward step of using LSI con- troller circuitry,

STORE/ FACTORY

Contact your computer store or Cromemco factory now about the Z-2D. It's a real workhorse that you can put to professional or OEM use

now.

Kit: Z-2D with 1 disk drive

(Model Z2D-K) $1495.

Assembled: Z-2D fully assembled

and tested (Model Z2D-W) $2095,

Additional disk drive

(Model Z2D-FDD) $495,

SOFTWARE

(On standard JBM-format soft-sectored mini diskettes)

16K BASIC (Model FDB-S) $95

FORTRAN IV (Model FDF-5). ... $95

Z-80 Assembler (Model FDA- 5) $95

Z-2 USERS:

Your Z-2 was designed with the future in mind* It can be easily retrofitted with everything needed to convert to a Z“2D, Only $935 kit; or $1135 for assembled retrofit package.

Cromemco

incorporated Specialists in computers and peripherals 2400 CHARLESTON RD., MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA 94043 • (415) 964-7400 CIRCLE INQUIRY NO. 11

JANUARY 1978

INTERFACE AGE 1

VOL. 3, ISSUE 1

JANUARY 1978

iiuicnr«Lc flue

pu aom #3 Word

COVER STORY

Our cover of the May 1977 issue portrayed the beauty hidden with the skull of the electronic brain. This month our cover displays the esthe- tic quality inherent in good design. The “Writehander™11 was designed from the tech- nological core outward. The visible element is a product of another discipline, human engineering. The natural ar- ticulation of the primate hand determined the hemi- spheric shape. Color and tex- ture of the material chosen determined the artistic ele- ment.

In the background an ASCII encoded QWERTY keyboard is shown in ghostly form to symbolize the former de- sign’s honorable service, now overshadowed by the new generation.

Advertiser index 176

Book Reviews 148

FIFO Flea Market 174

From the Fountainhead ... 46

Hardware Section 100

Interfacial 6

Letters to the Editor 8

Micro-Market 173

New Products 133

Programming the Human

Computer 39

Sense Line 51

Software Section 149

The Jurisprudent

Computehst 32

Update 16

Calendar 24

White Collar

Microcomputer ........ 26

SINCE DECEMBER 1975

iiiiTEnrflLC «5E

MICROCOMPUTING FOR SMALL BUSINESS AND HOME

FEATURES

QWERTY IS OBSOLETE

A NEW DESIGN FOR THE TYPEWRITER by Sid Owen

KEYBOARD

THE WORD PROCESSOR

A PROGRAM TO ASSIST YOU TO WRITE by Ken Knecht

REPORTS, ARTICLES AND LETTERS

MEDICAL ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE PACKAGE MICROBUSINESS II

COMPUTERIZE YOUR PROFESSIONAL by M R. Lockwood, A.$J

PRACTICE AND KEEP TRACK OF YOUR RECEIVABLES WITH THIS SIMPLE SOFTWARE PACKAGE

THE USE OF MICROCOMPUTERS FOR BUSINESS

RISK ANALYSIS 88

BEFORE YOU GO INTO BUSINESS, PLOT OUT by Jon R. Prescott YOUR CHANCES OF SUCCESS WITH THIS PROGRAM

HOWTO BUY AN APARTMENT HOUSE 94

YOUR MICRO CAN HELP YOU TO PLAN YOUR by Richard E. Michels INVESTMENT IN INCOME PROPERTY

HARDWARE FEATURES

CARD OF THE MONTH: CANADA SYSTEMS INC.

CL 2400 REAL TIME CLOCK 100

by Roger Edelson, Hardware Editor

TURNING TOWARD MECA 104

by Car! Denver Warren II

THE GLASS TELETYPE: A FLEXIBLE TELEVISION INTERFACE ...... .113

by Charlie Mitchell, Phil Roybal and Keith Winter

INTERVAL TIMER DESIGN 122

by Darrel J . Van Buer

SOFTWARE FEATURES

SOFTWARE EDITORIAL 149

by A , A. Perez, Software Editor

COM PUTER(ESE) SPEECH WRITER . . ..150

by As hok Nagrani

CROMEMCO DAZZLER GRAPHICS INTERFACE DRIVER 153

by Ray Duncan

TAX CALCULATION PROGRAM 158

by Gary O. Young

THE TAX MAN -GAME 164

by Gary O. Young

CRAZY BALL WITH NORTHSTAR BASIC - GAME 170

by Sy Feierstadt

56

60

80

INTERFACE AGE Magazine, published monthly by McPheters, Wolfe & Jones, 16704 Marquardt Ave., Cerritos, CA 90701. Subscription rates: U.S. $14.00, Canada/Mexico $16.00, aH other countries $24.00. Make checks payable in U.S. funds drawn on a U.S. bank. Opinions expressed In by-lined articles do not necessarily reflect the opinion of this magazine or the publisher. Mention of products by trade name in editorial material or advertisements contained herein in no way constitutes endorsement of the product or products by this magazine or the publisher.

INTERFACE AGE Magazine COPYRIGHT © 1978 by McPheters, Wolfe & Jones, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Material in this publication may not be reproduced in any form without permission. Requests for permission should be directed to Nancy Jones. Rights and Permission, McPheters, Wolfe & Jones, 16704 Marquardt Ave,, Cerritos, CA 90701. INTERFACE AGE Magazine is catalogued in the Library of Congress, Classification No. QA75,5,155. Membership in Audit Bureau of Circulations applied for.

POSTMASTER: Please send change of address form 3579 and undelivered copies to INTERFACE AGE Magazine, 16704 Marquardt Ave.f Cerritos, CA 90701. Second-class postage paid at Artesia, California 90701 and at additional mailing offices,

2 INTERFACE AGE

JANUARY 1978

Welcome to the Real World

with the Real-World Interface from The Digital Group

A computer should have a purpose. Or as many purposes as you can imagine. Because a computer belongs in the real world.

And now, the Digital Group introduces the Real- World Interface. A system component that's actually a system in itself, and specifically designed to help you get your computer to control all those tasks you know a computer can control so well.

Automate your sprinkler system. Heat and cool your home. Guard against burglars. Shut off lights . . . It's all a part of the Real World, easily controlled with the Digital Group Real-World Interface,

Our Real-World Interface is initially made up of three basic components — motherboard and power supply, parallel CPU interface and cabinet — plus three types of plug-ins: AC controller, DC controller and prototyping card. The recommended software packages are Convers, Assembler or Maxi-Basic, in that order.

Some of the features include:

Motherboard & Power Supply

* 12 slots — 11 control cards, one for the interface card

• +5V DC±5% @ 1A, +12V DC ±5% @ 1 A, ~I2V DC ±5% @ 1A contained on board

* May be free-standing (with care)

Parallel CPU Interface

• All buffering for Data Out (25 TTL loads), Address (25 TTL loads) and Data In (10 TTL loads)

• Includes cable and paddlecard for connection to dual 22 on Digital Group CPU back panel. Two 22-pin edge connectors included

• Requires two output ports and one input port

AC Controller

• Eight output devices (2N6342A-2N6343A, -12 amp Triacs); Each output 240V AC max, 12A max RMS

• Control AC motors, lamps, switches, etc,

• Opto-isolated (MCS-2400 or equivalent)

DC Controller

• Eight output devices (2N6055) each output up to 50V and up to 5A

• Control DC motors, switches, solenoids, etc,

• May use internal +12V DC for load or externa! DC up to 50V DC

Price

• For the motherboard and power supply, parallel CPU interface and cabinet, our kit price is only $199.50, or $260 assembled. Now down to earth.

We've only just begun our Real-World Interface

System. There are many more plug-ins and

applications coming along soon. So write or call The

Digital Group now for complete details.

And welcome to our world.

P.O. BOX 6525 DENVER, CO 902 06 (303) 777-7133

JANUARY 1978

CIRCLE INQUIRY NO. 15

interface AGE 3

Buy a dumb terminal the smart way

and save 1/3.

Introducing Dynabyte’s new Naked Terminal:

Buying a dumb terminal used to get pretty expensive - about $ 1 ,000. But that was the old, dumb way. Now there is a new, smart way to add a dumb terminal to your system. Get Dynabyte's new Naked Terminal and add a keyboard and video monitor at a cost of about $650. You save around $350!

The Naked Terminal does all that a dumb terminal does. Some things it does better.

It displays 80 characters per line by 24 lines. And it displays it on any screen size: 9, 12, 15 or whatever size you prefer. The $1,000 one doesn't give you a choice. Both upper and lower case characters are displayed in a 5 x 7 font.

Although you spend less money you get more features: half duplex, full duplex, and a block mode that allows editing before transmission. You-know-who doesn't have a block mode.

The Naked Terminal has addressable cursor. And its display offers you lots of switch-selectable flexibility: black-on-white or white-on-black, blinking or non-blinking underline cursor, and variable baud rates.

No software support is required. The Naked Terminal can be configured by dip switch to drop into an existing system, replacing the serial I/O card and stand-alone terminal without making any changes to software.

The Naked Terminal is a complete dumb terminal on an S-100 board. It contains a microprocessor with its own memory, its own software drivers, and its own internal bus. We built it that way so it won’t take up any of the 64k memory address space of the S-100 bus. Keyboard and video monitor

cables are available at additional cost.

Like all Dynabyte products, the Naked Terminal is completely assembled, socketed, tested and burned in. Dynabyte's guarantee is for a full year - the longest in the industry.

Now isn’t the Naked Terminal a smart buy? Learn more about saving 1/3 on a dumb terminal. Ask your local computer retailer. Or write today to Dynabyte, Inc., 4020 Fabian, Palo Alto, CA 94303.

Telephone {415)494-7817.

CIRCLE INQUIRY NO. 103

' New! 16k' and 32k fully static RAM’s. With either 250 ns. or 450 ns.

typical access time. .Assembled. Tested. Burned in. Guaranteed.

Like our 16k dynamic RAM. Built as solid as the 4,400 year-old pyramids.

Ancient Egyptians didn’t stop with just one pyramid. The Great Pyramid stands on the Plain of Gizeh with two other monuments erected for kings and queens.

Dynabyte didn’t stop with one 1 6k dynamic RAM, either. Now you can get 1 6k and 32k fully static RAM’s that are built with the same unmatched engineering ability and manufacturing skill that went into Egypt’s wonders of the ancient world.

When we say built, we mean completely built. Assembled, tested and burned in. We don’t leave anything undone. That way, you can buy any Dynabyte memory and know that it is backed by a factory guarantee for one full year. Kits and semi-kits can’t say that.

Our 16k static and our 32k static are available with either 250 ns. or 450 ns. access time. Our 250 ns. module is completely compatible with the 4MHz Z-80A processors. The 450 ns. modules are compatible with the 8080 and the faster 3MHz 8085 processors.

The Great 16k Static Memory. 250 ns., $555. 450 ns., $525.

• 4k block addressing along 4k boundaries

• Bank Select

• Write Protect with alarm for each 4k block

• full Schmitt trigger buffering

• No DMA restrictions

• Completes* 100 bus com- patibility, including the Alpha Micro and Z-2.

The Great 32K Static Memory. 250ns., $995,450 ns., $925.

• 4k boundary addressing

• Full Schmitt trigger buffering

• No DMA restrictions

Why Dynabyte doesn’t build memory kits

Assembling a kit can be fun; almost anyone can do it.

But how about testing it? Do you have the test programs and equipment? Do you know which memory test program uncovers pattern sensitivity? Or which finds shorted data bits but won’t find address decoder faults?

We do. It’s our business. We have the 200 MHz oscillo- scopes, the logic analyzers, the burn-in chambers, and the test programs. We find the bugs, even the subtle ones.

Which lets you concentrate on computing.

• Conservative thermal design

» CompleteS-100 compati- bility, including the Alpha Micro and Z-2.

The Great 16k Dynamic Memory. $399.

• Highly cost effective

• No wait states

• Transparent refresh

• 1 6k addressing boundaries

• Widest S- 1 00 mainframe and disk system compatibility

All of Dynabyte’s memories meet rigid industrial grade stand- ards. Design, components, con- struction, testing and perfor- mance. But if a module ever needs repair, we provide factory service with 24 hour turnaround for both warranty and non-warranty work.

Ask for the Great Memories by Dynabyte at your local computer store. You can also pick up com- plete product information while you’re there.

But if you haven’t got a local computer store, write Dynabyte, Inc., 4020 Fabian, Palo Alto, CA 94303. Or telephone (41 5) 494-7817.

Builders of Great Memories

JANUARY 1978

CIRCLE INQUIRY NO. IS

INTERFACE AGE 5

“QWERTY IS OBSOLETE” is not a call to arms against the Flag and the Constitution, but it may be a manifesto against a hallowed tradition of tech- nology, the keyboard that has held our ten fingers in thralldom for so many years- Sid Owen is a man who looked at this ubiquitous design and asked himself, “Do you really need ten fingers?” He then set about to prove that half that number will do. Sid Owen stands out, not for having a successful new product, rather for having dreamed that he could make a change in his world.

Last May Bob Jones, our publisher, and William Turner who has since become our Southeastern Regional Editor, made a change in our world of publishing computer information when they launched THE FLOPPY ROM™ EXPERIMENT, a plastic platter bound into the magazine engraved with a 4K BASIC interpreter program. The experiment was repeated in the September issue with the platter containing Bud Shamburger's GENERAL LEDGER PACKAGE, This third event can no longer be called an experiment, rather a viable publishing practice. The FLOPPY ROM™ contains the software of WORD PROCESSOR PROGRAM by Ken Knecht. This is the third in a pro- jected series of useful material planned by INTERFACE AGE in the next years*

Good software, however, without good hardware is as limited as a Shake- spearean actor with permanent laryngitis, Carl Denver Warren II authors a descriptive article on a high speed cassette system called the MECAdrive and Roger Edelson shows you how to tell time with your computer in his CARD OF THE MONTH feature, CL 24 REAL TIME CLOCK. Three engineers from National Semiconductor Corporation pooled their talents to author THE GLASS TELETYPE, a device which enables the microcomputer user to use a television set or video monitor as an output device. This inexpensive system coupled with a readily available switch matrix or encoded keyboard for input, provides a complete terminal far below standard peripheral cost.

Also of value to the homebrew user with limited funds is a hardware clock* Darrel van Buer describes his INTERVAL TIMER DESIGN.

Our book selections this month also are of interest to the hardware builder. In this issue’s reviews you will see how Capt Judith Scoiney (Robertson), LLS.A.F, (Ret.) did not win her commission entirely by being harmless. In the course of last year we have been silent about our book reviewers, Larry and Judy. At regular intervals we hand them stacks of books, catalogs and diverse printed matter and expect them to spend their spare time reading and evaluating this output from the printing presses, then at our press deadlines we dun them for manuscripts. In this first issue of 1978, we want to take the opportunity in the name of our readers to say “thanks” and wish this brilliant couple and their gifted daughter a fulfilling yean

Along with our standing lineup of columnists, a new name appears, James S* White. Jim will inform you on developments in microcomputing for small businesses.

Putting out a broad-spectrum computer magazine is like pulling a dogsled with a fan hitch. The editors come from various walks of life, portray diverse viewpoints and each applies traction at his own slant. When Ashok Nagrani’s article COMPUTERIZED SPEECH WRITER arrived here, its con- tent elicited chuckles from some of the staff and less than favorable com- ments from others. My vote for acceptance won out by a slim margin and I planted the article into Abe Perez1 section. I did it and am glad — and many of you will probably chuckle with me. Others of you may be tempted to pen irate letters accusing the author and the magazine of making a mockery of report writing. So be it; this aspect should be told, and if it hits a sore nerve, first wonder why the spot is so raw, then if you are still angry, do us the favor to aim the darts at me. I am responsible.

—Linda Folkard-Stengel

iru7Enrfl~E «5E

13913 Artesia Boulevard Cerritos, CA 90701 (213) 926-6629

PUBLISHER * EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

ROBERT S, JONES

EXECUTIVE PUBLISHER

NANCY A. JONES

GENERAL MANAGER

EVA YAKA

FEATURE EDITOR

LINDA FOLKARD-STENGEL

NORTHWESTERN REGIONAL EDITOR

ADAM OSBORNE, PhD

NORTHEASTERN regional editor

ROGER C. GARRETT

SOUTHEASTERN REGIONAL EDITOR

WILLIAM TURNER, WB4ALM

SOFTWARE EDITOR

ABRAHAM A. PEREZ

HARDWARE EDITOR

ROGER EDELSON

CONTRIBUTING BUSINESS EDITOR

BUD SHAMBURGER

PRODUCTION LAYOUT EDITOR

MIKE ANTICH

ART

MERRILYN JOYCE MARGARET FEN STERM AKER

PRODUCTION AGISTS

KATHY ROBERTSON DONNA YOSHIOKA SAY OK O TAN1SAKI

SUBSCRIPTION CIRCULATION

JO ANN FERGUSON

TYPOGRAPHER

MELODY A. MARTENS

Editorial Correspondence

Direct all correspondence to ihe appropriate editor ai: INTERFACE AGE Magazine, P.O. Box 1234, Cerrilos, CA 90701.

#

NATIONAL SALES MANAGER

BRUCE BERKEY

AD V ERTI S I NG- Re pre sen I ai i ves

ALLEN BROWNE-ZACH BOVINETTE

Advertising Inquiries

Direct all advertising inquiries Co: Advertising Depi,. INTERFACE AGE Magajine, 61 South Lake Avenue, P.O. Box 456ft, Pasadena, CA 91106- (213* 795-7002,

DOMESTIC RETAIL CIRCULATION

ZACH BOVINETTE

{213) 796 7002

JAPAN CIRCULATION KAZUHIKO NISH I

ASCII Publishing - 305 HI TORIQ 5 '6-4 Minami Aoyama.

Minaio-ltu. Tokyo 107 Japan Telephone: {03) 407-4910

UNITED KINGDOM CIRCULATION VINCENT COEN

L.P. Enterprise. 313 Kingston Road.

I Hurd, Essex, England IGIIPJ.

Telephone: 01-553-1001

WESTERN CANADA CIRCULATION BRIAN I.J. WIEBE

Kiironic, 2523ft 26th Avenue RR5 Aidergrdve, BC VOX 1A0 Telephone: (604) 856-2301

EASTERN CANADA CIRCULATION

LIZ JANEK

HS-232, Lid., 1SB Queen Street Wesl,

Toronto. Ontario M5V l£l Telephone: (426) 5980206

AUSTRALIA CIRCULATION n. J, HOESS

Electronic Concepts Pty. Ltd,

52-50 Clarence Street, Sydney NSW 2000 Telephone: 29-3753

MEMBER OF THE WESTERN PUBLISHERS ASSOCIATION

AMERICAN SOCIETY OF BUSINESS PRESS EDITORS

6 INTERFACE AGE

JANUARY 1978

When you put it together, it's really together.

Some people build personal computers for the love of building. The Equinox System ™ is for people who build for the love of computing.

You put it together. And it's really together.

The Equinox 100™ mainframe combines the 8080A CPU with a front panel program-

ming station featuring ultra-convenient octal keyboard and digital LED readout.

CIRCLE INQUIRY NO. 40

There are low-cost 4K and 8K memories. All your interfacing comes in one kit. Even EQU/ATE™and BASIC-EQ™ languages on easy-loading cassettes.

It's all together now. It's all S-100 compatible. And it's upward-compatible with new Equinox™ equipment, software and systems coming in the months ahead.

See the Equinox System™ at your local computer shop. Call toll-free to 800-648-5311 (BAC/MC accepted). Or write Equinox Division, Parasitic Engineering, P.O. Box 6314, Albany, California 94706. THE EQUINOX SYSTEM™ All together now.

