29 Apr
1997
29 Apr
'97
12:52 p.m.
fyi, on p. 272 of November '79 Byte: a company called AB Computers offered
a device called "BETSI", described as a "PET to S-100 Interface &
Motherboard". cost was $119. While i'm on that page, the PET was $795 for
the entry level system (8K, small keybd, cassette) and on the high end:
$1,295 for 32K system with "business" keyboard. A 2040 dual diskette drive
(343,000 bytes total) would set you back another $1,295.
At 05:23 AM 4/29/97 -0400, you wrote:
I'd just like to make an update for all who may be interested in that
potential PET to S100 bus device that I had sitting in storage.
I pulled it out tonight instead of studying for exams, and it is indeed
what was suspected.
The "motherboard" (if that is the correct term) is a Vector Graphic Inc.
S100 bus board. The RAM board that was being used for the PET, is a
Vector Graphic Inc. 16K Static RAM board with a date of 1977 on it. The
power supply says "KIMSI-PLUS Power Supply" on the back, 1977 from
Forethought Products.
This is all very wild, because I had no idea there was S100 stuff in this
house.
Anyway, the really interesting piece of circuitry is the PET to S100
interface board. It's the same size as the RAM board, and of course plugs
into the S100 bus. At the top of the board is a 50-pin connector that
plugs into a cable, that in turn plugs into the side memory expansion
connector on the PET 2001.
In white lettering, it says
.----------.
|_| | | |_||
| | |_| | || (<-- my cheezy attempt at duplicating the company
.----------' logo with ASCII, it's HUH surrounded by a question
.ELECTRONICS mark.)
S100 MPA
and etched into the board it says "COPYRIGHT 1978 BY HUH" and "S100 MPA
REV A".
The board isn't very heavily populated, compared to the RAM board, and
most of the chips are 74LSxx chips.
Anyone out there know more than I do about this thing?
Doug Spence
ds_spenc(a)alcor.concordia.ca
6 May
6 May
8:09 a.m.
On Tue, 29 Apr 1997, Glenn Roberts wrote:
fyi, on p. 272 of November '79 Byte: a company
called AB Computers offered
a device called "BETSI", described as a "PET to S-100 Interface &
Motherboard". cost was $119. While i'm on that page, the PET was $795 for
the entry level system (8K, small keybd, cassette) and on the high end:
$1,295 for 32K system with "business" keyboard. A 2040 dual diskette drive
(343,000 bytes total) would set you back another $1,295.
Thanks for the info! I guess it was a fairly common type of device, then.
I wonder if there are also IBM-PC to S100 interfaces?
(Actually, something like that would be a cool addition to my Amiga 1200.
:) )
BTW, is it possible to purchase complete collections of BYTE magazine on
Microfiche, etc? And for what kind of frightening sum? I'm afraid I
don't have a collection of those... only a single magazine from 1982, then
my next issue features the Amiga 3000. :/
Even my collection of COMPUTE! and COMPUTE!'s Gazette magazines is
borrowed. (I'm hoping the owner forgets about them. ;) )
Doug Spence
ds_spenc(a)alcor.concordia.ca
8:28 a.m.
It was thus said that the Great Doug Spence once stated:
BTW, is it possible to purchase complete collections of BYTE magazine on
Microfiche, etc? And for what kind of frightening sum? I'm afraid I
don't have a collection of those... only a single magazine from 1982, then
my next issue features the Amiga 3000. :/
Maybe. But be wary of getting a complete collection though. While I
haven't read a Byte magazine in several years, (since the early 90s), those
that I have seen I tend to group into three catagories:
1. Hobby Era (start of publication to late 83/early 84)
Many articles about specific machines, hardware and software
wise. Most program listings are in assembly or BASIC, although
you will find the occasional Lisp, Forth or (Tiny)-C listing.
The peak is ~79/80.
2. Journal Era (early 84 to late 87/early 88)
More scholarly type articles (more like papers), less hardware
and hobbiest oriented articles abound. More theory related
articles. The peak is ~85/86.
3. PC Rag Era (early 88 through the 90s)
This actually started with the introduction of the IBM PS/2
line in late 87, although the real shift wasn't noticible until
sometime in 88. The emphasis shifted more towards product
reviews, mostly PCs and PC related hardware/software. I stopped
reading Byte in early to mid 90 and haven't really looked at
it since, so it might have shifted once again.
My own collection of Byte starts with August of 85 (Amiga 1000 is the
cover story) and ends somewhere in late 89 or early 90. The library at the
university I attended had issues starting from Jan '77 (which I read 8-).
The dates given here are approximate, looking at a Byte from 1980, then 1985
then 1990 will show almost three different magazines.
-spc (It started sliding when Robert Tinney stopped doing magazine covers,
(~87) then it nose dived once Steve Ciarcia stopped writing hardware
articles, (~88 or 89) although there are some that think it started
way back in '77 when Pournelle started his column)
9:01 a.m.
New subject: The decline and fall of Byte
On Tue, 6 May 1997, Captain Napalm wrote:
My own collection of Byte starts with August of 85
(Amiga 1000 is the
cover story) and ends somewhere in late 89 or early 90. The library at the
university I attended had issues starting from Jan '77 (which I read 8-).
The dates given here are approximate, looking at a Byte from 1980, then 1985
then 1990 will show almost three different magazines.
