I, •" ./ t!t ~.~ University Computer Center Newsletter SPECIAL ISSUE ON SMALL COMPUTERS UNIVERSITY COMPUTER CENTER UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA-TWIN CITIES MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA 55455 C::_«:)~~~~~~------------------------- I:I_IJl~~~-·~~------------------------- INTRODUCTION P · 2 I 6 you aJte no.t a ftegul.M fteade.Jt o6 .tiUJ., Why .t!Uf., .6pec.ia£ .U.,.t.ue; what -i..n6oJtma.tiort new.t.ie;tte.Jt, pieau .t.e.e page 76 • .d c.on:ti:Urt-6 MICROCOMPUTERS p. 3 I 6 you aJte now u.t.irtg, oft aJte pianrU.rtg .to What .they Me, how .they deveioped, U.6 e a .t.mill c.ompu.te.Jt .6 y.t..tem, piecu e .6 ee what .they c.an do 6oft you page 76. MICROCOMPUTERS AT THE UNIVERSITY p. 5 UrU.ve.J1..6ily ac.:ti..v.dy w.dh mic.Jtoc.ompu.te.Jt .t.y.t..tem.t., .the TERAK, .the IBM 5700, .the APPLE II UCC SERVICES p. 6 What know.tedge we have, how we c.an I heip SHORT COURSE ON MICROCOMPUTERS p. 7 WHAT WILL IT COST? p. 7 P!tic.e.t. 6oft equipmert.t, whe.Jte .to go 6oft I mofte irt6oJtma.tiort PASCAL ON MICROCOMPUTERS p. 8 DOCUMENTATION p. 9 How .to .t.eaJtc.h .the UCC Re6e.Jtenc.e Room'.t. data bcue; a .t.hoJt.t book w.t THE TERAK p. 11 I WOULD YOU WANT A TERAK? p. 12 POS ON THE TERAK p. 13 POS meart-6 Pcuc.a£. Ope.Jta.ting Sy.t..tem; 6ea.tulte.t. & 6unc.:ti..o Yl.6 lJL(!lj!l ____tL~JJ!!ilJttJt~-~--------------------- UNIX ON THE TERAK p. 14 Special Issue May, 1979 The UNIX ope.Jta.tirtg .t.y.t..tem on .the TERAK Director: Peter C. Patton TERAK POST-MORTEM DUMP p. 14 Editor : Amy Koepke, Mary Boyd DEVELOPMENT ON THE TERAK p. 15 Comments about the content of this newsletter, or suggestions for changes may be directed to the CLASSICAL GREEK p. 15 editor, 235a Experimental Engineering, UCC'.t. CAT gftoup ha.6 deveioped a c.oU!t.6e 612/373-7744. .to be u.t.ed in .the c.ia.6.t.ftoom The University of Minnesota adheres to the principle that all persons shall have equal opportunity and access to facilities in any phase of University activity without regard to race, creed, color, sex, or national origin. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ May, 1979 UCC NEWSLETTER Page 1 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ iriiJr_CJHtllfC:Iji()Jjl_ ________________________ _ WHOM TO CALL Welcome to our first special issue of the University Computer Center Newsletter: an issue Service Phone for current or potential small computer users. In this and future special issues, we will be Classes/demonstrations (L. Fetcher) 376-1637 discussing microcomputers, mini-computers, and any Consulting (HELP-line) 376-5592 devices that may appear to fall on the fuzzy line Documentation (Reference Room) 373-7744 between the two. To give unity to our special Newsletter (Reference Room) 37 3-77 44 issues, we shall call this publication the Small User groups/meetings (T. Hodge) 373-4599 Computer Newsletter. In this particular issue, we Development, TERAK (W. Franta) 373-9751 shall be talking about those computers popularly Development, APPLE, IB!1 (M. Skow) 373-7745 called microcomputers. Libraries/program acquisition (M. Skow) 373-7745 Hardware maintenance (A. Franck) 376-7291 We have no publishing schedule for the special Advice, TERAK (W. Franta) 373-9751 issues. When we have information to give you, we Advice, all systems (M. Skow) 373-7745 will publish it. Eventually, we will probably TERAK (SICL) 376-2975 incorporate the small computer information into Who is doing what (M. Skow) 373-77 45 the regular Newsletter. In the same way, we are TERAK (CAl) 376-7267 hoping to integrate expertise in the use of a APPLE II (R. Williams) 373-4573 limited variety of small computers across our APPLE II (!1. Skow) 373-77 45 regular professional staff. IBM 5100 (W. Sackett) 373-4573 We are now, or soon will be, providing support to users of small computers in the following ways: 1. We are now maintaining cross-processors (assemblers and compilers) on the Cyber 74 for the most popular microprocessors, such as the Intel 8080, H6800, and PDP-11. 2. The staff of the Special Interactive Computations Laboratory (SICL) and the CAl group will assist users of the TERAK's Pascal Operating System. SICL has trained staff members who can assist users of the TERAK's RT-11 operating system. Other UCC staff members are working with APPLE II microcomputers so that we can help you later in the year when more APPLEs are available at the University. 3. We are developing a catalog of software for small computers. This software is accessible on one or more of the large computers and can be copied electronically to the small computers ("down-loaded" is the jargon for this process). 