Micro_Cornucopia_05_Apr82.pdf

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Word Processing

Word Processing at Micro C ................................ 4

Words tar, A Word Processor ............................... 4

Vedit, A Text Editor ....................................... 5

Two Great Spells ......................................... 6

Smartkey ................................................ 8

Scribble, A Text Formatter ................................. 8

Tiny Basic In ROM ......................................... 15

Double Density ............................................ 19

REGULAR FEATURES

Letters ....................... 2

FORTHwords ........

...... 10

Designer's Corner ............ 12

Want ads ................... 15

BOARD COMPUTER KIT!

Z-80 CPU!

64K RAM!

THE FERGUSON PROJECT: Three years In the works, and maybe too good to be true. A tribute to hard headed,

no compromise, high performance, American engineering! The Big Board gives you all the most needed

computing features on one board at a very reasonable cost. The Big Board was designed from scratch to run the

latest version of CP/M*. Just imagine all the off-the-shelf software that can be run on the Big Board without any

modifications needed! Take a Big Board, add a couple of 8 inch disc drives, power supply, an enclosure, C.R.T.,

and you have a total Business System for about 1/3 the cost you might expect to pay.

(64K KIT

BASIC

lID)

SIZE: 8';' x 13]/, IN.

SAME AS AN 8 IN. DRIVE.

REQUIRES: +5V

3 AMPS

+ - 12V

.5 AMPS.

FULLY SOCKETED!

FEATURES: (Remember, all this on one board!)

64K RAM

80 CHARACTER VIDEO

With a crisp, flicker-free display that looks extremely sharp even on small

monitors. Hardware scroll and full cursor control. Composite video or split video

and sync. Character set is supplied on a 2716 style ROM, making customized

fonts easy. Sync pulses can be any desired length or polarity. Video may be

inverted or true. 5 x 7 Matrix - Upper

Lower Case

Uses industry standard 4116 RAM'S. All 64K is available to the user, our VIDEO

and EPROM sections do not make holes in system RAM. Also, very special care

was taken in the RAM array PC layout to eliminate potential noise and glitches.

Z-80 CPU

Running at 2.5 MHZ. Handles all 4116 RAM refresh and supports Mode 2

INTERUPTS. Fully buffered and runs 8080 software.

FLOPPY DISC CONTROLLER

Uses WD1771 controller chip with a TTL Data Separator for enhanced

reliability. IBM 3740 compatible. Supports up to four 8 inch disc drives. Directly

compatible with standard Shugart drives such as theSA800 or SA801. Drives can

be configured for remote AC off-on. Runs CP/M" 2.2.

SERIAL

1/0

(OPTIONAL)

Full 2 channels using the Z80 SIO and the SMC 8116 Baud Rate Generator. FULL

RS232! For synchronous or asynchronous communication. In synchronous

mode, the clocks can be transmitted or received by a modem. Both channels can

be set up for either data-communication or data-terminals. Supports mode 21nl.

Price for all parts and connectors: $65.

TWO PORT PARALLEL

1/0

(OPTIONAL)

Uses Z-80 PIO. Full 16 bits, fully buffered, bl-directlonal. User selectable hand

shake polarity. Set of all parts and connectors for parallel

1/0: $19.95

BASIC

1/0

Consists of a separate parallel port (Z80 PIO) for use with an ASCII encoded

keyboard for Input. Output would be on the 80 x 24 Video Display.

REAL TIME CLOCK (OPTIONAL)

Uses Z-80 CTC. Can be configured as a Counter on Real Time Clock. Set of all

parts: $9.95

BLANK PC BOARD -

$175

CP/M* 2.2 FOR BIG BOARD

The popular CP/M" D.O.S. to run on Big Board is

available for $159.00.

The blank Big Board PC Board comes complete with full documentation

(including schematics), the character ROM, the PFM 3.3 MONITOR ROM,

and a diskette with the source of ourBIOS, BOOT, and PFM 3.3 MONITOR.

PFM 3.3

2K SYSTEM MONITOR

PRICE CUT!

The real power of the Big Board lies in its PFM 3.0 on board monitor. PFM commands include: Dump Memory, Boot CP/M", Copy, Examine, Fill Memory, Test Memory, Go To.

Read and Write

110

Ports, Disc Read (Drive. Track, Sector), and Search. PFM occupies one of the four 2716 EPROM locations provided.

