7 April 1986 Z-NEWS 407 Bootable Disk Z-System for Kaypro. Yes, Virginia, they are ready and shipping, for all models and versions of Kaypro 8-bit machines, $69.95 plus $4.00 shipping and handling, continental USA. Place floppy diskette in drive, press reset, and full Z-System is running. Three pre-configured versions, taking 1 to 5k-bytes of TPA over straight CP/M and all containing PUBLIC ZRDOS Plus including IOPs, are ready to boot as supplied; Item 13 on Price List. Manual and code were developed by Richard Jacobson, Bruce Morgen, Richard Conn, Dennis Wright, and EI staff. Speaking of manuals, package comes with best written documentation thus far offered (because of writing skill of Jacobson and Morgen), explaining Z- System and how to use it; 72 pages, loose-leaf offered alone for $20.00 plus shipping and handling. (Bootable disk packages for Morrow are next off production line.) Registered users of Z-Com may upgrade for $30.00, of Z3- Dot-Com for $45.00, plus $4.00 shipping and handling continental USA. Amateur Z User Corner. An odyssey--all who own Apple and IBM PCs, or compatibles, can now upgrade to Micromint SB180 and COMM180 for more speed and flexibility, and a Wyse Technology WY-50+ for its eye-sight-saving characteristics. Here's the trip: buy an Integrand Model 3820 Laser-styled enclosure with power supply, a Teac 48tpi DSDD floppy drive, a Xebec OWL 10- megabyte hard disk (a Seagate with SCSI controller does nicely), some cables and connectors, and you have IT. Now none of this comes automatically, and by the time you have rounded-up all the bits and pieces, and gotten hardware and software working together, you will be a different and better person. Why different? Your Being is altered by work, mental, physical, and little- understood emotional work, to other than what it was before odyssey began. Why better? You understand more fully fundamentals of computing; from this comes new sight, insight. But, work must be conscious. If you have built such things many times before and can do it now without thinking (action coming from subconscious), little change occurs in Being. (Curious how most- talked-about items these days are all-in-one cards that permit PCs to run CP/M programs.) Call Micromint, 800/635-3355, to place order for SB180 and COMM180; Integrand, 209/651-1203, chassis and power supplies. Try Disks Plus at 312/537-7888 for drives and terminals, and loose ends. Tell'em Echelon sent you! QUICK-TASK. The beat goes on...and what rhythm! Our multitasking, ROMable, real-time kernel (executive) is shipping. One-time license is $249.00 per physical site or corporate division. No runtime fees. Use Q-T as many times as your jobs require. Item 16 on Price List opens door to low-cost programming for all process control design engineers, using HD64180, NSC800, and Z80 computer chips. Mail box, suspend, status, queue, round-robin, synchronize, schedule, cancel, resume, read-box, fill-box, interrupt, clock, flag, priority (up to 255), task (up to 255), words and phrases that symbolize functions of Q-T command set--move over Hunter and Ready, Palo Alto, CA, your time is up! Full source is supplied with package along with 70-page loose- leaf instruction manual. Routines and manual were written by Z-Team member, Greg Clark (Research Applications, Inc.), lover of control processes. Another Z-Team member, John Forker (Pacific Micro Devices), thoroughly beta tested Q-T using real-world applications. Quick-Task is a bargain for those needing multi-tasking, real- time control of complex commercial and industrial processes. ŠTerm3, The Libraries and Graphics. Release 2 of Term3, Item 61 from EI Price List offered for $99.00, is shipping, as is Item 28, Graphics and Windows, $49.00. Item 28 is supplied with 80-page loose-leaf manual. (All those who purchased Release 1 of Term3 receive free upgrade.) ZCPR3: The Libraries, Item 82, can be purchased in a money-saver combination, as Item 29, which includes Items 27, 28 and 82, all for $129.00, a saving of $18.95. Book, Item 82 sells for only $29.95, plus REL library code permits easy writing of structured Z-System utilities and application programs. Graphics took more time than originally planned but now