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- 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
-