ftp.barnyard.co.uk/2015.02.ftp.barnyard.co.uk.tar/ftp.barnyard.co.uk/cpm/walnut-creek-CDROM/CPM/ZCPRNEWS/Z-NEWS.707

Text File | 2000-06-30 | 18KB | 278 lines

EI                              Z-NEWS 707                          4 May 1987
==============================================================================
Of Significance.   ZCPR, Version 3.3, is shipping.  It's $49.00 on two  disks,
plus standard shipping and handling charges.  Revised RCP and FCP packages are
included,  along with a comprehensive up-date manual.  Documentation  supplied
combined  with  ZCPR3: The Manual and Z-System User's Guide  provide  complete
description of present ZCPR/ZRDOS implementation.  Expect a continuous  stream
of  updates  to  the command processor as well as the  segment  packages,  all
coming  from Jay Sage, Z-Node #3 Sysop, Good-Neighbor Helper, and  new  Z-Team
Member.
     More good news...DT42 with up to 57.5k-byte TPA is shipping from SemiDisk
Systems of Beaverton, OR (Z-News 502-1), 503/626-3104.  This machine runs with
no  wait-states at 9.2MHz and 12.3MHz clock rates, is fastest of  the  HD64180
implementations,  has  the  most flexible I/O of any SBC  we  know  of.   Uses
enhanced  Z-System (written by Z-Team member John Forker), interim until  ZOS,
with DMA bank switching.  Contact SemiDisk for ordering information and status
of The SemiDisk, their 8- and 32-megabyte complementary RAM disk board.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From  The Mail Box.   From Gar Nelson, Olympia, WA, "...I would rather miss  a
bottle  of  Zinfandel than an issue of the newsletter.  I would also  like  to
thank  you for the Good-Neighbor Helper listing.  Rick Swenton  [Bristol,  CT]
has  given  me  extremely  valuable  assistance  [with  my  Heath  and   Ampro
machines...]"   Gar,  our G-NH's are a good place to go for help  in  learning
more  about the Z-System.  They are a welcomed resource and an  indication  of
the spirit of our community.
     "Will  Echelon support the new Z280 chip with ZCPR?" writes John  Grosen,
Moorhead,  MN.  Yes, we intend to support Z280 in parallel with continuing  to
work on Z-System for Z80, Z180, and HD64180.
     Okay,  we forgot.  Contact-point for perpendicular recording,  4-megabyte
3.5"  floppy disk drive mentioned in Z-News 705-3 is: Toshiba  America,  Inc.,
3910 Freedom Circle, Suite 103, Santa Clara, CA 95054, 408/727-3939.

Software  Update Service Report.   EDITND comes from Sysop #2, Al Hawley,  Los
Angeles,  CA.   New  utility permits editing name directories  with  a  flair.
ACOPY, written by Terry Hazen of Los Gatos, CA, favorably competes with  ZRDOS
author Dennis Wright's AC for general file copy usefulness.  SUS #11 ships  in
June.

   Disk: F  User:   0 Name: BACKUP, File Attributes:  Non-System
   Filename.Typ Size K RS   Filename.Typ Size K RS   Filename.Typ Size K RS
   -------- --- ------ --   -------- --- ------ --   -------- --- ------ --
   -SUS    .011      0 R    ACOPY14 .LBR     26      EDITND  .LBR     36
   SH11    .LBR     22      SHVAR11 .LBR     14      WDRAW   .LBR     62
   WINDOM2 .LBR     70
            7 Files Using 230K, 7 Files on Disk and 386K Left

Z-Node  Activity.   Being late is better than not being at  all...congratulat-
ions to Z-Node #15 Sysop, Richard Jacobson, Chicago, IL, on expanding his  two
nodes to hard-disk storage of 42 megabytes each.  Both are Ampro Little  Board
Z80  computers,  which speak well for the hard-disk support of  the  LBs,  and
Richard's  tenacity  in  supporting  CP/M-compatible  software  and  his   RAS
subscribers.   Give  a call, either 312/649-1730 or  312/664-1730,  with  your
modem set for adventure.
     Z-Node  Central  has  moved to Echelon's Los Altos  offices,  because  US
Sprint's PC-Pursuit could not economically handle Fremont "489" exchange  from
San Francisco.  PC-P is now mainstay of those heavy into modem communications.
New  Z-Node  Central telephone number is 415/948-6656, a  no-charge  San  Jose
TeleNet connection.  Incidentally, service should be better from new location.

