EI Z-NEWS 706 20 April 1987
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Of Significance. Graphics, graphics...GT180 can produce pretty pictures. See
the ones on page 3 of the hardcopy edition of Z-News; but reproduction being
still and in shades of grey, full-justice is not done to original fast-moving
color pictures. GT180 works on the XBUS of SB180 and SB180FX single-board
computers from Micromint, and XLR8 add-ons from M.A.N. Systems. By GT180's
use of Hitachi HD63484 graphics controller chip, speed of drawing a multi-
color screen exceeds all the popular microcomputers, including IBM PC, Apple,
Atari, and Commodore.
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J.B. Designs and Technology Ltd., 15, Market Street, Cirencester, Glos.
GL7 2PB, telephone 0285 68122, Telex 341374, produces a 2-card set, STE IEE-
P1000 standard bus (that's a half-width VME-bus card), Eurocard physical
layout, using Z-System. One card contains 6 or 8mHz HD64180 CPU, STE bus
interface with full arbitration, 16mHz STE bus clock signal, 3 byte-wide ROM
sockets, realtime clock circuit, and math processor socket. Second card,
combination called Saturn, rides piggy-back on the first, adds hard and floppy
disk interfaces, printer interface, and 256k to one megabyte of dynamic RAM.
Called Titan STEngine for single-card embedded applications, is a totally
compatible member of the STEngine range, an assortment of STE cards for
realtime applications. Two-card combo, Saturn, is ideal as a development
system. Both configurations support JBD's Industrial BASIC language, an
enhanced floating-point BASIC tailored for STE-bus products. And Quick-Task,
Item 16 on our Price List, is ideal for creating multitasking ROMable code.
Titan and Saturn are shipping now. If interested, contact Director David
Collier at J.B. Designs in United Kingdom.
From Our Mail Box. In Europe, activity is brisk for our kind of computing.
Writes Klas Fagerberg, Munchen, W. Germany, "I received the Z-Catalog the
other day...I read it through without a halt...I will surely be back for more
software, like libraries, IOPs, disassembler, etc." Thanks, Klas, for order-
ing DSD and Z-System OS documentation for your SB180. The IOP package is a
good deal for users of SB180 computers, Item 45 on Price List. Notice aliases
in Z-News 609-3 and 701-3 using I/O Recorder and B/Printer, way we include
console output into Z-News and background print while editing another file or
while doing other things. Also NuKey comes in the package, our unique, full-
featured keyboard redefiner IOP segment created by Good-Neighbor Helper, Joe
Wright, San Jose, CA; Z-News 702-1 contains more about NuKey. And, the news-
letter coming free for 6 months the first time a $49 order is placed, keeps
you informed of happenings in our inner and outer worlds. Back copies are
available for $12.00 per 24 different issues, plus $4.00 shipping and handl-
ing, continental USA, actual mailing costs for rest of world.
David Trawick, Iowa City, IA, renewing newsletter subscription writes,
"...my other comment is due to the emphasis of-late on hard disks. All small
systems are getting them! Why not put some of the effort and dollars into
battery-backed RAM disks?" Yes, why not! SemiDisk and the DT42 have it. RAM
prices are not coming down as fast as we expected but still 2-megabytes as a
RAMdisk with battery-backup makes for a fast and economical computer, one
which you don't have to load the RAM with files each time you turn your
machine on. Thanks, David, for your renewal.
In Requiem. With deep sorrow we announce the death of Tim Linehan, Z-
Node #7 Sysop. Tim was a loyal servant, a good citizen, and a concerned
person of the highest order. He shall be missed in the Olympia,
Washington area. We shall miss him from here in California. He died of
natural causes at age 44. Tim is survived, in Olympia, by his wife,
seven children, and mother, and in California by his sister and brother.
Z-Node Activity. After much struggle, Gregg Britton, Sysop of Z-Node #61,
Whiteman AFB, MO 65305, has his hard-disk RAS up and running correctly, "now
with no problems." For those in the Missouri area, here's your ticket to save
money by reducing long-distance charges. Give Gregg a call, 816/563-4991, and
let him assist you in further understanding the Z-System. He's become an
expert after going through the rigors of getting his Z-Node reliable.
We intend to publish the latest Z-Node Roster in an upcoming issue of Z-
News, for ready reference in making calls.
Software Update Service Report. Here's what SUS #9 looks like at shipping
time. All registered subscribers to the service should have it in their hands
by end of this month.
