Benchmarking. DT42 single-board computer combined with co-board, The
SemiDisk, both from SemiDisk Systems of Beaverton/Aloha, OR, transfers data at
peak (burst) rates between 0.8 and 1.6 megabytes per second, for CPU clocks
from 6.144 to 12.288 mHz. (Micromint's SB180FX with RAM extension-board
provides similar performance.) Such rates are blindingly quick, compared to
typical rotary machinery. Transferring from one partition to another, 20
files occupying 400k-bytes, takes from 11 to 22 seconds, depending on clock
rate, using ZRDOS AC copy utility. (Using CRC verification about doubles
time. Some time is taken outputting messages to screen, setting up extents
and other operating system overhead, and then finding next file to copy--real-
world situation.) Here, effective transfer rate is 36k to 72k per second,
which is 6 to 15 times faster than typical hard disk installations. During
multi-file copying, Z80 Ampro hard disk transfers about 5k-bytes per second.
Some measurements obtained copying a single 160k-byte file using High
Tech K-20, Morrow MD3 with Advanced Concepts Mini-Winnie (Z-News 408-2), Ampro
4mHz Z80 Bookshelf with Seagate 225N SCSI hard disk, and SemiDisk DT42 with
6.144mHz HD64180 and 8-megabyte RAMdisk (Z-News 502) computers:
Transfer 160k-byte File, in seconds
Storage Devices K-20 Morrow Ampro SemiDisk
Floppy disk to floppy disk n/a 76 57 46
Hard disk to floppy disk 58 59 48 n/a
Floppy disk to hard disk 48 35 43 n/a
RAMdisk to floppy disk n/a n/a n/a 29
Hard disk to hard disk 17 18 25 n/a
RAMdisk to RAMdisk n/a n/a n/a 3
DT42, with 6.144 clock, formats (initializes) its 8-megabyte RAMdisk in about
10 seconds.
Thanks to Ted Silveira, Santa Cruz, CA, for Morrow computer measurements
(he used CP/M PIP, we used AC). Results vary significantly, 3 to 1 range,
depending on physical allocation block proximity for either floppy or hard
drives. RAMdisks are not affected by where fragments of a file get allocated.
Z-News 502 covers advantages of RAMdisk over rotating media, elimination of
spindle acoustic noise, smaller physical size, better long-term reliability,
and greatly increased access quickness. (We welcome benchmarks from other
than our own computers--send them in so we can compare.)
--------------------------------------------------------------------
From Our Mail Box. "The Modula-2 software sounds great and, as soon as I
can, I plan to order it from you. Your comments about it and the graphics of
the Micromint SB180+ has my 'mouth watering.' When my pocketbook catches up
with my appetite, I would like to purchase the SB180FX and GT180 with ZCPR
3.3. That ought to be a dynamite system!" Albert Bjorling, Circleville, NY,
thinks as we do, and he renews subscription to the newsletter.
We forgot to tell (Z-News 607-4)... Konica Technology is located in San
Jose, CA, telephone 408/263-8210. Their KT-510 10-megabyte floppy drive is
due to be shipped mid-1987. It reads normal 5-1/4" diskettes, as does
Kodak's. To our knowledge, Kodak is already shipping theirs, and with SCSI
controller (Z-News 404-4, 502-1).
"Philosophically I see Echelon at a crossroad," Wil Schuemann, Carson
City, NV, writes. "As hardware and software get more sophisticated, you will
have to decide to what degree you will support people coming into the 'hobby',
whose ability to understand what is happening inside the computer will be
increasingly inhibited by the vast gulf between their knowledge level and the
level of the hardware and software. If Echelon does not serve these people it
will evolve towards serving the group who are substantially only users of
computers motivated by the natural attraction to more power and features.