Turbo  Modula-2  Benchmarks.   Phil Hess, Lafayette, IN, prompted  us  to  run
classic "Savage" math benchmark, mentioned in March 1987 BYTE magazine, on two
of  our  9.2MHz HD64180 computers, SB180FX and DT42, to compare with  his  Z80
Morrow  MD5  computer results.  Speed and accuracy are largely  determined  by
number  of  bytes used for calculation.  Value calculated  should  be  exactly
2500.
                                         Real    TIME in
  COMPILER             COMPUTER          BYTES   seconds    VALUE Calculated
  Turbo Modula-2 v1.0  Morrow MD5          4       184      2397.247
    "      "      "      "     "           8       871      2500.000000523
    "      "      "    Micromint SB180FX   4        78      2397.247
    "      "      "       "        "       8       426      2500.000000523
    "      "      "    SemiDisk DT42       8       329      2500.000000523
  FTL Modula-2 v1.22   Morrow MD5          8       937      2499.99999851149

HD64180's  multiply  instruction,  MLT,  speeds  computation  over  Z80,   but
SB180FX's  wait-state is 30% counter productive.  (SemiDisk's DT42 runs  "Z80"
but  not  "SB180"  Turbo Modula-2.  FTL v1.18  doesn't  run  Savage  benchmark
because  of a bug.)  See Z-News 607-2 and 704-3 for more Modula-2  benchmarks.
And,  Phil, thanks for your testing.  Phil's source code and table of  results
are on Z-Node Central (number is 415/948-6656) as file SAVAGE.LBR.

Z-User's Corner.   Many letters we have received lately prompts us to think of
what  is  necessary  to  better understand computing.   We  concluded  its  an
improved mental image of what we are doing, or trying to do.  Some have thank-
ed us for getting them into assembly language programing and what it has  done
for  their attitude towards themselves and their hardware.  Well, we  describe
here our image of our computing system and our contact with it.  Maybe it is a
help  to overcome some barrier that has been holding you back.  We  know  what
barriers are like and what a simple catalyst can do to get us over one or two.
Limitations self-imposed produce image of action that restricts action.
     We  see  a picture of where storage occurs, in each user  number  (area).
Drive  A,  User 0, is our baseline, upper left-hand corner of  picture.   From
there  to User 1, we go down one level in our hardware storage.  To  Drive  B,
User  1, we move horizontally in our picture.  From B1, to B0 requires  moving
up  to  0.  Same philosophy applies to making other  moves:   higher  lettered
drives are to the right of A and higher numbered user areas are down from user
0.   Highest  drive and user area occupies lower right-hand corner  of  mental
picture.   Such a picture permits us to see our software.  It is a concept  of
where everything is.  We must know this else we never get a feel of our system
and its levels.  (Re-read Z-News 501-4,5.)
     Assembly level programming requires the programmer to understand his CPU,
central  processing unit, more than high level language programming  requires.
From  here  we  understand a little more than  otherwise.   Understanding  the
hardware  gives a glimpse of our own brains and how we think--the  subject  of
present  intense  thinking and what it means to the field  of  AI,  artificial
intelligence.
     Many  times,  a picture is worth thousands of words, but the  picture  we
speak  of is in our minds and not on paper or canvas.  Words are not  used  to
describe this picture.  This picture is the same used by those superior in any
field  of human endeavor to see what must be done and to do it  with  lighting
speed--words  are  not used to describe what is seen, the image  in  the  sub-
conscious does the work.  Our mental eye sees, and on seeing permits  rest-of-
us, our being, to carrying out our version...dream becomes reality!

