HD64180-Based Development System. Now offered: a high-performance 8-bit
software/hardware development station, plus graphics with Hitachi HD63484
display controller chip (see Z-News 105 and 205). System uses STE P2 bus and
cards (IEEE P1000). Graphics firmware within-chip contains easy-to-use high-
level command set. RS-170 video interface with horizontal/vertical scrolling,
and 0-15 zoom factors. Full bit-mapped characters stored in onboard 128k-word
frame buffer, expandable as necessary, with many rotation orientations
permitted and totally flexible fonts. Screen refresh rates are up to 2-
megapixels per second, full-color and monochrome, at 1,024-by-1,024 pixel res-
olution.
Quantity one pricing: CPU board is $595; graphics, $995. (Wonder what a
good monitor costs.) Plug-in board-based computing machines, from boards to
fully packaged development stations, are offered by Performance Interconnect,
Inc., 8950 Villa La Jolla, Suite 2144, La Jolla, CA 92037, 619/457-0665. PII
has as much enthusiasm for Hitachi chip-pair as Echelon, because chip-pair
makes for really low-cost workstations with hi-res graphics. Move over Sun,
DEC, and Apollo; your time is up. As bonus, STE computer system is ideal
(efficient, economical) for developing ROMable code for process control
applications using Quick-Task realtime kernel (Z-News 407, Price List Item
16).
You know European-fostered STD and VME busses and American S-100,
Multibus, Q-bus, plus others. Now, again from Europe, we get STE bus (STA,
STB...STD came earlier); Dean Micro Systems of England supports STE, along
with other common-market companies. STE is physically usually one-half VME
bus card size, using a DIN 41612 Euroconnector--only one, not two as VME does.
One CPU card controlling one graphics card, for this we waited. (Quadram
Corporation went another way and missed a huge market. Z-News 204 and 205
tells of their being ready-for-production, but they took not that next step.)
Thanks to Mr. Harry White, PII President, and Colin Hirayama, Software
Development Chief, for appreciating power of Z-System (ZRDOS combined with
ZCPR3) over CP/M, MS-DOS, and Unix.
Mr. Brooks Morck, Director of Sales, has more details and some beautiful
literature. Write or give him a call. Be sure to tell PII Echelon sent you.
Z TIPS. Release of ZCPR Version 3.3 should end confusion caused by error
message flag phasing. ZCPR3: The Manual states phasing, and later versions of
the FCPs handle it, correctly. Early FCPs, before 1.2, and Term3 1.0 and 1.1
handle flag incorrectly. In any event, if ER doesn't work in a command line
for you, try adding or deleting the negating tilde, "~", in front of the "ER."
That should solve the problem. All our programs and utilities have been
converted to work way book says they should--well, almost...there are a few
errors in the book. ZCPR33 first forms foundation for B3 and S3; then, B3 for
M3 (Z-News 401).
Echelon pays top royalties (10% to 40% of sales price) to software
authors and companies for exclusive rights to market their products taking
full advantage of Z-System operating environment. If you have such programs
or have some good ideas for one or more, please contact us. We will let you
know the prospects. (We seek an assembler-editor combination that "on-error"
enters the editor at source code line of first error, that knows assembler
syntax!)
Dave McCord has finished first Echelon Application Note--"ZCPR3 Shells"--
extends information contained in our other documentation. In addition to
explaining what a shell is, it shows how to use them. It's file ZAPN#1.LBR on
Z-Nodes.
Computers, computers. Benchmarks for many popular computers produced with
"Scan," to measure file handling times using an editor or wordprocessor. File
is 68k-bytes of ASCII text. Test shows how long, in seconds, it takes to go
from top of file to bottom and back, WordStar ^QC followed by ^QR--a real I/O
and data block handling test. Hard disk, RAM or floppy disk and quality of
BIOS tell here. We consider this test more important than others because text
is managed by more people, word workers, than is number crunching. Sieve is
standard, ever-popular benchmark here run under GW and MBASIC, from BYTE
magazine January 1983, pages 283-326. Additionally, we included benchmarks
from Micro Cornucopia's three Aztec C programs listed in Issue #29, April-May
1986, pages 32 and 33. Thanks Micro C! Bench 1 concentrates on simple math,
Bench 2 on CPU loop-and-compare operations, and most important, Bench 3,
character Input/Output to console.
Analyze meaning of numbers--draw your conclusions. Some numbers come from Z-
News 004, 105, 107, and 208. We sorted on Scan and secondarily on Bench 3,
believing text processing and screen scrolling more important to most of us
than number crunching. We trust you realize you can have-your-way with
benchmark results, depending on your perspective and motives. "When in doubt,
tell the truth... ", Mark Twain. Except as noted all machines ran hard disks.
Blue Lightin' and RPM2 are IBM clones running CP/M-80. Symmetric 375
costs approximately $10,000.00 but comes with 50-megabyte hard drive and 2
megabytes of DRAM. And it's a portable weighing but 20 pounds. Interested?
Write or call Symmetric Computer Systems, 1620 Oakland Road, Suite D200, San
Jose, CA 95131, 408/279-0700.
We used WordStar, Version 3.0, for Scan with Z-System and CP/M machines.