4. In the UCC Reference Room (235a Exp Eng) we have subscriptions to the small computer journals requested most frequently, and information about books and journals that are available in the University's libraries. In the following pages, each of these services is discussed and described in detail with emphasis, in this issue, on services to TERAK users. T.D. Hodge, 373-4599 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Page 2 UCC NEWSLETTER May, 1979 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ MlCBOCDMPllTEBS1________ _ with expensive internal elements, the transistor The microcomputer is functionally no different is a smaller, more reliable element that serves than any other kind of computer: large computers, the same function as the vacuum tube, that is, as minicomputers, and microcomputers all perform the the active element of a logic gate. With the same type of function and have the same logical replacement of the vacuum tube, computers could structure. Therefore, a complete computer now be built from transistors, which could be consists of a unit for performing control mounted on printed circuit boards, and obviously functions, a unit for doing arithmetic and logic required much less space. A typical circuit board operations, a memory unit for storing data, and was five inches square, contained a dozen devices for input and output. transistors, and was equivalent to a single flip-flop (basic memory element for digital r----------, computers; composed of two NOR or NAND gates). I The cost of a board was $100, and there could be 1 ARITHMETIC thousands of them in one computer. By using & LOGIC transistors on printed circuit boards, computers UNIT became so cheap that, by 1960, they were widely (ALU) used for general data processing. I Central In the early 1960's, a new technology was Processing developed; dozens of transistors could be Unit (CPU) fabricated on a single silicon chip, using the same technology as for a single transistor. This fabricated chip was called an integrated circuit; OUTPUT it was about 1/2 inch square and several could be mounted on one circuit board. The board still cost $100 but it now could contain all the circuitry for the arithmetic/logic unit in a computer. This early technology, which incorporates less than 100 gates per chip, is called small-scale integration (SSI). By the mid-1960's, technological improvements had A COMPUTER made it possible to develop chips with 100-1000 gates. This development is called medium-scale integration (HSI). Many large computers today are built with MSI chips. The minicomputer is also a product of MSI technology. In 1965 the DEC PDP-8, at $50,000 each, brought computers into the research laboratory. Many minicomputers are What is different about the microcomputer is the manufactured on a single printed circuit board technology used to implement the computer's with a hundred or so MSI circuits. Minicomputers functions. Advances in solid state physics (or are as cheap as $1000 today and are widely used. semi-conductor technology) have made it possible to reduce the cost and to increase the power of a By the very late 1960's, additional progress in computer. The current results of these semi-conductor technology resulted in large-scale technological advances have been utilized in the integration (LSI) with chips containing more than manufacture of microcomputers. 1000 gates. Since the beginning of computer development, the concept of computing has basically remained unchanged; all computing uses some type of bi-modal logic device that can represent an "either-or," "on-off," "yes-no," or a "one-zero" situation. These logic devices are grouped in such a way that the "grouping" implements a Boolean logic function, or "gate." Vacuum tubes were originally used to implement the gates. One of the first large scale commercial computers was the UNIVAC 1 (c1947) that was built from thousands of vacuum tubes. It was big enough to fill a room, and had less computing power than most of today's microcomputers. This type of computer was used for limited mathematical and pioneering business data processing applications; those which would otherwise have been impossible CHIP to solve. Later in the 1950's the transistor (which had been invented in 1948) took the place of the vacuum tube. A transistor was originally a small piece of germanium (a semi-conductor), suitably doped with impurities; it is now always constructed of silicon. Where the vacuum tube is a bulky device ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ?~y, 1979 UCC NEWSLETTER Page 3 I ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ I From LSI technology then, comes the "micro­ that usually contains information that is not processor" in which the computer's central changed, e.g., a compiler. There is a larger processing unit is implemented in a single, or a amount of fast random-access-memory (RAM) that very small number of, integrated circuits. This contains information that will be changed, e.g., leads us to the "microcomputer," where the major programs and data.