ASTRONOMY SPECIAL

Dear Editor:

Your Astronomy/Astrophysics issue has set another new high. It re- called to mind a mixture of space and computer technology which first occurred to me some years ago. What if — we build a spaceship con- taining a self-maintaining super- computer and launched this vessel on a path through space-time such that the vessel would experience a time expansion of 11:1 (say 10000:1). It would return to Earth after the passage of only 5 years’ earth time but would itself be 50,000 years older (and wiser). The machine would be equipped with a great Knowledge base and would be assigned the task of finding the cure for aging, the Holy Grail, etc. 1 suspect that a trajectory through space time with the required attri- butes could be found, but I am not sure how to do it.

It may not be possible for many years to build a ship capable of at- taining the required velocity and energy level. Since the vessel would be unmanned, It does not need to be a physical spaceship. Our computers in a sense are not physical devices but rather highly complex, rapidly changing, and self-modifying fields of electromagnetic energy. Can we separate the field from the physical computer in order to transmit intact field through space? The semicon- ductors (FETs) and wires of today’s computers serve to contain and guide the field. Can the containment func- tion be performed by the field itself, can an electromagnetic wave emulate a semiconductor as well as a wire? Such a computer would be a true electronic device! It might in fact be an “electronic consciousness vehicle” such as can be found in the literature of mysticism, assuming computers can be “conscious,”

A near term application which I have in mind for my 8080 system is to use it as a lie detector. A com- pany in Springfield, Virginia is mar- keting a device for psychological stress evaluation based on the prin- ciple that “micro tremors” in the human voice are suppressed when a person is under stress such as that associated with fear of being caught

lying. These micro tremors are a fre- quency modulation of the voice sig- nal at 8 to 14 Hz. The voice signal would be digitized using an A-D con- verter or Speechlab type device. I know how to detect FM when the modulated signal is a simple sine wave using either common radio cir- cuits or a Fourier Analysis program but when the signal being modulated is complex such as a voice, I run into problems. Could any of your readers suggest a program, algorithm or cir- cuit capable of separating these two signals, the voice and the micro- tremor FM?

P.S. I think a truth detector program wou Id make a super software art icle. If you agree, I’d be glad to send you copies of the literature which I have on the subject.

James R. Tyron 5340 Holmes Run Pkwy., #1504 Alexandria, VA 22304

Thanks for the compliment on the August Issue. Your work on lie de- tecting sounds as if it would make good reading. Send it in and share your ideas with other readers.

— Editor

Dear Editor:

The program on “Computing the Positions and Orbits of the Planets" was truly most interesting. However, I found a drawback. People using a SWTPC 6800 and Robert Uiterwyk's 8K BASIC will have a long time to wait for results from lines 400 up to 485. I myself found that it took al- most 32 minutes to get the number of degrees for Venus. Being a 6800 owner with the 8K BASIC I knew there had to be a way of speeding up the process with as little error as possible. I found out how and now it takes only a few minutes and the er- ror in my opinion is acceptable.

Below is the patch for line 430 to speed up the mathematical process,

430 X = X+ 0.017453925 - 8. 726646 24 5 £-03

Using the above formula intro- duces a slight error. My findings were from 0.05 degrees up to a max- imum of 0.36 degrees. If the user can tolerate such an error the person will find that the process is speeded up by about 20 minutes in most cases. The formula has been tried

for most of the planets on the chart at various dates. I hope readers will find it useful and would be inter- ested if someone has even a faster way with less error. Anyway it is a starting point.

Dennis W. Tracy 151 Gemini Avenue Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada R2G 0T7

Dear Editor:

I read, with interest, Ed Keith’s ar- ticle entitled “A Better 6800 Memory Test — Memtest” in the July 1977 issue of INTERFACE AGE. Mr. Keith has done an admirable job in pro- gramming a solution to his problem — namely a more complete memory test than that produced by Robit-1. However, it seems to me that there is one tiny flaw in Mr. Keith’s approach. Since every 100th position of mem- ory is loaded with the same data dur- ing Phase 1 of Memtest, Phase 2 would be unable to detect a short that occurred between two memory positions 100 addresses apart.

Such a situation as described in the previous paragraph could, theo- retically at least, occur. If one or several such shorts happened, the shorted memory positions would re- spond to more than one address, but Memtest would be unable to detect it because it would load like data In- to these locations. Despite the short, no alteration in the expected pattern would occur.

if a memory had all of its locations wired (or shorted) to all other loca- tions that were a multiple of 100 ad- dresses away from it, it would cer- tainly be unusable. However, a tool other than Memtest would be required to diagnose the problem correctly.

Kenneth C. Service Exton, PA

Dear Editor:

While I feel that the article “The Remotoid/Android Project" by Roger Garrett, In April 1977 INTER- FACE AGE, was adequate in most respects, there are a couple of points I would like to make.

First, the principal components of muscle tissue, actin and myosin, have been known for quite a few years; they aggregate when mixed to

8 INTERFACE AGE

JANUARY 1978

form fibers of acti nomyosin, which contract upon exposure to ATP, which acts as an energy source. As far as I am aware, this system has never been put to any practical use (i.e. locomotion) by any other than living organisms.

The other dubious aspect of this article is the idea of using a pluton- ium PN junction sandwich for a power cell. There are several obvious defects to this approach. 1) Pluton- ium emits not only gamma radiation, but also neutrons due to spontane- ous fission. 2) The combination of plutonium and the so-called "inert material” — obviously intended to be a plastic, from the drawing — serve to turn S.F. neutrons into ther- mal neutrons within the package. 3) The silicon itself can be transmitted into phosphorus; this affect is the basis for the so-called “neutron dop- ing” in semiconductor silicon. 4) If the P-type dopant is boron, which has a thermal neutron capture cross- section orders of magnitude larger than almost anything in the package except plutonium, it will serve as a neutron “sink." 5) Care should be taken to avoid assembling a "critical mass” of plutonium; this is made dif- ficult because (a) thermal neutrons are not retained within the package, and (b) a high density of these units would seem to be required for ade- quate power generation. 6) Even in the event that a plastic package is not used, this probably means a glass-ceramic package, which might entail high temperature sealing; care should be taken to avoid too high a heat, for plutonium has seven crys- talline allotropes — each with a dif- ferent density. This effect alone might cause intolerable stress with- in the package. (Obviously the engi- neering problems are substantial either way you go — which is not to say that it couldn't be done, but just not in so simple a manner.)

I suppose the point I'm trying to make is that when someone writes an S.F. piece for your magazine, he should check his science a little, or even collaborate on points he’s not sure of, because even though a ma- jority of your readers (myself in- cluded) know just a little about com- puters, it is invalid to assume that,

because of that, we are also scienti- fic illiterates.

Keep up the good work!

Glen Lewis Garland, Texas We have received feedback from a

great number of people on this arti- cle. Each reader who called or wrote had a very personal and unique re- sponse to it. Not all were favorable, some calls were even abusive, but most described themselves as hav-

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CIRCLE INQUIRY NO. 20

INTERFACE AGE 9

JANUARY 1978

ing been "entertained" or even "inspired." — Editor

Dear Editor:

l have received my first copy of IN- TERFACE AGE Magazine. I just be- come interested in computers about a year ago. You have some very inter- esting articles including "A Byte of Music" by Christopher Smith. My first computer project was the Cosmac RCA 1802. The "Byte of Music" was a very well thought-out article. Keep the articles concerning the RCA 1802 going, especially the programs. Is there any source where you can obtain these programs for the 1802?

Andy Brewer 4917 Monte Vista Dr.

Knoxville, TN 37914

We are publishing Mr. Brewer's com - plete address to facilitate his search for information. —Editor

Dear Editor;

I was pleased to see a program-

mable calculator program even though it is not one I have use for. If you have any others in back issues I’d by happy to receive them. Espe- cially any for Texas Instruments SR52 and TI59, Such in the future will also interest me.

Regarding computers, I’m a by- stander, waiting, watching. My one- man business doesn’t have $8K for an adequate computer now, but, like calculators’ prices, may improve in time. Your magazine looks pretty good. I'll read, learn and keep posted. I like your cover story.

Tom Swaienberg Columbus, OH

We plan to run one PPC story per issue as soon as article contribu- tions make it feasible. — Editor

BYTE OF MUSIC

Dear Editor:

I read Christopher Smith’s article in the November issue of INTER- FACE AGE Magazine and was im-

pressed by the use of the computer as a transcriber of music. I have heard the RF energy picked up by a portable radio placed on top of a large business computer but he has actually tuned the computer to per- form a melody . . .

I am planning to buy a microcom- puter for my son this Christmas. After looking at many of the sys- tems available, the RCA COSMAC VIP kit seems to be the best buy for the hardware received. On top of that he’ll get twenty games already programmed for him to start to use it.

My only reservation is what else can the COSMAC system provide after the novelty of the games has worn off. Programming in actual machine language is a tedious task and may discourage him from using it. I’m assuming that you have in- vestigated the sources of software for the 1802. Do you know of anyone who has or is planning to write a BASIC for the 1802? Are you familiar with clubs that have been formed to

• S-100 Bus Interface

• RPN Stack Microprocessor (Not a calculator chip)

• Four register stack

• 512 Byte RAM

256 bytes program storage 256 bytes in 16 x 12 registers

• 250 nanosecond memory speed (Z-80)

• Floating point scientific notation

• Trigonometric functions

• Sin, Cos, SORT, SQ, LOG, and more

• Variable 1 to 8 digit mantissa

• More than 70 micro encoded instruction sets

• Speed up execution by parallel processing

• Hard or soft interrupts

• Assembled and tested

• Manual included

INTRODUCING THE NUMBER CRUNCHER

A High Speed, Low Cost Mathematical Task Processor

Simple to add to your Z-80, 8080, 6800, or 6502

Here’s a powerful addition to your microcomputer. Performs complex mathematical calculations. Up to 16 registers to handle large, multiple problems. Gives you a task processing capability that runs simultaneously with your microcomputer. Control and debugging are handled through your microcomputer. You always have control. You can stop, start, examine programs while it is running. Add the Number Cruncher to your system and you’ll have a powerful two processor system,

CT200 Number Cruncher— $249.00

(Add $2.50 per unit for shipping and handling)

Assembled and tested, includes manual.

Se/id cftedf or money order to.

(Calif, residents add 6% sates tax)

P. O. Box 417

Huntington Beach, CA 92648 (714) 638-2094

Maslerctiarge and Visa [BankAmericard] accepted. Dealer Inquiries Invited

10 INTERFACE AGE

CIRCLE INQUIRY NO. 10

JANUARY 1978

Computer Mainframe System

First in the TEI family . . . The MCS-112 and 122 Mainframe Systems.

“The Base on Which to Build”

The cabinet

A heavy duty precision formed cabinet of fine craftsmanship. Completely machined and ready for assembly The exterior is fin- ished in TEI blue. Vented for most efficient thermal character- istics. Furnished with all necessary hardware

Edge connectors

High quality edge connectors fe^oty mounted and wave sotdefed to eliminate thrs nuisance for you. Completely checked out for shorts or open traces. ALL edge connectors furnished, 12 for the MCS-112 and 22 for the Mt$-T22.lMo additional expense when you expand your system.

The power supply

One of a kind . . using a constant voltage transformer CCVT) with a very high immunity to input line noise . . greater than 100 db rejection. Line regulation better than ± 1% from an input of 95 to 140 Vdt AC at full load to 85 to 140 Volt AC at three quarter load. Designed to meet UL-478 specifications (EDP SPECS). Individual fusing on alt input and output voltage lines. See specifications beiow for power ratings.

coding system

A 115 CFM muffin fan with a commercial grade washable filter will provide clean airflow over all circuitry

The wiring

All wiring is color coded and ALL is pfeeut to length with connecting lugs factory machine applied

HOW ... TEI puts It all together for you* Mainframe

systems C 12 and 22-slot) . . . Floppy and mini-floppy disc drive systems (single, double and triple) 16K RAM ... a Z-80 CPU with addressable 'jump to" and autostart capability ... 16 Channel A/D and D/A converter ... 3 serial + 3 parallel multiple I/O ... . and other supporting boards . . and our newest item, the PROCESSOR TERMINAL — A CRT keyboard, mini -floppy disc and 12 -slot mainframe with a 8080A CPU - all housed in one quality aluminum case. Ail of these fine products at prices you will like Watch for them all.

The motherboard

An S-1QQ Bus system high quality mother board with 100-pin edge connectors. Compatible with IMSAI, MITS, CfcOMEMCQ, TDL and other S-100 bus configured circuit boards. Plug connections for reset switch. VbHage terminals are screw type to power supply leads Ail card guides are provided 12 slots for MCS-112 model and 22 slots for MC5-122 model

Dimensions 1 7V* W x 12 D x 7 y« H 1 7 y. w x 1 9Vi Dx7lAH

Power 4-8 vplt DC 17 amps 30 amps

Power ± 16 vdt DC 2 amps 4 amps

S peel fications MCS - 1 12 MCS- 1 22

The front panel

The front panel is blank except for an indicating AC switch and a reset switch.

However, the chassis and mother board are designed so that you may remove the front panel and tnsert an IMSAI or equivalent .front panel

SPECIAL SYSTEMS GROUP

MCS

MICROCOMPUTER SYSTEM

Contact your local TEI Dealer or if you are not near one of our dealers, write or call CMC Marketins Corp direct for more information,

CMC MARKETING CORP

5601 Bintliff Suite 515 • Houston, Texas 77036 • Phone: (713) 783-8880

JANUARY 1978

CIRCLE INQUIRY NO. 7

INTERFACE AGE 11

CHEAPER BY THE BYTE

The Dual Digital Cassette Storage System Only $585. Only from Peripheral Vision

For the first time ever there's an inexpensive, reliable system for mass data storage. Peripheral Vision introduces the Phi-Deck Cassette Storage System for the S-100 Bus. For only $585,

That's right, $585. That gets you two Phi-Decks, controller card kit and power supply. Which means you get more bytes per buck. Take a look.

The features:

• Controller card supporting mutiple drives

• Computer-controlled operating system — an 8080 version of PhiMon

• Large data capacity:

254.000 8-bit bytes on C-30 cassettes

508.000 8-bit bytes on C-60 cassettes

• Software error rate less than 1 bit in 10*

What our system allows you:

• Indexed software controlled program file

• Indexed random retrieval

• Multipass compilers

• Duplication and backup of important data

• Large data files — lists, names, business accounts

• System residence

What our software operating system offers:

• 8080-based design

• Cyclic redundancy check (CRC) error detection

• System retries after soft errors

• Automatically bypasses hard errors

• Block size from 1 to 256 bytes

• Phi Deck Monitor Operating System

How to get connected:

With Peripheral Vision's new four-port I/O board. It's another one of our bargains. Only $85. To save you bucks.

We've only given you a glimpse of our exciting new cassette storage system and the four-port I/O board. For more details, just fill in the coupon below. For cheap little bytes.

O.K., I'll byte! Send me details on your cheaper way to store data and get it connected!

Name

Address

City/State/Zip

12 INTERFACE AGE

CIRCLE INQUIRY NO. 42

JANUARY 1978

expand the hardware and software capabilities of the 1802 system?

My original idea was to build an 8080 kit and expand the memory, in- terfaces and I/O as time and funds permitted, but it seems that when all is considered the 8080 system will cost much more than an equivalent 1801 package. Will you please tell me why he decided on the RCA 1802 and what advantages he sees it has over the 8080a or the 280 system?

Richard Nicewicz W. Babylon, NY

The letter was addressed to Mr. Smith. We sent him a copy for per- sonal reply and re-edited the test in- to the third person when Mr. Smith’s reply did not arrive in time for press date. —Editor

SOLUTION TO THE NOVEMBER COVER

Dear Editor:

The letter (November issue, pg. 45) is an ‘R.1 An integrated overview is shown in Figure 1 below, with num- bering to correspond with that of Figure 4 in November. Note that from the viewpoint v shown, the let- ter just might be a weird ‘K,’ as shown in Figure 2. However, one other viewpoint v', as labeled in Figure 1, is sufficient to distinguish

P.S. The “clue” on the cover of November is, of course, that the bald point-human is in an 'R.‘ Incidentally, the word “RAM” was chosen for the cover because (1) it begins with an

DATALYZER ... a 24 channel Logic Analyzer for your S100 Bus

24 Channel LOGIC ANALYZER, complete with 2 cards and 3 sets of probes.

Features

— 24 channels with 256 samples each.

— Display of disassembled program flow.

— Dual mode operation — external mode analyses any external logic system. Internal mode monitors users data and address bus.

- Selectable trigger point anywhere in the 256 samples.

— 0-16 bit trigger word format or external qualifier.

- 8MHz sample rate

- Synchronous clock sample with coincident or delayed clock mode.

- User defined reference memory,

- Displays and system control through keyboard entry.

— TTL Logic level compatible (15 pf and 15 pa typical Input loading.)

Displays in Binary Displays in Hex Display of disassembled

program flow.

The DATALYZER

Designed to plug easily into your S-10Q Bus, the DATALYZER is a complete system - — for only S495. Display of disassembled program flow is a standard feature, not an extra. And the low price includes 30 logic probes, so you can hook up immediately, without additional expense.

The DATALYZER is available in kit form ($495), and as a fully assembled device on two RGB's ($595). Operators' manual $7,50 . A substantial warranty, and the Databyte, Inc. commitment to service make the DATALYZER a worthwhile investment.

Databyte, Inc.

7433 Hubbard Avenue Middleton, Wisconsin 53562 Tel: (608) 831 7666

JANUARY 1978

CIRCLE INQUIRY NO. 12

INTERFACE AGE 13

APPLICATION

SOFTWARE

NATIONAL SOFTWARE EXCHANGE, INC. maintains a national registry of programs that are for sale. Also, we publish and sell six special interest software catalogs describing those pro- grams along with prices.

Scientific and Engineering Personal and Hobby

Professional

Satisfaction Guaranteed

Business Games Systems

Reasonable Prices

If you have programs you would like to buy or if you have some to sell. Contact your local computer store or

WRITE OR CALL

NATIONAL SOFTWARE EXCHANGE, INC.

1000 Lake Saint Louis Blvd.

Suite 248

Lake Saint Louis, Missouri 63367 (314) 625-2400

CIRCLE INQUIRY NO. 35

'FT (a letter which has both straight and curved portions, plus a “hole”), (2) “RAM” has significance as a computer acronym, and (3) I am a bald Aries.

Ellis Cooper

Dear Editor:

Many thanks for your kind review of “I’m Madly in Love with Electric- ity.” We have been tremendously pleased with the number of mail re- quests received from around the country, and almost all of this is due to people like yourself who have publicized it in journals.

On behalf of all of us who worked on the booklet, thank you!

Nancy Kreinberg University of California Lawrence Hall of Science Berkeley, CA 94720 We are a young publication in a young field and are dedicated to the belief that the computer is totally gender-blind. We are seeking ar- ticles from women computerists. Our goal is a 50% mix. — Editor

Branched to Page 49

WE HAVE IT

The advanced experimenter now has the opportunity to use the same reliable mechanism the quality printing industry has used for many years — the IBM Selectric® typewriter. Our low cost conversion kits are designed around specially built com- ponents, and available to the engineer, student, educator, and small businessman.

MECHANISM IN SKn KITS

Item Description Price

SK-1 Selectric conversion kit, with all mechanical 1 89.95 and electronic parts. Needs 1 amp at 12 volts.

SK-2 SK-1 with combined power supply and TTL 321.95 compatibility.

SK-3 SK-2 with controller kit giving ASCII data at 598.95 110 or 300 BPS. A high speed paper tape interface capability is included.

DK-1 Floppy disk and controller kit, with 250 KB 1095.00 drive. For use with SK-3, or any serial interface, up to 19200 BPS. Contains high level DOS, with simple commands making any terminal a smart one or any serial CPU a disk system.

Kits shipped 10 days — two weeks after receipt of order. Disk kits take longer. Manuals from above kits are offered for the purpose of evaluating the kits. Refunds for manuals apply on subsequent kit order.

SK-D1	Selectric Conversion Manual	6.50
SK-D-2	Selectric Programming Manual with listings and timing data.	6.50
DK-D1	Floppy Disk Kit and DOS Manual.	6.50

Please include UPS shipping rates.