package is complete, sophisticated. You hackers will love it--your dream comes true. We continue to develop applicable ASCII terminal list with custom TCAPs. Term3, in addition to being a full-featured modem program--bar none-- permits both wide area and local area networking. Locally, you set up an RS- 232 cable between two or more computers for E-Mail, data transfer, and for other-computer (server) control. For wide area use, say, to a Z-Node by modem, you have ability to control remote computer as if yours: a unique, distributed hardware concept. After connecting to remote and going to OS command line prompt, T3SERVER is automatically invoked by using local (T3MASTER) commands like GET and PUT. These, and other commands, accept wild card filename declaration, and comma-delimited multiple filenames as well, for packet transfer with full CRC of files, at RS-232 rates to 38,400 baud and SCSI to 1.5 megabytes per second. T3DO permits complete automation of logging onto and interacting with a remote service. Command set is extensive, permitting any normal series of functions to automatically execute, and be re-used over and over. Full implementation of KERMIT protocol, integrated into package, permits easy time-share minicomputer and mainframe communications. Manual only is offered for $20.00, applicable later to program purchase, and fully explains Term3's vast capabilities. We say again: even if you own other modem programs, public domain or commercial, you will want Term3, Release 2; it's that good, period. Lasting-Value Software! Z-Node Activity. Z-Node #66 comes online with a 10-megabyte Ampro Bookshelf. From the land of gorgeous flowers, and swaying palms and sarongs, David Van Horn, Honolulu, HI 96814, 808/527-8668, manages to keep ends together by working even though beautiful surroundings distract so. Just a hop-skip-and- jump from here, and we are in Japan, closing our global communications loop. Bravo! Father Richard Driscoll is online, 602/939-6734, Z-Node #20, in Greater Phoenix (Glendale), AZ 85301. We have been pulling to have this node operational for a long time. Bravo! Bravo! Our prayers are answered--three nodes online in WONDERful state of Arizona. Z-Node #52, Wells Brimhall, Phoenix, AZ 85028, 602/996-8739, goes from Kaypro 10 to S-100 ICD XL-M180 and 80 megabyte hard disk. Such a big Z- System, called Z-Paradise! (We said Arizona is a wonderful state.) Give Wells a call and see what massive storage is all about. From Our Mail Box. "EXPRESS 2.0...ability to handle files of unlimited length marks it out at once from such toys as VDO and Jerry Pournelle's ewe- lamb, WRITE (currently listed at $239.00!)." R.W. Odlin, Sedro-Wolley, WA, likes TCI's editor at $29.95. We own a copy and think of it as a candidate for being a full Z3 utility. We write to TCI months ago and have not received a reply. We are investigating many possibilities to obtain a righteous editor to call our own. From Duncan Chopoorian, Newport, RI, "I would like to be informed of the future availability of a banked ZRDOS. The overall goal is to keep the TPA at 60K or more." Our newsletters bring information of products to the world as soon as we know facts. Z-News 401 and 406 tell of banked activities. Also an Šindex to Z-News is soon to be released that should make it easier to find subjects of interest. "Will ZRDOS3 and ZCPR3M3/S3 be easily installed on the SB180 or other computer systems...what software do you recommend for Z-System use?" J.P. O'Connor, Cincinnati, OH, wants to know, along with many others, what it will take to install our new multitasking OS. Well, easy it will be for the SB180, PRO-180, XL-M180, and DT42 computers, but will require some porting, BIOS modifications for banked-memory Z80 machines. As new OS nears completion we will pass along in Z-News and on Z-Node RAS details of installation. Software we use and recommend has been discussed in many of previous issues of Z-News. Why not procure 24 back issues for $12.00! Subscription is $24.00 per year for approximately 25 issues, Item 83 on Price List. Many have asked--yes, Wyse Technology WY-30 terminal runs at up to 38,400 baud and has WY-50 efficient window and graphics firmware built-in...such