PDF of the original 01 for Amiga magazine

In This Issue
Editors Doormat
Optical Storage
Opening the Box
Buying an Amiga
Crossword
Monitor or Modulator
Port & Preferences
Review -- British Electronics Week
Which Harddisk?
Review -- The Contractors Show
Review - PC User Show
What is the Amiga?
Boffins Backroom
Motorola 68000 Assembly Language. Part 1
The Joy of C -- Part 1
The Amiga and the Small Business Man
Sales & Wants
Read & Write
ChipChat
EDITORS' DOORMAT WELCOME, that is what doormats
have written on them, and they are
found on the threshold. This page is
the doormat to our magazine, as you
will have to pass over it to enter.
We hope that you will find us better
value for money than some of the
Amiga
glossies
on
sale
in
the
newsagents, this is because all our
contributors,
except
the
guest
contributor, are Amiga owners who
want to share their knowledge with
you. Glossies have to make a profit,
where we are quite happy to break
even.
As this is our first issue we will
begin by telling you a little about
ourselves.
Tony Miller, more of him later, is an
Amiga enthusiast, ever since he bought
one of the first MOOs released in this
country. It was a case of good - bye to
the old Commodore 128, hello new
friend.
A little later he bought a Modem, and
by using the terminal emulator he
found on the Extras disk, he started to
explore the world of communications.
Unfortunately, or rather fortunately for
all current 01- 4 - Amiga BBs users, he
found that services such as Microlink
and TelecomGold all wanted cash for
their use. Tony decided to start his
own board for people who were
obviously in the same boat, i.e. had
just spent their last penny on their
computer and had no more for anything
fancy.
Thus 01 for Amiga was born.
It soon became one of the most
popular boards for Amiga comms users
in this country, and some from abroad.
01 and Tony became synonymous and
much sought after. Like all good
things, the board grew and became too
large to handle alone. It was decided
that the small group of people
involved in its running would form
their own User Group to pool
knowledge and skills, the Amiga
Meditators were then formed.
We then decided we wanted to
make all our information available to
non-modem Amiga owners. How? A
magazine was going to be the only
way we could convey the amount of
information that we had, a small
newsletter was just not going to be
big enough. The success of our
magazine depends on you. The more
subscribers we have, the more we can
offer. Have a look through this
inaugural edition and if you like what
you see then please don't hesitate to
Jam the Amiga Meditators. Don't
worry because we are London based,
we have already got many members
who live all over the country.
And now a short bit on each of
this edition's contributors.
Bill Moore:
Born and educated m New
Zealand, Bill has worked for a number
of companies in the electronics and
allied industries. He has programmed
the 6800, 6809 and 8501 series of
chips in both high level and assembler
languages, as well as mainframes and
microprocessors. When not in front of
his Amiga, Bill is keen amateur
Astronomer. He is currently the Chief
Scientist
company.
for
a
major
electronics
Richard Hartschorn:
Born in Leicester, Richard attended
Birmingham University, taking a course
An
active amateur
in electronics.
programmer, he specializes in Z80 and
68000 assembler. His other hobby is
Guinness. Richard works for a small
company in Essex that manufactures
refrigerated equipment.
Ken Wallace:
Belfast bred, Ken attended the North
London Polytechnic where he gained an
HNC in Advanced Electronics. Further
studies at University College London
with the Physics and Astronomy support
group led to a career in industry. He
ran his own consultancy in electronics
for seven years, then joined a company
with a household name in domestic
electronic equipment as Chief Electrical
Engineer.
David Ward:
A true East Londoner, David was to
have followed a career in Photographic
Science, but the necessary grades
eluded him. After working in the
quality control
department for an
internationally renowned photographic
company, he was invited to work for
the Rank Organization. This is where
he was first introduced to computers
and
production
controlled
by
micro processors. He now works for an
optical equipment company.