Sliarp & Associates Inc.

Box 26045, Lakewood, Colorado 80226

14 INTERFACE AGE

CIRCLE INQUIRY NO. 47

JANUARY 1978

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JANUARY 1978

CIRCLE INQUIRY NO. 49

INTERFACE AGE 15

MACBETH COLOR COURSE

Practical application of new color technologies is the subject of an in* novative series of training courses being offered this year by Macbeth, a division of the Kollmorgen Corp,

The one-week courses make avail- able to those taking them the con- siderable expertise of both Macbeth and M unsell Color, an integral part of the Macbeth Division and long recognized as a leader in the color field.

The format of the course will underscore practical application of colorant formulation theory. Includ- ed in the course are discussions of methods to describe and measure color; color differences, specifica- tions and tolerances; theories and how to apply them; and the applica- tion of instrumental techniques.

The basic information is presented in such a manner that each student can perform actual color matching experiments, with daily sessions scheduled to be segmented be- tween lecture and lab work.

Courses are scheduled at both Newburgh, N*Y< and Tatamy, PA, for the weeks of February 20, May 15, September 18, and December 4, Cost of the course is $350 and in- cludes textbooks, all necessary sup- plies, reference material, lunches and an evening banquet.

For more information, contact either Dr, J,G* Davidson, Macbeth, Little Britain Rd.t Drawer 950, New- burgh, N.Y. 12550, (914) 561*7300 or H*R< Davidson, P.O. Box 157, Tatamy, PA 18055, (215) 252-2120.

PERCOMP 78

Eight free seminars, tutorials and demonstrations are scheduled for PERCOMP 78, April 28-30 at the Long Beach Convention Center, Long Beach, California

The papers run the gamut from the very basic to the super sophisti- cated, and also encompass the lighter aspects of computer games, music and household use.

Included are the following presen- tations: "Marketing for the New Manufacturer," David Ahl, Creative Computing; "Three Dimensional Microcomputer Graphics," Bruce Artwick, Sublogic; "6530 Timer Pro- gramming," Arthur Stoll, Rockwell International; "Human Factors in Software Design," Jack Emmerichs, A.O* Smith; "Computer Games," James Butterfield, author of The First Book of KIM ; "Getting Started in Microcomputers," Louis Fields, president, International Computer

Society/SCCS; "The 'Jogger' Micro- processor Communication Bus,” Dr. Keith L* Dotty, University of Florida.

Dr. Portia Isaacson, chairperson for the ACM Personal Computing Group, will conduct a session for retailers, while attorneys Leonard Tachner and Kenneth Widelitz will take computer enthusiasts through thelabyrinth of tax benefits, patents and copyrights*

Carol Ogdin, Software Technique, Inc*, will deliver the keynote ad-

<P

dress. She will address the subject of proven home applications of the computer

For further information, write PERCOMP 78, 1833 E* 17 St,, Santa Ana, CA 92701.

CALL FOR PAPERS

A Call for Papers has been issued for the International Microcomput- ers Minicomputers Microprocessors 78 Conference to be held June 20-22, 1978 at the Palais des Exposi-

dilithium Press 30 NW 23rd Place P.O. Box 10766 Portland, OR 92710

SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL

COMPUTER STORE

We could have run an ad that said “buy your books directly from us” but that’s not to your advantage. If you look at our books at a computer store you can decide which ones meet your needs. We know that you will decide on two or three and actually use them. That’s our goal, use! The more you know about micro- computers the more you’ll want to know and that is good for you, for your local computer store and for us. If you don’t know the name of your local computer store, send us your name and address. We’ll tell them your name and we’ll tell you their name. Once you two get together, be sure to look at some of the books on the next page.

16 INTERFACE AGE

JANUARY 1978

tion in Geneva, Switzerland. The subject matter includes Microcom- puter Technology, Software Develop- ment Systems and Tools, Advances in Software Technology, Peripherals for Minicomptuers and Microcom- puters, industrial Control and Automation Applications, Small Business Systems, Military/Aero- space Applications, Communica- tions Applications of Microcom- puters and LSI Devices, Personal Computing, Testing and Standardi-

zation, Multiprocessing/Instrumen- tation Applications of Micropro- cessors.

Abstract due date is February 15, 1978- Announcement of selected papers will be made on or about March 1, 1978. A Proceedings will be published. For further information contact Dr, Fred L, Morritz, V.P., Technical Programs, Industrial & Scientific Conference Management, Inc., 222 W. Adams St., Chicago, IL 60606, (312) 2634866.

ISRATECH 70

American executives visiting Isra- Tech 78 will meet in Israel with the Minister of Industry, Commerce and Tourists and with the Mayor of Jeru- salem as part of the schedule of events announced by the Govern- ment of Israel Economic Offices.

IsraTech 78, an exposition of Israel’s rapidly growing high tech- nology industries, is scheduled for June 4th to 8th, 1978 in Jerusalem. It will be the most significant econom- ic event of Israel's thirtieth anni- versary.

In addition to meeting with Minis- ter Hurvitzand Mayor Kollek, attend- ing executives will meet with Israel’s manufacturers and government rep- resentatives to discuss a vast num* ber of business opportunities in Israel, such as buying, selling, in- vesting and licensing. Executives will also attend an International Meeting of the Metalworking and Professional Electronics Commit- tee, will tour industrial plants and research and development facilities, and will be guests at official ban- quets and receptions.

While attending a modern exposi- tion, executives and their families will also be able to visit the sites of one of the world's most historic cities. The program for IsraTech 78 will include tours of the Israel Museum, cultural evenings, and a special program designed for ac- companying persons.

Hundreds of American business- men are expected to attend IsraTech 78, which will provide them with broad exposure to Israel's high tech- nology industries. The industries that will be exhibiting will include: metal processing, equipment and machinery manufacturing, electrical systems and parts, systems and components, electronics, compu- ters, instrumentation, aerospace and military applications.

The metal and electronics indus- tries, government sources projected, will have enjoyed a five fold export growth between 1972 and 1978, from $115 million to $580 million.

At the exhibition visiting execu- tives will also have an opportunity to discuss with their Israel counter- parts and with representatives of the Government the unique advantages Israel offers potential foreign inves- tors. Among these benefits are:

* Common Market agreement pro- viding duty-free entry to the 270 million person Common Market by manufacturing for export in Israel.

THE

ANSWER BOOKS FOR HOME COMPUTER HOBBYISTS—

HOME COMPUTERS: 210 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

by Rich Didday Volume 1: Hardware This book is for the person with a micro-computer who wants to get an idea of what it can be like to use it to the fullest. $7.95 77

Volume 2: Software A companion volume to the above book, this guide leads the new micro owner through the thorny problems surround- ing the selection and use of software. $6.95 77

STEP BY STEP INTRODUCTION TO 8080 MICROPROCESSOR SYSTEMS

by David Cohn and James Melsa This is a more advanced book which will show you how to put together what you've learned to build systems and applications that really exploit the capabili- ties of your micro. $7.95 77

HOME COMPUTERS: A BEGINNER'S GLOSSARY AND GUIDE

by Merl Miller and Charles Sippl This book provides the funda- mental knowledge and skills for the new micro owner. Written in a lively and straightforard style, it takes the mystery out of the basic mathematical and logical principles involved in working with computers. $6.95 77

TAKE A CHANCE WITH YOUR CALCULATOR

by Lennart Rade This book was written to help you discover the word of prob- ability with your programmable calculator. You will need no previous experience either in probability theory or in pro- gramming to learn both from this book. It is self-paced so that you can teach yourself the variety of games and applica- tions it includes. $6.95 77

INTRODUCTION TO BASIC

by Jeffery B. Morton An introductory BASIC that covers all the topics in simple, easy-to-understand language. Nothing is left out, everything is presented in clear, step-by- step fashion. This book will make a good BASIC program- mer of any reader, $8.95

BEGINNING BASIC

by Paul Chirlian Designed for the person who has essentially no experience with computers or computer programming, this book is both elementary— so that you can fol- low it easily, and complete — so that you will become familiar with all aspects of BASIC. $9.95

<P

Prices subject to change without notice.

dilithium Press 30 NW 23rd Place P.O. Box 10766 Portland, OR 97210

Publishing personal computing books is our business!

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JANUARY 7978

CIRCLE INQUIRY NO. 17

INTERFACE AGE 17

• Israel enjoys the Generalized System of Preferences by which 2,700 Israel-made product cate- gories can be imported to the U.S. duty-free.

• U.S. companies wilt be exempt from double taxation on profits earned in Israel under a soon to be ratified, and already signed, tax treaty.

• Israel offers a generous package of financial and operating incen- tives to encourage U.S. compan- ies to locate production facili- ties there, including financing most of the fixed assets and working capital needed.

■ Israel actively supports indus- trial research and development activities with grants of 50% of R&D costs; moreover, Israel and the U.S. recently established the Binational Industrial Re- search and Development Foun- dation, which has been allo- cated $60 million to fund joint R&D projects.

For further information contact the Government of Israel Investment Authority, 641 Lexington Ave., New York, N.Y. 10022, (212) 486-8530.

LOGICAL MACHINE CORPORATION ACQUIRES BYTE, INCORPORATED

Logical Machine Corporation, manufacturer of the ADAM business computer, announces the acquisi- tion of Byte, Incorporated of Sunny- vale, California as a wholly-owned but independent subsidiary. Found- ed two years ago as a retail store in nearby Mountain View, California, the original Byte Shop sold micro- processing equipment and literature to hobbyists. Byte, Incorporated evolved from this single shop and now has a network of approximately sixty independent dealerships throughout the country. Each store uses the name Byte Shop™, a recog- nized trademark. Byte, Incorporated, in order to stay on top of a dynamic market, will continue to expand in the business, home and personal computer markets.

Byte, Incorporated is currently composed of two primary divisions: distribution and manufacturing. The distribution division supplies the Byte Shops with periodicals, man- uals, microprocessors, and other computing equipment. The manu- facturing division produces a micro- processor which is sold as an inte- grated system through the Byte Shops.

NEW COMPUTER STORES

"Home Computer Centers” are now open in Virginia Beach and Newport News, Cirginia. These are full sen/ice microcomputer stores catering to hobbyist, homeowner, schools, business, and industry. Nearly 60 years of professional ex- perience in the computer field are brought together in this enterprise. Three man-years of research insure a knowledgeable and dependable solution to each requirement. Pro- duct lines include: Apple II, Proces- sor Technology, Vector Graphic, PolyMorphic Systems, Technical Design Labs, Dec and Tl terminals, parts, books and magazines. Soft- ware, consultation and service are also available. The addresses are: Home Computer Center, 2927 Vir- ginia Beach Btvd., Virginia Beach, VA 23452, (804) 340-1977. Home Computer Center, 12588 Warwick Blvd., Newport News, VA 23606, (804) 595-1955.

COURSE IN DIGITAL ELECTRONICS & MICROCOMPUTER INTERFACING

Virginia Military Institute will con- duct a two-week course in digital electronics and microcomputer inter- facing from July 17 through July 29,

1978- Branched to Page 20

Upgrade your SWTPC 6800 system to 1200 baud with PerCom’s CIS-30+ dual-cassette/terminal interface

The CIS-30 + ... four times as fast as SWTPC’s AC-30 with the same dual- cassette capability . . . p/us a 1200-baud data terminal interface ... in a SWTPC color-compatible package that's only 1 /10 the size of the AC-30.

Dependable? The simplicity of Harold Mauch PerCom Data designs says more than any well-chosen words. Simply put, for only $79.95* you get the fastest, most dependable dual function interface you can buy for your SWTPC 6800.

See your nearest dealer or order direct from PerCom.

PerCom 'peripherals for persona! computing'

PERCOM

PERCOM DATA COMPANY, INC. DEPT. 1 . 31 5 BARNES . GARLAND, TX 75M2

(214) 276-1968

*Kit pries. Assembled and tested : $99.95 + shipping. Tex. res. add 5% tax. BAG & MC available.

* Record and playback at 120, 60 or 30 self-clocking bytes per second (extended Kansas City Standard)

• Compatible with SWTPC cas- sette software

• Optional kit permits program control of cassettes

* Optional adaptor permits inter- facing with any computer

the inside story

• 1200, 600 or 300 baud data terminal interface

• Dual cassette operation

CIRCLE INQUIRY NO. 41

18 INTERFACE AGE

JANUARY 1978

New UVS-1 IE EPROM Erasing System

Performance and Reliability

for $59.50

Now available . . . the newest member of UVP’s growing family of quality EPROM Erasing Lamps.

The UVS-1 IE Short Wave UV Lamp was designed specifically for the small systems user and computer hobbyist. It’s compact, easy-to-use, and will erase up to 4 chips at one time. It even features a special safety interlock system for complete safety.

This is the first UV erasing system to offer simple operation and foolproof safety features at an affordable price. Like all UVP products, the UVS-1 IE is quality-built and backed by 45 years of UV technology.

Order now from your local authorized UVP stocking dealer. Or write today for more information and name of nearest dealer.

ULTRA VIOLET PRODUCTS, UNC.nn

5 100 Walnut Grove Avenue. San Gabriel, CA 91770 U-S.A.

JANUARY 1978

CIRCLE INQUIRY NO. 60

INTERFACE AGE 19

This is a hands-on course designed for both academic and industrial personnel who are interested in the implementation of microcomputer techniques to solve problems in computer interfacing. Lecture and laboratory topics will include in- struction in the fundamentals of digital electronics, the SOSO microprocessor and standard inter- facing techniques. Software development aids will be available. This course provides an oppor- tunity for professional growth in this popular technological area as well as a vacation in the historic and beautiful Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. Tuition will be $350.00, of which $100.00 deposit will be re- quired by April 5, 1978. Academic credit is available through James Madison University,

For information and registration forms write to Dr. Philip B. Peters, Dept, of Physics, VMI, Lexington, VA 24450.

CALL FOR PAPERS

A Personal Computing Festival will share the public spotlight in conjunction with the 1978 National Computer Conference to be held June 5-8 in Anaheim, California. A

Call for Papers has been issued for the Festival Program which will be held June 6-8 at the Disneyland Hotel adjacent to the Anaheim Con- vention Center. Included as part of the three day program will be pre- sentations of invited papers, con- tributed papers, tutorials, as well as panel discussions relevant to per- sonal computing. Letters of intent to participate as either an author, panelist or session chairman must be submitted by February 1, 1978. Authors who have received notifica- tion of acceptance must submit final papers by /Ware/? 15, 1978 In a specified camera-ready format.

Approximately 30 sessions are planned with emphasis on the following areas, although papers and session proposals on other topics are encouraged: tutorials for computer novices; speech synthesis and speech recognition; computer- driven and computer-assisted music systems; computer graphics and video art; personal computers for the physically disabled; personal computers for education; business systems using "home" computers; hardware and software design and implementation; standards for hard-

ware, interfaces and software.

Papers presented during the Festival Program will be published in a softbound book, Festival Digest '78, which will be available during the NCC.

Potential authors should im- mediately send a "letter of intent" including an abstract of their pro- posed talk to Jim C, Warren, Jr.T Star Route Box 111, Redwood City, CA 94062; (415) 851-7664. Authors will be mailed the Festival Author Kit, which contains author instructions and the necessary materials for preparing the camera-ready copy.

Session Chairmen must submit two copies of a 250 word abstract describing the scope of the pro- posed sessions and tentative title of presentations by February 1 , 1978. in the case of panel sessions, the prospective organizer should list proposed panelists, their titles and affiliations, and a brief biography of each speaker. Prospective session chairmen will be notified as the disposition of suggested sessions by February 10, 1978.

Information on NCC 78 may be obtained from AFIPS, 210 Summit Ave., Montvale, NJ 07645, (201) 391-9810. Branched to Page 25

THE ALPHA-1 SYSTEM CRATED A BEST BUY IN MASS STORAGE SYSTEMS

u* APPLICATIONS

* BUSINESS applications include mailing lists, payroll, billing, and inventory.

* CASSETTE BACKUP for disk- based Systems not only provides large amounts of storage at low cost, but also provides for convenient storage of histori* cal records.

* DEVELOPMENT SYSTEM features include a power* ful operating System with an Editor, Assembler, and Debugger, plus a variety of System utilities which speed development.

* OEM applications include P.O.S. data capture, word processing systems, audio-visual presentation sys- tems, telephone call transfer systems.

HARDWARE

* Stores greater than 5Q0K bytes per side of a C-6Q tape.

* Access a file in 17 seconds average on a C-60 tape.

* Load 8K of data in less than 1 1 seconds (6250 baud).

* 100% interchangeability of cassettes with no adjust* ments required or allowed.

* Compatible with all popular S-100 Bus Microcom- puters.

* Audio track under computer control.

* Eliminates the need for ROM/PROM monitors.

SOFTWARE

* MCOS, a powerful stand-alone cassette operating system, is operationally much simpler than a D.O.S., handles variable length named files, will update a file in place, packs or copies tapes with a single command.

* EXTENDED BASIC with MCOS permits array hand- ling and concatenation of files, plus all capabilities of MCOS.

^ PRICES START AT $240 U* FREE BUYERS GUIDE

If you are shopping for a tape or disk system for your S-100 Bus Computer System, you do not have all the facts until you have the MECA "BUYERS GUIDE TO MASS STORAGE.'1 This 10 page guide book provides a framework for evaluating cassette, cartridge, and disk- based systems. Write for your copy today.

For complete information including the Dealer nearest you, write or phone:

incca

7026 O.W.S. Road, Yucca Valley, CA 92284 (714) 365-7686

20 INTERFACE AGE

CIRCLE INQUIRY NO. 29

JANUARY 1978

“A splendid performance in three acts”

ACT-I

Known for its dependability, ease of interfacing, utility and affordable price, the ACT-I enjoys its reputation as one of the most popular "glass teletypes" on the market. If your computer system communicates in serial ASCII, the ACT-I could be just the tool you need to get online

The ACT-I computer terminal manages a 1024 character display organized as 16 lines of 64 characters selected from the standard upper case ASCII set. Receipt of more than 64 characters on a line or the Line Feed code initiates a scroll operation. STANDARD ACT-I FEATURES INCLUDE: Switch selectable data rates of: 110,

300 1 600, 1200, 2400, 4800, 960Q, and 19200 Baud,

Switch selectable UART options: Odd, even, or no parity, one or two stop bits. Jumper Selectable Interface: R3232C, 20MA current loop or TTL voltage levels.

* Handsome, rugged, lightweight aluminum cabinet

• Standalone operation — absolutely no processor overhead required

• Highly reliable keyboard with two key rollover

* Clear sharp video output signal (RS170 standard) capable of driving any CRT monitor

Price $400. A cursor control /bell op- tion is available for $25.00.

MICRO-TERM INC.

RD, BOX 93B7 ST LOUIS. MO 631*17 t31^1 6^5-3656

ACT-n ACT-IV

We've added the convenience of an acoustically coupled modem to the economy and performance of the ACT-I to create the ACT- EL Designed to com- municate either with remote processors through its modem, or with local computers via its RS232C or SOMA current-loop interfaces, the ACT- II offers versatility unheard of at its low price. The ACT-II (without monitor) slips easily into an attache case (4 x 14 x II inches) to commute with you between work and home.

The ACT- II’ s demodulator employs four stages of active filtering to minimize the bit error rate of the receiver. If you are eager to join the ranks of those who sit at home and en- joy the use of a powerful computer system across town, the ACT-II can be your "password".

As a further convenience feature, the modulator input and demodulator out- put are available at jacks on the rear of the ACT-II cabinet so that you may link a local serial device (such as a digital casette tape or even your own computer system) to the remote computer through the internal modem.

The ACT-II can be purchased for only $550,00

If you're looking for a low priced high powered terminal, consider these features which are all standard with MICRO-TERM'S ACT-IV:

DISPLAY: Upper and descending lower case characters, 24 lines of 80 characters, and auto- scrolling. KEYBOARD; Full ASCII with cursor con- trols and auto-repeat on several keys, TRANSMISSION MODES: Character by character or ‘ page" mode.