Z-80 is a Trademark of Zilog.

Digital Research Computers

(OF TEXAS)

P.O. BOX 401565 • GARLAND, TEXAS 75040 • (214) 271-3538

*TRADEMARK OF DIGITAL RESEARCH.

TERMS: Shipments will be made approximately 3 to 6 weeks after we

receive your order, VISA, MC, cash accepted. We will accept COD's (for the

Big Board only) with a $75 deposit. Balance UPS COD. Add $4.00 shipping.

USA AND CANADA ONLY

NOT ASSOCIATED WITH DIGITAL RESEARCH OF CALIFORNIA, THE ORIGINATORS OF CPM SOFTWARE

**1 TO 4 PIECE DOMESTIC USA PRICE.

MICRO CORNUCOPIA

11740 N.W. West Road

Portland, Oregon 97229

503-645-3253

IICID CDllfUCD'l1

April 1982

The Journal of the Big Board Users

No.5

Editor

Publisher

David J. Thompson

Technical Editor

Ruth Fredine-Burt

Graphic Design

Sandra Thompson

Typography

Patti Morris

Martin White

Irish Setter

Cover Illustration

Gerald Torrey

All Write!

Word Processing

Well, here it is, word processing

from one who processes words hour

upon hour, day after day. Actually I

don't write text all the time, it just

seems like it.

Quite a bit of this issue is devoted

to word processing, but it barely

scratches the surface of this im-

mense field. The software I am now

using is not necessarily the best; it's

what I'm using, and it does the job

very well.

it didn't do the job well,

I wouldn't be able to produce Micro

C in my "spare time."

New Products

The last month or so has been very

interesting for us. We have been try-

ing to get several new things ready

to distribute to the group. It's really a

lot of work. Even an apparently sim-

ple task like putting together a new

User disk almost didn't get done in

time for this issue.

This process really makes me ap-

preciate the amount of effort that

goes into getting a product ready for

market. It was March before we be-

gan shipping FORTH; IN ROM de-

spite being certain in early January

that it was "a smidgin away from

perfection." Thanks to Hampton

Miller, Arne Henden, Sig Peterson,

and, of course, Rob Devoe, FORTH

IN ROM got shaken out very

stoutly. (And having it resident in

the system is really growing on me.)

'Undo' carefully

A couple of poor folks have called

asking how to undo the damage

they did to their directory after 'Un-

doing the Fatal Erase' (see page 10 in

issue #4).

They didn't reboot the monitor (a

HARDWARE reset) after correcting

the directory.

you don't want to take any

chances with your disks, simply use

the Memory command (MF72F) and

change the OA8H 'write' back to a

088H 'read' manually. Then you can

read-on (not write-on) in peace.

Mail

Delivery time for Micro C has al-

ways been slow because we are

mailing bulk ra te.

Issue #1 took 7-10 days on the

west coast and 14-21 days on the east

coast. Issue #4 took 15-25 days on

the west coast and the east coast is

still receiving it (after 41 days). My

father-in-law lives about 15 miles

from here and he received issue #4

on February 25th. We mailed issue

#4 on February 5th.

Also, bulk mail gets lost fairly eas-

ily. One subscriber has yet to receive

an issue via bulk mail (his subscrip-

tion began with issue #1), but he has

received every follow-up issue we

sent via first-class (same label).

Bulk mail does not get forwarded.

Period. Even

you leave a forward-

ing address and bribe your postman,

the post office simply ash-cans bulk

mail

you're not there.

Anyway, I thought I'd let you

know what the situation is. I suspect

that more folks will opt for first-class

once they find out the kind of service

they are getting from the post office.

First-class is still very good. Three

days seems to be the maximum any-

where in the US.

Final note

Daryl Coulthart, author of

"Translating Your Keyboard" in is-

sue #4 was also the source of the De-

signer's Corner in that issue. Thanks

Daryl.

MICRO CORNUCOPIA is pub-

lished six times a year by Micro Cor-

nucopia of Oregon,

11740

N.W.

West Road, Portland, Oregon

97229.

SUBSCRIPTION RATES:

$16.00

1 yr. (6 issues)

$20.00

1 yr. (Canada

Mexico)

1 yr. (other foreign)

$26.00

All subscription orders payable in

United States funds only, please.

ADVERTISING RATES: Available

on request.

