[editor : Carl T. Helmers Jr.] [publisher : Virginia Peschke] [art : Wai Chiu Li, Dorothy Shamonsky, Ellen Shamonsky] [nota bene : Some missing pages in archive.org. Full version in vintageapple.org] #Magazine
#Abstract
The compleat robotics experimenter must have a thorough background in biological models of behavior and control, as noted in November's editorial. With this issue, Ernest W Kent begins the first installment of a four part series with The Brains of Men and Machines, Part 1: Biological Models for Robotics. Dr Kent has provided readers with a thoroughly understandable introduction to a number of concepts essential to an understanding of the human brain and its simulation in robotic mechanisms. (Page 11)
Can the experimenter who runs a small computer business deduct the price of additional memory for the computer? What kind of tax records should the small business keep? If you've been thinking of opening your own small computer business, read Elizabeth M Hughes' The IRS and the Computer Entrepreneur for the answers to these and many more tax questions. (Page 27)
Last month, Steve Ciarcia described an inexpensive 8 channel digital voltmeter driven by a microcomputer. Read Add More Zing to the Cocktail in this month's Ciarcia's Circuit Cellar and find out how to add multiple ranges, AC and DC input capability and overvoltage protection to the basic circuit. (Page 37)
When designing a floppy disk interface, the experimenter is faced with the continuous battle of hardware versus software tradeoffs. David M Allen's A Floppy Disk Interface balances the two extremes and shows you how to get a floppy disk system up and running. (Page 58)
Paul M Jessop explores the functional organization of The Motorola 6800 Instruction Set showing Two Programming Points of View. (Page 84)
Robert Bumpous provides A User's Reaction to the SOL-l0 Computer in this issue. Learn a bit more about the Processor Technology computer's design and assembly procedures in Robert's article. (Page 86)
In what is probably the world's simplest such design, Walter Banks describes a neat hack, The Waterloo RF Modulator, used to convey digitally generated video information from a computer to a standard television set. (Page 94)
On a battlefield for (intellectual) titans, the forces of black versus white met recently in Toronto. Who won? It was the artificial intelligence experimenters, who demonstrated their nonartificial intelligence in constructing the programs entered in the Second World Computer Chess Championships, held last August during the IFIPS show. 16 programs met in logical conflict, with CHESS 4.6 conquering all to win the current title. Turn to Peter Jennings' article for a summary of the action. (Page 108)
In Structured Programming with Warnier-Orr Diagrams, Part 2: Coding the Program, David A Higgins uses the program design completed in part 1 and demonstrates how to efficiently turn a diagram into a working BASIC program. (Page 122)
Continuing the discussion of motion calculated with a personal com· puter, Stephen Smith's article Simulation of Motion: Model Rockets and Other Flying Objects turns to the need for simulating angular degrees of freedom and components of force along different di rections. (Page 144)
Are you uncertain as to how basic arithmetic operations such as multiplication and division are performed on your computer? If so, Wayne H Ledder's article A Novice's Eye on Computer Arithmetic may help you out. (Page 150)
Using the RAECO paper tape reader requ ires a mounting. See Jack Bryant's article on Mounting a Paper Tape Reader to see how this unit can be install ed in an SwTPC 6800's cabinet. (Page 161)
Building a homebrew system based on one of the many microprocessor chips available today is an interesting challenge. In Notes on Bringing up a Microcomputer, Sol Libes provides some general background information on the process of wiring and checking out a microcomputer based system. (Page 162)
[author : Carl Helmers] #Edito
Extract : « People newly acquainted with the personal computer concept often are baffled by the idea. What does it mean to have and use a personal computer? Why are such computers all of a sudden becoming a prominent technological feature of our culture? In posing these questions and writing a short essay on the subject, a key purpose is to provide a brief overview and summary of personal computing for our newer readers, an exercise which it is necessary to perform from time to time. But the same exercise helps me to review and get a perspective on what is happening, and will, I hope, serve readers familiar with the field as an opportunity for reflection upon the marketplace as it is seen today.
