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June-July 1985 .

No. 24

TABLE OF CONTENTS

C'ing Into Turbo Pascal .......................................

Soldering: The First Steps. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..

Eight Inch Drives On The Kaypro ..............................

Kaypro BIOS Patch. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..

Alternative Power Supply For The Kaypro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..

48 Lines On A BBI ........ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..

Adding An 8" SSSD Drive To A Morrow MD-2 ...................

Review: The Ztime-I .......................................... .

BDOS Vectors (Mucking Around Inside CP

1M)

................. .

The Pascal Runoff

Regular Features

The S-100 Bus

In The Public Domain... ..

C'ing Clearly ............ .

The Xerox 820 Column ... .

The Slicer Column ........

The KayproColumn ..... .

Pascal Procedures ........ .

FORTH words

On Your Own ........... .

Technical Tips ........... .

Culture Corner. . . . . . . . . . ..

Future Tense

Tidbits. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. ..

68000 Vrs. 80X86 .. . . . . . ...

MSX In The USA . . . . . . . ..

The Last Page ............

NEW LOWER PRICES!

NOW IN "UNKIT"* FORM

TOO!

"BIG BOARD II"

4 MHz Z80·A SINGLE BOARD COMPUTER WITH "SASI"

HARD·DISK INTERFACE

$795 ASSEMBLED

TESTED

$545 "UNKIT"*

$245 PC BOARD WITH 16 PARTS

Jim Ferguson, the designer of the "Big Board" distributed by Digital

Research Computers, has produced a stunning new computer that

Cal-Tex Computers has been shipping for a year. Called "Big Board II", it

has the following features:

SIZE:

8.75"

15.5"

POWER:

+5V

3A, +-12V

0.1A

• "SASI" Interface for Winchester Disks

Our "Big Board II" implements the Host portion of the "Shugart Associates Systems

Interface." Adding a Winchester disk drive is no harder than attaching a floppy-disk

drive. A user simply 1) runs a fifty-conductor ribbon cable from a header on the board to

a Xebec controller that costs only $29S and implements the controller portion of the

SASI interface, 2) cables the controller to a Seagate Technology ST-S06 hard disk or

one compatible with it. and 3) provides power for the controller-card and drive. Since

our CBIOS contains code for communicating with hard-disks, that's all a user has to do

to add a.Winchester to a system!

•

4 MHz Z80-A CPU and Peripheral Chips

The new Ferguson computer runs at 4 MHz. Its Monitor code is lean, uses Mode 2

interrupts, and makes good use of the ZaD-A DMA chip.

• 64K Dynamic RAM

4K Static CRT RAM

24K E(E)PROM or Static RAM

"Big Board II" has three memory banks. The first memory bank has eight 4164 DRAMs

that provide 60K of user space and 4K of monitor space. The second memory bank has

two 2Kxa SRAMs for the memory-mapped CRT display and space for six 2732As, 2Kxa

static RAMs, or pin-compatible EEPROMS. The third memory bank is for RAM or ROM

added to the board via the STD bus. Whether bought as a bare board, an "unkit"*, or

assembled and tested, it comes with a 2732 EPROM containing Russell Smith's superb

Monitor.

• Two Synchronous/Asynchronous Serial Ports

With a Z8D-A SIO/O and a ZaD-A CTC as a baud-rate generator, the new Ferguson

computer has two full RS232-C ports. It autobauds on both.

•

A Parallel Keyboard Port

Four Other Parallel

Ports for User I/O

The new Cal-Tex single-board computer has one parallel port for an ASCII keyboard

and four others for user-defined

1/0.

• Multiple-Density Controller for

SS/DS Floppy Disks

The new Cal-Tex single-board computer has a multiple-density disk controller. It can

use 1793 or aa77 controller chips since it generates the side signal with TTL parts. The

board has two connectors for disk signals, one with 34 pins for S.2S" drives, the other

with SO pins for a" drives.

• Two Z80-A CTCs

Eight Programmable Counters/Timers

The new Ferg uson computer has two ZaD-A CTCs. One is used to clock data into and

out of the ZaO-A

SIOIO,

while the other is for systems and applications use.

• Vastly Improved CRT Display

The new Ferguson SBC uses a 6845 CRT controller and SMC 8002 video attributes

controller to produce a display rivaling the display of quality terminals. There are three

display modes: Character, block-graphics, and line-graphics. The board emulates an

ADM-31 with 24 lines of ao characters formed by a 7x9 dot matrix.