SPECIAL FUNCTIONS: relative and ab- solute cursor addressing, home up, erase to end of line, erase to end of screen, fixed tabs, report cursor posi- tion, and display control characters, EDITING: in PAGE mode, the user can insert or delete characters on any line and insert or delete lines on the page. DATA RATE: 300 to 19200 baud (Switch selectable on rear)

The ACT-IVa comes in a compact (briefcase compatible) cabinet without video monitor for $550,

The ACT-IVb comes complete with a 12" monitor and numeric keypad in a single enclosure for $800.

Optional available features: separate printer port (110-9600 baud) $50,

GENERAL INFORMATION;

All MICRO-TERM products are fully assembled, tested and guaranteed for 90 days. The entire MICRO-TERM product line is available from stock at discriminating com- puter stores or may be purchased directly from the factory. All prices are less monitors (which start at $130.00) F O.B. St. Louis, Missouri.

VISA and Master Charge Accepted

JANUARY 7978

CIRCLE INQUIRY NO. 33

INTERFACE AGE 21

INTERFACE AGE

BACK ISSUES

Available in Limited Quantities

Vol. 1, Issue 5, APRIL, 1976

Introduction to Microprocessor Technology; Bubble Memories Are Conning; Calculatin' Engines; Teleprinter Maintenance; Altalr Alterations.

Vol. 1, Issue 6, MAY, 1976 (Very Limited Quantities)

War of Ihe Microprocessors; Simplify Your Digital Design; No Such Thing as dheap Timesharing?; The IMSAI 6080: Polymorphic Systems

Vol. 1, Issue 9, AUGUST, 1976

Color Graphics: A Beginning; A New Pony— The Altalr BBOOB; BASIC— An Easy Programming Language; Biorhythms in Practice

Vol. 1, Issue 11, OCTOBER, 1976

National's New Portable Terminal; SA-40Q Mini floppy; CSC- Experimenter 300/600; Software Power for Your 6800; ESP-i Software Package

Vol. 1, Issue 12, NOVEMBER, 1976

Build a Simple A to D; Super Chip FD1771; FCA ASCII Keyboard Modifications; Protecting Stored Programs; New Product Guide; SWTPC 6800 ROBIT 1

Vol. 2, Issue 2, JANUARY, 1977

A CRT Terminal Using the M68G0 Chip Family; AMI s EVK Series Microcomputer; Build a 3 Digit A/D; Microcomputer Design Aides; Cromemco Bylesaver1 M

Vol. 2, Issue 3, FEBRUARY, 1977

8080 Octal Monitor Program; Legion: An Experiment In Artificial Intelligence; Microcomputer Stock Options; Building a 12-BH A to D Convener

Vol. 2, Issue 4, MARCH, 1977tm

Menace ot the Micro World; New Product Guide; The Qube; Card of the Month— Cromemco T.V. Dazzler™; Z-B0 MITS 12K Extended BASIC Patches.

Vol. 2, Issue 5, APRIL, 1977

-Mike"- A Computer Controlled Robol; LE D. Flasher (For Dasher-Or Any Olher); Robots As Household Pets; The Remotoid/ Android Project

Vol. 2, Issue 6, MAY, 1977

Computrac 2000; The FloppyROM™ Experiment; Robert Ulterwyk’s 4K BASIC Interpreter Program; Help Your Computer Understand Your Voice

Vol. 2, Issue 8, JULY, 1977

Diablo Output Driver Routine; Soma Further Notes on Robed Uiterwyk's Floppy ROM 4K BASIC; Microcomputerized Combination Lock; PIA TestlOTST

Vol. 2, Issue 9, AUGUST, 1977

The Shadow of What?; A KIM-1 Sidereal/ Solar Clock; Solar Eclipse Prediction by Microcomputer; Viking UPLINK/DOWNLINK; Star-Ship Sim u I at ion- Part I

Vol. 2, Issue 10, SEPTEMBER, 1977

General Ledger Program; Microcomputers: The Intelligent Terminals; Star-Ship Simulation-Part II; PerScI Intelligent Floppy Disc Controller

INTERFACE AGE Magazine Dept. Bl - P.O. Box 1 234, Cerritos, CA 90701				10/77
NamelPrlnh	Address		Cilv		State		Zio
Please send me;
i issue Qly	Price Total	Issue	Qly Price	Total	Issue	Qly	Price	Total
APRIL 1976	2.25*	JANUARY 1977	2.25*		MAY 1977		2.25*
MAY 1976* *	2,25*	FEBRUARY 1977“	2.25*		JULY 1977		2.50*
AUGUST 1976“	2.25*	MARCH 1977	2.25*		AUGUST 1977		2,50"
OCTOBER 1976	2,25'	APRIL 1977	2,25*		SEPTEMBER 1977		2.50*
NOVEMBER 1976	2.25'
'Price includes 50* for postage and handling. “Available in verv limited Quantities.				TOTAL ENCLOSED I
	1,1		Ex d. Dale	SiG.
You may photocopy this page if you wish to keep your INTERFACE AGE intaci. Please allow six weeks for delivery.

22 INTERFACE AGE

JANUARY 1978

SYSTEM

FOR:

HEATHKIT H8 COMPUTERS DIGITAL GROUP Z80 COMPUTERS ALL S-100 COMPUTERS

mm » *. info zoos YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED

The INFO 2000 Disk System is a complete dud floppy disk system for your S-100, Heath kit H8, or Digital Group microcom- puter. It incorporates the fastest dud disk- ette drive (PcrSci 277) and the most sophis- ticated intelligent controller (PerSc I 1070) available to provide the highest performance and greatest functional capability of any mass-storage system you can buy for your microcomputer, INFO 2000 supports this Disk System with the best and most comp- lete library of operating software available anywhere. The complete INFO 2000 Disk System is delivered assembled and fully tested to assure you of an uneventful plug- in-and-go installation in your microcomput- er,

WHAT KIND OF COMPUTERS CAN USE THE INFO 2000 DISK SYSTEM?

If you have a Digital Group Z80 system. Heath kit H8, or any S-100 bus computer which uses the Z8G microprocessor, the INFO 2000 Disk System and supporting software library will work with It. INFO 2000 provides its customers with the unique service of customizing its software to oper- ate with whatever I/O configuration you are using (within reasonable limits) at no additional cost. The INFO 2000 Disk System and software are being used today with Altair, BYT-S, Cromcmco Z-2 (at 4 Mhz), Digital Group, Heath kit II 8, 1MSAI, Poly 8 8. Processor Technology SOL, TDL Xitan, T.E.T., Vector Graphic, and other microcomputer mainframes. If your comp- uter uses an 8080 processor with the S-100 or Digital Group bus, you can use our hard-

ware without modification; however, you must upgrade your computer to a Z8G in order to use our library of software.

WHAT ARE THE TECHNICAL DIFFER- ENCES BETWEEN THE INFO 2000 DISK SYSTEM AND OTHERS?

The INFO 2000 Disk System is the only one which has an intelligent controller with its own on-board microprocessor and file man- agement firmware. It is the only one which provides all of the EPROM and RAM need- ed for its disk Monitor software, and there- fore does not use up a single byte of your system RAM. It uses the industry-standard single-density FM recording technique and soft-sectored diskettes ro provide nearly complete immunity to read/ write errors, (Double -density recording is extremely intolerant to speed variations, dirty heads, flawed media, etc., and so is an order of magnitude less reliable,} It offers the most complete software support of any disk sys- tem, And it is available for all S-100, Heath- kit HS and Digital Group systems with total file and program interchangeability.

WHAT MAKES YOU SAY THAT YOUR PRICES ARE LOWER THAN OTHERS?

Let's look at the cost of the INFO 2000 Disk System in comparison to the most comparable disk systems from Cromcmco and IMSAI:

CROMEMCO l IMSAI | INFO 2000

8s* Dual Drive Assembled with Case and Power Supply *2.495 |$2,390

S-l 00 Controller As;

595

I 599

52,650

emblcd

Included

TOTAL DISK SYSTEM

$3,090 [$2,989 j $2,850

If the cost of software is included in the comparison, the INFO 2000 cost picture looks even more favorable, (For example, our disk monitor on EPROM Is included in the $2,650 price, while their disk-resident monitors cost $75 to SlOO extra.) Similar n apples- with -apples" price comparisons be- tween the INFO 2000 Disk System and the Processor Technology Helios, the iCOM

ATTENTION: HEATHKIT H8 OWNERS

Now INFO 2000 offers its high-performance Disk System for your Heath kit H8 Comput- er, and upgrades your system ro a Z80 in the process! Simply unplug your Heath kit 8080 CPU board, and replace it with the INFQ 2000 ZBO/Disk Adapter Board in- stead. This remarkable board combines a Z80 microprocessor and all supporr chips, 7K of EPROM and IK of scratchpad RAM for the INFO 2000 Disk Mom tor. and all logic necessary to interface the INFO 2000 Disk System to the Hcathkit H8.

With the INFO 2000 Z80/Disk Adapter board installed, your H8 Computer can operate in either of two switch -selectable

modes. One mode permits the use of the Meath HR EPROM monitor and all existing Benton Harbor software without modifica- tion (but provides the speed advantages and extended instruction set of the ZSO). The Other mode supports the INFO 2000 Disk Monitor and alHNFO 2000 software includ- ing the TDL software library and CP/M,

The complete INFO 2000 Disk System for the Hcathkit H8 costs $2,750 — this is SXOO more than our S-100 and Digital Group sys- tems, but includes the upgrade to a Z80 pro- cessor as part of the deal. Contact INFO 2000 for further details of this exciting new product*

dual system, and other competitive systems yield similar results. However, we think you should buy the INFO 2000 Disk System because it is the best on the market, not because it is the cheapest*

HOW ABOUT THE TW0DR1VE MINI- FLOPPY SYSTEMS THAT ARE UNDER ST ,500?

Minifloppies seem like quite a bargain, un- til you realize that they are about half the cost of the full-size 8T' diskette systems but offer only one-third of the capacity and one-sixth of the speed. Our experience in- dicates that minifloppies are an attractive alternative to cassettes for loading pro- grams, but are simply not viable for serious data management work such as business applications.

WHAT ELSE DOES INFO 2000 SELL?

An increasingly important part of our business is helping customers to configure and acquire complete disk-based microcom- puter systems optimized for their specific requirements* You may be interested in discussing the advantages of purchasing a total computer system from INFO 2000, and having us assemble and test the entire configuration together before it is delivered to you*

DOES INFO 2000 SELL SOFTWARE TO ACCOMPANY ITS DISK SYSTEMS?

We offer the most extensive library of soft- ware available anywhere. This includes TDL 12 K Super BASIC (extended for disk}, Text Output Processor, Relocating Macro Assembler, Z-tel Text Editing Language, and ANSI Standard FORTRAN IV* We also have Digital Research GP/M Monitor and much more software. Please write for all the details.

INFO 2000 normally ships disk systems or- ders within two to four weeks after receiv- ing your certified check, cashier's check or money order* C,O.D, orders are accepted with a 20% deposit. INFO 2000 extends a 5% discount on Disk System orders to retail customers who include payment in full ac the time of order. California residents add 6% sales tax. Dealer inquiries welcomed.

Please feel free to write or phone INFO 2000 with any questions you may have re- garding our products. At INFO 2000 we take pride in providing personal consul ca- tion and support to our customers. We look forward to hearing from you.

CORPORATION

20630 South Leapwood Avenue Carson, Californio 90746

(213)532-1702

JANUARY 1978

CIRCLE INQUIRY NO. 28

INTERFACE AGE 23

Feb 1 New England Computer Soci- ety will meet in the cafeteria of the MITRE Corp. at 7:00 P.M. Located on Route 62 in Bedford, MA. Contact Dave Day at (603) 434-4239 for details.

Feb 1 Kitchener Waterloo Micro- computer Club will meet at the University of Waterloo, Room 3388, Engineering Bldg. #4, University Ave., Waterloo, On- tario, Canada at 7:30 P.M.

Feb 1 Northwest Computer Society will meet in the Pacific Science Center in Seattle, Room 200 at 7:30 P.M. For more details write NCCN, Box 242, Renton, WA 98055.

Feb 1 The Valley Computer Club will meet at 7 P.M. at the Harvard School located at 3700 Coldwater Canyon, Studio City, CA.

Feb 1 Lincoln Computer Club will hold its meeting at the South Branch Library located on 27th and South Sts. at 7 P.M. For more details write Hubert Paulson, Jr., 422 Dale Dr., Lincoln, NE 68510.

Feb 2 Bay Area Microprocessors Users Group (BAMUG) will meet in the Hayward ROC Center, 26316 Hesperian Blvd., Hayward, CA at 7:30 P.M. For further details write BAMUG, 1211 Santa Clara Avenue, Alameda, CA 94501.

Feb 2 Crescent City Computer Club will hold its meeting at the Uni- versity of New Orleans, Lakefront Campus at 8 P.M. Call Bob Latham at (504) 722-6321 for more details.

Feb 4 The Computer Hobbyist Group, will meet at 1 P.M. in Green Center, Room 2.530, campus of University of Texas, Dallas. For further infor- mation write the club at P.O. Box 11344, Grand Prairie, TX 75051.

Feb 4 Louisville Area Computer Club (LACE) will meet at the University of Louisville, Speed School Audi- torium at 1 P.M. For details, write the club at 115 Edgemont Dr., New Alban, IN 47150.

Feb 4 South Central Kansas Ama- teur Computer Association, 9:00 A.M., Wichita Public Library, Wichita, KS. Call Chris Borger at (316) 265-1120 or Dave Rawson, 1825 Gary, Wichita, KS 67219, (316) 744-1629 for further details. Feb 4 Oklahoma Computer Club will be meeting at the Belle Aisle Library at 10 A.M. Call Al Camp- bell at (405) 842-4933 for details.

Feb 4 Southern Nevada Personal Computing Society will meet at Clark County Community Col- lege, Las Vegas, NV at 12:00. For further information write SNPCS, 1405 Lucille St., Las Vegas, NV

89101 or call (702) 642-0212.

Feb 4 Milwaukee Area Computer Club will meet at 1 P.M. at the Waukesha County Technical In- stitute, New Berlin, Wl. Call (414) 246-6634 for further details.

Feb 6 Minnesota Computer Society will meet at the Brown Institute, Room 51, 3123 E. Lake Street, Minneapolis, ,MN. For further in- formation contact the Society at Box 35317, Minneapolis, MN 55435, Attn: Jean Rice.

Feb 7 Tidewater Computer Club will hold its meeting at the Elec- tronics Computer Programming Institute, Janaf Office Bldg., Janaf Shopping Center in Norfolk. For further information contact: C. Dawson Yeomans, Interface Chairman, 677 Lord Dunmore Dr., Virginia Beach, VA 23462.

Feb 9 Mid America Computer Hob- byist meeting will be at 7:00 P.M. at Commercial Federal Savings & Loan, Bellevue NE. Intersection of Galvin Rd. and U.S. Hwy. 73-75. Write P.O. Box 13303, Omaha, NE 68113 for further information.

Feb 9 Utah Computer Association will meet at Murray High School, Rm 154, 5440 S. State St., Salt Lake City, UT at 7 P.M. For details write or call Larry or Holly Barney, 1928 S. 2600 E., Salt Lake City, UT 84108. (801) 485-3476.

Feb 9 The Rochester Area Micro- computer Society will meet at the RIT Campus, Rm. 1030, Bldg. 9 at 7:30 P.M. For details write RAMS, P.O. Box D, Rochester, NY 14609.

Feb 10 Northern New Jersey Ama- teur Computer Club (NNJACC) will hold its meeting at the Fairleigh Dickenson University, on the Rutherford Campus, Becton Hall, Room B8, at 7 P.M. For details write NNJACC, 593 New York Ave., Lyndhurst, NJ 07071.

Feb 11 The Permian Basin Computer Group — Odessa Chapter meets at 1 P.M. in the Electronic Technology Bldg., Room 203 on the Odessa College campus. For details call (915) 332-9151.

Feb 12 North Orange County Com- puter Club will have its meeting at Chapman College, Orange, CA. Doors open at 12:00. 105 Hash- inger Hall Auditorium. Member- ship Chairman, Tracey Lerocker, (714) 998-9722 evenings.

Feb 15 Homebrew Computer Club meeting will begin at 7 P.M. in Menlo Park, CA at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center Audi- torium. Call (415) 967-6754 for more details.

Feb 17 Long Island Computer Asso- ciation will meet at 7 PM at the New York Institute of Technology, Old Westbury Campus, Route 25A between Route 107 and Glen Cove Rd., Rm. 508. For more details write Long Island Com- puter Association, 36 Irene Lane East, Plainview, NY 11803.

Feb 17 Amateur Computer Group of New Jersey (ACGNJ) will meet at UCTI, 1776 Raritan Rd., Scotch Plains, NJ 07076 at 7 P.M. For fur- ther information write to the club at the above address.

FEB 18 Southern Nevada Personal Computing Society will meet at Clark County Community Col- lege, Las Vegas, NV at 12:00. For further information write SNPCS, 1405 Lucille St., Las Vegas, NV 89101 or call (702) 642-0212.

Feb 18 San Diego Computer Society will meet at the Grossmont Com- munity College Student Center, 8800 Grossmont College Dr., El Cajon, CA. Doors open at 12:30. For details call (714) 565-1738.

Feb 18 The 7C’s Committee (Affili- ated with the Cleveland Digital Group) will meet at Cleveland State University Student Services Bldg., in the Kiva Room at 2:00 P.M. For more information write to Cleveland Digital Group, 8700 Har- vard Ave., Cleveland, OH 44105.

Feb 18 Central Florida Computer Club will meet at the Orlando Utility Bldg., on S. Orange Ave., Orlando, FL at 2:00 P.M.

Feb 18 Philadelphia Area Computer Society will meet at 2 PM at LaSalle College Science Bldg, at the corner of 20th & Olney Ave. For more details write PACS, P.O. Box 1954, Philadelphia, PA 19105.

Feb 19 Chicago Area Computer Hobbyist Exchange (CACHE) will meet at 12:00 P.M. in the Nigas Bldg. Cafeteria located on Schermer Rd. in Glenview, IL. Call CACHE Hotline (312) 849-1132 for details.

Feb 21 Sacramento Microcomputer Users Group, (SMUG), 7:30-9:30 P.M. at SMUD Training Bldg., on 59 St. Write Richard Lerseth, P.O. Box 161513 or call (916) 381-0335 after 5:00 P.M.

Feb" 22 Tidewater Computer Club will hold its meeting at the Elec- tronics Computer Programming Institute, Janaf Office Bldg., Janaf Shopping Center in Norfolk. For further information contact: C. Dawson Yeomans, Interface Chairman, 677 Lord Dunmore Dr., Virginia Beach, VA 23462.

Feb 22 Diablo Professional Users Group (DPUG) will meet at Diablo Valley College Library, near the Willow Pass exit of Fwy. 680,

24 INTERFACE AGE

JANUARY 1978

from 8-10 PM. For details write or call Bob Hendrickson, Elec- tronics Dept., DVC, Pleasant Hill, CA 94523; (415) 687-8373.

Feb 22 Boston Computer Society will meet at the Commonwealth School, 151 Commonwealth Ave., Boston at 7 P.M. The school is located on the corner of Dart- mouth St. in Boston’s Back Bay. For information write or call the society at 17 Chestnut St., Boston, MA 02108, (617) 227-1399.

Feb 22 Ventura County Computer Society will meet at Camarillo Public Library, 3100 Ponderosa Dr., Port Hueneme, CA 93041 at 7:30 P.M. For more information write: VCCS, P.O. Box 525, Port Hueneme, CA 93041.

Feb 23 Space Coast Microcomputer Club will hold its meeting at 7:30 P.M. at the Merritt Island Library, Merritt Is., FL. Contact Ray Lock- wood at (305) 452-2159 for details.