Tony Miller:
Born in the South of England, he
soon moved to Grimsby. Took Maths
and Physics at A level with intention
of taking a degree in Computer
Science, but was lured into joining the
Police. After many exciting adventures
he started his own company in Desk
Top Publishing, later becoming an
Amiga consultant. The 01 for Amiga
bulletin board soon followed and now
he is one of the most sought after
Amiga personalities in Great Britain.
Pete Symes:
Born in London, Pete left school
at the age of sixteen to start a 5 year
apprenticeship with a world renowned
gunmaking company. He has since
ffMaster
achieved
the
status
of
Gunmaker" and has now formed his
own business. His hobbies include
motor - racing, computers and becoming
comatose
at
parties,
but
not
necessarily in that order.
Optical storage
Is this the end of the floppy disk?
by David Ward
Reading through the pre - production
version of 01 FOR AMIGA, I noticed
that optical storage
devices were
getting a fair amount of coverage.
Consequently, this inaugural issue is
now our first special, dedicated to
optical storage.
There
are
several
reports
in
circulation at the moment concerning
the growth and marketing of optical
storage. Each one comes to its own
conclusions regarding market size by
1992/3.
A report by Frost & Sullivan of
New York, only $990 if you want to
order your own copy, predicts a market
of $1 billion by 1992. This breaks down
into $630 million for the drives and
$330 million for disks.
A group nearer to home, BIS
Mackintosh of Luton, have looked at
the present size of the market for
image/document systems, currently $680
million. They estimate this to rise to
$3 billion by 1992. The US accounts for
half the worldwide sales of these
systems at the moment, but Europe is
expected to exceed this by 1992.
At the moment there is no set
standard for an optical memory system,
they are magneto - optical, phase change,
and bump - forming media.
A magneto - optical disk uses spots
whose
direction
of
magnetization
changes when heated by a laser. This
magnetic alignment can then be read in
the usual way with a magnetic reading
head.
Phase - change disks use a medium
that crystallizes or decrystallizes at a
particular temperature. A laser is used
to write or erase, the heat of the
beam altering the state of the medium
at a spot. An optical reading head is
used. It will only detect light reflected
from a crystallized spot.
In the bump - forming system there
are two lasers, each set at a different
wavelength. The disk is made up of
two materials dyed to absorb the
different coloured light emitted by the
lasers. To write the lower layer of the
disk is heated, and, as it expands, it
forms a bump. To erase, the top layer
is heated and softened, the lower
layer then pulls on it and so the bump
disappears. Light is only reflected
from flat surfaces by an optical
reading head.
are
currently
Optical
disks
nowhere
near
the
versatility
of
existing magnetic media. They have to
be erased before overwriting can take
place, this is a very slow process.
They are also slow at retrieving data,
and the mechanisms they use are
costly to manufacture. The disks
themselves are cheaper, in terms of £
per Mb, than equivalent numbers of
magnetic
disks.
Research
into
overcoming these problems is now
underway, and in the next four years
we can expect to see some of them
solved.
Workstations and PCs used for
graphic applications will be the first
to
utilise
the
optical
recording
systems, due to plug compatibility and
easy acceptance. They will replace the
large memories required for CAD/CAM
and DTP. Only later will their storage
capability be used, when an accepted
standard format has been set. Their low
cost, high capacity, and size make them
ideal replacements for tape and the
larger hard disks used by main frames.
The Sony corporation have already
produced a disk auto changer, with a
capacity of 50 disks, giving a total
storage of 164 Gb.
This is equivalent to more than 1000
magnetic tapes. The autochanger takes
up eight square feet of floor space, I
think
1000
tapes
would
take
considerably more. Five of these
devices can be connected to one SCSI
interface.
Comparisons between 5 1/4 inch systems:
Av. access time.
Floppy disk:
Hard disk:
Optical Disk:
lOOms
25ms.
195ms.
Data transfer rate.
Capacity.
250 Kb/s
1.5 Mb
1500 Kb/s
200 Mb
250 Kb/s
Magstore's optical disk and DAT tape systems.