Aztec C is used because it is Unix V7 compatible, making comparison easy with
non-CP/M machines. BDS-C and C/80 produce quicker executing code (see Z-News
306 for comparison). Our world needs a C compiler to handle 64180 multiply
instruction directly--Leor Zolman, you ready? Since 16-bit multiply with 32-
bit result is as fast as an 8086 it would show well in Bench 1 results. We
are certain Borland's Modula-2 uses MLT. Bench 1, 2, and 3 clearly indicate
Aztec C as inefficient compiler for 8-bit machines, far more than BDS-C and
C/80 are. When you have resources and time to spare C, Pascal, and BASIC
programs are okay for quick-and-dirty tasks--but for high-performance 8-bit
programs, let's do our programming using Assembler and SYSLIB3 (The Libraries)
and then compare with 16/32-bit machines. If you have hardware to fill blanks
in above table we would like receiving your test results.
For more IBM PC versus Z80 Kaypro comparisons, read Ted Silveira's "Flea
Market: Why Bother with CP/M?" column in Profiles, January 1986 issue. It's
eye-opening. As time and circumstances permit, several more important
benchmarks, e.g., file save, will be collected. That's where IBM PCs and
Apple "raincoats" really seem to fall apart.
Finally, thanks to Ivan Strand, Berkeley, and John Forker, Los Altos, for
their assistance in developing these comparisons.
From Our Mail Box. Yes, Micro Cornucopia magazine moves in many directions
at once. Tony Bove of erstwhile User's Guide magazine and defunct TUG
publishing "empire" walked same path...we predict--we hope we are wrong--Micro
C soon goes "slick" with Madison Avenue style coated-paper pages. Tony
couldn't be satisfied with 22,000 paid subscribers, as couldn't Ziff-Davis (Z-
News 108 tells what we think Z-D people) with 60,000 to Microsystems and
600,000 to Computers and Electronics...these individuals and companies, it
seems, have little or no soul, only want to make money as primary goal, only
goal. They promote status quo or they kill Life, take your choice. Each, of
course, claimed they patronize leading-edge technology developments. Baloney,
they champion majority mediocrity...think of weeping and gnashing of teeth
caused by Z-D and Tug. We pray Micro C strikes a proper balance. Now The
Computer Journal and its publisher, Art Carlson (mentioned in Z-News 401),
seem substance for Life--Art thinks long thoughts--and we like that. Z-News
007 declared support for several magazines; only one remain of that early
group. Presently, we encourage The Computer Journal, Micro/Systems Journal,
and BYTE magazines. Dr. Dobb's Journal, because of Lisa Boudreau, soon should
return to our list. All you silent CP/Mers and high-performance 8-bit micro-
computer users, speak up! Let these and other publishers know your feelings
about what they do.
Potpourri. Z-News 403 reviews V-Spell spelling checker and corrector program
from CompuView Products, Inc., 1955 Pauline Blvd., Suite 300, Ann Arbor, MI,
48103, 313/996-1299. We say we like it but give no price. It's $79.00 and
overall the best, presently. (CommpView is famous for Vedit Plus, "
systems." writes Dreas Nielsen, Bellevue, WA. Vedit Plus is pricey, sells
for $225.00 but comes bundled with V-Print, a super text formatter which
recently sold for $120.00.) Much quality 8-bit software on and for sale!
Incidentally, Newstar Software, Inc., moves to 3351 Vincent Road,
Pleasant Hill, CA 94523. We reviewed their wordprocessor in Z-News 402 and
403. They offer, to those buying Newword (price is only $125.00), competitive
spelling checker for $49.00, The WORD Plus from Oasis Systems, Wayne Holder's
company. Both sure bargains! Remember, Newword controls laser printers.
Call Newstar, 415/932-2278.
Toshiba shipping 1-megabit dynamic CMOS DRAM chips (1Mb x 1) with access
speeds of either 100 or 120 nanoseconds. Also shipping 256k-bit static CMOS
(32Kb x 8) at same access speeds. Next generation of memory densities firmly
established--Wow!.
Thanks to SCSI supporter, streaming tape drive people, especially Danny
Lamb, of Cipher Data Products, San Diego, CA, for signing up for Z-System site
license. We appreciate your business. Hope you like our ZCPR3/S3 when it
comes out.
And ZRDOS, Version 1.4, is released. Version eliminates drive select and
data allocation problems that occur with some computer BIOS implementations.
Also adds hard disk feature of not logging in directory on warm boot--quickens
transition from application programs that re-boot on exit, return to menu or
to Z-System prompt. Several other small enhancements have been incorporated.
Thanks go to Dennis Wright for improvements. Anyone wishing upgrade, please
send your original ZRDOS program disk, Version 1.0, 1.1, or 1.2, and $20.00,
plus applicable tax (if California) and shipping and handling fees. Those
with 1.3 receive update for only shipping and handling fee.
Of Cabbages and Kings. Some of us, noticeably those with advanced college
degrees, seem to think we know-it-all. Let it be asked: why are we
discontent with our lives if we know? Some people live and die happy; others
are happy to die! Let's face it--we know little of Value. We know not one
thing with absolute certainty. We make not friends; we know not ourselves as
friends. We, of all, are in-the-bind because we spent time and energy
"learning" and know so little. Result: as product of system, we are part of
problem (we believe we know), not a solution. Think--yesterday caused today
and tomorrow is nothing more than today psychologically re-played, unless...
Face it! See you down the lines...
Echelon, Inc.
885 N. San Antonio Road
Los Altos, CA 94022 USA
Telephone: 415/948-3820
Z-Node Central (RAS): 415/489-9005
Z-News 409 is Copyright 1986 Echelon, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Permission
to reprint, wholly or partially, automatically granted if source credit is
given to Echelon.