This will set the stage and Echelon may repeat the recent history of other
firms who evolved into serving groups they really didn't understand. I'm sure
you don't intend that to happen." Thanks, Wil, for your perception. Aware-
ness is first step towards more understanding. Our attitude, coincidentally,
is stated below in The Fit Survive. We do what we can, hopefully learning as
we move along the Path, no pun intended. Additionally, Wil relates his
interest in writing CBIOSs and needing more information into operating-system
workings. The Programmer's CP/M Handbook, by Andy Johnson-Laird (Z-News 508-
2), published 1983 by Osborne/McGraw-Hill, 2600 Tenth Street, Berkeley, CA
94710, 415/548-2805, trade paperback of 500+ pages, contains just about every-
thing one needs to create BIOSs for CP/M-compatible computers. And it's our
favorite for learning ins-and-outs of CP/M. And our ZRDOS Programmer's
Manual, tells about ZRDOS functions and how to use its reentrance. It's Item
85 on our Price List, only $8.95, plus shipping and handling. Be sure, Wil,
to let us see your CBIOS creation when you finish.
Z-User's Corner. Term3 (TERM III) is communications suite and tool box of Z-
System, created by ZCPR3 author Richard Conn. Our amazement never ceases when
using its batch (YMODEM) file transfer mode. It's great to use when on a RAS
and you wish to download more than one file, especially lots of files. At RAS
prompt enter: "xmodem sb fn.ft fn2.ft filn.*<cr>" and then after seeing KMD
(most KMDs are renamed to traditional name of XMODEM) calculate statistics of
transfer, enter "ctrl-\" to place Term3 in command mode. If you are not
already in "batch" then type <cr> followed by "f" to go to File Transfer menu.
There, type "b" for batch, followed by "r" which puts you immediately into
Receive mode. Now, enter "*.*<cr>" and watch the screen come alive. Screen
is File Transfer display. "Function:" starts with "Menu Display" and then
indicates "Receive File". "Activity:" goes from "Set Options" to "File
Identity" to "Synchronization" to "File Transfer", and finally to "Transfer
Done" for each file in batch transfer process.
During transfer, a section of screen indicates in which directory file is
being received, its name, amount sent, and last packet sent. Also full error
reports are maintained throughout transfer for each file. Automatic and
dynamic, you don't even type in the filename to be received; the "*.*" entry
does it for you.
The "b" toggle leaves you in batch mode until you use "b" again, or
reload T3FILER, the file transfer module, one of 29 such modules of Term3.
Here's the screen:
FILE TRANSFER
-------- Protocol Selection ---------------- Transfer Options ----
| -->1 MODEM7 1K Packet 4 XON/XOFF | B MODEM7 Batch On |
| 2 MODEM7 Checksum 5 KERMIT | C Completion Alarm On |
| 3 MODEM7 CRC | K KERMIT File Mode Txt |
| | M Monitor Transfer Off |
---------------------------- Functions ---------------------------
| S Send File | Q Quit to Main Menu |
| R Receive File | T Terminal Mode X Main Menu |
------------------------------------------------
Over a dozen such displays and menus are part of Term3 communications system,
plus five editors for default conditions. Item 61 on our Price List, 6 disks,
$99.00 plus S&H.
Change of pace. CRC, Version 2.2, has lots of interesting and useful
features. Its built-in help screen looks like this:
CRC, Version 2.2
CRC dir:afn1,dir:afn2,... o...
Options:
C -- Comment Mode (Allow user to comment each entry on disk - wheel only)
D -- Disk Output (Send Output to Disk in file CRC.CRC - wheel only)
I -- Inspect Mode (Give user approval option)
L -- Count Lines of Code
N -- Do not Number files
P -- Printer Output (wheel only)
Uses Keith Peterson's original CRCK routine to produce 2-byte number. Useful
in determining if two or more files are identical. CRC permits adding a
comment to each file, and it counts number of files in list, number of lines
in each file, outputs results to screen, and optionally to disk file and
printer. Here's screen display we obtained with command crc *.* cdl<cr> and
by putting file created here:
Number of "Lines" has no significance except for straight text files.