(see British Electronics week review)
650 Mb
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OPENING THE BOX
by John King Right, you've just got home from the
Commodore Show with your new Amiga.
You can breathe a sigh of relief now
because you weren't mugged on the
tube, but wait, did you get a box of
blank discs. Tut, tut.
Here are a few tips for those of you
who haven't bought the beast just yet.
Firstly
buy
some
good
quality,
branded, discs, at least 20 to start
with, and a box to store them in. I
know this is going to be expensive but
you take my advice, it's worth it. You
have got the machine all set up and
the manual instructs you to make
copies of the discs you were supplied
with, you didn't buy any and its Sunday
afternoon. Buying discs that have no
names on, and are only 75p each, is
not a good idea. You don't want to lose
a program that's taken two hours to
type in just because the disc will not
validate.
Make
two
copIes
of
everything, the original is best put
somewhere dry, and safe from magnetic
fields. The two copies become a 1st
copy, which will not be touched, just
available in case, and a working copy
for mucking about with. That way if
you need to make another copy you
don't have to use the original.
Read the manual at least twice before
you start anything, it will save a lot of
problems and soul searching later on.
Unfortunately the manual was written
in American, so some of the names
they give things may be unfamiliar.
However, its not too bad as manuals
go, except that if you are an advanced
user they keep referring you to the
ROM Kernal Manual, one of a set of
three costing £20 or more each. Don't
buy them if you are a novice, some of
the computing experts I know cannot
understand some of the ideas that are
pu t forward in them. The Amiga is a
complex machine and it may take some
time before you get used to it.
Let me tell you a story......the
company I worked for was a bit
strapped for cash, but my boss was
desperate for a new, faster, and colour
computer. We eventually went for the
Amiga. Our old machine could do less
than a Commodore 64, and originally
cost close on £5000. After the initial
playing with the new machine came
the serious business of programming.
Have you ever tried to program when
it seems that every five minutes
someone wants a demonstration of the
graphics capabilities. Anyway, I think
I must have popped out to the 100
when one of these persons arrived, my
boss
immediately
set
about
demonstrating the clock, his favourite
toy. When I came back....where was
the program that I had just spent the
whole morning working on...come to
think of it where was half the
contents of the disc. In his enthusiasm
my boss had crashed the machine, thus
losing the program which I had
neglected to save, and, had dragged a
lot of the icons over the trashcan,
luckily he didn't know how to empty
the trash. Therefore, always regularly
save the project you are working on
and don't let other people near YOUR
computer.
Try to remember to cover up your
machine when you have finished using
it, they attract dust like anything.
Never ever remove a disc, or
reset/switch off, while the drive light
is on, this is an easy way to corrupt a
disc accidentally.
Use the working copies of the discs
you have made for exploration, see how
the directories work, and what's in
them with the CLI.
A real boon for the CLI
enthusiast is a public domain (PD)
program called PopCLI, this allows you
to call up a CLI window by just
pressing the Left - Amiga and Esc keys,
no clicking involved. Available on
Amiga Meditation PD disc # 1. PopCLI
also has a screen blanking capability,
this stops burning in on your monitor
or TV, a problem that affected early
TV games and still dogs some modern
computers.
On the hardware front an extra
512k of memory is of more use than a
second drive, especially now that
Workbench 1.3 has a recoverable
ramdisk, but a second drive is still an
i tern to get at a later date, followed
by more memory, a hard disk, etc. etc.
Good luck!
BUYING AN AMIGA
HOW TO CONVINCE THE WIFE, A TRUE STORY!
by Ken Wallace
There I was quite happy with my
Apple lIe, built (quite literally) up
lovingly over a four year period,
equipped with colour card, Z80 card,
Language card and two (130k) disk
drives. Then it happened, Bill Moore
demonstrated his newly acquired Amiga
ASOO to me, and the beginning of the
end set in ....
"It's
got
much
better
colour
resolution Dear", I said, putting on the
washing - up apron. I always wash and
dry when I'm considering unplanned
expenditure.