Feb 23 Small Computer Engineer- ing Association of Minnesota (SCEAM) will meet at the Resource Access Center, 3010 Fourth Ave. So., Minneapolis, MN 55408 at 7 P.M. For more information write to this address or call (612) 824-6406.

Feb 24 Alamo Computer Enthusiast meets at 7:30 P.M. in Room 104 at Chapman Graduate Center at Trin- ity University, San Antonio, TX. For details call (512) 532-2340, or write to the club at 7517 Jonquill, San Antonio, TX 78233.

Feb 24 Washington Amateur Com- puter Society has scheduled its meeting to be held at the Catholic University of America, St. Johns Hall. Located at Michigan and Harewood Aves. in Washington, D.C. Contact Bill Stewart at (202) 722-0210 for club details between the hours of 10 A.M. and 12 P.M.

Feb 24 University of Minnesota Microcomputer Users Group (UMMUG) will hold its meeting at the University of Minnesota, Elec- trical Eng. Rm. 115 at 7 P.M.

Feb 24 TRACE will hold its meeting at the Ontario Science Center, 8 P.M., 770 Don Mills Road, Don Mills, Ontario. Club address is Box 545, Streetsville, Ontario, Canada L5M 2C1.

Feb 26 Summit City Computer Club will meet at the McMillen Library on the Indiana Institute of Tech- nology Campus in Ft. Wayne, IN. For details write the club at P.O. Box 5096, Ft. Wayne, IN 46805.

Feb 28 Computer Amateurs of South Jersey will holds its meeting at the National Park Municipal Bldg., 7 So. Grove Ave., National Park, N J at 7:30 P.M. For details call (609) 541-1010, or (609) 541-8296.

COMPUTER COUNTRY

A retail computer store called Computer Country in Tustin, Califor- nia, offers microcomputer systems for application in the home, educa- tion and business. These microcom- puter systems are at the heart of video games, word processing, in- ventory control and financial report- ing systems. These systems are also part of burglar alarms, smoke/fire detection, Christmas mailing lists, and message recording systems for telephone answering bureaus.

Computer Country systems are al- ready being applied to jobs in auto tire retreading, information systems for the blind and inventory control for a motorcycle parts manufacturer.

The store is oriented toward the practical computer user and offers a number of classroom training pro- grams. These include: Preparing the Business Man for Data Processing, Basic Language Programming, and Star Trek, an advanced video game for adults and children.

The founders of Computer Country are planning to franchise a network of independently owned stores throughout the United States and abroad. The pilot store is in Larwin Square Center in Tustin, California. The store has a complete line of microcomputers and software prod- ucts including microcomputers from IMSAI, Apple, RCA, Atari, and Applied Data Communications.

The founders of the company are Mr. Kenneth D. Allen, who heads the firm and was formerly President of Microline Corp. and Microdata Corp. in Irvine, California; Mr. Don Berry, currently Vice President of Engineer- ing for GTE’s Information System Group in Anaheim, California; and Mr. Clifton Myers, Vice President of Systems and formerly Director of Management Information Systems at Microdata Corporation in Irvine, California.

Franchising operations will be headquartered in a new facility under construction at the Airport In- dustrial Complex in Irvine, California.

PROGRAMS IN BOOK FORM

The very low cost microcomputer hardware systems are finally being matched by low cost software. Os- borne & Associates are producing, in book form, business application programs with documentation. These are programs that have traditionally sold for many thousands of dollars. In book form these programs, plus documentation, are available for $12.50. There are interesting legal

Vectored from Page 20

ramifications to these books, since they copyright the printed word, but do not protect the magnetic surface. This means that anyone can modify or resell the programs without pay- ing a license fee, providing the pro- grams are sold in a computer-read- able form and not in a human-read- able form. While international con- troversy rages regarding ability to patent or legally protect software, the appearance of programs in book form lends a new dimension to an already tricky legal problem.

For the next 12 months, small business data processing apparently will represent the most significant outlet for microcomputer systems. There are probably hundreds of such systems being installed every month, sold by computer stores and by direct sales from the manufacturer. This very significant installed base is being ignored by most surveys of small business computer systems. In all probability, the surveys are therefore highly distorted.

MINI/MICR078 IN PHILADELPHIA!

The 1978 MINI/MICRO COMPU- TER CONFERENCE AND EXPOSI- TION is scheduled for the Philadel- phia Civic Center next April 18-20 (Tuesday through Thursday).

According to a respected industry source, International Data Corpora- tion (IDC), the Philadelphia area ranks as the fifth largest computer marketplace in the country, and is easily accessible from the No. 1 (New York) and No. 4 (Washington, D.C. area) major computer markets in the nation. And, again quoting IDC, 90 percent of annual expendi- tures come from current U.S. com- puter users.

For registration and further infor- mation contact Mini/Micro 78 at 5528 E. La Palma Avenue, Suite 1, Anaheim, CA 92807 (714) 528-2400.

ROACHES BUGGING TRAIN COMPUTERS

In Tokyo, Japanese railways have declared war on cockroaches that are upsetting the computers on the high-speed Shinkansen train running between Tokyo and Hakata.

A cockroach recently got into the speed-measurement circuit on one train, so that the computer recorded a speed of 130 miles an hour while it was standing in Nagoya station.

JANUARY 1978

INTERFACE AGE 25

By James S. White

Microcomputers for small busi- nesses! A computer for your busi- ness? As a small businessman, you certainly are well aware of many of the benefits that computers accord to large businesses, benefits so great that the opportunities of a large business without a computer are unthinkable today. Thus you have some feeling of the potential that computers hold for your small busi- ness. However, many small busi- nessmen properly question whether a computer would be a beneficial tool for them yet, and aren’t sure how to evaluate the place of a com- puter in their business.

As a reader of INTERFACE AGE, you are aware that today you can af- ford to own a computer, the com- puter hardware, that is. Whether you can afford all the costs of a com- puter system package is quite a dif- ferent matter. It is quite possible for a small business owner or manager to program his own computer. Some do this; do-it-yourself programming may even be realistic for some small businessmen.

Consequently, it seems that many of the benefits of computers may be within your grasp. You may be able to receive better and/or quicker in- formation, perhaps about your busi- ness, the marketplace, and the com- petition. You may be able to save a considerable amount of the time and / or money you or your employees presently require to do certain func- tions. You may be able to expand your business, using your computer to help overcome previous limita- tions. You may be able to increase the quality of your products or ser- vices, or to optimize your operations towards producing what you can sell or selling what you can produce. In many other ways, you may be able to benefit from those computer contri- butions that are, for you, in the im- portant-to-improve areas of your business.

What are the characteristics of computers that allow them to pro- vide these benefits? First is the computer’s ability to function as a calculator, a skill about which you are probably quite familiar. Another

key computer characteristic is its large, quick memory; a small busi- ness computer (using disc storage) can “remember” more than 100,000 numbers (for example, stock num- bers and corresponding wholesale and retail prices) and instantly “recall” desired information. A com- puter, after having been suitably pro- grammed, can also compare alter- natives — you might ask your com- puter to find the most profitable (or best against other criteria) way to in- vest the limited number of dollars you can allocate to inventory. It can help you to prepare sales calls, or do any other business operation.

The real key, however, to a com- puter’s power is that it can do these things very quickly, almost perfectly, over and over again in the same way. Or, if you prefer, your computer can repeat its work in a similar way, vary- ing its operations depending on the characteristics of the data with which it is given to work. A computer can “check through” its records for your entire 100,000-item inventory every day, or even every hour if you want. If you have a task that requires a large, long amount of work, the computer will work all night, gener- ally without a mistake, and have the answer ready for you first thing the next morning. To top this all off, your computer will do all this with- out asking for a vacation or for a day off for its great-aunt’s funeral, and will never ask for a raise (although its repairman might) or get bored.

This all sounds great, you may be thinking, but how can I reach these benefits and make a computer part of my organization? Much more im- portant, how might I decide if a com- puter belongs in my organization? The first part of the answer comes from scrutinizing your own business.

Unfortunately, it is easy to take a different approach: to start computer considerations by looking at mem- ory sizes, operating speeds, and in- struction sets. Computer vendors are generally very comfortable talking in these terms, and much of today’s lit- erature is oriented to topics such as these. True, objective characteris- tics should not be ignored when se-

lecting a computer. However, because these characteristics tend to be rela- tively easy to compare and also ex- citing to look at, or at least fun, they often obscure more important con- siderations.

For a businessman, starting with hardware considerations is usually putting the cart before the horse. The motive force for your computing involvement is your business; how can you improve it, or maintain it at less cost? Therefore your business is where your computer considera- tions logically begin, and. remain for a while. Even after some business planning has been done and some computing decisions tentatively made, it is usually very worthwhile to return and further review busi- ness plans in additional detail, par- ticularly considering characteristics that computer planning have shown to be important.

Probably the best way to start mak- ing your decision about the place of a computer in a business is first to learn about the business itself. This may sound ridiculous — what owner or manager doesn’t understand his own business? Many don’t, to the degree of detail necessary.

If you presently do all your own record keeping, forecasting, pro- cess control or whatever it is that you are thinking a computer might do for you, you may know much of what you need for computer plan- ning. It is also important to consider why these things are done in the way that they are. What other ways could these things be done with a tool having capabilities somewhat different than yours? And what are the rules to follow under all possible conditions, including ones you have never encountered before? A compu- ter must be given instructions on handling every condition. The in- structions can be as simple as to call for help from a human, or to treat the condition the same as another, normal condition.

An owner or general manager who has delegated some of the business operation to someone else also needs, in order to plan for a computer, to know how and why the other persons

26 INTERFACE AGE

JANUARY 1978

TIMESHARING

The 80-103A works both ways. Your system can cal! a timesharing service and communicate as an intelligent terminal OR your S-100 system can be the timesharing system where the 8Q-1G3A answers the phone and communicates with terminals or other processors-

80-103A DATA COMMUNICATIONS ADAPTER

The 80-103A DATA COMMUNICATIONS ADAPTER was developed to function as an S-100 bus compatible serial interface incorporating a fully programmable modem and Telco interface. These functions are usually accomplished by the use of two separate modules: 1) a serial I/O board, and 2} an external modem. By combining these features on a single board, the 80- 103 A can offer microcomputer applications significant cost/performance advantages over other implementations.

• FULLY PROGRAMMABLE FEATURES

• AUTOMATED DIALING AND AN- SWER

• ORIGINATE OR ANSWER MODE

• 110-300 BIT/SEC DATA RATES

• CHARACTER FORMAT AND PARITY

• ERROR DETECTION

• FULLY BUFFERED, OUTPUTS DRIVE 25 S-100 BUS LOADS

DC Hayes Associates offers a full range of capabilities for solving your information handling problems. Whether your problem is large or small, we will apply innovative techniques for finding the best solution. Contact us about our products and services.

• STANDARD U.S. FREQUENCIES

• FULL TELCO COMPATIBILITY WHEN ATTACHED TO DAA

• COMPATIBLE WITH EXISTING TELE- TYPES AND TIME SHARING MODEMS

• ALL DIGITAL MODULATION AND DEMODULATION. NO ADJUSTMENTS REQUIRED.

PRICES:

Assembled 80-1 03A with 48 hour burn in and 90 day warranty is $279.95

Bare Board with manual is $49.95

D C Hayes associates

P.0. Box 9884 • Atlanta, Georgia 30319 • (404) 231-0574

JANUARY 1978

CIRCLE INQUIRY NO.

INTERFACE AGE 27

Heathkil "Program-Ready” Computer Systems Await YOUR COMMANDS!

The Heathkit H8 is designed to provide you with a versatile, efficient computer that's easy and fun to build and use. It fea- tures an intelligent front panel with keyboard entry and 9-digit display, a heavy-duty power supply with enough extra capac- ity for memory and I/O expansion, and an exclusive 50-line fully buffered bus capable of addressing 65K bytes. The CPU board is fully wired and tested and features the 8080A chip, clock, systems controller and full bus buffering. Seven vec- tored interrupts are available on the bus for quick response to your I/O requests. The mother board has positions for up to 10 plug-in circuit boards for memory and interface cards and complete "program ready1' software (BASIC, assembler, edi- tor and debug) ts included at no extra cost. Together with its "system designed1' peripherals: memory expansion boards, serial and parallel interfaces, the H9 CRT terminal with ASCII 67-key keyboard and the ECP-3801 cassette recorder/player mass storage device, the H8 will provide you with years of computing usefulness and enjoyment.

Based on the world-famous DEC LSI-11, the H11 and its peri- pherals give you all the power and speed you need for total computing versatility. It's one of the few FULL 16-bit compu- ters available to the hobbyist today, and equivalent commer- cial versions would cost literally thousands of dollars more. The H1 1 features a fully wired and tested DEC KD11F board that contains the 16-bit LSM1 CPU, a 4096x16 read/ write MOS semiconductor memory, DMA operation, and includes the powerful PDP-11/40 instruction set. Heath/ DEC PDP-11 software includes editor, relocatable assembler, link editor, absolute loader, debug, I/O executive and DUMP programs, plus BASIC and FOCAL. The backplane/card guides are fully compatible with alt standard LSI-1 1 accessories. The H1 1 and its system peripherals: memory expansion modules, serial and parallel interfaces, an extended arithmetic chip, plus the H10 paper tape reader/ punch and the H9 CRT terminal give you all the power and versatility you need for personal com- puting at its very best!

Basie Self-Instruction Course

Learn BASIC program- ^29” ming easy and fast with our EC-1100 self-instruc- tional course. Features programmed instruction text, experiments and demonstrations to give you a thorough knowledge of BASIC and program- ming techniques.

World-Famous DECwriter If

Deluxe keyboard printing 1495 terminal at Heath’s sensa- tional low mall order price! Also available: LAX X- KG EIA (RS-232C) Interface with cable and connector, $65; LAXX-LM Acoustic Coupler which mounts In LA36 with hardware provided, $250.00

HEATHKIT CATALOG The new Winter '78 Edition

You can gel a FREE relail catalog by re- deeming this coupon In person at any ot Ihe SO Heathkit Electronic Centers (Units of Schlumberger Products Corporation) In major markets coasMo-c oast, where Heathkit products are sold, displayed, and serviced. [Retail prices on some products may be slightly higher) {Check the white pages of your telephone book.)

Use coupon for mail-order catalog or bring to store for retail catalog.

	Address
	City	State
L,	CP -137	Zip

Please send me my FREE Heathkit Catalog. I am not on your mailing list

Name.

Nearly 400 fascinating electronic kits fully illustrated and described, plus a variety of Heath-recommended assembled products.

Send for your FREE copy today!

Prices are mail order net FOB, Benton Harbor, Michigan. Prices and specifications subject to change without notice,

HEATH

Heath Company, Dept. 343-370 Benton Harbor, Michigan 49022

28 INTERFACE AGE

CIRCLE INQUIRY NO. 25

JANUARY 1978

do their job to the extent that the work done or the results produced might relate to a new computer. The important things to know are those that are really done, rather than the techniques and rules that “should" be followed. Naturally, the proper procedures should also be consid- ered if different from actual practice. The degree of tolerance and flexibility In the people who will work with the computer and its information are also important factors to know.

Obtaining business understand- ing might start by considering how information flows now through a business. From where should a computer get its information, and where should it feed its results back into the information flow system? What parts of present business pro- cedures relating to computable func- tions are flexible enough that you, the owner, would consider chang- ing? Which are fixed, and therefore ones to which a computer would have to adapt?

These normal, basic considera- tions are only the start. Although statistics on small businesses are not yet available, most of the costs of most older, larger computer appli- cations are due to two factors: ex- ceptions and errors,

exceptions Because there are usually several different conditions of information and other computer input, there are several ways, at least in part, that things can be done. Consequently, the system planning and programming costs are several times the cost of doing the “normal” job. For example, in a “simple11 vendor invoice processing application, a bill might be received normally, or before the merchan- dise, or before the agreed billing date, or the “bill” might be a credit, or come when the bank account is too low to pay all bills then due, A bill could be too large or too small, compared to the amount actually due, by a large or small amount for a specified or unspecified reason. Also possible variables in terms of both input and required processing are discount terms, international orders, prepaid orders, COD orders, etc.

errors Although computers are almost perfect (computer errors do have to be anticipated and handled), people are human and don't always do what is reasonable or proper. This problem starts with computer system designers and programmers, the best of whom may cause the device to act very undesirably in unusual conditions. The users or operators of the data processing equipment are certain to do what everyone was sure they would never

do, and had instructed them posi- tively not to do. A successful com- puter application must anticipate er- rors and plan for solution of the resulting problems.

As a small businessman, your computer system may have fewer exceptions or variables than sys- tems in larger businesses. However, these factors must be considered if your system is to be at ail success- ful. Concerning errors, a universal principle of computer planning is that it is easier and less costly to prevent problems than to fix them.

Another important consideration is people, especially how present employees will relate to what can

easily be considered as a threaten- ing, even aggressive, intruder (The computer is going to take over my job — as soon as it can! PANIC!!)* Bringing a computer into a business is not only bringing a new machine into its operations. A computer is also a tool that often helps people intellec- tually, or, at least, requires that some people interact with it on an intellectual basis. For this reason, and because of the dramatic effect that a computer can have on a busi- ness and its employees’ work, bring- ing a computer into a business is also somewhat like bringing in a new employee.

Proper preparation can greatly in-

"he Answer For. . . Student Hobbyist Manufacturer

8700

COMFUTER/CONTROLLER

■ hi IM

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Micro-Diagnostic® Extensive documentation. Fully Socketed.

PicbllC] Monitor: Relative address calculator. Pointer High-low, User Subroutines, Back- step key.

Cassette Interface; Load & Dump by file Tape motion control, Positive indication of operation.

Applications systems from $90 (lOunit quantity)

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another great kit from RBiA

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: city: state: zip:

Boyusk

: ELECTRONICS 0EPT.2-F * 1020 W. Wilshire BUd. * Oklahoma City, OK 73H6 14051 843-9626

JANUARY 1978

CIRCLE INQUIRY NO. 39

INTERFACE AGE 29

crease the productivity of both peo- ple and computer* This preparation may include presenting the com- puter as a tool which enhances the importance of people and frees them for more interesting jobs, rather than an usurper of people's functions and value.

But we’re not ready to do that yet* First comes further evaluation of the possible value of a computer to your business and this leads to the deci- sion of whether, where, and how a computer will be a net benefit to your business now*

Some of the preceding ideas may seem negative — to make using a computer harder than many people feel it is. But our intent has been to be realistic — to prepare the pros- pective user to look at alt the consid- erations and to be able to make a decision after considering all rele- vant factors*

If you have good answers to the preceding questions and considera- tions, you are well prepared to go ahead and start evaluating actual computing alternatives* But what if you aren’t comfortable with your answers to these questions? Then, I propose, you are not ready for a com- puter at this time. Further, you have defined your desirable degree of per- sonal computing involvement. Hence the following options are available for further progress: 1) Delegate the responsibility for these questions, and therefore, necessarily, also for the management of the computer-re- lated parts of your business, to someone in your organization* 2) Train yourself or obtain basic train- ing. 3} Obtain the needed support from a consultant or other vendor outside your business organization.

Of course, actual conditions may call for a combination of these op- tions.

Computer planning questions needn’t be, and probably shouldn’t be, answered alone* One place to look for help is to prospective com- puter system vendors* Pick out some people or organizations; ask them if they miqht want to sell a complete,

operational computer system pack- age to you — on your conditions to meet your specifications. If so, ex- plain to them your situation, ideas, and wishes. Let them tell you what they think is practical for their and other vendors' computers to do and not do* Ask for references who can substantiate actual performance supporting their statements* After a series of increasingly detailed discussions, with both you and the vendor becoming increasingly knowledgeable of the important issues, you should have a good start in choosing the system for specific needs of your business. Alternative- ly, and equally worthwhile, you may have confidently concluded that a computer would not be a net benefit to your business now.