Comments can be as long as you wish, wrapping CRT screen. During checking, ^C
safely cancels process. CRC22.LBR is on Z-Nodes and on SUS #9.
Of course, with I/O Package installed and I/O Recorder loaded, we handle
displays you see in the newsletters without much effort. Output going to CRT
screen can always be sent, verbatim, appending as we go, to default file
CONSOLE.FIL. This file is then read into our text by Newword to show, edited-
to-please, displays. We use RC, Record Console, alias script (RECORDER.IOP
loaded at cold boot) to reduce keystrokes to minimum.
if $1=//;echo rc <cmd string><cr>;else;record on;$*;record off;fi
Command for help display above was rc crc //<cr>, putting CRC's built-in help
text into file CONSOLE.FIL. Read into Newword newsletter file, edited a
little, you see result above. Whole process took less than a minute. You
take it from here. More on NUKey and B/Printer in upcoming issues. The three
IOPs are offered for $89.00, Item 45 on Price List; see Z-Catalog, pages 17
and 18, Input/Output Packages, for tutorial on the trio and on spectacular BP,
Background Printer, alias. Also see Z-News 602-3 for more on BP.
Z-Node Activity. Ron McCallister, Seattle, WA, becomes Z-Node #75 Sysop.
RAS called "The Widow Maker," Ron runs full Z-System like other Z-Nodes and
gets into Turbo Modula-2 programming. Give him a call, 206/588-0643. "Time
Taker" Node (Ben Grey, Z-News 602-4, 503-644-4621) must be related to TWM
Node. What do you think?
Z-Node #65, managed by Sysop Barron McIntire, gets new telephone number,
307-638-1917. Computer is now Kaypro 2X with Advent TurboROM, 20-megabyte
Seagate hard drive, and Advent 1-megabyte RAMdisk. Message center and
bulletins run from the RAMdisk--sounds like a fast system. Give Byron a call
to see if it is.
Good Points. John H. Adams's first installment of four for "An HD64180
System" appears in Computer Smyth magazine, Vol.2 No.4, as reported in Z-News
605-5. Before series is over, John will show us how to use material, data and
text, from other computers, e.g. IBM PCs, on his Hitachi Euro-card computer
board.
In same Computer Smyth magazine issue, a short article by Cortney Smith,
Tuba City, AZ, discusses how to drive an Apple Imagewriter printer from a
Micromint SB180 computer. Shows how to build a cable that works. Interested
in either? Subscribe to CS magazine by calling 603/924-9464. Only $15.00 per
year, four issues.
Now For Something Completely Different. We notice many getting into
publishing using desktop computers. From our several previous comments you
know we are usually more interested in content than form, words being more
important than decorative graphics. Though cosmetics are important, we
emphasize content, substance. Feelings and much information about what it
takes to be in "publishing" can be obtained by reading Small Press, the
magazine for independent, in-house, and desktop publishing. Small Press
magazine is so eloquently produced we think of the good life, a life of art,
music, literature, beauty, and grace, as we read it. We are inspired by the
magazine. Here we see meaning of content and style, learn of techniques
working for "small presses." Alan Meckler, Publisher, has pulled together a
staff to cover quality of presentation, history of low-volume printing,
computer usage, and details of getting the work out. If interested call
203/226-6967, or write Eleven Ferry Lane West, Westport, CT 06880. Subscript-
ion is $23.95 per year, six issues. The good life--will you participate?
20/20 Hindsight. It is not a perfect world! We goofed with telephone number
of Z-System distributor Dean Microsystems. Correct number in Great Britain is
07357 5155. Hope this correction causes Gary Maguire to get more calls, to
remain busy.
The Fit Survive
We take this space to review briefly our "situation." Hopefully, our message
is received in same spirit as it is sent.