"How much?", came the terse reply,
as accurately as Eric Bristow on a good
night.
"Financially Dear, it represents
good value for money. The memory
size, for example, is 512K bytes as
standard, and included in the price is
a four channel sound chip of eight bit
resolution, also the three and a
quarter inch disk drive is built in..... "
"Look!,
cost?",
how
much
is
this going
to
It was no good, my cover was
blown, I almost gave in under her
intense 'hand on hip' pose, and the
implied threat of the non - stick frying
pan in the other, and mentioned
money. However, as always happens in
the movies, the cavalry came over the
hill in the nick of time and said ....
lfDad ....... If
we
get
a
new
computer. .... can
I
do
my
school
computer work on it? Your Apples no
good, my teacher says....not combustible
or something with our BBe machines."
I resisted the compelling temptation
to run over and kiss the boy firmly,
but, sensing victory had been snatched
from the proverbial fangs of defeat I
decided to act casual, lean nonchalantly
back on the breakfast bar, and say...
"Yes ....... most certainly an important consideration to be borne III mind
here .... *!?!**!"
The breakfast bar was three feet
further behind me than I realised, and
I ended up in a heap on the kitchen
floor, festooned with Marks & Sparks,
bargain
Sheffield
steel
cutlery.
Removing a fork from between my shirt
collar and nack I realised a great feat
of geographical engineering had taken
place, namely that Sheffield had been
relocated in Taiwan.
"Well if you're going to perform
death defying acrobatics in the kitchen,
just to get your own way over this I
suppose you'd better go ahead. Its
probably going to be cheaper
than a
new, all black, rig out I'd need for
your
funeral!",
s aid
She - who - must - be - obeyed.
And so my life began anew with the
AMIGA.
Editor's note:
The Amiga is, we believe the only
computer that can behave as a pc, a
BBC, and now an Apple Mac.
PC emulation can be achieved usmg
the "Transformer" software that was
once available,
this
converts the
Amiga into a very slow PC with no
graphics capabilities. We have heard
rumours of a new software emulator in
the States which is supposedly better
and does support some graphics. We
await it with bated breath. The only
other way to successfully run any IBM
software is to use a bridgeboard. This
piece of hardware is really a PC clone
on a card. The Amiga 1000 had an
add - on known as Sidecar which gave
it the ability to run PC software in a
window. The Amiga 2000 has a slot
internally for either an XT or AT
bridgeboard. The AT card runs faster
than the XT card. Both these solutions
are relatively expensive, a bottom of
the range PC clone with monitor etc.
could be had for the same price as
Sidecar or the XT card. Manufacturers
are now producing expansion boxes
which allow your to fit a bridgeboard,
and other cards, to your A500.
The BBC emulator is software,
but fast, in some cases the emulator
will run some BBC programs faster
than a BBC computer can. This is
because the Amiga was provided with
its own version of BBC basic,
especially written for operation by a
68000 chip.
Now we have a Mac emulator.
This consists of both hardware and
software. You also need a Mac ROM
chip, not supplied, and an Apple disk
drive.
With all of these systems, reading
disks is a major problem. PC software
can be supplied on both 3 1/2 and 5
1/4 inch disks, or you can get them
converted from one to the other. The
BBC only uses 5 1/4 and the Mac, a
special 3
1/2
which
alters its
rotational speed depending where the
readjwrite head lS. Luckily Miles
Gordon Technology are about to launch
a range of 3 1/2 and 5 1/4 inch disk
drives which can be connected to
different computers by just using the
correct lead and altering a set of dip
switches on the back of the unit. This
is going to be a really useful piece of
equipment for those of you with more
than one computer.
If you cannot afford another disk
drive then porting over files may be
the answer. You need a suitable cable
to connect the Amiga with the other
computer, some comms software, or if
you are good at programming then you
can write you own, and off you go.
Simple as that, well nearly.
Computer Croosword
Across 1. 4. 5. 7. 9. 10.
11.