DIRectory, Version 1.4 01/22/86
-SUS .009 0r| C/VIDLIB.LBR 30 | CALRCP11.LBR 12 | CRC22 .LBR 16
HD-ARC2 .LBR 40 | JETPRIME.COM 2 | JETPRIME.Z80 4 | PDGUID02.LBR 14
PRNTXT10.LBR 10 | RCOM10 .LBR 8 | RESTORE2.LBR 20 | SHUTILS2.LBR 22
TM2NOT10.LBR 20 | Z3VARS .LBR 18 | ZPATCH10.LBR 22
F0:BACKUP -- 15 files using 238k (148k remain of 386k total)
Z-News 704-2, i.e., Z-News Volume 7, Issue 4, page 2, describes programs not
mentioned here. 1) PRNTXT10, written by Terry Hazen, Los Gatos, CA, is a
greatly improved version of TXT, a utility that permits you to use your editor
on a default COM file to create instant messages to screen and printer. Con-
trol codes can be sent to the printer to control formatting. Great for use in
Z-System aliases. 2) From songster Tony Bennett's City-by-the-Bay, San
Francisco, comes Rick Charnes's RCOM10, Repeat Command, CMD alias and tutorial
for processing multiple files, even vanilla CP/M files, from a single command
line. Uses Jay Sage's ARUNZ and its parameter passing capability. RC,
similar to Steve Cohen's W (Z-News 508-1), handles file lists but not wild
card file names. RC and W complement each other.
SUS #10 is already nearly filled because of space taken up by
Backgrounder II demo library. We put our new prices list and order form on it
and a neat send-file-to-printer ZEX script using WordStar. That's likely it
for #10. One or two small files to go. We will ship it in a month or two.
Z-User's Corner. This fortnight we look at pictures created by Micromint's
GT180 graphics controller board. Photos on next page were taken directly from
a NEC Multisync monitor with a 35mm camera. Only pictures that were still on
the screen did we take. Board is so fast that it re-writes, i.e., redraws,
complete screen with 640 by 480 by 16-color pixel resolution in less than 1
second, much faster than those other popular computers. Shown are just a few
photos from our camera. The bee, to the unaided eye, has high resolution on
the monitor, but its true details don't show here.
The Turbo Modula-2 Graphics Toolbox, an optional software accessory to
the board, is a natural jumping-off point for custom designing screens for
your applications. It turns out TM-2 is an ideal high level graphics language
once the primitives have been written to control the hardware--and that's the
case here. All hardware driver primitives are already written. What remains
is the design and artistic part, the actual drawing of the picture.
Pascal users have no difficulty converting to TM-2. From there the field
is wide open to produce outstanding application programs that take advantage
of Z-System features plus features of SB180 and GT180 combination. GO FOR IT!
As Z-News 701-1 states, more details about the GT180 are in Nov/Dec 1986,
and Jan 1987 BYTE magazine. There, see Circuit Cellar column of Steve
Ciarcia.
A huge montage of six photos of graphics produced by GT180--only seen
in hardcopy edition of Z-News.
Hardware Beat. "Unprecedented value in 8-bit computing power." That's the
way Mr. Don Castella, President of Disks Plus, Inc., describes his near-
giveaway of Ampro Little Board/Plus Z80 computers. Being priced at only $199
each we agree the offer is a super bargain. Normal list price has been $329
for this popular single board computer. Comes with ZCPR3 (ZRDOS optional),
Friendly MENU shell, LZED text editor, and up-to-60-megabyte SCSI hard-disk
support. See ad in May 1987 Computer Shopper newspaper. If interested, call
or write Mr. Castella at 356 Lexington Drive, Buffalo Grove, IL 60089-2312,
telephone 312/537-7888, Telex 650 2139 MCI UW.
We are told second generation 8-page per minute laser-technology (xero-
graphic) Canon print engine, one used in HP's new Series II printers (Z-News
705-3), has essentially an indeterminately long life, if not abused and if
normal maintenance operations are performed. That's judged by us to be a long
time! Ricoh claims major overall required at 180,000 pages--that too is a
long time, 7 or 8 years of normal small-business use, average 2000 sheets a
month--for their second generation 6-ppm engine, used in Epson's GQ-3500
Laser, Okidata's Laserline 6, IBM's new PS/2 laser, and Ricoh's own PC Laser
6000. Each have their unique combination of features that try to put dot-
matrix and daisy-wheel impact printers and phototypesetters out of business.
(Having one narrow- and two wide-carriage, i.e., being able to print sheets 11
by 17 inches, 24-wire dot-matrix printers, we long for an affordable "wide-
carriage" laser printer. The only one we know of sells for $18,000, offered
by OEM Dataproducts. We think Ricoh's 6-ppm engine is capable of being rede-
signed economically to print 11" by 17" pages. We presently own one narrow-
carriage laser, handles 8.5" by 14" sheets, and lease another.)