If your chosen approach includes the selection of a consultant, or similar type of assistance, how might that selection be done? There are many ways, and, as a successful small businessman, you are prob- ably well skilled in that art* One par- ticular selection criteria unexpected by many applies to a computing con- sultant and to an employee to whom computing management is delegated. He or she should be able to help you understand what a computer will do in and to your business, and how and why* Furthermore, he should be able to communicate these ideas on the level of your business, using its terminology, and not only computer terms. The functions of computers really aren’t difficult to understand. Your obtaining that understanding, as it applies to your business, should be one of the important results ac- quired of your computer expert*

If you follow the above guidelines, you should be reasonably welt prepared to start looking at specific computing capabilities for your small business. But, as we shall em- phasize next month, the product for most small businessmen to look for and to evaluate is the entire com- puter system service package need- ed to meet your needs, not just the machine or hardware.

CXlpha

^"'"ogvsTEma

DEALERS

ARIZONA

PHOENIX Byte Shop of (602) 942-7300

TEMPE Byte Shop of <602) 094-1129

TUCSON Byte Shop of (602) 327 4579 CALIFORNIA COSTA MESA Orange County Computer Center (714) 646 0221

LAWNDALE Byte Shop of (213) 371-2421

PALO ALTO Byte Shop of (415) 327-3030

PASADENA Byte Shop of (213) 634-3311

SAN DIEGO Com purer Center (714) 292 5302

SAN RAFAEL Byte Shop of (415) 457-9311

SANTA ANA Advance Microcomputer (714) 553 0813

SANTA BARBARA Byte Shop of (305) 966-2630

TARZANA Tech Mart (213) 344 0153

VAN NUYS

Computer Components (213) 344-0153

COLORADO DENVER Computer Hut (Prime Radix)

(303) 573-4395

FLORIDA

CORAL GABLES Sunny Computer (305)661-6042

FORT LAUDERDALE Byte Shop of (305) 561-2903

ILLINOIS

CHAMPAIGN Champaign Computer Co. (217) 359 5833

EVANSTON

Itly Bitty Machine Go*

(312) 328 6800

INDIANA

BLOOMINGTON Data Domain

(312) 334 3607

INDIANAPOLIS Data Domain (317) 251-3139

MARYLAND

ROCKVILLE Computer Workshop (301} 463-0455

MASSACHUSETTS

WALTHAM

Computer Mari of Boston (617) 899-4540 MICHIGAN ROYAL OAK Computer Mart of

(313) 576-0900 MISSOURI PARKVIiLLE Computer Workshop (616) 741 5055

NEW JERSEY

I SELIN

Computer Mart ol (201) 283-0600 NEVADA RENO

Byte Shop of (702) 325 8080 NEW YORK NEW YORK Computer Mart of (212} 686-7923 OHIO

CLEVELAND Byte Shop of (216) 333-3261 OREGON BEAVERTON Byte Shop of (503} 644-2606

EUGENE Real Oregon Computer Co,

(503) 404-1040

PORTLAND Byte Shop of (503) 223 3496

TEXAS

FORT WORTH Tandy Computers (817) 335-7198 HOUSTON

Electronic Specialty Co* (713) 865-0477 LUBBOCK Computer Mart of West Texas (806) 765-7134 RICHARDSON The Micro Store (214) 231-1096 UTAH

SALT LAKE CITY Byte Shop of (801) 355-1041 WASHINGTON BELLEVUE Byte Shop of (206) 746-0651 WISCONSIN MILWAUKEE The Milwaukee Computer Store (414) 259-9140 AUSTRALIA GORDON Trudata Pact lie 498*4706

ALICE SPRINGS

Microcomputer Systems

Alice Springs, NT

CANADA

TORONTO

The Computer Place

(416) 598-0262

VANCOUVER Byte Shop of (604} 756 0511 FRANCE PARIS

Computer Boutique 310095-047 GERMANY MUNICH Defame g KG (089) 460-4993 HONG KONG CAUSEWAY BAY Tel tec 5-781-0651 SPAIN

BARCELONA

Infotecnos

(000)235-7110

VENEZUELA

CARACAS

E.D.C. MEGA, C*A-

Ave, Francisco De Miranda

Centro Peru, Plso 7; Chacao

33-79-90

30 INTERFACE AGE

JANUARY 1978

Introducing the AM- 300 ‘—an S-IQQ compatible six port serial I/O board- Designed to enhance the AM- 100* 16-Bit microprocessor board set, this t/O is one of the fastest, most efficient , versatile serial ports available for microprocessors supporting time sharing

SOFTWARE PROGRAMMABLE

Also compatible with 8080 microprocessors utilizing the S'lQO bus, it provides six fully programmable RS-232 ports— each independently software program- mable to select any of sixteen baud rates up to 19,200 baud. Multi-level, interrupt-driven under program control, each I/O port will accept, independently, data in either asynchronous or synchronous modes. This is accomplished through use of six Western Digltall ASTRO chips (UC-167 IB) .

WITH MEMORY MANAGEMENT

AMOS’ (Alpha Microsystems Operating System) now supports Memory Management utilizing Industrial

i

CIRCLE INQUIRY NO, 1

ASYNCHRONOUS AND SYNCHRONOUS

SOFTWARE

PROGRAMMABLE

BAUD RATES

INTERRUPT

DRIVEN

Micro Systems 16k Static RAM boards. This system allows memory expansion up to 256k bytes providing true m ulti- user/ muiti -tasking partitions up to 48k byte for most S-10G bus mainframes.

The AM-300* with 256k bytes memory provides superior handling capabilities for the user s application.

‘Trademark of Alpha Microsystems.

Write or call us for the location of your nearest Alpha Microsystems Dealer,

0(lpha

^"'CKogySTEmS

17875N Sky Park North Irvine, California 92714 Phone: (714) 957-1404

S s

<£BZa£0(£

BC0SDKK1SS

AVAILABLE FOR IMMEDIATE DELIVERY

An Advanced, Comprehensive, Commercially oriented, Compiled I interpreters ASIC language facility designed for use with the

OP/M OPERATING SYSTEM

C BASIC FACILITIES INCLUDE:

DISK ACCESS — Sequential and Random Files, Fixed and Variable length records.

print USING allows sophisticated formatting of output to both the Printer and Disk Files,

FOURTEEN DIGITS of numeric precision,

LIBRARY FACILITY supports “Canned " procedures which are Included at compile time,

LINE NUMBERS are not necessary on every line. They are needed only to transfer control.

VARIABLE NAMES can be up to 31 characters long,

STRING manipulation facilities include MATCH, LEFTS, RIGHTS, MIDS, LEN, Concatenation, Arrays and More,

PEEK, POKE, CALL, WHILE, . WEND, TRACE, Printer Selection, Multiple lines per statement. Re- marks that don't take space, IF . . . THEN , . . ELSE, Logical Operations, IN PUT LI N E to enter text i ncluding commas and special characters, READ LINE to read text files and MORE,

FOR ONLY * 0 0 ^

Including Extensive User’s Manual

Manual only $15.00

BUSINESS APPLICATIONS PROGRAMS For CP/M Users:

□SORT - A Full-Diskette Sort/

Merge (in 8080 code) with Documentation $ 95

UTILITIES — Including a Full-Disk Copy and Memory Test $40

GENERAL LEDGER-A Generalized Business GL designed for Account- ants or Small Businesses. Includes complete documentation.

Written in C BASIC $995

NAME AND ADDRESS FILE SYSTEM — Interactive Entry program Adds, Changes, Deletes, or Displays records. Prints labels or reports of all or selected portions of a file. Written in C BASIC $ 79

To Order or For More Information, Write;

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S61S KALES AVENUE OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA 94618 (415) 547-1567

California residents add 6V2 % Sales Tax. Prepaid or COD only.

Dealer Inquires Invited

CP/M is a trademark of Digital Research.

CIRCLE INQUIRY NO. 50

32 INTERFACE AGE

mi

mw&wimm

Elliott MacLennan, Attorney at Law Stephen Murtha

SUBCHAPTER S

THE TAX HYBRID SMALL

BUSINESS CORPORATION

This is the second column in a series of columns dealing with the legal, tax, and tactical considera- tions which go into choosing the form in which to run your business. The first column dealt with sole pro- prietorships and partnerships. In this column, we shall discuss a unique form of organization; the Sub- chapter S corporation (Sub S), which can be very valuable to the entre- preneur.

ADVANTAGE OF ELECTING SUB- CHAPTER S STATUS

The principal income tax advan- tage of the Sub S corporation is the elimination of the corporate tax, thereby avoiding the “double taxa- tion" of corporate earnings white preserving the traditional legal ad- vantages of operating in the corpor- ate form, i.e., limited liability for owners; free transferability of stock; centralization of management and continuity of life.

PURPOSE

The underlying purpose of the Sub S corporation was to promote "tax neutrality” in the choice of the form of doing business. Query: Does the Congressional selection of the word “neutrality” mean that without this tax armistice, businessmen would be at war with the Internal Revenue Service?

TAX SAVING IDEAS

There are several reasons to elect S to be taxed as a Sub S corporation other than avoidance of the double tax imposed on the standard or Sub- chapter C corporation. Generally, the Sub S is helpful when a share- holder’s income derived from the corporation is either low or non-ex- istent, or inconsistently, extremely high.

Specifically, where the sharehold- ers are in a lower tax bracket than

the double-taxed Sub C corporation, the Sub S decreases the tax burden.

The Sub S performs probably its most distinguished and meritorious service in the business “start up” situation. Business losses exceed income, or to be specific, allowable deductions produce a “net operat- ing loss” which can be used to off- set other income of the taxpayer. These losses are said to “pass through" to the Sub S shareholder; not so for the shareholder’s unlucky shareholder in the Sub C corpora- tion. An analogy to a diode may be helpful here. The loss “pass through” to the Sub S shareholder would be a diode forward-biased and reversed- biased to a Sub C shareholder.

An excellent income splitting de- vice, i.e., shifting income from one family member in a high tax bracket to one in a lower bracket, is possible because the Sub S only taxes the amount of corporate income not pre- viously distributed to the share- holders. Since a shareholder's status is determined on the last day of the corporation’s tax year, a gift of stock to a lower bracket family member may be effected. This device requires cautious and thorough plan- ning to avoid Internal Revenue Ser- vice attack for prohibited assign- ment of income.

Where the Sub S corporation’s tax year is different from the calendar year, a tax deferral possibility exists. Again, since the undistributed por- tion of corporate income is not taxes unitl the last day of the cor- poration tax year, taxpayer-share- holder may consider the following:

Assume a Sub S corporation with a fiscal year ending January 31 of each year. Assume the Sub S has $100,000 of earnings. Assume $50,000 is distributed to taxpayer- shareholder during the calendar year (January 1 to December 31). Tax- payer must report the calendar year income on the first April 15 follow- ing the close of the calendar year

JANUARY 1978

A Complete Data Processing System for Small Businesses

LET’S TALK HARDWARE . . .

Last month INFO 2000 introduced the most capable and cost-effective microcomp- uter system you can buy for business data processing. This month’s advertisement takes a closer look at the hardware which makes up the INFO 2000 BUSINESS SYS- TEM, while future ads will focus upon the outstanding accounting and word-processing software offered with the system,

MASS STORAGE

The heart of a business system is its mass storage, INFO 2000 uses the PerSci 277 dual diskette drive, whose outstanding per- formance parameters set it apart from other floppy disk systems.

PRINTERS

Hardcopy devices tend to be expensive, but a high-performance printer is crucial to the success of a business data processing sys- tem. INFO 2000 offers both a high-speed line printer and a medium-speed work pro- cessing printer; either or both may be con- figured with the INFO 2000 BUSINESS SYSTEM,

The high-speed line printer provides con- tin ucus-duty bidirectional printing at 160 characters per second- about 6 rimes faster than competitive units. This state-of-the- art peripheral prints a full 132-character line, and has an adjustable forms tractor which accomodates all sprocket-feed busi- ness forms up to four layers thick, and up to 1 5 inches wide. The printer generates all 95 ASCII characters including true lower case letters with descenders, and also has a com- plete graphics capability. (The pictures of the Mona Lisa in the photo shown were act- ually printed on this unit.)

The medium-speed word processing prin- ter provides print speeds up to 55 cpst and utilizes the latest in daisy-wheel technology to provide typewriter quality output. The unit accepts either carbon or doth ribbons, quick-change type wheels in a wide variety of fonts, an adjustable forms tractor for sprocket-feed forms, plus conventional pla- ten feed for ordinary letterhead. This print- er indudes a complete S electric-style key- board, and can be used as an auxiliary con- sole for the computer system, or can he switched off-line and used as a typewriter.

VIDEO CONSOLE

The selection of a video console is espe- cially important in a business system be- cause of the many hours that you will spend in front of that console. INFO 2000 has tried, tested, and rated them all, and has chosen the very finest video console on the market for its system. This unit incorporates a third -gene ration microprocessor to pro- vide advanced functions and complete

self-test capability. The commercial-quality keyboard includes a full typewriter key- board. a row of special function keys, and a separate numeric keypad. The video display uses an 8x8 dot matrix character genera- tor (instead of the usual 5x7) to provide a beautifully readable display of all 95 ASC1T characters including true lower ease letters with descenders— especially important for word processing. Other features include line graphics (for displaying business forms on the screen), dual display intensity, reverse video, and an extra high speed of 19,200 bits per second (instead of the usual 9*600).

CENTRAL PROCESSOR

The processor is a 280, the fastest and most advanced 8-bit microprocessor availa- ble, and is configured with up to 56K of RAM memory (32K standard). The remark- able INFO 2000 universal I/O board com- bines a complete diskette controller for up to 8 drives, two R5232 serial ports with software-selectable baud rates, three 8 -bit parallel ports, and 8K of EPROM on a single printed circuit board. Thus the standard sys- tem requires only four hoards: CPU board, I/O board, and 2 16K RAM boards.

The professional quality mainframe in- cludes a filtered forced -air cooling system and a heavy-duty constant- volt age (ferro- resonant) power supply with twice as much rated capacity as actually needed by the sys- tem, The INFO 2000 BUSINESS SYSTEM is built around the widely used 5-1 00 bus architecture, providing unlimited flexibility to expand or customize the system with a wide variety of off-the-shelf S-10D modules. You are not locked into the product line of a single manufacturer.

The standard mainframe provides 12 slots in a compact, attractive package; even this provides for a great deal of system growth potential, since the standard 32 K system uses only 4 slots! Optional mainframes with 22 slots and with 22 slots plus a complete front pane! are also available.

OPERATING SOFTWARE

Standard operating software for your own program development work is the best and most complete available for any micro- computer system, and includes a complete Disk Operating System plus the full library of Technical Design Labs (TDL) software: Super BASIC, Macro Assembler, Text Edit- ing Language, and Word Processor, An ex- tended ANSI FORTRAN JV is available at

additional cost, as are the complete account- ing and word processing applications pack- ages which will be detailed in future INFO 2000 advertisements.

COST AND DELIVERY

INFO 2000 offers this system as a total rcady-to-run package, with all components fully assembled and tested together as a complete system. The price of the basic sys- tem is 58,000, This includes a standard 32K processor, dual diskette system, high-speed line printer, video console, plus the disk op- erating system and complete TDL software package as described. The price also includes all cabinetry and cables, box of diskettes, spare printer ribbon—absolutely everything you need to plug in and run on the first day!

Delivery is 15-30 days after receipt of your order. COD orders are accepted if a 20% deposit accompanies the order, but INFO 2000 extends a liberal $200 discount to retail customers who prepay in full at the rime of order, California residents must add 6% sales tax.

Options include the following: Addition- al loK RAM, add $400. 22-slot mainframe instead of standard 12-slot, add $150. 22- slot mainframe plus full front panel, add 56 50, Medium-speed word processing prin- ter instead of high-speed line printer, add 51,100. Both printers, add $3,300, ANSI FORTRAN TV software, add 5350.

ATI components of the system are fully warranted by INFO 2000 for a full 90 days. We have taken every precaution to ensure that you have no surprises and no hassles. Ocher small business computers are being advertised, but we honestly believe that you cannot buy another system with comparable technical credentials that is priced close to

the INFO 2000 BUSINESS SYSTEM.

For additional information, circle the in- dicated number on the reader service card. Or for a faster reply, write us directly. Deal- er inquiries arc welcomed.

CORPORATION

20630 South Leapwood Avenue Carson, California 90746

(213) 532-1702

INTERFACE AGE 33

JANUARY 1978

CIRCLE INQUIRY NO. 48

The difference is value. Take a look at our low-cost microcomputer’s heavy duty cabinet. Even with the cover removed, it maintains its rigid structural integrity. But we don’t stop there. Quality built Vector Graphic products, from boards and kits to complete systems — such as our Memorite turn-key text editor shown below — beat all competitors in mechanical, thermal and electrical design.

Based on an 8080A microprocessor and the S-100 bus structure, Vector Graphic microcomputers are compatible (with the exception of minor I/O patches) with all of the current 8080A software.

If you’re designing small business systems, text editors, control equipment, games or even microprocessor development, it will pay you to look into our low cost microcomputers and interface boards, kits or assembled.

Rush me details today.

Yes, I’m interested in:

□ Systems □ Boards, kits or assembled □ Microcomputers

j Name

I Firm

Phone

j Address

1 City/State/Zip .

Vector Graphic Inc.,

790 Hampshire Rd., Westlake Village, C A 91 361 (805) 497-6853

lC>3 G3APHC iflC.

Sold and serviced nationally.

Vector Graphic's microcomputer What's in it for you? 4*

Word processing systems for $7,950 — features normally found in systems costing twice as much.

34 INTERFACE AGE

CIRCLE INQUIRY NO. 62

JANUARY 1978

when that income was earned. If tax- payer waits until after the close of the calendar year and pays out the undistributed $50,000 portion of in- come between January 1 and Janu- ary 31, taxpayer will not have to report this income until April 15 of the next year, i.e., fourteen and one half months later. The economic ra- tionale is this: If taxpayer can defer payment of tax for one year, then the amount of tax that would have been paid except for the deferred amounts to an interest-free loan to taxpayer for the year deferred.

Shifting to the other end of the in- come spectrum, a Sub S can help taxpayer in the following manner. Many Sub C taxpayer-shareholders tire of wrangling with the Internal Revenue Service over what is “rea- sonable compensation” in the form of salary and bonuses paid to them from their corporation. If, as the shareholder argues, compensation is reasonable, then generally the maximum tax imposed is fifty per- cent. The Internal Revenue Service, if successful in contending that the compensation is unreasonable, may tax the unreasonable portion up to seventy percent. The Internal Reve- nue Service rationale being that the compensation by not being reason- able must be a disguised distribu-

tion of corporate earnings and pro- fits, i.e., disguised dividends.

Lastly, if taxpayer elects Sub S status because of expected loss pass through from start up losses, and surprise — the venture is quick- ly producing a profit beyond taxpay- er’s requirements for personal spend- ing income, taxpayer may want to terminate the Sub S election to reduce the tax burden. Caveat: Ter- mination of Sub S status must be planned carefully and once accom- plished, cannot be subsequently elected, generally for five years.

OPERATION

In general, income is reported on the shareholder’s individual tax returns directly. The corporation files a tax return, a form 1120S each year, even though it pays no tax. Cer- tain tax preference items such as capital gains, accelerated deprecia- tion, etc. receive special treatment, unfavorable from the taxpayer’s point of view.

There are seven basic require- ments set out in the Internal Reve- nue Code which must be met in order to elect Subchapter S status. The word elect is of critical import- ance here. All of the shareholders must elect to be taxed under Sub- chapter S provisions. If any one or

more shareholders do not elect, or if one of the shareholders terminates his election, then the corporation loses its privilege to be taxed as a Sub S corporation.

The seven requirements for eligi- bility of this method of taxation are as follows:

1) The corporation must be a domestic corporation. In addi- tion, it may not be a member of an affiliated group eligible to file a consolidated return with any other corporation.