12.
13.
15.
17.
18.
21.
25.
26.
27.
28.
29.
I remember (6)
and 23. Maths assistant (2,9)
Phone library routinely (4)
Location found in 1 across (7)
29, and 7 down. The Best!, we bad to get this one in
somewhere (2,3,5)
and 26. Big American show (3,4)
Short for what the Japanese want in their next
generation of computers (2)
One eigth of a mouthful (3)
See 14 down
Friendly TV system (3)
IBM PC screen format (3)
Strike with the start of a note (6)
Beginners language (5)
Moon of Jupiter found in communications (2)
See 10 across
and 2 down. Unwanted number appears with yoga
lesson (4,10)
Funny parity (3)
See 9 across
Number
1
Down
2.
3.
4.
6.
7.
8.
10.
14.
16.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
See 27 across
A versatile interface (4)
Old form of shell (3)
Repeats instruction (4)
See 9 across
Commands speech (3)
Operating the Amiga 1S as easy
as.... (3)
and 13 across. What every prisoner
would like (3,3)
A Ski instructors code number (5)
and 21. Flashes for your attention
(5,3)
Compresses Star Trek faster than
light (4)
See 19 down
Another name for a programmer
(5)
Found at the end of a lead (4)
Transmit (4)
by
Ward
really is no contest between
the two, a monitor will
provide
a better quality picture
a domestic
set,
there
are
no
when
IS
on.
cost
of £200
whereas a modulator will set you back
about
modulator is a box about the
of hvo
to
It holds a simple
circuit
the output
which
the
monitor
and stereo sockets on
back
your Arrliga,
combines
converts them
a radio frequency
(RF) signal that is similar to that
which your television set receives from,
say,
The modulator
three sockets,
they are: an aerial output, a composite
video phono output, and an audio
output, also of the phono type.
aerial socket IS
for connection
directly to a
set, while the
other two can
used for connection
to a video
or even a monitor!
The
monitor port,
standing
for
three
Blue
has
of output.
most commonly
analogue
which will
the colours
available
while the
other is digital
Digital monitors,
such as those
on some of
their PCs, can only display
colours.
No good
us budding artists.
The Commodore monitors are, in fact,
made
Philips, so is the monitor
the Archimedes.
pays your money
and you
choice.
Do shop around, and also
an
Some
idea of what you may
monitors allow you to switch between
computer and video, enabling you to
watch
on
same set,
not
simultaneously,
that you
a
Genlock
below),
have no
built - in sound,
mono when
stereo would be
One thing to
specifications is dot
this
your an
how
sharp an
you might get, for
instance, a .31 dot pitch wiII give
better clarity than a monitor with .41,
try to compare
in the
but
remember, the smaller the pitch, the
higher the price.
Next to the RGB port is a phono
socket marked
this is for,
surprIse
surprise,
a
monochrome
monitor.
are ideal
Vlewmg
text and any application where a high
quality black and white image is
computer
required, for
reason why a mono
(CAD).
monitor has a higher resolution is due
three
to the fact that it
set to give
in a
phosphor
of single
the
whereas
colour, such as
gives
mono,
one dot is
and dearer image.
a much
of an
on a The
by the quality of that IS
smaller the set the more
any text will become.
recommend setting the
to 60
characters per line if you are using a
TV, this is done on
first page
Preferences.
Unfortunately
some
programs which use requesters are
programs which use requesters are
unable to fit the text into an alert box
while in 60 column mode, this can be a
definite problem when the program is
asking you to enter a word from the
manual on Page 3, Paragraph 4,
Li..... ??? The bigger the screen size the
more chance of reading the output in
80 column mode.
Cheap genlocks are now available,
they start at £100. This gives you the
ability to display the Amiga's output
only, or that from a video recorder, or
both on a monitor or via another video
recorder onto a
set.