Speaking of getting what we want: a WY-60 terminal with adjustable height
arm. Now this is a good combination, the best ASCII terminal we have ever
used. Has many advanced features...WyseWorks, accessible from any program you
are running, contains clock with two alarm set points to alert operator with
on-screen messages; calendar that shows days of week, months, and years; an
ASCII table that shows hex, octal, binary, and decimal for the terminal's 255
native-mode primary character set; and a four function, 14-digit accuracy,
calculator. Terminal features split screens with pages of memory; extensive
line-drawing graphics; download font capability; a flat 14" screen in amber,
white, or green, your choice at purchase time; plus just about anything one
would want an ASCII terminal to do or be. Keyboard and character cell are
somewhat improved over the WY-50+; but in any event, you couldn't get much
better than the amber-screened 50+ we used for last couple of years. Price:
about $695 with arm. Wyse Technology has been setting the pace for value in
computer terminals and they don't seem to be letting up. We wish them
continued success.
On the other hand, Televideo's Model 955 is liked by an equally large
group of us. Give both the 60 and 955 (and the just released WY-99GT) a look-
see, if you are ready to buy a terminal.
Software Beat. We report Macintosh Plus 40k-byte file copy time, detailed in
April 1987 BYTE, page 226, as 8.1 seconds; Apple IIGS, as 44 seconds. That's
speed? SemiDisk's DT42, 9.2mHz clock rate, does it in less than 8 seconds,
floppy to floppy.
While into April issue of BYTE magazine, you might enjoy exploring
Fairchild's Clipper with its 5 to 33 mips throughput (Z-News 503-2, 506-4).
Article starts on page 161. Stated to have a good C compiler, assembler,
debugger and simulator, and CLIX, based on Unix System V Release 3.0 operating
system. Would we port Z-System to such a chip set? No, not unless our lives
depended on it.
U.S/Disk, Inc., 511-104 Encinitas Blvd., Encinitas, CA 92024, 800/992-
1992, 800/992-1993 if California, has lots of public domain software on Kaypro
single sided disks. Editors, games, assemblers, compilers, printer utilities,
you name it. Call for their free catalog. Tell 'em Echelon, the Z-System
folks from Los Altos sent you.
Lotus 1-2-3 lawsuit against Mosaic and Paperback Software over infringe-
ment of copyright hits a snag, stalls--"look and feel" has been judged to be
just text and uncopyrightable by the Copyright Office. Seems reasonable.
Should Ford Motors be able to win a suit against other automobile manufact-
urers because of clutch-brake-accelerator pedal arrangement? Of course not,
even though Ford was first to use present arrangement.
Peter Shkabara, Analytical Products, Woodland, CA, 805/688-0826, Z-News
702-5, has CP/M versions of Newword, latest release v2.17. He is an
authorized MicroPro dealer--$145, with The Word Plus bundled. Such a deal!
Give Peter a call if interested in upgrading from WordStar v3.0 or v3.3.
What Business? What business are we in (Z-News 009-7 revisited)? We are
forced constantly to ask ourselves this question. Most would answer,
"Echelon's in the computer software business, specifically in CP/M-compatible
software marketing." Software is to computers what printing is to paper. The
printing, the character on the page, produced by a "press," is the informat-
ion; the paper page is the hardware. Computer, software; page, printed char-
acter--makes an appropriate analogy. But information? Assessing characters
grouped, i.e., connected bytes, as data and words converts, in our brains, the
groups into information, a low level of knowledge, knowledge being somewhat
below understanding.
Learning! That's our business--from raw data to being informed to
knowing something to understanding much. Many do not see... Learn what?
Making money, a living, forces a focus along Sufi ethereal lines to see this
multi-dimensional picture. Yes, but you still ask: learning what? Learning
those things necessary to live deeply, contrasted with surface, wine to
vinegar, to live a life of purpose, useful to ourselves and others, even
useful to the planet and Universe. More than computers...more than that
visible from the surface...Echelon's business, your business...Gee!
In Other Words. Presently, U.S. Dollar buys 147 Japanese Yen! Last year it
was 240 (Z-News 502-2). Where does it stop? Command given during critical
periods, "Put none but Americans on guard tonight."--George Washington, 1732-
1799, 1st President of U.S.A. Pray, let us understand meaning behind
reality...
"It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the
strong man stumbled or where the doer of deeds could have done better.
"The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena: whose face
is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and
comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great
devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows in
the end the triumph of high achievement; and who, at the worst, if he fails,
at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with
those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat."--Theodore
Roosevelt, 1858-1919, 26th President of the U.S.
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Of Angels and Eagles. "No man is an island." Yet too many of us still fear
the loss of self that comes when serving others. Actually, it's the only way
to find yourself, to come to grips with what life is all about. If fault is
found with present conditions it is with the me-first attitude of so many
business managers and leaders. Self-serving seems to be majority symptom,
disposition. We welcome your thoughts along these and other lines...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): 415/948-6656
Z-News 706 is Copyright MCMLXXXVII Echelon, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Permission to reprint, wholly or partially, automatically granted if source
credit is given to Echelon.