2) It may not have more than ten shareholders during the first five years under election and no more than fifteen share- holders thereafter. The only exception to this rule of ten during the first five years is the addition of new shareholders who inherited their shares from a deceased shareholder. In this case, the number may go up to fifteen during the first five years. A husband and wife who hold shares as tenants in the entirety, tenants in com- mon, joint tenancy, or as com- munity property will be counted as only one shareholder in ap- plying this rule.

3) All shareholders must be indi-

IN ELECTRONICS PK HASTHE LINE...

DIP/IC INSERTION TOOL with PIN STRAIGHTENER

STRAIGHTEN PINS

RELEASE

PICK- UP

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* MINIMUM 0R0ER $25.00. SHIPPING CHARGE $1.00, N Y. CITY ANO STATE RESIDENTS AOD TAX

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3455 CONNER STREET, BRONX. NEW YORK. N Y. 10475 U.S.A.

PHONE (212) 994-6600 TELEX NO 125091

JANUARY 1978

CIRCLE INQUIRY NO. 37

INTERFACE AGE 35

We'd Like To Ask You A Question.

Have you considered the Central Data 1 6K RAM board? If you haven't, you should. We’ve combined quality engineering and low prices to come up with a memory board you'll like. Take a look at our features and find out for yourself.

• completely assembled, tested and burned in

• expandable to 32K

• S- 1 00 compatible

• access time of 450ns

• invisible refresh — absolutely no wait states

• power dissipation one-half that of static RAM

• one-year warranty.

You can purchase a 16K RAM board with all these features for only $289. The cost of adding 16K to your present Central Data 16K board is $200.

A 32K RAM board, assembled, tested and burned-in, is only $475,

With all those features, don't you think you should be considering ours?

Central

data

P0 Box 2484, Station A Champaign, IL 61820

Please send me the following: □ 16K RAM board ($289)	Name
Address
□ 32K RAM board ($475)	City
□ additional information	State	7.in
I enclose $ III. residents add sales tax. Central Data P.0, Box 2484, Sta. A Champaign, [1 61820		r

36 INTERFACE AGE

CIRCLE INQUIRY NO. 6

JANUARY 1978

viduals, estates of decedent shareholders, or certain trusts. A corporation cannot elect Subchapter S treatment if another corporation, partner- ship, or non qualified trust has stock in that corporation.

4) A non-resident alien may not be a shareholder.

5) The corporation may not have more than one class of stock.

6) The corporation may not get more than eighty percent of its gross receipts from sources outside the United States.

7) The corporation may not get more than twenty percent of its gross receipts from interest, dividends, rents, royalties, an- nuities, and gains from sales or exchanges of securities. (This is called “passive income.”)

The first five of these require- ments must be met before the cor- poration can make a valid election for a given tax year. Failure to meet any of the requirements will auto- matically terminate an otherwise valid election for the tax year in which the condition is not met. Remember, if the Subchapter S elec- tion is terminated, either voluntarily or involuntarily, then the corporation must wait for five years until it can re-elect this tax treatment under most situations.

There are also several advantages which both Subchapter S and Sub- chapter C corporations have over sole proprietorships and partner- ships. These will be examined in the next two columns dealing with Sub- chapter C corporations.

The Subchapter S corporation is one of the forms of business often used by new or extremely success- ful business ventures. It can offer many of the advantages of the cor- porate, partnership, and sole propri- etorship form of business in the form of a hybrid possessing most of the desirable aspects of all forms.

A thorough examination of the company’s business plan and future growth pattern are essential prere- quisites to consider prior to electing this unique form of doing business. Lastly, it should be pointed out that the Subchapter S provisions exist only with respect to Federal, not State, income taxation.

The material presented in this arti- cle is intended for the reader's gen- eral information. The authors request that the reader consult professional advisors prior to applying this mater- ial to his or her specific situation.

Introducing Bit Pad.

The new,

low-cost digitizer for small computer systems.

Bit Pad is the newest product from Summagraphics. the leading producer o( professional digitizers. 1 1 has a small 1 1 -inch active area and a small $555 price tag But the list of applications is as big as your imagination.

Better than a joystick or keyboard for entering graphic information it converts any point on a page, any vector, any distance into its digital equivalents. It's also a menu for data entry You assign a value, or an instruction to any location on the pad At the touch of a stylus, it's entered into your system

Who can use it? Anyone from the educator and the engineer to the hobbyist and the computer games enthusiast The data structure is byte oriented tor easy compatibility with small computers, so you can add a power supply, stand-alone display, cross-hair cursor and many other options.

$1,000.00 creativity prize. You can also add $1,000 00 to your bank account as a reward for your inventiveness. Just write an article on an original Bit Pad application and submit it to any national small-computer periodical. I f the editors publish it - and the decision is solely theirs - Summagraphics will pay you $1,000 00 Contact Summagraphics tor rules concerning this offer

Rhone(203) 384-1344 TELEX 96-4348

JANUARY 1978

CIRCLE INQUIRY NO. 51

INTERFACE AGE 37

The High Performance Floppy Disk System That's Not High Priced

Micromation’s MACRO DISK is a complete, high performance floppy disk system — yet it’s economical.

Fast Per-Sci Drive

MACRO DISK uses the unique Per-Sci dual drive to give you the fastest, most reliable system avail- able. This unique drive features a fast voice coil positioner and automatic electronic diskette hand- ling. It’s a field-tested design that’s proven its relia- bility and superiority in years of operation. And its a full-sized dual drive — you have on-line mass stor- age of over 500K Bytes, and you can copy diskettes to provide essential system backup.

IBM Compatible Controller The Micromation disk controller features full IBM 3740 formating — so you can interchange disks with the rest of the world. There’s even a serial I/O port on the controller board to make it easy to bring the system up. Just connect your terminal to the con- troller’s serial interface, install in any 16K S-100 system, jump to the on-board PROM bootstrap — and you’re up and running without any patching.

A Complete, Assembled System

MACRO DISK is fully assembled and tested. And

it’s complete — including aluminum enclosure,

cables, power supply, and fan. Everything you need 38 INTERFACE AGE CIRCLE

to bring big system performance to your S-100 com- puter.

Powerful CP/M Software — and BASIC

For program development select the optional Micro- mation version of CP/M, the most powerful floppy disk operating system available for microcomputers. And there’s BASIC. A complete disk BASIC featuring: versatile file access; string processing; and both numeric and string arrays.

Under $2,000 Systems

The fast Per-Sci drive, the IBM compatible control- ler, and the powerful CP/M software make MACRO DISK a high performance system. And since MACRO DISK uses proven, standard components, there’s no long wait for delivery. Systems are available in less than four weeks from receipt of your order. But the best news is the price.

MACRO DISK dual Disk system $1,895.

CP/M with BASIC 95.

Complete Documentation Package 35.

(refundable with order)

Ask about MACRO DISK at your computer store, or write or call for additional details. Micromation Inc., 524 Union, San Francisco, Ca. 94133,

(415) 398-0289.

NO. 31

INQUIRY

JANUARY 1978

HOW TO GET THE MOST OUT OF A COMPUTER CONVENTION

Attending a computer convention can be both fun and rewarding, but it can also be a waste of time. What you get out of it is in many ways de- pendent on how well organized you are. The basis of this organization is a good plan. To get a good start, begin developing your plan at least a month in advance.

The first thing to do is preregister.

I can’t emphasize this enough. Usu- ally, you will save $2.00 or $3.00 by preregistering, but the savings in time and irritation will be worth many times this amount. You might also ask about groups.

The second thing to do is order a rubber stamp or a packet of mailing labels. This will save you the trouble of writing your name down on 200 mailing lists. It also offers you some assurance that the exhibitor will be able to decipher your name.

Start your plan by deciding whom you want to see, what interests you and why. You will find a list of exhi- bitors in your preregistration kit. If you need equipment, books, or soft- ware there will be plenty of manufac- turers, electronic equipment suppli- ers and computer stores from which to choose. Determine how much you can afford and what you want. Most exhibitors will accept cash, check or credit card and give a discount, so go prepared to buy some things. As a general rule count on looking at the item at the manufacturer's booth and buying it at the dealer’s booth. Most manufacturers do not want to compete with their dealers, so you

will probably get a better price from a dealer. Narrow the list of exhibitors down into two groups: those you really want to see (the key group) and all the rest (the other group). Once you have done this you are ready to consider the sessions.

Read the title and the description of every session listed and ask your- self these two questions: What can I learn from this and what good will it do me? Make a list of the sessions you think might teach you something and then go through it again. Ask yourself the same two questions. You should be able to narrow the list down to a workable manner. By the way, be sure to take a notepad, a pencil and a tape recorder. (You can tape record any session providing you don’t make a copy for anyone else.)

When you have decided what you would like to see, you are ready to lay out your time. Make up your mind right at the start that you are going to allow enough time. The minimum is about six hours. You will want to di- vide your time at about % at sessions and % at exhibits. You’ll need about five minutes at key booths and about two minutes at other booths. Most sessions will be about Vz hour. As an example, assume you have six hours. This means you will be able to attend four sessions (6 hours x 1/3 = 2 = 4 half-hour sessions). You will have four hours to spend in the exhibits. If you spend 50% of your time at those key exhibits (120 minutes 5 minutes) and 50% of your time at other exhibits (120 minutes -s- 2 minutes), you can see

24 key and 60 other. This is less than half of the usual convention.

A much better way of doing this is to decide you are going to spend as much time as necessary. As an ex- ample, let’s assume there are 200 booths. The first thing to do is divide the number of booths by 3.5; this will give you the number of key booths you can see. Multiply this by five minutes:

200 + 3.5 = 57 key x 5 min. 60 = 4.75 hrs.

If you are going to spend 4 hours and 45 minutes at key booths then you are going to spend 4 hours and 45 minutes at the other booths:

4 hrs. 45 min. <+• 2 min. = 143 other If you are spending 9V2 hours total and spend 5 hours in sessions, or 10 sessions:

9.5 hrs. -s- .666 = 14.26

Now if you compare this to your list of sessions you want to attend and exhibits you want to see, you should be able to figure out the ideal time you want to spend. Add in a little time for lunch, chatting with friends, etc., and don’t forget time to sit down to rest your feet. Convention- going is exhausting.

The conclusion you should draw from this is that it takes more than one day. Most of the personal com- puting conventions are on the week- end, so you should have the time. Use it! If you can, you should attend all three days. There are advantages and disadvantages of attending at various times. The best time to buy something is the first day and the

JANUARY 1978

INTERFACE AGE 39

Puzzled

About Computers?

Data Dynamics Technology has a library of answers . .

ft

(I An Introduction 1o Microcomputers: Volume 0, The Beginner's Book By Adam Osborne. 22® pages, $7*50 This book has been written for readers who know nothing about computers, and it has been written for two audiences: 1) For those of you who have a real interest in learning how to use computers. 2) For everyone else — who must live with computers, and need to know a little about them. For those of you who have a real interest in learning how to use computers, this is the first in a series of books. After reading this book you will be ready to move on to “Volume 1 — Basic Concepts," which gives you the information you will need in order to use computers.

Order No. OSB6QQ1, paper

a

An introduction to Microcomputers: Volume 1, Basic Concepts By Adam Osborne* 207 pages, $7.50 This book covers the hardware and software concepts required for the intermediate techni- cian and hobbyist's needs.

Order No . OSB20Q1 , paper.

An Introduction to Microcomputers: Volume It, Some Real Products By Adam Osborne* 868 pages, SI 5,00

As the second volume in a two-volume set, the purpose of this book is to describe some real products which implement the general con- cepts covered in Volume L In this book, devices of the 8080 A, MCG8QD, Z80. and MC56500 microcomputers are described in ap- proximately the detail we believe to be necessary.

Order No. QSB3001, paper

HU™—.-

W By David L. Heiserman 234 pages, £5.95

Here are complete instructions, plans, sche- matics, logic circuits, and wiring diagrams for building Buster, the most lovable (end mischievous) mechanical pet in the world! He’ll serve you coffee or bring you the morning papers. Hell forage for his own "food" and scream when he can't find It His “curiosity" will get him into one plight after another, but Buster has the capacity to get himself out of trouble Just as easily as he got into it!

Order No. TB841, paper

Getting Involved with Your Own Computer: A Guide for Beginners By Leslie Solomon and Stanley Veit 216 pages, $5,95

This Is the first major book by outstanding authorities that assumes only that you have an interest in what makes personal computers work and what can be done with them. It will not make you a computer expert, but it will teach you enough to understand what is going on and where to go for more information.

Order No. RfD004-8, paper

By James White. 220 pages, S6.00 For the pre-hobbyist and the microcomputer novice, Your Home Computer provides a com- plete introduction to the world of home com- puting, beginning wilh what computers are and how they work. This book requires no prior knowledge or experience in electronics or computing. It provides answers to your many questions about hardware, software, and the personal computing scene today.

Order No, DM K 05-1 , paper.

(J Instant BASIC

^ By Jerald R. Brown. 180 pages, S6.00

Written for the inexperienced, this activity- oriented book will help you leach yourself microcomputer BASIC, and the similar DEC BASIC PLUS for programming your personal computer* There's never a dull page and plenty of activities ... so have fun while you learn! For those of you who already know some BASIC, this workbook can teach you the new microcomputer dialect.

Order No. DMX 04 3, paper.

Basic SASIC:

An Introduction to Computer Programming in BASIC Language By James S* Coan, 256 pages, $8*95 This text for high school and college students integrates programming In BASIC language and the teaching of mathematics. Written in precalculus setting, it Is suitable either as a supplementary text within already established math courses or as the sole text in a course on programming alone.

Order No. HAY5872-1 r paper.

Advanced BASIC

By James S. Coan. 192 pages, S7.95

This book is for those who want to extend their expertise with BASIC and offers advance tech- niques and applications, Including coordinate geometry, area, sequences and desires, poly- nomials, graphing, simulations and games. Order Wo. HAY5055-7, paper.

II Beginners Guide to Computer

Programming

By Brice Ward. 379 pages, $7.95

As any practitioner will tell you, computer pro- gramming is not extremely complicated, at least not for those who have enough initiative to learn the basics. And If your supply of “initia- tive" is adequate, you can learn those basics from this book; in fact, if you learn the material contained herein, you'll be well on your way to becoming a full-fledged programmer.

Order No. T8574 , paper,

m

Beginners Guide to Computer Logic By Gerald F* Stapleton* 192 pages, $7*95 This book was written for those who want a practical introduction to logic and computer systems, The objective is to present the basic concepts of logic design and demonstrate these concepts with construction plans for various logic and computing subsystems. The reader with little or no background in computer technology can learn the fundamentals and ap- ply Ihem in selecled projects.

Order No. TB54$h chth.

DATA DYNAMICS TECHNOLOGY P.O. Box 1217, Cerritos, CA 90701

N ame ( Pri nl)

Add ress _

City

Please send me;

_ Stale.

_Zlp_

Description	pjy	Price	Total	Book Order#	Gty	Price	Total
Binders		7.50
Slip Cases		5*95
Hex Code Cards Octal Code Cards		2.95
	295

Shipping & Handling Charges

Binders and Slip Cases $1.00 ea. US*, Si 50 ea. Foreign Code Cards $ .25 ea. U.S., S .SO ea, Foreign

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Please allow six weeks for delivery. You may photocopy I his page If you wish to keep your INTERFACE AGE intact. Orders cannot be shipped unless accompanied by payment, including shipping & handling and lax where applicable. DATA DYNAMICS TECHNOLOGY, A Division oflNTERFACE AGE Magazine (213)926-6629

40 INTERFACE AGE

JANUARY 1978

TYCHON's 8080 Octal and Hex Code Cards The code cards are a sliderule-like aid for pro- gramming and debugging 8080 software. Both cards contain ad the standard mnemonics and either their corresponding octal or hex codes. The pocket size cards are 6.5 by 3 inches (16 by 8 cm) with color coded instructions to provide a neat, logical format for quick reference. The back of both cards Is printed with an ASCII code chart for all 128 characters plus the 8080's status word and register pair codes.

INTERFACE AGE Binders and Slip Cases

Collecting magazines can bring headaches — not to mention dust, ripped pages and mis- placed copies. If you use your back issues of INTERFACE AGE as reference material, nothing is more annoying than taking time to find mislaid copies. Data Dynamics Tech- nology is now offering deluxe binders and slip cases which will place each pack issue of INTERFACE AGE at your fingertips. Each binder and slip case is constructed of a hand- some blue vinyl with INTERFACE AGE stamped in gold foil on the front cover and spine. These rugged binders and slip cases can hold 12 issues each and will protect your back issues ol INTERFACE AGE for years.

An Introduction to Microcomputers: Volume 1, Basic Concepts By Adam Osborne. 292 pages, $7.50 Order No. QSB2001 , paper.

An introduction to Microcomputers: Volume II, Some Real Products By Adam Osborne. 869 pages. SI 5.00 Order No. QSB300L paper.

Gelling Involved with Your Own Computer:

A Guide lor Beginners

By Leslie Solomon and Stanley Veit

216 pages. $5.95

Order No. RIDQ04 -8, paper

Computer Programming Handbook

By Peter A. Stark. 505 pages, $9.95

Order NO. TB752, paper.

The 11 Compute! or" Book

By R.F. Haviland. 320 pages. $7-95

Order No. TB975, paper.

Modern Electronics Math

By Jerrold R. Clihord & Martin Clifford

684 pages, 59 95

Order No. 78655, paper

Numbers: Shortcuts & Faslimes

By Jack Gilbert. 336 pages. $6.95

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CIRCLE INQUIRY NO. 13

INTERFACE AGE 41

imcnraLC «Sc magazine presents

Micro Business 78"

CONSUMER

SHOW

MICRO BUSINESS ’78™ will provide a series of marketing forums and exhibits to introduce the small independent busi- nessman to the new low-cost, high-power business microcom- puter that will reduce his company’s costs, place him in a more flexible marketplace and provide timely data information.

Emphasis will be on the small budget requirements for pur- chase of an in-house computer. The show will demonstrate the latest systems, exhibiting complete hardware and software from small hand-held programmable calculators to full turn-key computers.

• Latest in Word Processors

• Newly-Released Business Software

• Low-Cost Text Editing Typewriters

• Modularized Computers

THE LOW COST, dependability, simplicity of operation, and cost savings advantages of microcomputers will be discussed in a series of lectures to remove the many misconceptions the average businessman may have about the microcomputer technology. Lectures by such companies as IBM, Commodore Business Machines and Radio Shack will present the

businessman with the latest information about application, service and investment.

Author Adam Osborne will discuss business software. OTHER LECTURES on the program include:

• Small Business Computing Systems

• Evaluating Your Business Computer Needs

• Software Companies

• The Mainframe Companies & The Small Computer

• The Small Business Computer Company

• Computer Stores and the Small Business System

• Retail Mass Marketing of Microcomputers

Sponsored by: INTERFACE AGE Magazine

EXHIBITORS: PLACE YOUR RESERVATION NOW!

Produced & Managed by:

Show Company International 8687 Melrose Avenue Los Angeles, California 90069 (213) 659-2050 Ed Tavetian

42 INTERFACE AGE

CIRCLE INQUIRY NO. 30

JANUARY 1978

best time to see something is the last day. Reasons for this are: exhi- bitors run out of both customers and goods by the last day. Many conven- tions close at 7:00 Sunday and from about 3:00 on the convention hall is very quiet. If you want to miss the crowds, go on the last day, but be prepared to place orders rather than buy things on the spot.

Once you have decided what you are going to see and what days you are going, you are ready to make a checklist and a schedule. To make a checklist start by grouping your key exhibitors by what they do, for in- stance:

A. Magazine Publishers

1. INTERFACE AGE

2. Creative Computing

3. Kilobaud

B. Book Publishers

1. dilithium Press

2. Hayden

3. Osborne & Associates

C. Hardware

1. E&L Instruments

2. MITS

3. Ohio Scientific

D. Software

1. Meca

2. Byte Shop

3. Technical Design Labs

(Please understand that this is just an example of part of a possible list, it does not mean I am endorsing any of these companies.) Put your checklist, by groups, on 3x5 cards. When you visit a book, check It off. Using the checklist in conjunction with your schedule should keep you from missing someone you wanted to see.