• PROM Programming Circuitry

The new Cal-Tex SBC has circuitry for programming 2716s, 2732(A)s, or pin-

combatible EEPROMs.

• CP/M 2.2**

CPIM with Russell Smith's CBIOS for the new Cal-Tex computer is available for $1S0.

The CBIOS is available separately for $2S.

• STD Bus

The new Ferguson computer has an STD Bus port for easy system expansion.

The "unkit" is

fully-socketed, wave-soldered "Big Board

"".

requires

NO soldering. All an "un kit" purchaser must do is carefully insert the

prime ICs we supply in the proper sockets and systematically proceed to

bring up and test the board.

"CP/M is

registered trademark of Digital Research.

The new Ferguson computer has a ZaD-A DMA chip that will allow byte-wise data

transfers at SOO KBytes per second and bit-serial transfers via the ZaD-A SIO at a80 Kbits

per second with minimal processer overhead. When a hard-disc subsystem is added.

the DMA chip makes impressive disk performance possible.

• DMA

CAL·TEX COMPUTERS, INC.

780 E. TRIMBLE ROAD #504· SAN JOSE. CA 95131 • (408) 942·1424

Terms: Orders paid for with a cashier's check or bank card will be shipped within three

working days. Orders paid for with a personal check will be shipped within three weeks.

Add $S for packing & shipping in North America.

MICRO CORNUCOPIA

P.O. Box 223

Bend, Oregon 97709

503-382-5060 Orders Only

503-382-8048 Tech. 9 - Noon

Editor

Publisher

David

Thompson

Operations Manager

David Pogue

Assistant Editors

Rebecca Ozrelic Gary Entsminger

Accounting

Sandra Thompson

Graphic Design

Craig Lannes

Michael Odell

Technical Department

Dana Cotant

Eric Roby

Bruce Berryhill

Laine Stump

Advertising Director

Alice Holbrow

Staff Assistants

Dorcas Dsenis

Tracey Braas

Cary Gatton

Carla Miller

Laura Pendley

IICIO COINUCOPII

June-July 1985

The Micro Technical Journal

No. 24

On Your

Mark!

When we printed labels for the April-

May issue this year we had over 9500

subscribers, and we celebrated the

10,000 mark in mid-April. We hit 5,000

almost exactly a year ago. (Now,

you'd

all come to SOG IV ... )

Speaking Of SOG IV

Don't forget to send in your SOG reg-

istration form. Let us know if you're

coming (or at least maybe coming), even

if you're not planning on rafting, dining,

staying in the dorms, or feeding the

chipmunks. (The dorm has been full

since mid April, but you'll find plenty of

space in local motels and camp

grounds.)

There is an Experimental Aircraft As-

sociation meet every year. During Au-

gust, every home-built, antique, and

non-antique private aircraft that isn't

cruelly tethered, takes its family and flies

to Oshkosh.

The airplanes park on a grass field next

to the airstrip, and the families camp for

a week under the wings of their craft (ev-

eryone wanders around meeting every-

one else).

I'd like to make the SOG into a similar

event. All I need to do is find an appro-

priate field and equip it with basic neces-

sities, and we could make SOG a real ex-

perience (not that a lot of families don't

already camp out when they come to the

SOG).

In fact, the EAA brags that it has the

largest collection of porta-potties in one

place, at one time, in the world. They

might even have 5,000 of them. (Of

course, 5,000 potties seems like an im-

possible dream for Micro C, but ... )

32032 Support

The National 32032 and 32016 chips

have been languishing in the shadow of

the

8088/8086

and the 68000. Well,

Trevor Marshall, well known among the

Micro C crowd for his BBI winchester de-

signs, has spent the last year working on

a 32032 based co-processor board.

Trevor not only designed the system

(with the help of two friends), but he has

also written two articles (hardware de-

(continued on page 72)

Typography

Patti Morris

Martin White

Irish Setter

MICRO CORNUCOPIA supports systems

programming languages and builders of single

board and 5-100 systems.

Application to mail at second class postage

rates is pending at Bend, OR 97701 and addi-

tional entries. Published bimonthly by Micro

Cornucopia Inc., 155 NW Hawthorne, Bend,

97701.