CHANGE OF ADDRESS:Please

send old label and new address.

SOFnWARE, HARDWARE, AND

BOOK VENDORS: Micro Cornu-

copia is establishing a group of re-

viewers. We would very much like

to review your Big Board compatible

products for Micro

Please send

material to Review Editor, Micro

Cornucopia.

WRITER'S GUIDELINES: All

items should be typed, double-

spaced on white paper or better yet,

on disk. (Your disk will be returned

promptly.) Payment is in contribu-

tor's copies.

LEITERS TO THE EDITOR: Please

sound off.

CP/M is a trademark of Digital Research, Inc.

Micro Cornucopia.

0;1./

Editor

Thompson

David

Publisher

Letters

Dear Editor,

Congratulations on producing three

excellent issues of Micro-C.

I bought a bare Big Board early in 1981

and over a period of about 6 months, ac-

cumulated enough parts to bring it up.

I'm using it with a Keytronics Word

Processor keyboard and a converted TV

set. I had two problems with the board

when I first turned it on: 1) a bad data bus

buffer and 2) extreme instability in the

video crystal oscillator (!?!). To be fair to

Digital Research, I did not buy the crystal

from them, but got it from Quality Com-

puter Parts in California. The fix was

easy: a 100 pf capacitor from pin 13, U11

to ground.

One should be verrry careful with the

4 MHz mod in Micro-C #2. The asym-

metric clock does not satisfy Z80A specs.

I tried two Z80A's. One ran the monitor

memory test OK, but crashed when I

tried to run CP/M (wiped out the direc-

tory, too). The other Z80A seemed, at

first, to run everything OK but after

about 10 minutes certain instructions

started to fail a few percent of the time. I

could get the processor to work again by

dabbing alcohol on it, cooling it off. Evi-

dently, as the Z80A heats up, the inter-

nal timing changes just enough to make

some instructions unreliable.

My next project for the Big Board is to

interface a graphics display to the paral-

lel port (probably something similar to

the Micrograph display described in By-

te) and use the Big Board-graphics dis-

play to emulate a Tektronix 4010. I would

be very interested

other Big Board

owners have ideas on the subject.

Ken Stephenson

Physics Division

Argonne National Laboratory

Argonne,

60439

Dear Editor,

What's our exciting adventure? We are

trying to interest a large corporation here

in building its own micros (20-30). We

have the staff and expertise to do it, and

the corporation wants to use micros but

it is afraid of the lack of support from lo-

cal agents.

We provide hardware and software

support for our own minis (Four-Phase

1V90s) throughout Kuwait, Saudi, and

Iraq.

Now the corporation wants micros

scattered around the Gulf for production

and materials control systems and also

as front-end processors for equipment

and labor systems. This remote process-

ing will cut down on communications

from the sites to the headquarters. (You

can imagine what data communications

is like here-you tell Ahmad to ride his

camel to the head office with the tapes.)

we can talk the corporation into as-

sembling its own micros, it will be

cheaper and support will be guaranteed.

A few spare boards on hand will do the

trick.

Todd L Davis

Computer Department

ICG

Box 25068

Safat, Kuwait

board area of the ROM so I can use these

functions.

Incidentally, I changed my flashing

cursor by using DDT to create the follow-

ing program at 100H.

MVIA,85

STAFF76

RET

I then 'SAVED' it as CURSOR. COM.

It's not a true reverse video type of flash-

ing cursor but I find it very useful when

using DATASTAR to enter fields of

dashes.

Also, I noted that one of the letters in

issue #4 (pg 2) mentioned random up-

per/lower case changes. I had that prob-

lem and after much playing with the

stash routine at FF33H, I traced the trou-

ble to the keyboard encoder.

was

generating random control codes. So, I

was immediately in the market for a new

keyboard.

Peter Duckworth

11 Chelsea Embankment

London SW3 4LE

Dear Editor,

I wanted to let you know how much I

enjoy each issue of Micro C. In addition

to being technically and graphically 'top

shelf', one of its best features is its dis-

tinct personality.

certainly is a publica-

tion with' a great deal of heart.

I'd like to suggest that Micro C contin-

ue and perhaps even increase its promo-

tion of program readability by encourag-

ing authors to clearly document their

programs. (Perhaps they should read

Software Tools

by Kernighan

Plauger.

space permits, I'd like to see each

program accompanied by its functional

equivalent in 'algorithmic language', a

flowchart, or a paragraph of text (in that

order).

