EI Z-NEWS 706 20 April 1987 ============================================================================== 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. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 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 .010 0r| BGIIDEM3.LBR 224 | PRICES14.RAS 18 | PRINT .ZEX 2 F0:BACKUP -- 4 files using 244k (142k remain of 386k total) 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. ============================================================================== 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 Trademarks: Little Board, Bookshelf, Ampro Computers; SB180, SB180FX, GT180, Micromint; ON!, Oneac; DT42, Deep Thought 42, The SemiDisk, SemiDisk Systems; VAX, Digital Equipment; Macintosh, Apple Computers; XLR8, M.A.N. Systems; Z80/180/280, Zilog; HD63484/64180, Hitachi; CLIX, Clipper, Fairchild; Z- System, ZOS, ZCPR3, ZRDOS, Z-Tools, Zas, Zlink, Z-Msg, PrintStar, Term3, Quick-Task, NuKey, Z80 Turbo Modula-2, Lasting-Value Software, Echelon; CP/M, Digital Research; PS/2, OS/2, IBM; TurboROM, Advent; Graphix Toolbox, Turbo Pascal, Borland Int'l; LZED, Zivio; WordStar, Newword, MicroPro Int'l; JetFind, Bridger Mitchell. * * * * * * Fly with Z! * * * * * * 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.