CCP/M Meeting Notes - February 11, 1992

     Secretary Eric Palm was unable to make the meeting and Lee Bradley 
offered to take the notes.

     Someone asked (can't remember who now) what number you call to learn 
about/sign up for PC Pursuit. Biff Bueffel has posted this # on our board.  
Call 800-736-1130 (voice) or 800-877-2006 (modem) to sign up for PCP.  
Requires credit card.

     Tom Mannion gave the Treasurer's report. We have $600.53 In addition, 
$70 has been collected for the Jim Taylor Memorial fund. CCP/M has 30 
members now. Concern was expressed over the lapsing membership. The group 
decided to exchange newsletters with Eliot Payson's group, the CP/M SIG 
Inc. This group publishes a newsletter called STAT SIG:, copies of which 
were circulated by Tom. Tom will be writing to Eliot and suggesting we 
share SIB and STAT SIG: articles.

     The "Octoport" was to be the "main event" but Al Hathway did not have 
his working yet. Steve Dresser has learned that it is no longer being sold 
(the rumored price of $100 for an assembled unit was too good to be true; 
the price I found in an old Heath catalog was in the mid $200's!) The 
Octoport has 6 serial and 2 parallel ports and can convert serial to 
parallel (useful if you have a serial printer port but a parallel printer.) 
The Octoport lets you share a printer or a hard disk among several 
computers. From a main console the Octoport unit receives three letter 
commands which re-route signals, establish baud rates etc. The Octoport 
uses the "Hayes standard" delay +++ delay escape sequence for its three 
letter command control programming. Perhaps more detail on the command set 
and a live demo will be presented in a future meeting when Al figures out 
what's wrong with his.

     Ray Brown asked for an example of a practical use of an Octoport and 
Al talked about his plan to connect two computers, a modem, a house 
controller and a Centronics (parallel) printer. One of the computers has a 
serial printer port.

     Program Coordinator Steve Dresser opened the meeting up to a 
discussion of the program schedule. March is currently open, April will be 
Ray Brown's "Computers and Gambling" (been to Ledyard yet?) May is open as 
well. Here is a list of suggested topics. Home Controllers, software 
demo's, BDS Z, emulators, telecommunications, hardware tutorials.

     Stephen Griswold reported on the YASBEC next. The 3 1/2" disk drive 
seems to be failing now so the "Starter Kit" boot floppy from Cam Cotrill 
is being replaced by a 5 1/4" boot floppy.

     Ray Brown asked about the Z280. TCJ (The Computer Journal) recently 
carried an article on a computer based on this chip. Al Hathway summarized 
the chip for us. It has over 600 instructions, a 16 megabyte address space 
and a CP/M Plus BIOS has been written for it. A small but active group in 
Europe is working with the chip.

     Lee Bradley talked about ZSIM, a Z80 emulator from Germany. The most 
interesting aspect of this software is its ability to support a full-up Z 
System on an IBM PC (22NICE, Z80MU can't do this.)

     Tom Veile is looking for spec's on the WD2793 controller. (Tom Mannion 
is leaving messages on the board on this since getting the data sheets.)

     We left the library at around 9; the wind was high and the snow was 
falling! On to George's Family Restaurant for the aftermeeting.

     One last note: Trenton Computer Fair was mentioned by Lee Bradley. It 
will be April 11/12 this year, and will be held at Mercer County Community 
College. The CP/M Z System folks will be having a CP/M Conference Saturday 
and their own Banquet this year! Lee has researched the local motels and 
after talking with Jay Sage, Dan Mareck and others is recommending a place 
in Pennington, NJ called "Stage Depot Motel & Restaurant." Their number is 
609-466-2000. If you want to go to Trenton and join the CP/M group, the 
best (and least expensive) way to do it is to book a room at the Stage 
Depot.

     Here's who came: Lee Bradley, Al Hathway, Steve Dresser, Gary 
Stagliano, Sigurd Kimpel, Tom Mannion, Gabor Szikla, Ransom Edgett, Tom 
Veile, Stephen Veile, Ray Brown, Stephen Griswold.

February '92