a bargain. WY-30, $335.00 is price from The Purchasing Agent, 2444 Old Middlefield Way, Mountain View, CA 94043, 415/964-8222, FOB shipping point. And, WY-50 goes for $450.00; WY50+, $500.00. Quality and value, this trio! Potpourri. Richard Conn works on FINDS, Find String, as a tool in set for release with ZCPR33. Hopefully, NULU, Version 3.0, is ready at same time; Martin Murray, you listening! Richard's LX, LLF, LGET, and LHELP need your NULU as full Z3 utility. For those wondering about new HD64180 that handles 1-megabyte of RAM and converting SB180 over to it: physically, chip comes in what's called PLCC package and is about one-inch square, 68 pins, 17 to the side. The SB180 uses the DIP 64-pin "shrink" package that's totally different, and larger. Thus it's possible to fix up a hardware jumper system to make new chip work in place of old, but... Our new DOS, ZRDOS3, makes use of Hitachi onchip memory management unit (MMU), either old or new HD64180. We hope to handle memory in 4k- to 256k- byte blocks using this hardware standard, as opposed to varied existing banked Z80 methods. Up to 16 megabytes are planned to be callable by DOS function. So main advantage of new chip is board-space-saving size; and, hopefully higher speed, 9.2 mHz versus 6.1 at 70 degrees Celsius. New chips should run at 12.28 mHz at normal human-enduring 55 degrees. As our software designs firm we pass along details. At present, you know all that we are sure of regarding multitasking and big memory management. Look at our graphics demo and you see how windows and pull down menus are planned to be used. Get file GRDEMO.LBR from Z-Nodes everywhere, even in Europe and Australia. Of Cabbages and Kings. The title "wise" is, for the most part, falsely applied. How can one be a wise person, if he does not know any better how to live than other people? Does Wisdom work on a tread-mill? Does it troop? Is there any such thing as wisdom not applied directly to life? Can we think of a next life knowing so little about the present? Heaven, hell, karma, soul, Atman, and all. So much foolishness? Well, you know, if you quiet yourself and earnestly contemplate. It seems, fewer and fewer thoughts visit a growing person each year, as time goes by, for the grove in our minds is laid waste--we want nothing but that it's man-made, material. We sell our resources to feed ancient fires of ease and greed. Our schools, both public and private, do not teach--they, for the most part, indoctrinate, act not as catalysis for thinking, for learning how-to- think. These schools have produced our engineers, doctors, lawyers, and journalists. Most schools are overloaded with "administrators" who do not teach, and Šby their example promote greed and laziness. Surface people, they know little of courage and spirit. Some teachers, mostly those from private schools, speak of an after-life reward but know no-thing of it. Are thoughts things? What are things? Where do thoughts come from? Relationship of conscious to subconscious mind, to superconscious mind? Knowing little or nothing of present life, how can they know anything of next. The few real teachers go unnoticed and unrewarded by the community. Their labors yield profit, though little money. These are the angels; they fly without needing wings. Under noses of "authority" they troop-not. They have LIFE-with-principle; they live deeply, these chosen ones! Both recognition and reward come to them, but from regions and dimensions unknown to such authority. 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 Trademarks: SB180, COMM180, TKBBS, Micromint; PRO-180, Magnum Digital; XL- M180, ICD; HD64180, Hitachi; Z80, Zilog; Z-System, ZCPR3, ZRDOS, Z-Tools, Zas, Zlink, Z-Msg, Term3, Lasting-Value Software, Echelon; CP/M, Digital Research; Apple, Apple; Kaypro, Kaypro; Quick-Task, Research Applications; WY-30/50/50+, Wyse Technology; Newword, Newstar; SCSI/Plus, Little Board, Bookshelf, AMPRO Computers; One-Eighty File, NAOG. eagle * here Z s e t s y o u F R E E ! * * Z-News 407 is Copyright 1986 Echelon, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Permission to reprint, wholly or partially, automatically granted if source credit is given to Echelon.