Micro_Cornucopia_08_Oct82.pdf

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October 1982

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Drive Maintenance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 4

Interfacing CDC Drives ..................................... 6

MFE Interface ............................................. 8

Jumpering the Qume DT-8 ............................ '...... 8

BDS C Users Group ........................................ 13

Flippy Floppies ...................................... : ..... 15

Changing Your BIOS ....................................... 17

Big Board II ............................................... 19

JRT Pascal Review .......................................... 20

Curing the Housing Problem ................................ 20

REGULAR FEATURES

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

C'ing Clearly ................ 12

FORTHwords ............... 14

Xerox 820 Notes ............. 16

VVant~ds

................... 16

On Your Own ............... 21

Technical Tips ............... 25

NEW PRICES EFFECTIVE ON THE 1ST DAY OF THE COVER MONTH OF THIS MAGAZINE

"THE BIG BOARD"

OEM - INDUSTRIAL - BUSINESS - SCIENTIFIC

INGLE BOARD COM'PUTER KIT!

Z-80 CPU!

64K RAM!

THE BIG BOARD 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 I/O)

SIZE: 8'/' x

13'1.

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 spill 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

invertpd or true. 5 )\: 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 glilches.

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. Direclly

compatible with standard Shugart drives such as the SA800 or SA801. Drives can

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

SERIAL

1/0

(OPTIONAL)

Full 2 channels using the Z80 SIO and the SMC8116 Baud Rate Generalor. FULL

RS232! For synchronous or asynchronous communicalion. 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: $49

TWO PORT PARALLEL

1/0

(OPTIONAL)

Uses

1-80

PIO. Full 16 bits, fully buffered, bl-directional. User selectable hand

shake polarity. Set of all parts and connectors for parallel I/O: $19.95

BASIC

1/0

Consists of a separate parallel port

(180

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

1-80

CTC. Can be configured as a Counter on Real Time Clock. Set of all

parts: $9.95

BLANK PC BOARD -

$149

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 our BIOS, 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 3.3 on board monitor. PFM commands Include: Dump Memory, Boot CP/M", Copy, Examine, Fill Memory, Test Memory, Go To,

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

1-80

is a Trademark of lilog.

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 $4.00shipping.

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

IICBD CDB.VCDPII

October 1982

The Single Board Systems Journal

No.8

Editor

Publisher

David

Thompson

Technical Editor

Ruth Fredine-Burt

Graphic Design

Sandra Thompson

Typography

Patti Morris

Martin White

Irish Setter

Staff Assistant

Anna Berry

Cover Illustration

Gerald Torrey

Great

Titne!

The Get Together

Those of you who didn't make it to the

1st annual, semi-official, Micro C get to-

gether really missed a great time. Over

60 folks came, most of them from the

West Coast, but we even had a few from

farther afield. There was Jim Ferguson

from Texas (yep! THE Jim Ferguson)

demonstrating the Big Board II complete

with 5-megabyte hard disk! There was

Andy Bakkers from Holland demon-

strating his hard disk interface for the

original Big Board and he was using a

5-megabyte drive! There was Rod Irving

and his wife from Australia, where Rod

is a major hardware and software re-

tailer. He went back with some new

products to market.

All day the place was buzzing with

questions and answers, problems and

solutions. What appeared to be the most

interesting group, however, formed

around the tables of potato salad, baked

beans, fresh corn, zucchini bread and

other Big Board specialties.

must have

been a most interesting group because

everyone seemed so intent. (Certainly

food for thought.)

John Marlin called from Maryland the

evening before to say that he was sorry

that he couldn't make it. But like magic,

the next morning, a local florist showed

up with six of the prettiest flower ar-

rangements. We even had flowers up in

the computer room. Thanks, John.

You'd probably like to see pictures of

the volleyball game or the presentation

(semi-official get togethers have to have

semi-official presentations). We gave Jim

Ferguson a genuine Big Board Game (by

Parker Brothers).

is probably the only

copy left

existence.

I got the camera out but got so

wrapped up just trying to spend a few

minutes with each person that I just

plum forgot. And besides, picture taking

seems to get in the way of what's hap-

pening by making folks self-conscious.

So I can't show you what happened,

and for that I apologize. We'll definitely

give you more notice before the next one

so maybe you can come.

Wanted: C and Pascal Software

Well, now that we are finally support-

ing C and Pascal, we are looking for utili-

ties and programs written in these lan-

guages. I've already started working on

the first C users disk and I have a number

of volumes from the Pascal-Z user group

that contain a lot of interesting software.

Don Bell sent me volumes 5-15 and they

contain a wealth of interesting Pascal

software. Charlie Foster, 7963 Center

Parkway, Sacramento, CA, 95823 puts

the Pascal-Z disks together and from the

way Don talks about him (they are prac-

tically neighbors), Charlie is a super guy.

Contact Charlie if you are interested in

participating in the Pascal-Z user group.

I haven't talked to Charlie yet but I plan

to, so say hi for me

you talk to him.

appears that quite a bit of the Pascal-

Z software was transmutilated from

UCSD Pascal. So in turn we should be

able finagle the more interesting stuff in-

to something JRT Pascal can digest.

