Micro_Cornucopia_18_Jun84.pdf

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June

1984

TABLE OF CONTENTS

EPROM Programmer for the Kaypro ..................................

Digital Plotters, A Graphic Description ................................

I/O Byte: A Primer .....................................................

Sticky Kaypros .......................................................... 12

Pascal Procedures ........................................................ 14

SBASIC Column ......................................................... 18

Kaypro Column ......................................................... 24

86 World ................................................................ 28

FOR1Hwords ........................................................... 30

Talking Serially to Your Parallel Printer ................................ 33

Introduction to Business COBOL ...................................... 34

C'ing Clearly ............................................................. 36

Parallel Printing with the Xerox 820 .................................... 41

Xerox 820, A New Double..Density Monitor .......................... 42

On 'Your

Own ...........................................................

Technical Tips ........................................................... 57

"THE ORIGINAL BIG BOARD"

OEM - INDUSTRIAL - BUSINESS - SCIENTIFIC

SINGLE BOARD COMPUTER KIT!

Z-80 CPU!

64K RAM!

(DO NOT CONFUSE WITH ANY OF OUR FLATTERING IMITATORSI)

.,.:

::J

(,)

;

cs:

!::

:::i

(7)

::J

THE BIG BOARD PROJECT: With thousands sold worldwide and over two years of field experience, the Big

Board may just be one of the most reliable single board computers available today. This is the same design that

was licensed by Xerox Corp. as the basis for their 820 computer.

The Big Board gives you the right mix of most needed computing features ali on one board. 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.

$259

(64KKIT

BASIC

1/0)

FULLY SOCKETEDI

FEATURES: (Remember, all this on one board!)

64K RAM

SIZE:

8'12

133f.

IN.

SAME AS AN 8 IN. DRIVE.

REQUIRES: +5V @ 3 AMPS

+ - 12V @.5 AMPS.

::t

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 glitches.

Z-80 CPU

Running at 2.5 MHZ. Handles all 4116 RAM refresh and supports Mode 2

INTERUPTS. Fully buffered and runs 8080 software.

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 split 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

Inverted or true. 5 x 7 Matrix - Upper

Lower Case.

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. Directly compatible

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

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

..,

SERIAL I/O (OPTIONAL)

Full 2 channels using the Z80 SIO and the SMC 8116 Baud Rate Generator. FULL

RS2321 For synchronous or asynchronous communication. 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: $39.95

::J

TWO PORT PARALLEL I/O (OPTIONAL)

Uses Z-80 PIO. Full 16 bits, fully buffered, bl-dlrectlonal. Uses selectable hand

shake polarity. Set of all parts and connectors for parallel

110:

$19.95

cs:

BASIC I/O

Consists of separate parallel port (Z80 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 Z-80 CTC. Can be configured as a Counter on Real Time Clock. Set of all

parts: $9.95

...I

BLANK PC BOARD -

$99.95

CP/M* 2.2 FOR BIG BOARD

The popular CP/M" D.O.S. to run on Big Board is available for $139.00.

cs:

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

DOUBLE DENSITY ADAPTER BOARD -

$149.95 (A&T)

Requires no cuts or MODS to an existing Big Board. Gives up to 670K storage on

a single sided 8 In. diskette. With software to patch your CP/M" 2.2.

2K SYSTEM MONITOR

. 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

110

Ports, Disc Read (Drive, Track, Sector), and Search PFM occupies one of the four 2716 EPROM locations provided. Z-80 Is a Trademark of Zilog.

Digital Research Computers

(OF TEXAS)

P.O. BOX 461565 • GARLAND, TEXAS 75046. (214) 271-3538

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 $4.00 shipping.

USA AND CANADA ONLY

*TRADEMARK OF DIGITAL RESEARCH. NOT ASSOCIATED WITH DIGITAL RESEARCH OF CALIFORNIA, THE ORIGINATORS OF CPM SOFTWARE

**1 TO 4 PIECE DOMESTIC USA PRICE.

MICRO CORNUCOPIA

P.O. Box 223

Bend, Oregon 97709

503-382-8048

Editor

Publisher

David

Thompson

Assistant Editor

Eric Belden

Graphic Design

Sandra Thompson

Technical Department

Dana Cotant

Eric Roby

Advertising Director

Alice Holbrow

Staff Assistants

Dorcas Dsenis

Tracey Braas Cary Gatton

Typography

Patti Morris

Martin White

Irish Setter

MICRO CORNUCOPIA is the

single board systems journal sup-

porting systems programming lan-

guages and single board systems-

including the Big Board, Big Board

II,

Xerox 820, Kaypro, and Slicer.

MICRO CORNUCOPIA is pub-

lished six times a year by Micro Cor-

nucopia of Oregon, P.O. Box

223,

Bend, Oregon

97709.