Postmaster: Send address change

to Micro Cornucopia Inc., PO Box

223,

Bend,

OR 97709.

SUBSCRIPTION RATES:

1 yr. (2nd Class)

$16.00

1 yr. (Canada

Mexico)

$22.00

1 yr. (Other foreign)

$30.00

Make all orders payable in U.S. funds on a

U.S. bank, please.

ADVERTISING RATES: Available on request

(call Alice Holbrow).

CHANGE OF ADDRESS: Please send your

old label and new address.

SOFTWARE, HARDWARE, AND BOOK

VENDORS: We would very much like to re-

view your software, Single Board, and 5-100

products. Send materials to the Review De-

partment, Micro Cornucopia.

A Contest To Start All Contests

Usually people announce contests to

end all contests. This one is a beginning.

We've been sitting around trying to de-

cide how best to do it and, meantime,

nothing has happened.

We kicked around the idea of leaving it

open. You know, anyone can use any

language, create any length program, on

any subject.

"Too general," was the reaction from

all the reactionaries in the office. (What

else are they good for?)

We kicked around the idea of specify-

ing the language, the version of the lan-

guage, the subject, the program length,

and the color of the programmer's eyes.

"Too specific," was the reaction (from

you-know-who).

was immediately obvious that we

were going to have to compromise on

this contest (or get rid of the reactionar-

ies). So we're specifying the language

(Turbo Pascal), but not the version.

We've sort of narrowed program length,

but not the subject. As for eye color,

we've chosen "bleery red streaks" so all

inveterate hackers will qualify easily.

Check out the contest article in this is-

sue. (Dr. Dobb's just held a contest and

had four entries. Let's see what we can

do.)

10,000 Subscribers

I remember when Lifelines magazine

announced they had 5,000 subscribers. I

was green with envy because Lifelines

and Micro C started about the same time.

We had around 500 circulation at that

time (5,000 seemed an impossible

dream), and I was still working at Tek-

tronix. I figured that about the time we

hit 1,000 I could quit Tek and cut my

workday back to 20 hours.

ISSN 0747-587X

LITTIRS

Rebuttal For Kamas

I write to take friendly but spirited ex-

ception to Jack Rodenhi's lukewarm re-

view of Kamas (by Kamasoft, formerly

Compusophic Systems). My disagree-

ment is mostly on the degree of useful-

ness of an outline maker. In the few

months I've had Kamas, it's been a huge

help in getting me started on writing

projects.

To illustrate how I've integrated Ka-

mas into my own writing process, here's

my list of steps:

1. Make my outline with Kamas.

2. Enter as much text as I want into

text leaves.

3. Rearrange, fix stuff, and do general

editing.

4. Output a WordStar compatible file

to disk.

5. Call up WordStar for correcting and

final editing.

6. Call up The Word

for checking

spelling.and typos.

7. Switch back to WordStar and print

the thing out!

One other thing: Kamas is the only

outline making program available right

now for the CP/M-80 Kaypro. It's not as

we had a choice. It's either Kamas for

my Kaypro II or nothing.

Lucian W. Minor

Box 1101

Wellfleet MA 02667

dBASE to Turbo P. I decided to re-write

the entire program in Turbo Pascal. The

speed improvement is unbelievable! In

addition, there are many things Turbo P

has that dBASE II lacks: Procedures and

Functions, no 32 field limit, no 64 memo-

ry variable limit, etc. I feel free to be more

creative in my programming designs.

The 8-bit CP/M Compiler from Word-

Tech is a flop! It is far too slow to compile

and link, and the finished application

runs SLOWER than in dBASE II. It is

worth the effort to learn to program in

Turbo Pascal to do 8-bit CP/M program-

ming. The speed improvements over

dBASE II are enough by themselves.

And remember, Turbo P only adds 8K to

your total applications file size! (For the

RunTime library.)

Ralph E. Freshour

7 Silver Eagle Road

Rolling Hills Estates CA 90274

Kaypro Goes Arabic

This is in response to a question in Is-

sue 22 about Arabic capabilities for the

Kaypro. Zadian Research has an Arabic

conversion package which runs on the

Kaypro 2, 2X, 4, and 10. The package in-

cludes software to convert CP /M, Word-

Star, CalcStar, and other programs to

Arabic. It also comes with a set of pro-

grams for Arabic text processing and

printing and full documentation.