Contributing to Micro C User Disks

We really appreciate all the submis-

sions of software for the user disks, both

the public domain material that you find

particularly useful and software that you

wrote or modified.

When you contribute software that

you wrote or modified, please include

the following information (as comments)

at the beginning of the program: Your

name and address (phone number is

nice too), the date it was last revised, the

name of the compiler (or assembler) it

was written for, the compiler/assembler!

linker command lines necessary to cre-

ate a com file, a list of features you'd like

to see added, and anything else you'd

like to mention. (However,

try

to avoid

long letters to your mother. "Hi MOM!"

is usually sufficient.)

(continued on page

24)

MICRO CORNUCOPIA is the sin-

gle board systems journal support-

ing systems programming lan-

guages and single board systems-

including the Big Board, the Big

Board II, and the Xerox 820.

MICRO CORNUCOPIA is pub-

lished six times a year by Micro Cor-

nucopia of Oregon, 11740 N. W.

West Rd., Portland, Oregon 97229.

SUBSCRIPTION RATES:

1 yr.(6 issues)

1 yr.(Canada

Mexico)

1 yr.(other foreign)

$16.00

$20.00

$26.00

All subscription orders payable in

U.s. funds on a u.s. bank, please.

ADVERTISING RATES: Available

on request.

CHANGE OF ADDRESS: Please

send old label and new address.

SOFTWARE, HARDWARE, AND

BOOK VENDORS: We would very

much like to review your CP/M

compatible products for Micro

Please send rna terial to the Review

Editor, Micro Cornucopia.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: Please

sound off.

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

LETTERS

Dear Editor,

I have just finished building a new

board and during the process of debug-

ging,

noticed that -SV from the RAM

protection circuit was showing up in

strange places.

turned out that the

small electrolytic (or tantalum) capaci-

tors supplied by DRC with the kit had no

insulation around the metal cans. So

when

installed them down tight they

shorted to runs on the board.

cured the problem by heating the sol-

der at the leads and lifting them slightly

above the board.

Now, however,

am now faced with a

screen full of alternate characters.

Doug Henry

W 211

Claymore Ln

Naberville, IL 60540

If this doesn't locate the problem, you'll

, ,

probably need to find a logic analyzer and see

how far the system is getting into the initial

ROM boot routine. See issue

#4,

page

for a

list of the first

bytes in the ROM.

If you don't have access to a logic analyzer,

good luck. Most of the problems have been

with sockets (the TI open frame sockets have

been particularly undependable), solder

joints or bridges, shorted or open board runs,

RAM chips, and

parts, in that order. In

fact, most pros go over hand-soldered boards

with a magnifying glass and a bright light,

joint by joint, before applying power.

There is also a possibility that your proc-

essor is not running properly (usually leaves

garbage on the screen). Be sure the processor

is getting a clock (pin

6),

a reset pulse when

you hit the reset button (pin

26),

and make

sure it is generating a refresh signal (pin 28)

and an instruction fetch (pin 27).

Simple parts-swapping sometimes finds

subtle problems very quickly but don't swap

without reason. Even good sockets can get

flakeyifyou exercise them too much. You'd be

surprised how much you can learn with a

simple scope or a logic probe if you just poke

around for a while.

don't have this problem and most of these

printers ignore null characters (except your

1640).

Randy Dickinson mentioned that his

510

was not dumping out characters after the

CTS line went low. The only thing I could see

different on his listing is that he is setting

something called auto-enable in control regis-

ter

(He sends a OE1H to that register.>

Hopefully we'll have more about initializing

the

510

shortly.

Editor's note:

A screen filled with two alternate charac-

ters usually means that PFM isn't running

properly out of high memory, which usually

means a problem with the RAM or with the

processor's ability to interface with it.

Note that only the top 16K of RAM needs

to be working to use the PFM monitor so you

can start off by swapping the two rows of

RAMs nearest the edge of the board to check

for a single bad chip.

If the swap doesn't cure the problem, verify

that there is continuity between the RAM

pins and the corresponding pads under the

board. (Check with a magnifying glass for bad·

solder joints!) Use your ohm meter to check

for shorts between adjacent pins. Then power

up the system and check the RAM supply

pins to make sure all three voltages are

present and proper. Touch the chips to see if

some seem significantly hotter or cooler than

the rest. They should all run a little warm to

the touch.

Check the address and data buffers and the

MUXs by connecting a logic probe or a scope

onto an address or data line and hitting the

reset button. Do this for all the lines into and

outofU54, U57, U58, and U59 to make sure

each moves when you hit reset. (See sche-

matic

in your Big Board documentation.)

Obviously if you see a line moving on one side

of one of these chips and not on the other,

then you need to swap the chip and see if that

moves the problem and then go from there.

After all this, check all the lines at the RAM

chips and at the processor.

Dear Editor,

wanted to ask you about the PR pro-

gram on USR disk

#1.