SUBSCRIPTION RATES:

1 yr.(6 issues)

$16.00

1 yr.(first class)

$20.00

1 yr.(Canada & Mexico)

$20.00

1 yr. (other foreign)

$26.00

Make all orders payable in U.S.

funds on a U.S. bank, please.

ADVERTISING RATES: Available

on request.

CHANGE OF ADDRESS: Please

send your old label and new ad-

dress.

SOFTWARE, HARDWARE, AND

BOOK VENDORS: We would very

much like to review your CP/M &

MSDOS compatible products. Send

materials to the Review Depart-

ment, Micro Cornucopia.

CPIM

is a trademark of Digital Research, Inc.

IICla CD.RUCD.II

June 1984

The Single Board Systems Journal

No. 18

Y'all

Come

SOG

Before you read further, take a look at

the SOG article in this issue. That way

you'll know

you need to throw any-

thing more into your duffle bag for July

26! Don't forget to bring the family!

Dr Dobbs

The People's Computer Company has

given up control of Dr Dobbs, the maga-

zine that for many years combined

heavy-weight technicality and high fri-

volity. In the last few years, the high fri-

volity has been pretty much displaced.

(It's title used to be "Dr Dobbs Journal of

Computer Calisthenics and Orthodon-

tia," simply one way of saying "Running

light without over byte.")

The People's Computer Company is

the non-profit computer educational

group that published Dr Dobbs and be-

came the focal point for the public-do-

main, forth, and small-c, folks.

M&T Publishing, the U.S. subsidiary

of a large German software firm, has

purchased two computer magazines as

begins its push into the U.S. software

market. One magazine covers business

software, the other (Dr Dobbs) is aimed

at the technical market.

I talked to Michael Swain, newly ap-

pointed editor in chief. He is a long-time

Dr Dobbs reader who was hired away

from Info World. I enjoyed my visit with

Mike and I really appreciate his desires

to keep Dr Dobbs from going totally

commercial. (But then he's not really

sure what kinds of directives will come

down from the brass at M&T.)

The magazine changed a lot while it

was under the PCC's thumb and has al-

ready lost a lot of its original hacker audi-

ence (though its circulation is 30,000).

You see, article submissions have

dropped to almost nothing and they are

even having trouble getting enough let-

ters to the editor. That's quite a change

from the days when Gary Kildall wrote a

major treatise for Dr Dobbs entitled "The

History of CP/M." (Gary wrote CP/M, so

he should know.)

A number of Micro C subscribers have

commented that we remind them of the

early Dr Dobbs. And though I have only

subscribed for a couple of years, I have

read Dr Dobbs avidly for many years.

(Does that sound familiar?)

In light of all this, I was really struck

when Michael introduced me to other Dr

Dobbs staffers as the editor of Micro C,

the magazine that looks a lot like the ear-

ly Dr Dobbs.

Hopefully Micro C can avoid out-

growing its present nitch.

The Little Board

This is an absolutely tiny 64K Z80 sin-

gle board computer (similar to the Kay-

pro). It is manufactured by Ampro.

This board does not contain a video

monitor (you have to connect it to a sepa-

rate terminal) but it is so small that it

mounts flat against the side of a 5" drive.

In fact, the holes on the board match the

mounting holes on the side of most

drives.

The board uses the same power con-

nector and the same supply as the 5"

drives (+5V and + 12V) and it draws so

little power that the drive supply proba-

bly won't notice the board is there. In

fact, a single-chip switcher (on the

board) generates -12V for the serial

ports.

Drive compatibility doesn't stop there,

however, for the data connector on the

back of the board is the same card edge

type as the drives. The board plugs into

the data cable the same way the drives

do.

The system comes with CP /M, and for

a few more bucks you can get the source

of the copy programs, the monitor, and

the BIOS. This is an ideal little system for

vertical system or controller people who

want to do a cute and quick system.

(continued on page 50)

1984 by Micro Cornucopia

LITTIRS

Dear Editor,

Some time back I bought a Kaypro

ZCPR disk and got it installed. I seldom

use the number pad, but when I read the

Kaypro column in issue #l6, I checked

and found it didn't work under my

ZCPR. I then tried the patch listed in the

Kaypro column.

I've tried that patch at least 20 times,

and I still can't get the keypad to work.

I've tried the patch just as listed, and

then, because I thought any changes

made by DDT had to be "saved", I tried

"save 34 ZCPM.COM" after DDT. That

didn't work either, nor did anything else

I tried.

I've followed the instructions, even

re-installing ZCPR several times when

trying to modify it. But nothing seems to

make the keypad work.

get nothing

with

"I",

Control-L with "4", etc.) Any

suggestions?