If Echelon does not do things in a manner that warrants your continued
support, we will go out of business. We are a small company with limited
resources, resources that must be used to create revenues. We support
customers with all our might, but still in many cases it is not enough. So
many want something for nothing, want us to educate them from their non-
technical base. And then there are those, some few, who want everything free.
These are the people who use our Z-Nodes to obtain latest-release files, Z-
News, and documentation, but who never buy anything from us. We are on a
knife edge financially. Our products are low-priced, high-value. However, to
support many in the style they require or desire, we should charge many times
over what we do. Using hindsight, did we make a mistake initially in our
product pricing? We don't think so. But what we do need is for more to
understand the business end of what we are doing. We offer an attractive
alternative within the microcomputing arena, one coming from the public domain
of yesteryear, one existing before present mainstream existed, one that
created market now completely dominated by corporate America.
Echelon's overhead is such that every minute of a staff member's time
costs us an average of $1.00. Such cost is made up of office rental, postal,
telephone and Telex charges, advertising, brochure and sales-aid printing,
support for Z-Team members, and staff salaries--all these declared as
overhead. Direct costs consist of diskettes, media copying labor, envelopes,
labels, manuals and books, shipping containers, and royalties to authors.
When dealing with us, either in writing or over the telephone, please keep
cost-of-time in mind. We intend to survive, but only through your conscious
help; we are fit but we live not in a vacuum. Without you and your
understanding we are as beach sand.
Finally, please observe we are a mail-order company, not store-front or
walk-in. Our new catalog is so detailed, written to educate, few should have
questions about what we offer. Now, let us all get on with primary task of
learning. Thank you...
"The vigorous, the healthy, and the happy survive
and multiply."--Charles Darwin, 1809-1882, English naturalist.
Lunch Break. Price reduction announced for Micromint's SB180 makes original
HD64180 board even more attractive. Board alone is only $299, full package is
now $399. FX version is about $100 more. SB180 drives GT180 color graphics
co-board. Both support 40-pin XBUS expansion. XBUS should, must become a
standard, mainly because it provides access to high-resolution color graphics
of GT180 and allows use of Graphix Toolbox written in Turbo Modula-2. If not
overly concerned with ultimate speed, original SB180 is a cost-effective way
to obtain beyond-conventional, beyond IBM, Atari, Apple, Commodore, graphics.
Else, SB180FX with GT180 is ticket to warp drive and hyper-space. Fi.
Vrooman Chan Communications (VCC) of Toronto offers single-board
computer, VCC180, using Hitachi HD64180 integrated chip. Board is 6.5" by
4.0" and fits on side of soon-to-be-popular 3.5" microfloppy drives. Features
include 512k-bytes of DRAM, Western Digital 1773 floppy controller, two serial
RS-232 channels, two 28-pin sockets for EPROMs, and 10-pin connector for their
PennyLAN 500k-baud local area network. EPROMs can be used to operate system.
Expansion bus, 50-pins, allows adding hard disk controllers, RAM disks,
modems, graphics cards, analog interfaces, voice synthesizers, and more.
Here, another platform for ROMable Z-System and Quick-Task. If interested in
more information and pricing, call or write VCC, POB 5822, Station A, Toronto,
Ontario, M5W 1P2, Canada, 416/531-2656.
LMS International announces 600-megabyte 1/2 height, 5-1/4" CD ROM drive.
Model 210 has embedded SCSI controller to handle standard 4.7" digital Compact
Diskettes. Call 212/578-9400 for more information.
Cubit, 190 S. Whisman Road, Mountain View, CA 94041-1577, telephone
415/962-8237, produces all CMOS STD-bus CPU board using HD64180.
"When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said in a rather
scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean--neither
more nor less. The question is, which is to be master--that's all."
--Lewis Carroll in Through the Looking Glass.
Helping to manage and master documents of many words, we use MicroPro's
StarIndex ($89.00 from Central Computer Products) for Table of Contents and
Index generation. We list three other such programs you might find interest-
ing and useful. Only professional indexers are likely to appreciate the two
high priced ones.
