$3.00 June-July 1985 . No. 24 TABLE OF CONTENTS C'ing Into Turbo Pascal ....................................... 4 Soldering: The First Steps. .. 36 Eight Inch Drives On The Kaypro .............................. 38 Kaypro BIOS Patch. .. 40 Alternative Power Supply For The Kaypro . .. 42 48 Lines On A BBI ........ .. 44 Adding An 8" SSSD Drive To A Morrow MD-2 ................... 50 Review: The Ztime-I .......................................... 55 BDOS Vectors (Mucking Around Inside CP1M) ................. 62 The Pascal Runoff 77 Regular Features The S-100 Bus 9 Technical Tips ........... 70 In The Public Domain... .. 13 Culture Corner. .. 76 C'ing Clearly ............ 16 The Xerox 820 Column ... 19 The Slicer Column ........ 24 Future Tense The KayproColumn ..... 33 Tidbits. .. .. 79 Pascal Procedures ........ 57 68000 Vrs. 80X86 .. ... 83 FORTH words 61 MSX In The USA . .. 84 On Your Own ........... 68 The Last Page ............ 88 NEW LOWER PRICES! NOW IN "UNKIT"* FORM TOO! "BIG BOARD II" 4 MHz Z80·A SINGLE BOARD COMPUTER WITH "SASI" HARD·DISK INTERFACE $795 ASSEMBLED & TESTED $545 "UNKIT"* $245 PC BOARD WITH 16 PARTS Jim Ferguson, the designer of the "Big Board" distributed by Digital SIZE: 8.75" X 15.5" Research Computers, has produced a stunning new computer that POWER: +5V @ 3A, +-12V @ 0.1A Cal-Tex Computers has been shipping for a year. Called "Big Board II", it has the following features: • "SASI" Interface for Winchester Disks Our "Big Board II" implements the Host portion of the "Shugart Associates Systems • 4 MHz Z80-A CPU and Peripheral Chips Interface." Adding a Winchester disk drive is no harder than attaching a floppy-disk The new Ferguson computer runs at 4 MHz. Its Monitor code is lean, uses Mode 2 drive. A user simply 1) runs a fifty-conductor ribbon cable from a header on the board to interrupts, and makes good use of the ZaD-A DMA chip. a Xebec controller that costs only $29S and implements the controller portion of the SASI interface, 2) cables the controller to a Seagate Technology ST-S06 hard disk or • 64K Dynamic RAM + 4K Static CRT RAM + one compatible with it. and 3) provides power for the controller-card and drive. Since our CBIOS contains code for communicating with hard-disks, that's all a user has to do 24K E(E)PROM or Static RAM to add a.Winchester to a system! "Big Board II" has three memory banks. The first memory bank has eight 4164 DRAMs that provide 60K of user space and 4K of monitor space. The second memory bank has • Two Synchronous/Asynchronous Serial Ports two 2Kxa SRAMs for the memory-mapped CRT display and space for six 2732As, 2Kxa With a Z8D-A SIO/O and a ZaD-A CTC as a baud-rate generator, the new Ferguson static RAMs, or pin-compatible EEPROMS. The third memory bank is for RAM or ROM computer has two full RS232-C ports. It autobauds on both. added to the board via the STD bus. Whether bought as a bare board, an "unkit"*, or assembled and tested, it comes with a 2732 EPROM containing Russell Smith's superb • A Parallel Keyboard Port + Four Other Parallel Monitor. Ports for User I/O • Multiple-Density Controller for The new Cal-Tex single-board computer has one parallel port for an ASCII keyboard SS/DS Floppy Disks and four others for user-defined 1/0. The new Cal-Tex single-board computer has a multiple-density disk controller. It can • Two Z80-A CTCs = Eight Programmable Counters/Timers use 1793 or aa77 controller chips since it generates the side signal with TTL parts. The The new Ferg uson computer has two ZaD-A CTCs. One is used to clock data into and board has two connectors for disk signals, one with 34 pins for S.2S" drives, the other out of the ZaO-A SIOIO, while the other is for systems and applications use. with SO pins for a" drives. • PROM Programming Circuitry • Vastly Improved CRT Display The new Cal-Tex SBC has circuitry for programming 2716s, 2732(A)s, or pin­ The new Ferguson SBC uses a 6845 CRT controller and SMC 8002 video attributes combatible EEPROMs. controller to produce a display rivaling the display of quality terminals. There are three display modes: Character, block-graphics, and line-graphics. The board emulates an ADM-31 with 24 lines of ao characters formed by a 7x9 dot matrix. • CP/M 2.2** CPIM with Russell Smith's CBIOS for the new Cal-Tex computer is available for $1S0. The CBIOS is available separately for $2S. • STD Bus The new Ferguson computer has an STD Bus port for easy system expansion. * The "unkit" is a fully-socketed, wave-soldered "Big Board "". It requires • DMA NO soldering. All an "un kit" purchaser must do is carefully insert the The new Ferguson computer has a ZaD-A DMA chip that will allow byte-wise data prime ICs we supply in the proper sockets and systematically proceed to transfers at SOO KBytes per second and bit-serial transfers via the ZaD-A SIO at a80 Kbits bring up and test the board. per second with minimal processer overhead. When a hard-disc subsystem is added. the DMA chip makes impressive disk performance possible. "CP/M is a registered trademark of Digital Research. Terms: Orders paid for with a cashier's check or bank card will be shipped within three CAL·TEX COMPUTERS, INC. working days. Orders paid for with a personal check will be shipped within three weeks. 