Publishing  with Microcomputers.   Where does it end...we started with 5 by  7
dot matrix printers, then came 7 by 9 and fully-formed-character daisy wheels,
9-wire  double-pass, 24-wire, now laser 300-dots per inch  xerographic  laser-
beam printers and 2400-dpi digital photochemical typesetters...and, of course,
it  seems  we must have full color from our printers connected to  our  micro-
computers...where does it lead?  Where does it end?  It does not end!  To that
we  say: good!  Soon, exclusive power won't just be in the hands  of  mainline
publishers, the rest of us will have publishing power too.  Get set!   Prepare
to publish--publish!
     Since  Gutenberg's press, information has been spreading such  that  some
people see (understand) some issues sometimes...before long, we will be  over-
loaded, even more than we are now, with contrasting points of view from  every
clime, from small presses that sit on desks...we will be free!
     There  are  many ways to get a job done...using a copy machine  like  the
Toshiba  BD-8412,  with its reduction and expansion capability, from  -65%  to
+154%, you have power to change size of text, sketches, and half-tone  photos,
before  sending to the offset, either sheet- or rotary-feed, press for  volume
reproduction.   Color  photocopiers are available now, but pricey.   Text  and
half-tone  (grey-scale)  digital  scanners are here.   We  wait  for  a  wide-
carriage  720-dot-per-inch laser printer.  Is all of this necessary to get  us
through the day?
     Enough  is enough!  What is enough, to be sufficient to do what needs  to
be done?  Seems the more shallow people are, the more impressed they are  with
cosmetics...certainly  color  and high-resolution printing has it  place,  but
whatever  happened to content of what is being produced?  Is form and  surface
to  dominate substance?  Not if we have anything to say about it, to our  last
Sufic  warble...we continue to use appropriate tools to produce, to  reproduce
what  needs be said to inform, to educate, to learn what needs to be  learned,
both by those doing the reading and by those doing the writing.  Thank you...

         Addressing United States of America, our debt and imbalance  of
        trade, "The American empire is in decline.  What do you want  us
        to do about it?  We should not continue to be the scapegoat  for
        your failures."--Moritaka Matsumura, Tokyo publisher.

Hardware  Beat.    In  June, NAOG--Bruce Morgen's  North  American  One-Eighty
Group--starts  shipping  ETS-180-IO+, an add-on board  to  Micromint's  SB180.
Board  is designed to unlock all the potential of HD64180  making  combination
ideal  for efficient software development, personal computing,  and  real-time
applications.   Add-on provides two additional serial ports (each up-to  115.2
kilobaud,  with  full  hardware  handshaking),  24-bits  of  user-configurable
parallel I/O, complete SASI/SCSI interface, extended banked BIOS providing TPA
(user  program memory) of up to 58k-bytes with full Z-System  implementations,
and  battery-backed real-time clock integrated with DateStamper for  time  and
date.  And board is all CMOS for low power consumption.  Special  introductory
price  is $299.95.  Get full details from NAOG, P.O. Box 2781, Warminster,  PA
18974, 215/443-9031.
     Wyse  Technology sells 281,000 ANSI/ASCII and graphics display  terminals
during  calendar  1986;  Digital Equipment, 200,000;  and  TeleVideo  Systems,
83,500.
     More on Zilog's Z280 super chip, Z-News 705-4...benchmarks being used  to
compare various CPU performance are the EDN (Electronic Design News  magazine)
standard  suite, fully developed by Carnegie-Mellon Institute.   These  should
strike terror in the hearts of those aligned with chips developed by Intel and
to  some extent, Motorola.  Why?  Suite is comprehensive, and no  one  company
has  been able to show superior performance across all aspects of  the  bench-
marks.  Now the Z280 shows superior to the Intel 80186 and 80286.  So what  do
you think?  The same people that designed the Z80,000 designed the Z280.
     Of  course, you think, being the Z-People, we are biased?  Check out  the
facts and performance for yourself.
     Want more information on the Z280, contact Ms. Dottie Wanat, Director  of
Communications, 408/370-5543, at Zilog, 1315 Dell Ave., in Campbell, CA 95008.
     We showed the block diagram of the Z280 in Z-News 705-4; this time we add
drama by showing the chip itself out of its carrier.


               Big photo of Z280 chip here, in printed editon.


Zilog's new Z280 MPU brings advanced performance and high integration features
to  both  Z80-based  and a broad spectrum of  new  systems--controller,  work-
station, and consumer product designs.

Software  Beat.   After reading IBM's announcement of Personal System/2,  with
Operating  System/2  and  its expected delivery late this  calendar  year  and
beyond, in increments no less, we don't feel too badly with our own  unintent-
ional  lateness  in enhancing Z-System.  (And notice PS/2 keyboards,  so  like
those  from  Wyse  Technology.)  Multitasking  and  multiprocessing  certainly
separate  men from boys.  For now, we stay with an Oneac ON! or SemiDisk  DT42
for speed and all around usefulness, for the work we do.
     Turn-around is fair play.  Three months ago Lotus Development sued Mosaic
Software  Inc., and Paperback Software International for infringing "look  and
feel"  of 1-2-3 spreadsheet.  Now SAPC Inc., formed from remnants of  Software
Arts  Inc., company that created first spreadsheet, Visicalc, sues  Lotus  and
its founder, Mitchell Kapor, for $100 million for breach-of-contract and  mis-
appropriation of confidential information and trade secrets.  Touche'!