Zadian Research has also developed

an arabization kit for the Prowriter dot-

matrix printer. It allows the Prowriter to

print Arabic without losing any of its

English capabilities. Interspersed Arabic

and English and enlarged Arabic are also

supported.

The bilingual Kaypro models and the

arabization kit for the Prowriter printer

are available from the International Mar-

keting Department of Kaypro Corpora-

tion, 533 Stevens Avenue, Solana Beach,

CA 92075.

Zadian Research

1749 Jonathan Avenue

San Jose CA 95125

dBASE Advice

I read Issue 22 and wanted to com-

ment on your problems with using

dBASE II to print your mailing labels. I

have been programming in dBASE for

about 21/2 years, but the version num-

bers you mentioned were new to me.

Are they Kaypro dBASE version num-

bers? CP/M-80 dBASE II is currently up

to version 2.41. Version 2.3B was full of

bugs. 2.40 was a good improvement,

and 2.41 added a little more.

you're not

using at least 2.40, I'd suggest you get it.

It could be your problem. I wouldn't use

2.313 for anything!

I am about 90 percent finished re-writ-

ing The Master Check Register program.

(Version 2.0 will ·be called "Turbo

Cheques.") I started programming in

Turbo Pascal last summer, and saw the

advantages of switching over from

Editor's note:

Thanks for the comments, Ralph. The ver-

sion numbers were errors (mine).

am using

2.3b and 2040.

know that 2.3b is buggy, but

it leaves a little more space for memory varia-

bles so some of my programs run under it that

won't run under 2040. For instance, adding a

record to a large indexed file is much faster

under

2 .37

than under

040. Also, my copy of

2040 won't recognize the decimal point in the

picture clauses, so the gals prefer entering re-

ceipts under 2.37.

We're currently futzing over all our

dBASE routines to Turbo. I'll keep everyone

posted on how it works out.

Composite Video Update

Last week one of the local dealers sent

me to the Kaypro service clinic. You just

can't stay on top of things in this biz.

Since submitting my "Composite Vid-

eo" article (see Issue #22, page 50), I

have found that you can't use that ap-

proach on the 10. Now I've delved into

the 2-84/4-84 boards and the new "uni-

versal" board and found the same video

circuits as the 10. The graphics are nice,

but the hi-res method of achieving them

nukes my cheap video approach. How-

ever, my board does work on Xerox 820s.

Richard Bugg

2703 N.W. 20th

Oklahoma City OK 73107

Selling Prototypes

I'm wondering

there is some way to

profit from my ideas without having to

do everything myself. Is Micro C, or

some company that advertises in Micro

C, interested in buying working hard-

ware prototypes to be finished (e.g.

packaging, purchasing volume parts,

making PC boards, and writing soft-

ware) in exchange for royalties or some-

thing? Frankly, a $15 diskette of software

is poor compensation for several days

worth of work. Is there some other pos-

sibility I haven't thought of?

Phil Hunter

655 S. Fair Oaks #E-317

Sunnyvale CA 94086

Editor's note:

Sure, we'd be glad to look at any projects

you are working on. Give me a call and let's

discuss what you're doing. Maybe we can do

a combination article, circuit board, etc.

could also be a straight product.

Also, the disk is not the only payment for

an article. When we receive an article we send

out a disk, pronto. Then when we print the

article we send out additional goodies: the

Micro Cornucopia, Number 24, June-July 1985

LITTIRS

special feature for each issue is worth

$75,

five

copies of Micro

and an author's T-shirt

(great for wearing at the SOG). The regular

articles are worth

$25,

three magazines, and

the author's T-shirt.

Tri-Flow Triumphs

I am in a group of nine engineers

working for Xerox, providing technical

hardware and software support to about

1300 technicians in four states for our

copier and duplicator lines.

A while back, in your Kaypro Column

of Issue 15, you stated that Xerox Service

Centers use WD-40 to lubricate disk

drives. To bring you and Micro C readers

up to date, in early 1984, Xerox cancelled

the use of WD.:.40 and began using Tri-

Flow in its products.

There were some good reasons for this

decision. Several fires in our copier/du-

plicators were caused when WD-40

spray came in contact with a high voltage

component, created an arc, and ignited.

In addition, we felt that although WD-40

did a good job of washing the old lubri-

cant from a bearing, its own lubricating

properties were very short lived.