-spc (It started sliding when Robert Tinney stopped doing magazine covers,
(~87) then it nose dived once Steve Ciarcia stopped writing hardware
articles, (~88 or 89) although there are some that think it started
way back in '77 when Pournelle started his column)
Well, most of my older Byte magazines were destroyed by water several
moves ago, and I wouldn't mind acquiring most of them again. I had mostly
given up on Byte in the mid-eighties, but in recent years I've wound up
with a subscription (recently finally expired) due to McGraw-Hill ceasing
publication of more useful magazines. Ciarcia's articles were always
excellent (and I know that most of them were released in book form awhile
back), and his current magazine, "Circuit Cellar Ink" is pretty good,
especially if you're a serious hardware hacker as I no longer am.
Actually, nowadays, Pournelle's column is about the only thing I read in
the magazine, and now that it's available on the web (with extra text), I
really don't care to subscribe. Opinions vary concerning Jerry Pournelle.
I've known him for over twenty years due to our mutual interest in science
fiction and membership in the Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society (I'm
still a member despite living in New Jersey -- Death Shall Not Release
You!). Over the years we've had a lot of conversations and arguments,
about politics (he's in favor of having a government, I'm opposed), about
space development (we're both in favor) and computers (I was a Shacker,
and while I was living elsewhere on the continent he had bad experiences
with a very early TRS-80 and the company rather hurt themselves by being
uncooperative and ignorant of the power of the press -- which is why after
I showed him one of the first Model 100s, he went out and got a NEC
equivalent). He's a man of strong opinions who's always trying to learn
something new and so am I. Really, he should be a member of this mailing
list -- he's experienced directly more of the history of computers than
most of us who've worked and played with them. That plus having the clout
to get information from the movers and shakers.
--
Ward Griffiths
"America is at that awkward stage. It's too late to work within
the system, but too early to shoot the bastards." --Claire Wolfe
11 May
11 May
9:49 a.m.
New subject: BYTE (was: Re: PET to S100 bus interface)
On Tue, 6 May 1997, Captain Napalm wrote:
It was thus said that the Great Doug Spence once
stated:
This would be the era I'd be interested in. Thanks for pointing that out.
The one really good one I have is from this era (November, 1982).
BTW, for the person that was interested in the Victor 9000, there's a
review of that machine in the above-mentioned issue, and an interview with
Chuck Peddle.
<snip>
BTW, is it possible to purchase complete collections of BYTE magazine on
Microfiche, etc? And for what kind of frightening sum? I'm afraid I
don't have a collection of those... only a single magazine from 1982, then
my next issue features the Amiga 3000. :/
Maybe. But be wary of getting a complete collection though. While I
haven't read a Byte magazine in several years, (since the early 90s), those
that I have seen I tend to group into three catagories:
1. Hobby Era (start of publication to late 83/early 84) 2. Journal Era (early 84 to late 87/early 88)
This might also be interesting, but not terribly useful for my purposes.
I don't think I'd bother with this era.
<snip>
3. PC Rag Era (early 88 through the 90s)
Yuck.
<snip>
My own collection of Byte starts with August of 85
(Amiga 1000 is the
cover story) and ends somewhere in late 89 or early 90.
Who do I have to kill for a copy of that issue? ;)
Doug Spence
ds_spenc(a)alcor.concordia.ca
6 May
6 May
8:39 a.m.
New subject: Magazines in microform
On Tue, 6 May 1997, Doug Spence wrote:
BTW, is it possible to purchase complete collections
of BYTE magazine on
Microfiche, etc? And for what kind of frightening sum? I'm afraid I
don't have a collection of those... only a single magazine from 1982, then
my next issue features the Amiga 3000. :/
I do remember ads in the back of Byte, Kilobaud and other magazines saying
that those publications were available in Microform. The ads were from,
IIRC, a company called University Microfilms in [break to search the web]
Ann Arbor, MI -- no web site indicated. The library in Montclair, NJ has
a large number of CDs of magazines, but I haven't spent enough time there
to investigate whether they might have old computer magazines. The CDs
are apparently from that same company. (I live in a different county and
out-of-town library cards cost dearly around here for some reason).
--
Ward Griffiths
"America is at that awkward stage. It's too late to work within
the system, but too early to shoot the bastards." --Claire Wolfe
10:18 a.m.
New subject: Magazines in microform
University Microfilm is now "UMI" (www.umi.com). They have tons of serials
on Microfilm, e.g. see http://wwwlib.umi.com/sim/menu There's a lot to
wade through and it ain't cheap, but they've probably got most popular
magazines from the 70's and 80's out there (they have 19,000 periodicals;
7,000 newspapers). Byte and Kilobaud are listed as are many more "oldies"
(they have Radio-Electronics going back to 1929!). For some serials they
offer individual copy or article copy capability. Their main customers are
libraries of course.
- glenn
At 04:39 PM 5/6/97 -0400, you wrote:
On Tue, 6 May 1997, Doug Spence wrote:
BTW, is it possible to purchase complete
collections of BYTE magazine on
Microfiche, etc? And for what kind of frightening sum? I'm afraid I
don't have a collection of those... only a single magazine from 1982, then
my next issue features the Amiga 3000. :/
I do remember ads in the back of Byte, Kilobaud and other magazines saying
that those publications were available in Microform. The ads were from,
IIRC, a company called University Microfilms in [break to search the web]
Ann Arbor, MI -- no web site indicated. The library in Montclair, NJ has
a large number of CDs of magazines, but I haven't spent enough time there
to investigate whether they might have old computer magazines. The CDs
are apparently from that same company. (I live in a different county and
out-of-town library cards cost dearly around here for some reason).
--
Ward Griffiths
"America is at that awkward stage. It's too late to work within
the system, but too early to shoot the bastards." --Claire Wolfe
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days inactive
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