IN>SORT - $79.95 INDEXER'S ASSISTANT - $295.00 MACREX - $325.00
Kensa Software Omega Electronics Bayside Indexing Service
POB 49, Cathedral Stn P.O. Box 294 265 Arlington Avenue
New York, NY 10025 Oswego, NY 13126 Kensington, CA 94707
212/222-6735 315/342-1741 415/524-4195
CP/M-compatible software comes out of the woodwork! With color bit-mapped
graphics and speed, our computers are to be used for a long, long time to
come--they never die!
Fortnight Flash. MicroPro decides to update CP/M version of WordStar
with Newword features, and beyond. Hurray! Hundreds-of-thousands of users
rejoice. Thanks go out to you who helped bring this about. We will pass
along details of upgrade as we get them.
====================================================================
Of Angels and Eagles. South Korea, a country one-quarter California's size
but with nearly twice the population (1070 people per square mile), is a
debtor nation. (Japan has 140 million people in an area about the size of
California, 954 people per square mile versus California's 151, USA's 60.)
South Korea's Gross National Product is about twice its debt. They have
always been timely with installment payments covering their debt. Many other
nations have not and is reason some big USA banks are in financial trouble.
Well, we see their industry by imports from Hyundai, Samsung, Daewoo, Gold
Star, and others. The people have found a market for their wares. Overnight,
it happened not. They study us for 20 years. They understand what we
perceive as value. We are known as totally materialistic, no matter what we
say, because of our actions. Driven by the "Joneses," Catch-22 flat-spiral
style--this they know. South Korea is example of modern people doing what
must be done, each at their level, to improve "quality" of their living.
General Motors slowly reacts to import-automobile plight and its
increasing loss of market share, by getting rid of H. Ross Perot, only
dissenting member of huge Board of Directors. We say: truly, GM needs new
leadership not coming from within their own ranks. We have found the enemy--
it is us! It is not manufacturing labor unions, it is not engineering, it is
not top management. It is all these elements combined.
"Now to break-fast on...Zydeco tacos and... ." You ask, "What the heck
is a Zydeco taco?" Well, as far as we know, recipe was created by Queen Ida
(aka Ida Guillory) of Zydeco music fame (Z-News 306-5). Goes something like
this: 1) deep-fry a corn tortilla formed into a taco shell, 2) place ten
boiled-and-shelled medium crawfish at bottom of shell, 3) splash crawfish with
Louisiana hot sauce, 4) fill shell to overflowing with shredded lettuce, diced
near-green tomatoes, and grated cheese, and then 5) top with Sauce Piquant.
Goes good with white Zinfandel or banquet beer, either at a sit-down fancy or
drive-in. See you down the lines...
Echelon, Inc. 885 North San Antonio Road Los Altos, CA 94022 USA
Telephone: 415/948-3820 Telex: 4931646 Z-Node Central (RAS): 415/489-9005
Trademarks: Little Board, Bookshelf, Ampro Computers; SB180, SB180FX, GT180,
Micromint; PRO-180, Magnum Digital; ON!, Oneac; DT42, The SemiDisk, Deep
Thought 42, SemiDisk Systems; VCC180, PennyLAN, Vrooman Chan Communications;
HD64180, Hitachi; Z-System, ZCPR3, ZRDOS, Z-Tools, Zas, Zlink, Z-Msg, Term3,
LZED, Quick-Task, Lasting-Value Software, Echelon and authors; CP/M, Digital
Research; Unix, AT&T Bell Laboratories; TurboROM, Advent; Graphix Toolbox,
Turbo Modula-2, Borland Int'l; Express, TCI; LZED, Zivio; WordStar, Newword,
MicroPro Int'l; JetFind, Bridger Mitchell.
* *
Z--the high flier!
* *
Z-News 609 is Copyright MCMLXXXVII Echelon, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Permission to reprint, wholly or partially, automatically granted if source
credit is given to Echelon.