The very fact that I even have to take into account the existence of new readers is a revealing statement about the nature of the growth which has occurred in this field: when BYTE magazine was started by me, my partner Virginia Peschke and several associates in mid-1975, the starting point was essentially zero— the 250-odd subscribers to a newsletter technical publication I had been publishing for about a year. Now, as the 29th monthly issue of BYTE magazine goes to press, the November 1977 issue has just been delivered to over 105,000 people by subscription or sales in over 600 computer stores. As nearly as we can tell, we are still in the exponential growth stage of our circulation and have by no means saturated the prospects for interested readers. But this is only a reflection upon the industry as a whole. We could not support such a large circulation if it weren't for the fact that there is a large and active group of manufacturers who are producing and selling the products which our readers need and use as personal computing oriented people. Why? [...] »
TABLE OF CONTENTS
[theme : Hardware] [author : Ciarcia] #Electronic #Listing #Assembly #BASIC
Extract : « Last month (page 76) brought you a design for an 8 channel 3 1/2 digit to 2 V digital voltmeter (DVM) interface. The article introduced multiplexed analog data acquisition by means of a construction project.
I'm sure that the majority of the readers who have built the DVM will be satisfied with the results. There is of course that small group of problem makers who don't believe the whole world exists in the range from to 2 VDC: a point well taken.
Actually, I planned to expand the capabilities of the basic DVM all along. I'll elaborate in detail; the end result will be a DVM interface with these additional specifications:
Super Cocktail DVM: 8 programmable input channels, AC or DC capability, programmable gain of 1, 10, or 100, ranges of to 200 mV, to 2 V, to 20 V, or to 200 V, input overvoltage protection [...] »
[theme : Hardware] [author : Allen] #Electronic #Listing #Assembly #Algorithm #Interface #Storage
Extract : « Once it would have been appropriate to begin this article with a paragraph justifying the use of a floppy disk in a hobbyist system. Today that paragraph is unnecessary for two reasons: First, most of the more ambitious microprocessor users have already convinced themselves of the need for fast programmable memory; second, a growing number of users have begun to discover that the hardware required to interface a floppy disk to a microprocessor doesn't need to be very complex, and certainly not as expensive as some of the purveyors of professional equipment would have us believe. This article presents a straightforward way to control a floppy disk drive with a microprocessor. [...] »
[theme : Hacks] [author : Banks] #Electronic #Interface #Display
Extract : « In recent months a number of projects have taken advantage of the special input characteristics of Schmitt trigger TTL parts. They have been used as oscillators, monostable multivibrators and signal conditioning elements. This reminds me of a simple circuit I used as a video radio frequency generator when I worked on a low cost terminal development project. [...] »
[theme : Hardware] [author : Bryant] #Electronic #Mount #Storage
Extract : « Several months ago I ordered a RAECO paper tape reader. It arrived (a near record) 12 days later. Its very complete documentation, seven mimeographed pages, included a mounting template and circuit diagram. For $32.50 postpaid, it has to be a "best buy" among paper tape readers. But where could I mount it? Some unused panel space on my SwTPC 6800 processor's box seemed ideal. [...] »
[theme : Robotics] [author : Kent] #ArtificialIntelligence #Electronic #Book
Extract : « The idea of a machine that thinks like a man has always fascinated us. If we talk about substantial improvements in processor design, it is relegated to a few technical journals, but if we talk about robots, or write stories about computers with personalities, or make movies about HAL, everyone gets interested, and computer buffs stay up all night trying to figure out how to make their machines behave like that. An artificial "intelligence," in the sense in which we apply that term to our own thought processes, has been a recurring theme dating back to antiquity, despite the fact that no such machine has ever existed. I don't know why this is so, perhaps it springs from a desire to understand our own thoughts, or perhaps the human race is just lonely. We keep hoping for dolphins and Martians to start talking to us too. Whatever the reason, the idea is a potent one, and an enduring source of interest. [...]
[...] Bibliography
Elementary
Carlson, N, Physiology of Behavior, Allyn and Bacon, NY 1977.
Gardner, E, Fundamentals of Neurology, Sixth Edition, Saunders, Philadelphia 1975.
Advanced
Shepard, G, The Synaptic Organization of the Brain, Oxford University Press, NY 1974.
Rakic, P, Local Circuit Neurons, The MIT Press, Cambridge MA 1976. »
[theme : Taxes and Business] [author : Hughes] #Experience #Business
Extract : « Few computer hobbyists ever have enough money to put into expanding, upgrading or otherwise improving their systems. New products for the home computer are appearing almost daily and new needs ("If I only had another 4 K of memory...") become visible as the computer receives increased use. It's hardly surprising, then, that many small-systems owners are thinking of ways to make their computers pay for themselves. Many succeed in penetrating the chinks in the armor of the local business community (or whatever) and begin to earn some money from the enterprise. [...] »
[theme : Software] [author : Jessop] #Microprocessor #MachineCode
Extract : « When faced with the problem of trying to hand assemble a machine language program, the task of looking up each of the op codes in the manufacturer's data can be quite daunting. Admittedly, some become familiar before very long but the less common instructions still cause problems (do you 6800 users remember the hexadecimal op code for TPA?). Two solutions to this dilemma are suggested here. The first is suitable for "switch flippers" and the second for users of MIKBUG and other systems with hexadecimal dump and load functions. »
[theme : Product Review] [author : Bumpous] #Review #Computer
Extract : « When I first saw the Processor Technology SOL it was love at first sight. After acquiring the SOL system, I found that it has everything (almost) a hobbyist needs in one package.