In  Other Words.   As decades go, the 1960s were a truly memorable  period  of
our  lives.  The Beatles, the lunar landing, the Vietnam War, the  assassinat-
ions  of  John and Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King,  the  pill,  Hippies,
Yippies  and  Cassius Clay: all left an indelible mark on  an  incredible  ten
years.  Yes, a remarkable decade.
     The  1970s  had  similar  character:   microwave  ovens,  Richard  Nixon,
Watergate  and  the  Plumbers,  gasoline  shortages,  Japanese   motorcycling,
integrated circuits, microcomputers, software gurus, "the paperless society."
     Present  decade  offers "computers for the rest of us,"  spreadsheet  and
other  productivity software, VCRs and video home movies, dear Ronald  Reagan,
national monetary debt we can not imagine repaying, Yuppies and me-firstism, a
space program gone astray, terrorists, Iran-"contra" (Oliver North, et al) and
Wall  Street insider-trader scandals (Ivan Boesky, et al), AIDS, Japan's  rise
to industrial superiority in select markets.
     America,  its  people, north and south, east and  west,  our  hemisphere,
100's  of years of indoctrination and mind "bleeping."  Where is community  as
opposed to enemy?  And we know who the latter is, Z-News 609-5.   Indoctrinat-
ion occurs whenever an individual has not sufficient interest to acquire  suf-
ficient knowledge to understand issues and their meanings.
     We  address  me-firstism,  in which self-interest takes  on  priority  of
unprecedented  heights.  Self-interest is a necessary characteristic  of  each
member of a species, if the species is to survive.  But when the  individual's
interest  always  takes  precedence over the group's,  survival  is  far  from
assured.
     This  year,  America celebrates the bicentennial of its  Constitution,  a
document of simple parchment sheets, but synonymous throughout the world  with
the  ideals of liberty, justice, and equality.  This document has touched  the
lives  of most people on Earth.  We as ordinary citizens complain, as  is  the
way  of  humans,  but we should think what it would be like  if  our  founding
fathers had not the wisdom of far-sightedness, to see good, to see better,  to
see  ideals.   We pray that that stuff still remains in some few of us  to  be
light for the rest of us.
==============================================================================
Of  Angels  and Eagles.   "To bear up under loss, to fight the  bitterness  of
defeat and the weakness of grief, to be victor over anger, to smile when tears
are close, to resist evil people and base instincts, to hate hate and to  love
love,  to go on when it would seem good to die, to seek ever after  the  glory
and the dream, to look up with unquenchable faith in something evermore  about
to  be,  that is what any person can do, and so be great."--Zane  Grey,  1875-
1939, American novelist.  Now for a sip of Zinfandel and a spin on our BSA  3-
cylinder.  See you down the lines...

Echelon, Inc.       885 North San Antonio Road         Los Altos, CA 94022 USA
Telephone: [phone]    Telex: 4931646   Z-Node Central (RAS): 415/948-6656


Trademarks   and  Registered  Trademarks:   Little  Board,  Bookshelf,   Ampro
Computers;  SB180, SB180FX, GT180, Micromint; ON!, Oneac; DT42,  Deep  Thought
42,  The  SemiDisk,  SemiDisk  Systems;  XLR8,  M.A.N.  Systems;  ETS-180-IO+,
Electronic  Technical Services; HD63484/64180, Hitachi; 80186,  80286,  Intel;
Z80,  Z180,  Z280,  Z80,000, Zilog; PS/2, OS/2,  IBM,  International  Business
Machines; Z-System, ZOS, ZCPR3, ZRDOS, Z-Tools, Zas, Zlink, Term3, Quick-Task,
NuKey,  PrintStar, Z80 Turbo Modula-2, Lasting-Value Software, Echelon;  CP/M,
Digital  Research;  TurboROM, Advent; DateStamper,  Plu*Perfect;  NAOG,  Bruce
Morgen;  FTL  Modula-2, Workman & Associates; Graphix Toolbox,  Turbo  Pascal,
Borland International; WordStar, Newword, MicroPro International; 1-2-3, Lotus
Development; JetFind, Bridger Mitchell.



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                                 Fly with Z!



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Z-News  707  is  Copyright  MCMLXXXVII Echelon,  Inc.   All  Rights  Reserved.
Permission  to reprint, wholly or partially, automatically granted  if  source
credit is given to Echelon.