Your schedule should be laid out on both a time-and-place basis. You will need a floor plan to do It. You may not get the floor plan until you arrive, but you can leave space on your schedule. Here is a sample schedule:

Friday 6:00-9:00

6:00-6:15

Registration

6:15-7:00

Booths 185-200

Key: 185, 188, 193, 198, 200

7:00

Session-2

7:30

Session-3 8:00-9:00 Booths 160-185 Key: 160, 162, 173 Make a schedule like this for each day you are going to attend. Once you have your schedule and check-

list complete, you are ready to at- tend the convention.

Here are a few things to keep in mind when you get to the conven- tion. While you are standing in the p re registration line, look around the area and try to figure out where are the lunch counter, restrooms, etc. Pick up a floor plan and organize your checklist and schedule accord- ing to the floor plan. Also, try to find out who is giving away bags. Follow your checklist and schedule and check things off as you see them. It is usually a good idea to pick up a bag immediately, but stick with your schedule. Don’t start seeing the ex- hibits at the booth where you pick up the bag. Try to arrive at sessions 5-10 minutes early so that you can organize your thoughts. If you are going to eat lunch, go at 11:00 or 1:00, so you won't get caught in the crunch.

If you follow the suggestions I have outlined you should gain a lot from the convention. However, there is a better way. Use my method as a base and develop your own. Regard- less of what plan you use, it is better than no plan.

Next month, a look at what courses are offered around the country.

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CIRCLE INQUIRY NO. 63

JANUARY 1978

INTERFACE AGE 43

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44 INTERFACE AGE

JANUARY 1978

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JANUARY 1978

INTERFACE AGE 45

. . . FROM THE FOUNTAINHEAD

. * • By Adam Osborne

f fe

* *

Individual customers and com* puter stores must immediately stop paying for hardware or software pro- ducts in advance of product delivery. You should only pay with your order when dealing with com* panies that have an established rec- ord of filling the order immediately. Paying for something months in ad- vance of receiving it (if you ever receive it) is not only unfair to the buyer, it is encouraging manufactur- ers and stores to dig for themselves a financial hole out of which they cannot climb.

I have recently received a large number of complaints both from in- dividuals and stores regarding hard* ware and software that was delivered many months after payment was made, or that has never been deliv- ered. I could name some of the manu- facturers and stores guilty of these crimes, but I will not do so, since merely listing the names of these outfits in this column could conceiv- ably drive them into bankruptcy — which would certainly not benefit the hundreds or thousands of people with outstanding orders.

It is very important that everyone stop paying months in advance for products. This practice does no one any good. For manufacturers, this is how it works: you pay three months in advance for something you wish to buy. The manufacturer needs to buy supplies in order to build your product; but the manufacturer who forces you to pay three months in advance does not pay his bills until three months after taking delivery. Thus he gains a six-month cash float on everything he is building. This is the money he uses in order to build the products he is selling. This policy is extremely dangerous, because it takes just one slip and the company can go bankrupt. Sup- pose, for example, a manufacturer has been advertising a new floppy disc-based system that he cannot make work. By the time he discovers that he cannot make the floppy disc- based system work, he has spent ail of the money that people paid to buy the system and he has incurred debts buying the parts needed to build the system. Now that the system does not work, all of that money is lost, and that could be enough to drive the company into bankruptcy. There is no need for this type of financial fly-by-night opera- tion; it is simply the product of greedy company owners. Plenty of investment money is available today which could be used, instead of cus- tomers' cash, in order to design and build new products. The problem is that no one will give you investment money without buying a part of your

company. And the present crop of manufacturers are simply too greedy and arrogant to give up anything. We must force them to operate their businesses legitimate- ly, or the whole industry is going to acquire a lousy reputation. And the way we force them to operate legiti- mately is by no longer paying in ad- vance for a product that may never be shipped.

I was recently in Toronto at the Can- adian Computer Show. I had a chance to talk with people running the three major computer stores in Toronto. These three stores are the Computer Place, the First Canadian Computer Store and the Computer Mart.

The Computer Place is run by Steve Pumple, Murry Des Noyer and Karen Klein. There are approximately 18 people working at the Computer Place, which sells ten to fifteen computer systems a month. About half of these systems go to hobby- ists, while the other half go to in- dustries and schools. The Computer Place offers in-house service plus programming.

The First Canadian Computer Store is run by John Crawford and Ian Hutchinson, two gentlemen with a very substantial computer industry background. The First Canadian Computer Store employs eight peo- ple (and happened to have Miss Canada at their booth); they sell three hardware configurations as packages.

The Competor 1 is a sgnall busi- ness system. The Competor 2 is a retail control system for stores, or other retail outlets. The Competor 3 is a word-processing system. The First Canadian Computer Store is shipping 20 to 30 systems a month, mostly to industrial customers.

The Computer Mart is run by Spence Howard and Tiio Blanken- feldt, who also have significant data processing and computer hardware backgrounds. The Computer Mart ships approximately twelve systems a month with a mix of hobbyists and businesses as customers. They have three full-time employees and five part-time employees.

What is interesting about all three Toronto computer stores is that by U.S.A, standards they are doing a very substantial business. A com- puter store that ships ten systems a month in the U.S.A. is considered to be doing quite well, I believe that the high volumes achieved by Canadian computer stores largely result from the far less sophisticated customer base that they are serving. Cana- dians are more likely to take a chance on a small computer-based system because they have a smaller Branched to Page 52

JANUARY 7978

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JANUARY 1978

INTERFACE ASE 47

OSBORNE & ASSOCIATES , INC.

The World Leaders In Microprocessor Books

Many books on microprocessors and their use are now on the market, and most of them have names that sound alike. But Osborne & Associates' books have dominated this market since 1975, when our first book appeared. With rave reviews from all over the world, with more than three hundred university text adoptions, our books are all best sellers. In fact, "An In- troduction To Microcomputers: Volume I — Basic Concepts" now holds the world's record in sales volume for any com- puter textbook sold for a profit.

If you want information on microprocessors, begin with the Osborne books.

For the microcomputer user, a series of books provide complete programs, written in BASIC. All these books are by Lon Poole and Mary Borchers.

"Some Common Basic Programs" 200 pages Book No: 21002 $7.50

"Payroll With Cost Accounting — In Basic". 400 pages

Book No.: 22002 $12.50

"Accounts Payable and Accounts Receivable"

Book No.: 23002 $12.50 Available early 1978

"General Ledger "

Book No.: 24002 $12.50 Available mid 1978

"An Introduction To Microcom- puters: Volume 0 — The Beginner's Book" By Adam Osborne.

This is the book for the absolute beginner. Assuming that you know nothing about computers, math or science of any kind, this book explains what computers are all about — and it takes you to the point where you can read Volume I. 300 pages.

Book No: 6001 $7.50

"An Introduction To Microcom- puters: Volume I — Basic Concepts" By Adam Osborne.

The world's best selling computer textbook. This book explains, clearly, concepts common to all microcomputers, yet specific to none. 350 pages.

Book No.: 2001 $7.50

8080A/8085

ASSEMBLY LANGUAGE PROGRAMMING

Lance Leventhal

"8080A and 8085 Assembly Language Programming" By Lance Leventhal.

This book is for the assembly language pro- grammer or student; it explains assembly language programming for the 8080A and 8085 microcomputers. The book contains numerous examples. 400 pages.

Book No.: 31003 $7.50

	"An Introduction To Microcom- puters: Volume II — Some Real Products" (Revised June 1977) By Adam Osborne, Susanna Jacobson and Jerry Kane.
^Maniwtwqouction t Pro MICWOCOMPUTtRsB
KoSStSSoWtOQUCTSM	This book describes every common microprocessor and all of their support devices. Information is new and clearly written. Only data sheets are copied from manufacturers. 1200 pages. Book No.: 3001 $15.00

The "Programming For Logic Design" series of books show how to use microprocessors in a digital logic en- vironment.

"8080 Programming For Logic Design** By Adam Osborne. 300 pages. Book No.: 4001 $7.50

"6800 Programming For Logic Design" By Adam Osborne. 300 pages. Book No.: 5001 $7.50

"Z80 Programming For Logic Design" By Adam Osborne, Susanna Jacobson and Jerry Kane.

Book No: 7001 $7.50

OSBORNE & ASSOCIATES, INC. P.O. Box 2036

:	PRICE	QTY	AMT )
Y 6001	Volume 0 — The Beginner s Book	$7.50
2001	Volume 1 — Basic Concepts	7.50
3001A	Volume II — Some Real Products	15.00
4001	8080 Programming For Logic Design	7.50
5001	6800 Programming For Logic Design	7.50
7001	Z80 Programming For Logic Design	7.50
31003	8080A/8085 Assembly Language Programming	7.50
21002	Some Common BASIC Programs	7.50
22002	Payroll With Cost Accounting	12.50
6-1/2%. SF Bay Area residents only		TOTAL
6%. California residents outs.de SF Bay Area Sa)es Tax , California residents only)
books or less.	Shipping Charges
1 have enclosed: □ check □ money order TOTAL AMOUNT OF PURCHASE

V.

Berkeley, California 94702 DEPT. C

NAME

ADDRESS

CITY STATE ZIP PHONE

SHIPPING CHARGES

Q4th class (no charge, allow 3-4 weeks within USA, not applicable to discounted orders)

Os 50 per book, UPS (allow 10 days)

□ $1.50 per book, special rush shipment by air

□ $.50 per book, foreign surface mail

□ $3.00 per book foreign air mail

Shipping charges for bulk orders to be arranged.

Please send information on:

□ consignment □ dealer discounts □ foreign distributors

48 INTERFACE AGE

CIRCLE INQUIRY NO. 38

JANUARY 1978

Vectored from Page 14

Dear Editor

I am most interested in research information you have pertaining to the classroom use of electronic training modules or systems to teach solid state electronics. Research evaluating the teaching systems and comparing them to one another would be most desirable.

Any information covering various types of electronic hardware used in relation to semiconductor teaching aids would also be useful. Research showing a need for teaching solid state electronics in secondary schools and junior-senior college would be beneficial.

This material will be used in a study for updating school curricu- lum in relation to new and changing trends in electronics.

A. Austin Electronics Instructor L.A. Unified Schools 17829 Sybrandy Ave.

Cerritos, CA 90701

We are publishing Mr. Austin's ad- dress to facilitate his quest for infor- mation. Readers; we would also be interested in publishing articles on this theme . Editor

Dear Editor:

Now that you have been officially appointed publisher of robot stories (see KILOBAUD, Sept. 1977, page 20, in response to a letter from Bert Thiel), I hope you will do a complete article on the Century I robot and I hope you will provide us with many more robot articles in future issues.

I like your idea of having each issue cover one particular topic, Bionics, Robots, Astronomy, etc., and I hope you will repeat all the subjects in future issues. It is nice to be able to pick up one magazine and have a lot of information in it rather than a little In many magazines.

Lloyd G. Armstrong Pueblo, CO 81005

We'll be featuring Robotics Special il in the April issue. Watch for it. A year shows a growth in this new technology. —Editor

Dear Editor:

Normally 1 don't write letters to editors. But as a common sense engineering type (as opposed to be- ing a cloistered, ivy tower university

nit-picking engineering type) the malignment and misinformation be- ing spread about the ALTAIR/S-100 bus structure needs, i feel, to be publicly commented upon.

Firstly, granted the ALTAI R/S-1 00 bus may not be the world's best design (if there really is such a thing) in that some bus signals should not have been placed next to others on the bus. But just like the bumble bee, which according to aerodynamic engineering theory just can’t fly, but in fact does fly quite nicely, the ALTAIR/S-100 bus also works quite nicely. I suspect that a lot of the ear- ly problems experienced on the ALTAI R 8800 systems were due to the "speggetfi mess" (sic) of 100 wires running from the system back- plane to the programmer's front panel. That is, some of the bus signals which really shouldn’t be next to each other were forced into being close together in the bundle of wires. I suspect that if MITS had designed two 50 or one 100 conduc- tor flat ribbon cable to run between the backplane and the programmer's front panel rather than the 100 wire “speggetti mess most of the prob- lems traced to the backplane bus would never have appeared. Of course there are also better ways to terminate a bus than just letting it stop at the end of the backplane. That is, some sort of bus termination either active or passive, can do wonders with a glitchy bus. Indeed, the technique of properly terminat- ing a bus is widely used in commer- cial maxi, midi, mini, and microcom- puter systems. After all it is just common sense to terminate a signal carrying line into a fixed known im- pedance to prevent ringing, pick up and radiation of unwanted signals (cross talk). Therefore, while properly terminating a bus is not a cure all, it is good preventive medicine not to mention a sound engineering prac- tice, which several companies have come to reality (i.e. Godbout, Thinker Toys, etc.).

Secondly, if you decide to go with a system based on the ALTAIR/S-100 bus, you will have a large multiven- dor environment for your system’s components rather than being lock- ed into a manufacturer's product’s bus structure which is not ALTAIR / S-10Q bus compatible (this remark is aimed specifically at Heathkit and

their remarks made in their article which appeared in INTERFACE AGE of August, 1977), Granted the ALTAIR/ S-100 bus is not the only bus struc- ture possible, but it is a very viable one for 8-bit microcomputers (gee, wonder why no one has offered a board for the 6800 or 6502 MPU for the ALTAIR/S-100 bus? The market is potentially there.) And one of the few bus layouts that allows adding signals to it (there are sixteen lines uncommitted on the ALTAIR/S-100 backplane). Which means that if you want to add a parity bit to a memory board you have a spare line on the bus to accommodate it. This is something that very few other bus layouts on the market allow.

In closing the ALTAIR/S-100 bus may not be the best possible design (if there really is such a thing as "best design", I personally doubt it), but it does work, and works well, allows signals to be added, is com- mercially viable (i.e. people are buy- ing it, as evidenced by the large number of ALTAIR/S-100 bus sys- tems and components available from many vendors). The hobby, small system process control, and small business end users would be very very fortunate if the 16-bit microcomputer chips were to end up in as widely an accepted bus struc- ture on the open, freely (not many of those left) competitive market.

Don Waiters Ann Arbor, MI

“Welt, has it called the next play yet?”

JANUARY 1978

INTERFACE AGE 49

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50 INTERFACE AGE

CIRCLE INQUIRY NO. 59

JANUARY 1978

mu

By Sol Libes

President, ACG-NJ

In May, the ACG-NJ (Amateur Computer Group-New Jersey) will celebrate its 3rd birthday and begin its 4th year as a computer hobbyist club. With over 800 members, it ranks as the 3rd largest computer club in the country (the two larger clubs being the SCCS and Home- brew Computer Club), in fact, it may rank as the largest single club in the country, since the SCCS is reaily an organization of chapters and the Homebrew group is not a formal organization.

Further, the ACG-NJ is the sec- ond oldest club, being preceeded only by the Homebrew club. It is in- teresting to see how a large and suc- cessful club was born and how it grew and developed into the leading and pioneering organization that it is today.

I really never intended to start a

club. I am a teacher of electronics and computer programming at a community college in New Jersey. My students and I had been involved in a number of digital and computer projects in the early 1970ss and I also developed some friendships with home experimenters outside of school. We ran into difficulties try- ing to get an 8080 system up and running and sought help from other experimenters. The 1C manufac- turers were very unwilling to help us hobbyists. Therefore, in May of 1975 I decided to hold an informal gather- ing of computer hobbyists. I sent out notices to atl the schools in NJ, to amateur radio clubs and to the few hobbyists I was aware of.

Much to my surprise, 30 people showed up for the meeting. We all introduced ourselves and discussed what we were into. We all recognized that mutual help was the key to get- ting a home computer system run* ning and that a club would be very beneficial to formalize this activity. The attendees therefore decided, at that first meeting, to hold regular monthly meetings and to publish a small newsletter. In this way mem- bers would know who was doing what and could get in touch with other members for mutual help. This concept has been the guiding prin- ciple of our club — communications

and mutual help.

The members decided to levy a $2/ year membership fee to cover the cost of publishing and mailing the newsletter. I was elected llActing President”,

The first meetings were informal, with members showing off their pro- jects and systems or giving short talks and hardware and software. By the end of 1975 the club had grown to 140 members, with as many as 100 people at a meeting. The meet* Ings grew more formal, because of their size. We enlisted the sponsor- ship of several of the colleges in the state. As sponsors, they provided meeting space and liability insur- ance coverage under their policies. Generally, the schools did this at no charge, as a community service. Naturally, the schools derived con- siderable publicity from this spon- sorship.

At the end of 1975 we published a Membership Directory, It listed the 144 club members and their equip- ment. In this way any club member knew who to get in touch with regarding particular equipment and applications. We published another directory in early 1977 (listing 450 members) and expect to publish our third directory soon (listing about 800 members). As far as I know, we are the only club that publishes a

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JANUARY 1978

CIRCLE INQUIRY NO. 3

INTERFACE AGE 51

membership directory. Our mailing list is not available to commercial in- terests, Because of one problem we have encountered, we have decided to omit street addresses from the next directory.

In the spring of 1976, we decided to hold a full-day Computer Festival, which was the first personal compu- ter exhibition held in this country. We held it on the campus of one of the New Jersey State Colleges. We had 42 exhibitors, 30 speakers, an outdoor flea market and about 1500 attendees. Just imagine our sun prise at the success we met with. Naturally, we repeated the event in 1977 (for 2 days) with 4,500 in atten- dance.

We will again hold the festival on April 22-23. This time we expect 6-10,000 attendance and we wilt have an outdoor flea market area covering five acres. We can it the Trenton Computer Festival, since it is held on the campus of Trenton State College.

In late 1975 we decided to form User Groups (UG). This was neces- sary because our regular monthly meetings were too large to meet the more personal needs of many mem- bers. We initially formed 8080/280 and 6800/6502 UGs. This has now been expanded to include an 1802 UG. The UG meetings are held month-

ly and are designed to meet the needs of users of particular systems. First of all these meetings are small- er with typical attendance of 20-60 people. Here, members bring in sys- tems for hardware or software troubleshooting. Each meeting has a UG coordinator. He runs the meet- ing on an informal basis, but sees to it that all members who need help get it, either from himself or from others at the meeting. So that at a typical meeting you will see one room with cliques gathered round pieces of equipment debugging a hardware or software problem and in another room a tutorial seminar.

In addition to the 8080/280, 6800/ 6502 and 1802 UGs, which meet monthly, we also have UGs for SOL, POLY -88 and CPM disc users. These groups have coordinators, but at present do not meet regularly.

We started running tutorial ses- sions in mld-1976. We are presently running tutorial sessions on 8080, 6800, 6502 and 1802 systems assem- bly level programming. Also, from time to time we hold sessions on "how to get started in home comput- ing11* We do not have sessions on BASIC since several of the schools offer these courses.

Also, early in 1976 we founded software libraries, with software librarians. We presently have four

such libraries; 8080/280, 6800/6502, 1802 and CPM. Software is main- tained in these libraries on either paper or cassette tape or disc. A member may borrow a paper tape from the library or he can have a cassette tape or disc recorded. There is no charge for these services* In late 1976, with over 300 mem* bers in the club, we decided that the time had come to formalize it. We therefore wrote a constitution and incorporated, as a non-profit educa- tional organization. We elected of- ficers (I was finally elected Presi- dent) and a board of directors, which serve for a 2-year term.

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FOUNTAINHEAD

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awareness of t.B.M, and other big guns. Many products which will not sell in the U.S.A* computer stores because of their poor reputation sell quite briskly in Canadian computer stores.

All three Toronto computer stores complained bitterly about slow deliveries on hardware and soft- ware. O.K., guys, it is your own fault. Stop paying for goods months in ad- vance of delivery* If a company takes your money and does not ship at once, and if you fall for the same ptay again, you are a slow learner*

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52 INTERFACE AGE

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