The SOL-10 system which I purchased consists of a single 10 inch by 16 inch board computer, a keyboard, a power supply and cabinet. Figure 1 shows a memory map of the system which gives an idea of its overall structure. Processor Technology also makes the SOL-20 which has a heavier duty power supply and backplane for five extra S-100 cards. [...] »
[theme : Perfect Information Games] [author : Jennings] #Event #Software #GameBoard #Book
Extract : « The Second World Computer Chess Championships were held on August 7, 8, and 9 1977 at the Hotel Toronto in downtown Toronto Canada under the sponsorship of the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP). 16 programs from the United States, Canada, USSR, United Kingdom, Switzerland, Netherlands, West Germany and Sweden competed in a 4 round Swiss style tournament for the world title. [...]
[...] Bibliography
1. Peter W Frey, editor, Chess Skill in Man and Machine, Springer-Verlag, New York, 1977.
2. Monroe Newborn, Computer Chess, Academic Press, New York, 1975.
3. M Botvinnik, Computers, Chess, and Long Range Planning, Springer-Verlag, NY, 1970. »
[theme : Software] [author : Higgins] #Method #Algorithm #Listing #BASIC
Extract : « In part 1 we carefully constructed a design structure. In order to make the most of that structure a few words about programming style are in order. While it is true to a certain extent that any method of coding the structure will produce a logically correct program, matters of syntactical errors resulting from shoddy coding techniques as well as problems with maintainability seem to indicate that a great deal of care should be exercised in the construction of the actual program code. [...] »
[theme : Modelling] [author : Smith] #Simulation #Listing #BASIC
Extract : « Since becoming involved in personal computing, I've only met a few real applications oriented users. Most microcomputer owners are either hardware oriented, eg: hams or other electronics hobbyists, or they are software hackers. Both groups tend to love their machines for their own sake and not necessarily because they are useful. The users I've met who are more interested in the answers they get than in how they got them have all been running financial programs. Despite this thin showing, I believe that the next large group to "discover" personal computing is going to be applications oriented. They will be the business people and hobbyists who need more computing power than is available in a pocket calculator, but who can't justify access to a large computer. [...] »
[theme : Numbers] [author : Ledder] #Encoding #Mathematics
Extract : « Now that you have your shiny new microcomputer you want to use it for something. No matter what the application, someplace in it you have to use numbers: to count, do arithmetic, input from a keyboard, or output to a terminal of some sort. If you are operating with a higher level language such as BASIC or FORTRAN there is no problem since all the number manipulation programs are already included. Most of us, however, must work in assembly language or even machine language, and if you have never been there before it can be a discouraging situation when you don't get the expected results. [...] »
[theme : Hardware] [author : Libes] #Tips #Build
Extract : « The following is my recommended procedure to follow when building a microcomputer from a chip set. This procedure makes the assumption that you've already acquired or drawn up a complete set of plans from which to wire your computer. Many people follow this route, as opposed to the kit route, particularly since manufacturers, such as Intel, have sold chip sets to schools and students at special reduced prices. Designing then building a computer is a great way to learn about the hardware required in microprocessor systems. However, these tips can also be used in troubleshooting kits. Getting a homebrew computer up and running and debugged requires this sort of step by step technique, so that elimination of errors is made as easy as possible through checkout as each new element is introduced. [...] »
#Book
Extract : « Practical Microcomputer Programming: the Intel 8080 by W J Welter, A V Shatzel and H Y Nice, Northern Technology Books, 1976, $23.95. [...]
APL An Interactive Approach, second edition, by Leonard Gilman and Allen Rose, John Wiley & Sons, Inc, New York, 1974, 384 pp, $17,95 (paperback). [...]
Standard Dictionary of Computers and Information Processing, revised 2nd edition by Martin H Weik, Hayden Book Company Inc, Rochelle Park NJ, 7977, 400 pp, 6 by 9 inch, hardbound, $16.95. [...] »
#Association