W. F. Gephart

7117 Joyce Way

Dallas TX 75225

Editor's note:

Start with the system tracks from the

CPM

master disk. Edit INSTALL. SUB as follows:

Delete the first line (MOVCPM**).

Insert the folowing

lines

at the top of the file.

1st)

SYSGEN

2nd)

3rd)

(Hold down shift key and hit n\,)

4th)

have encountered. I took the trusty Kay-

Pro over to a friend who wants one so

bad, but can't seem to come up with cash

right now.

He is very interested in computers in

general and knows everyone who has

one of each kind. So I thought I would

dazzle him and his wife with mine.

They have a business with lots of

names to mail to, but it's a business that

doesn't make much profit. I had the Per-

fect Writer up and was letting Phyllis do

a little typing, while Fred and I went and

fed the horses (now there is the waste of

cash needed to buy the computer).

When we came back, Phil came running

out of the house yelling Mayday!

She wanted to know about all the

????????????? filling the screen. So did

figured the computer had been on a few

hours and had heated up and on the 5

MHz something gave up. This was cured

after I switched to the 2.5 and booted up.

I am being very daring since I am on

the 5 MHz right this very moment

did a

lot of skydiving for 6 years). I wanted to

see if it was going to go out on me too. I

save every few minutes!

You know, you are causing me to get .

bitten worse with this computer. I keep

on reading more and wanting to learn

more programming. It's just a monu-

mental task for me to grasp all of the

knowledge. I have taught myself so

much, in so many fields, that my RAM is

spilling over. I guess I'll have to have my

head fitted with a 100 MB hard disk.

Gary Stookey

5000 Foots Creek Road

Gold Hill, OR 97525

Dear Editor,

I am considering building a clock

board for my Kaypro 4. One thing the

clock needs to do is be able to turn on the

Kaypro at a set time. The Kaypro would

then auto-boot some program. An appli-

cation for this would be long distance

communications when the rates are

cheap (and I'm asleep).

What I need to know is whether it's

okay to turn my Kaypro on and off with a

disk in the drives. I presently have the

original Tandon 100-4's installed but in-

tend to replace them with 96 tpi drives as

soon as you wizards have settled on a

"monitor to end all monitors." Are there

96 tpi drives that will/won't allow me to

start up loaded?

Lewis Sternberg

1142 NW10

Corvallis OR 97330

Editor's note:

We've generally had pretty good luck turn-

ing machines on and off with disks in the

drives; we don't make it a practice, but pub-

lishers can be human too (some of us are par-

ticularly human). Anyway, disk drives are

made to sense voltage drop so they can avoid

writing during power-down. The TEAC and

CDC quad density drives have head load sele-

noids

they should be even safer than the

Tandons.

Also, you might consider leaving your

Kaypro running. Some people simply tum

down the screen brightness and leave their

systems running constantly. They feel that

the Kaypro will actually last longer that way

than if the system were powered up and down

every day. They might be right.

Dear Editor,

I received my copy of Micro C, and just

finished reading it for the first time. I was

quite surprised to see my name in the

letter department. I was even more em-

barrasse9. to think that I might have

asked dumb questions.

I am running on my very small genera-

tor right now. I had to write when I saw

my name in type. Since I took the 3rd 6

volt battery off line to power my dune

buggy, so I can save that 500 foot walk to

the shop many times a day, I have not

been using the KayPro. I also have to

make a bigger heat sink. After about 20

minutes it gets too hot to touch, so I am

afraid to run it for very long.

I must tell you about a few problems I

Editor's note:

They weren't dumb questions, Gary. We

all start at zero in this business. It's like start-

ing at the bottom of a well and spending the

rest of your life climbing out. The people we

all look up to for guidance may be a little high-

er in the well, but their view is often no better

than ours.

Dear Editor,

I found these BASIC statements affect

my BASIC Texas Big Board in a strange

manner.

Print chr$(27); chr$(41) causes the cur-

sor and anything following to flash.

Print chr$(27);chr$(40) will reset the

display to normal.

In CP/M:

A> cntl-[ ) causes flashing

A> cntl-[ ( return to normal

I hope all our BBI friends can find some

use for these commands. I use the on-

board video and keyboard.

Paul Weber

2443 Mountain View Dr.

Loveland CO 80537

Micro Cornucopia, Number 18, June 1984

Dear Editor,

I have the Spellsys;it works great. You

should include in the ad that it works

with WordStar files. I had to call you to

find out. I felt for $29.95 it wouldn't. I am

very happy with it and use it for letters.

I would use it now but this pen doesn't

make as much noise as the Hy-type; ev-

eryone is in bed.