780 E. TRIMBLE ROAD #504· SAN JOSE. CA 95131 • (408) 942·1424 Add $S for packing & shipping in North America. MICRO CORNUCOPIA P.O. Box 223 Bend, Oregon 97709 503-382-5060 Orders Only IICIO COINUCOPII 503-382-8048 Tech. 9 - Noon June-July 1985 The Micro Technical Journal No. 24 Editor & Publisher David J. Thompson Operations Manager When we printed labels for the April­ David Pogue May issue this year we had over 9500 subscribers, and we celebrated the Assistant Editors On Your 10,000 mark in mid-April. We hit 5,000 Rebecca Ozrelic Gary Entsminger almost exactly a year ago. (Now, if you'd Mark! all come to SOG IV ... ) Accounting Sandra Thompson Speaking Of SOG IV Don't forget to send in your SOG reg­ Graphic Design istration form. Let us know if you're Craig Lannes Michael Odell coming (or at least maybe coming), even A Contest To Start All Contests if you're not planning on rafting, dining, Technical Department Usually people announce contests to staying in the dorms, or feeding the Dana Cotant Eric Roby end all contests. This one is a beginning. chipmunks. (The dorm has been full Bruce Berryhill Laine Stump We've been sitting around trying to de­ since mid April, but you'll find plenty of cide how best to do it and, meantime, space in local motels and camp Advertising Director nothing has happened. grounds.) Alice Holbrow We kicked around the idea of leaving it There is an Experimental Aircraft As­ open. You know, anyone can use any sociation meet every year. During Au­ language, create any length program, on gust, every home-built, antique, and Staff Assistants any subject. non-antique private aircraft that isn't Dorcas Dsenis Tracey Braas "Too general," was the reaction from cruelly tethered, takes its family and flies Cary Gatton Carla Miller all the reactionaries in the office. (What to Oshkosh. Laura Pendley else are they good for?) The airplanes park on a grass field next We kicked around the idea of specify­ to the airstrip, and the families camp for ing the language, the version of the lan­ a week under the wings of their craft (ev­ Typography guage, the subject, the program length, eryone wanders around meeting every­ Patti Morris & Martin White and the color of the programmer's eyes. one else). Irish Setter "Too specific," was the reaction (from I'd like to make the SOG into a similar MICRO CORNUCOPIA supports systems you-know-who). event. All I need to do is find an appro­ programming languages and builders of single It was immediately obvious that we priate field and equip it with basic neces­ board and 5-100 systems. were going to have to compromise on sities, and we could make SOG a real ex­ Application to mail at second class postage this contest (or get rid of the reactionar­ perience (not that a lot of families don't rates is pending at Bend, OR 97701 and addi­ ies). So we're specifying the language already camp out when they come to the tional entries. Published bimonthly by Micro Cornucopia Inc., 155 NW Hawthorne, Bend, (Turbo Pascal), but not the version. SOG). OR 97701. Postmaster: Send address change We've sort of narrowed program length, In fact, the EAA brags that it has the to Micro Cornucopia Inc., PO Box 223, Bend, but not the subject. As for eye color, largest collection of porta-potties in one OR 97709. we've chosen "bleery red streaks" so all place, at one time, in the world. They inveterate hackers will qualify easily. might even have 5,000 of them. (Of SUBSCRIPTION RATES: Check out the contest article in this is­ course, 5,000 potties seems like an im­ 1 yr. (2nd Class) $16.00 1 yr. (Canada & Mexico) $22.00 sue. (Dr. Dobb's just held a contest and possible dream for Micro C, but ... ) 1 yr. (Other foreign) $30.00 had four entries. Let's see what we can Make all orders payable in U.S. funds on a U.S. bank, please. do.) 32032 Support The National 32032 and 32016 chips ADVERTISING RATES: Available on request 10,000 Subscribers have been languishing in the shadow of (call Alice Holbrow).