As you can tell, program clarity and

readability is one of my personal cru-

sades and I'd like to volunteer to walk

through some programs before they are

published. My bookshelf includes both

the Kernighan and Plauger book (the lat-

est edition in Pascal) and Brodie's book

on FORTH. (A neat book. I can tell from

reading it that he and I would probably

be great friends.) And I wish to help Mi-

cro C become even better.

Philip Plumbo

1128 Dayton Ave

St Paul MN 55104

IS YOUR DISK DRIVE

WORKING OVERTIME

WITH ONLY MEDIA WEAR

TO SHOW FOR IT?

Your floppy drive rotates disks

constantly,grinding dirt into the

delicate surface which contributes

shortened

media

life

while

generating unnecessary noise.

Our Drive Control Unit energizes the

drive only when disk access is

absolutely

necessary. Media lasts

longer and the system is quiet.

DCU is the best

A.C. cont roI.

solution

for drive

Big Board owners no longer have to

look for connectors ,re1ays,and a

place

to put

them.

DCU COmes

complete with everything and is

designed to be easily installed

within all popular

In. drives.

DCC mOllnts on the

di~k

AC connector

and eVen energizes only on Zero

crossings.Au" output available for

2nd drive. (Big Board should have

the CTC option)

Please

order

DCU/BB

for

Big

Roa rd syst

<'ms, for

other systems

order

DCV

and stale type of drives

and controller used in your system.

nCl!

$18.95

por

"vail"hle in kit form

sse m b 1 e d

2 9.9 5 •

30in.

2nd

drive harness

for

add

$3.00

oPTROlles

716'3770369

TECHIOllSI

PO. BOX 81

PITTSFORD NY 14534

Dear Editor,

Thank you very much for sending me

issues 1-3 of Micro Cornucopia. I found

the quality of the editorship and con-

tents outstanding, and look forward to

receiving further issues.

I am grateful for the tip that the 8th bit

on the keyboard can be used despite the

statement in the BB manual. So, I have

purchased a surplus Keytronic keyboard

with 12 8-bit special function keys and

am now working on a patch to the key-

Editor's note:

Thank you very much for the offer, Phil.

will definitely be taking you up on it.

•••

Micro Cornucopia, Number 5, April 1982

ANNOUNCING

THE BIG BOARD ADD--ON

••••

FEATURES

••••

Program

2708, 2716, 2732,

and

2764

type

EPROHS. With four programming

sockets you can program lots of memory at once. Programs EPROMS sequentially

or in parallel for small production runs.

Second bank (64K) of memory will allow fast screen swaps, larger EPROM

program storage, etc. Memory is fully-static 6116 CMOS type RAMS which will

allow RAMIEPROM intermixing. Battery back-up for CMOS RAM.

More goodies.

Sixteen channels of both 8-bi t

AID

and

A conversion.

Connect any of the FCC approved modems by NOVATION directly into the board.

Plus, there's an S-100 connector which will allow you to connect an S-100

card directly or interface with an S-100 motherboard.

And speaking of

features, voice output with the on-board VOTRAX phoneme generator chip.

All this plus: four serial channels, four parallel ports, everything

socketed, and it runs at 4 MHz. (In fact, with all this, you may just forget

about the Big Board altogether!)

This is the board you

the serious builder and

board, full kit, partial

same dimensions as the

Available

3/20/82.

have been waiting ror.

This board is intended for

the novice alike.

It will be available in bare

kits, and assembled and tested. The board has the

BIG BOARD so it piggy-backs into the same space.

Bare board ................................•................

99.00

Complete package

All Prices Plus Postage

CALL

••••

OTHER BIG BOARD ACCESSORIES

••••

Big Board power supply kit (BB

2 DRIVES

+ ) ••••••••••••••

$ 85.00

Big Board power supply A&T ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 135.00

C.ITOH 8510 9xN matrix, graphics, 5 char sets printer (ser.) 645.00

C.ITOH 8510 same as above but par. interface •••••••••••••••• 595.00

4Mhz mod that WORKS •••• $7.50

BIG BOARD PARTS.............

CALL

E.C.R.L.,INC.

P.O. BOX

387

CANBY, OREGON

97013-0387

503-266-4982 *24

HRS· or

503-656-3382

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