Mike Cochran

3920 W 41 Place

Tulsa OK 74107

Dear Editor,

I would like to announce to the Micro

C community that my BBI computer is

now operating as a remote CP/M sys-

tem. One part of the system is used by

my wife's software sales business for

product distribution and support. The

other part of the system, however, is

open to the public with the goal of sup-

porting CP/M public domain software in

general and the ZCPR software system

in particular.

The system is up 24 hours a day at 617-

965-7259 (phone will be busy when we

are using the machine) and answers au-

tomatically at either 300 or 1200 baud.

However, the modem is not very happy

with our local phone system and pro-

duces a weak carrier that sometimes

causes problems at 1200 baud. The logon

password is "BIGBOARD", which I

hope readers of Micro C can remember

without too much trouble!

We have three Shugart 800 drives that,

with the excellent double-density mod

from SWP, give us a little over 2MB of

space. The software includes the ZCPR2

system with the menu front-end and the

MINICBBS bulletin board program.

We already have some software spe-

cifically for the Kaypro and would love to

provide more support for the BB/Kay-

pro/Xerox family of machines. We

would welcome any contributions.

JayP. Sage

1435 Centre Street

Newton Centre MA 02159

BIG BOARD

COLOR GRAPHICS

$2995:~~~d

Composite Video Output

Highest Quality PC Construction

Software Includes Character

Sprite Editor

Demo Program In Pascal

Basic

Drivers Are Above The Monitor For Use

With High Level Languages

Requires 1 trace cut and 1 jumper (see adding 6K of Ram MicroC#7)

Plugs Into U70 (U70 Still Available for Prom with Jumper)

Moving Sprites

*32 Simultaneous Fast

TMS 9918A Based Graphics System

256H-192V

16 Colors

TMS9918A Graphics Chip

'34

Check

Money Order

COD

GRAPHTECH

P.O. Box 1185, McPherson, KS 67460 - (316) 241-6330

Call for Availability

Price of Parts Kit

Kansas Residents Add 4

Tax/Include $3 For Postage

Handling

Allow Four to Six Weeks for Delivery

Dear Editor,

I modified my Kaypro II to access a114k

of a 2732A, in anticipation of bigger and

greater things. I did the chip select de-

coding a bit different from the method

described in your December issue. I sim-

ply bent up pin 1 of U60 and jumpered it

to pin 8 (ground). This changes U60 to a

1-of-4 decoder using outputs 0, 2, 4, and

6 which decode on 4k boundaries. The

CRTCE isn't affected sinc.e outputs 6 and

7 are ORed together anyway. This meth-

od eliminates the need to add in an extra

gate and the accompanying jumpers.

Greg DeHoogh

15711 Williams St. #172

Tustin CA 92680

Dear Editor,

I would like to ask a quick question

that you may want to answer in a future

column. I've installed both the Pro-

Character and Pro-Monitor ROMs pur-

chased from you. I've also purchased

Plu-Perfect Writer and Keypad up-

grades.

In their manual, they mention that

some of 5 MHz upgrades will not work

with their system. I'm wondering if you

have had any feedback relating to their

software and the speed-up you've out-

lined in your column? I would like to do

the 5 MHz,. but would hate to lose my

Plu-Perfect software in the process.

you keep publishing all those tech-

nical goodies in your column, I'll never

be able to keep the cover on my com-

puter.

Bill Ballhorn

1032 Marion Place

Sheridan WY 82801

Editor's note:

Thanks a lot Greg. Dana and I hadn't even

thought about doing

this way. We tried it

and it works fine! This is a great device select

shortcut for all of you who are upgrading a

Kaypro II to a

Micro Cornucopia, Number 18, June 1984

Editor's note:

Your Plu-Perfect will work fine with our

speed-up mod. Also, don't worry about hav-

ing a scantily clad KayPro; ours are kinda'

shy of their covers too.

Dear Editor,

I just finished installing the 5 MHz

mod in my KayPro II. The local supplier

was temporarily out of stock on the

Z80B, but I did the wiring mods in antici-

. pation of getting the chip in the next day

or so. Imagine my surprise (and delight)

when the silly thing ran at 5 ·MHz with

the original chip. Yes, it crapped out af-

ter I put the cover back on and the CPU

had time to warm up, but at least I was

able to check out the mods.

A note on DASM. Even

you use the

END command, be sure that the address

range (using the Prolog command) does

not exceed the address range of the pro-

gram, or labels lying beyond the end of

the program and within the r.ange of the

P command will not be created. For ex-

ample, if the program ends at BFF and a

CCOO, E

ha~

been issued, P100, FFF will

ignore any potential labels in the range

COO to FFF. The documentation is not

clear on this.

Don E. Sweet,

2161 Snowberry Road

Tustin CA 92680

(Letters.

continu~d

on page 44)

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