The only good application I can think

of for WD-40 in any of our products is to

clean nasty, dirty drive chains

I am very much in favor of lubricating

the lead screws and slides with Tri-Flow.

The standard CP/M-80 that comes with,

the 820-11,8" SS, is configured for a head

step rate of ISms, which is too slow.

Any 8" drive in good shape will step

reliably at 10,6, or even 3 ms. I have seen

cases where new 8" drives out of the box

would not read at 6ms, but after the lead

screws were lubricated with Tri-Flow I

could change this time to 3ms and boot

99+ percent of the time.

wquld be wise, however, to keep a

disk in the archives with the step rate left

at ISms just in case the drives get gum-

my and you can't boot. All of my work-

ing disks have been at 3ms since I did the

Tri-Flow trick over a year ago.

Another tip: the oilite bearings found

in most drives should not be lubricated.

This is a porous metal which is im-

pregnated with oil during manufactur-

ing. Adding oil will free the bearing for a

short time, but will cause the pores to

clog and accelerate the wear of the bear-

ings.

The best way to remove dirt and gum

from these bearings is with a clean, dry,

lint-free cloth.

an oilite bearing is properly manu-

factured and, more importantly, stored

correctly prior to drive assembly (paper

or other absorbant packaging materials

will leach the oil from the bearing),

enough oil will remain after the bearing

is cleaned.

Doug Felton

1215 Oxley Rd.

Columbus OH 43212

The problem lies in the way SBASIC

uses the signed value of INTEGER varia-

bles when dealing with FOR. .NEXT

loops. (FOR. .NEXT uses signed integers

rather than unsigned integers like

WHILE.) The solution is to use a

WHILE .. DO structure.

WHILE x

max. memory DO BEGIN

sample.array(x)

END

Richard Levine

3105 Meadow Grove Dr.

San Diego CA 92110

Arizona Kaypro Users Group

As owner of a Kaypro dealership in

Phoenix and sponsor of the Arizona

Kaypro Users Group, I wrote to tell you

what tremendous success I've had with

the mods and upgrades for Kaypro sug-

gested in Micro C. I did nearly 100 5MHz

upgrades last year, and installed more

, than 30 disk drives behind Pro-8 ROMs

just last month. I find the instructions for

the upgrades very complete and quite

clear.

During this month's AKUG meeting

the club's officers demonstrated their 4-

drive Kaypros. Two of our officers (John

and Sharon Wertz) have 'his-n-hers'

Kaypros, each sporting four Mitsubishi

quads.

Our RBBS/RCPM is tagged "Lost

Dutchman's Gold Mine #2" and is de-

voted exclusively to Kaypro support and

utilities. The number is (602) 863-1435.

The board operates

30011200

baud, 24

hours a day. There is no fee, and our on-

ly request is that users log on with real

names, not handles.

Kelvin Paul Giles

13829 North 19th Ave.

Phoenix AZ 85023

TPA Program Fix

In Issue #23 Tom Geldner (in "Run-

ning In CP/M's TPA") gave a program-

ming example in SBASIC that was sup-

pose,d to dynamically size an array

according to available memory. His ex-

ample works, except that the way he did

it, the array will always have a maximum

size of 32767 even if more room is avail-

able.

Packet Power

Maybe you already know this, but the

820 is becoming the standard for packet

radio mailbox systems. WORLI has writ-

ten an excellent package that includes,

among other things, automatic forward-

ing of mail to other mailboxes based on a

table of users for each mailbox. There's

also an add-on HDLC chip board to al-

low using it for a TNC. In our area the

packet users have grabbed about 20 of

them for various types of experiments.

Fun stuff!

Jon Pearce, WB2MNF

109 Pine Cone Trail

Medford NJ 08055

U.S. Robotics Modems OK

While leafing' through your Kaypro

Users C;atalog, I noticed on page

there

is a statement written about the U.S. Ro-

botics modems being unreliable for dial-

ing from preloaded directory files.

I have two U.S. Robotics modems, an

AUTODIAL 212A and a PASSWORD,

and in the past six months I have not ex-

perienced any difficulties in dialing from

the phone directories of TELPAC,

MDM712, KM300, KM1200, NDM730,

PHONE.001, etc. This is true for the

Kaypro 2-83 and Kaypro 2X.

George J. Parker

P. O. Box 14911

Micro CornucopIa, Number 24, June-July 1985

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