My MX-80 printer

is dropping characters two at a time. My

printer has a 2K buffer and the problem

doesn't occur until after the first 2K char-

acters. I have a Diablo 1640 that doesn't

drop characters but the horn blows at the

end of every line.

Kenneth Schurr JR

529 Candlewood Dr

Liberty, NC 27298

Dear Editor,

would like to offer a few points about

disk maintenance.

Adjustments should not be made

without the manufacturer's mainte-

nance manual and a good adjustment/

alignment diskette.

The easiest and most effective mainte-

nance project is replacing the head load

pad (Shugart PN-SOS42 available from

Hamilton Avnet) and cleaning the head

with alcohol. CAUTION-avoid bend-

ing the head load arm out too far or you

will damage the spring. And, do not lu-

bricate the stepper motor lead screw.

Also, do not loosen the stepper motor

plate (painted screw heads on the Shu-

garts) it will affect azimuth and head

penetration and these are not field ad-

justable.

Jim Chamberlain

PO Box 81

Pittsford, NY 14534

Editor's note:

The

routine was written for the MX-80

with the

character buffer (though it works

properly on almost all other printers). The

routine appends two null (OOH) characters to

each ODH (CR) and OAH (LF).

does this

because I was losing two characters at the end

of each line. You see, when the MX-80 drops

the clear-to-send (CTS) line indicating that it

doesn't want any more characters, it really

will not accept any more, period! However,

the following two characters are already in

the

510

buffer and though the

510

notifies

the processor that the line has dropped, the

510

goes ahead and dumps out the last two

characters. Since my MX-80 drops the CTS

line whenever it sees a

I simply

appended two nulls to either of these charac-

ters to flush the SIO's buffer.

Most printers will accept a few more char-

acters after they drop the CTS line so they

Dear Editor,

What is the status of the Big Board

Add On? I paid for documentation and a

bare board 3 months ago.

T.J. Aartsma

Dept of Chemistry

Florida State Univ.

Tallahassee, FL 32306

Editor's note:

I wish I knew. Tom Brandt (owner and sale

proprietor of E.C.R.L) has told me that he

shipping boards but I've gotten a number of

queries from folks like yourself who have been

waiting quite a while for their orders.

In July he indicated that he would be bring-

ing one of the add-ons over to demonstrate

but I haven't seen it yet. I'm sure Tom is not

trying to take advantage of anyone but he

much better engineer than businessman. In

fact, this

a good example of how important

it is to keep people posted when problems arise

or things are delayed.

(continued on page 9)

Micro Cornucopia, Number 8, October 1982

.. BIG BOARD II"

4 MHz Z80·A SINGLE BOARD COMPUTER WITH "SA$I"

HARD·DISK INTERFACE

$895 ASSEMBLED

TESTED *

$695 FULL KIT*

$245 PC BOARD WITH EPROM

PALS*

SIZE:

8.75"

15.5"

POWER:

+5V

3A, + -12V

O.1A

•

"SASI" Interface for Winchester Disks

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

Research Computers, has produced a stunning new computer that

Cal·Tex Computers began shipping in June. Called "Big Board II", it

has the following features:

•

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 Z80·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 2Kx8 SRAMs for the memory·mapped CRT display and

space for six 2732As, 2Kx8 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, a full kit, or assembled and tested. it comes with a 250 nS

2732 EPROM containing Russell Smith's superb Monitor.

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 $295 and implements the con·

troller portion of the SASI interface. 2) cables the controller to a Seagate

Technology ST·506 hard disk or one compatible with it. and 3) providfs 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!

•

Two Synchronous/Asynchronous Serial Ports

With a Z80·A SIOIO and a Z80·A CTC as a baud·rate generator. the new Ferguson

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

•

Multiple·Density Controller for

SSIDS Floppy Disks

•

A Parallel Keyboard Port

Ports for User I/O

Four Other Parallel

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

can use 1793. 1797. or 8877 controller chips since it generates the side signal with

TTL parts. The board has two connectors for disk signals. one with 34 pins for 5.25"

drives, the other with 50 pins for 8" drives.

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

and four others for user·defined

1/0.

•

Two Z80·A CTCs

Eight Programmable CounterslTimers

•

Vastly Improved CRT Display

The new Ferguson computer has two Z80·A CTCs. One is used to clock data into

and out of the Z80·A SIOIO, while the other is for systems and applications use.

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 80 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·

compatible EEPROMs.

•

STD Bus

DMA

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

CPIM with Russell Smith's CBIOS for the new Cal·Tex computer is available for

$150. The CBIOS is available separately for $25.

•

CP/M**

The new Ferguson computer has a Z80·A DMA chip that will allow byte·wise data

transfers at 500 KBytes per second and bit·serial transfers via the Z80·A SIO at 880

Kbits per second with minimal processor overhead. When a hard·disk subsystem is

added, the DMA chip makes impressive disk performance possible.

·SINGLE QUANTITY PRICE. ATTRACTIVE DISCOUNTS FOR DEALERS AND OEMs.

• ·CP/M IS A REGISTERED TRADEMARK OF DIGITAL RESEARCH.

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 $5 for packing

shipping.

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