There is one drawback
no
sound,
a
separate
amplifier
is
necessary for any speech or music
from either source. The Amiga's output
is superimposed onto that of
video, so you can still wordprocess
while watching the News. Subtitles and
credits can be overlaid onto a picture
providing
you
have
two
video
machines, one for playback and one
for record. Another use is when you
have connected a different computer
to the Amiga so that you can port
over text files, both screen displays
can be seen at once, avoiding the
need to swap cables or use two
monitors.§
by
John King
Firstly I should point out that there
are 1',\10 versions of Preferences in
circulation.
Version 1.2 has an icon which looks
equipment with a
like a piece of
question mark super - imposed on it, this
is, in fact, a representation of the
original Amiga 1000, which consisted of
separate keyboard and processor.
With the release of \Vorkbench 1.3 we
now
have
a Prefs
drawer which
contains the original Preferences icon
and several others.
Preferences is really a machine/user
interface. It allows you to alter the
system. configuration
file
easily
by
means of buttons and sliders, rather
than by typing in Y/N answers to a
lengthy list of questions or fiddling
with dip switches deep in the guts of
the computer.
What is the system.configuration?
This a file which is examined just
before the startup sequence, it enables
your Amiga to select the screen
colours and mouse speed settings
previously saved, as well as informing
it to look for the correct printer
driver when you are about to print.
big advantage that the Amiga
gives you over other non multi - tasking
computers is the ability to alter a
Preference
setting while
you
are
running
an
applications
program.
Previously you had to quit what you
were doing, run another program to
change, say, the Serial protocol, then
rerun your original program from
scratch.
The icons in the new Prefs
drawer enable you to go directly to
the particular page of Preferences that
you want, rather than having to go
all the screens. In addition
are two new features in
are an extra screen for control
and an icon for
of your system.configuration to
in dfO:.
1\'10 ports on the rear
aren't
just
for
they are much more
that. Each is a 25 although none of the can
connected to either use
these pins. definition of the
dictionary is a
issued In parts periodically,
IS
exactly how the Serial
pIece of
In
the
computer is stored as
byte
is made up of eight
a bit is
either a nought or a one.
byte is
therefore a set of O's
1's which
describe a number
even text
is stored in this fashion.
Let's look at
Serial"
page In Preferences,
double
click on the
icon, then
click on the
gadget. If
you have 1.3,
drawer
and double click on
for a
telephone,
port's
often use
Modem.
transmitted
is sent
through
one after
peripheral
receives this
stores it in an
area of memory known as a buffer.
Here the
are regrouped back as
bytes
peripheral processes
them.
at which computer and
peripheral
and receive data is
called the
rate, it 'is measured in
and can range from
you are looking at the
of Preferences you
"Change
that III addition to the
for Baud rate and
are also ones for
bits, Stop bits, Parity,
Handshaking.
can
Read and Vlrite
set to either 7 or 8, the latter
the most common. Stop
when it
a
correct number
byte, and Parity IS
to
what is in the buffer
what has been sent.
Handshaking is
the tvJO connected
start the flow
usually when the
to stop
full it will signal
finished
transmitting
until
it
processing the sent
accomplished
are using,
through
packages for
such as
Moderns (Comms), or electrically over
addition to the
a paIr
transmit
wires
data lines.
of
indicate
connected
Amiga lists
to
the pim used
In
ParaUel port is
associated with
one
there are a number of manufacturers
whose products orJy have a
immeadiately come to
others do fit
industrial process
are fitted
with
an
units
to allow a host
them remotely or
and leave them to
with
the
job,
interrogating
occasionally to see how
on
are
doing. We are even
this in the
home
with
security
systems
controlled by a Sinclair Spectrum.
The Parallel port is a much simpler
affair, there are no complex settings to
be made, it is just a case of plugging
in the two ends of a cable and away
you go.
it's name suggests data is
sent in parallel, that is all together.
Remember how a single byte has to be
broken dovm into 8 bits which are
transmitted sequentially, with an extra
stop bit sent as well, when transmitting
serially. You can see that this will be
slower than if each byte was sent in
one go, that's why the Parallel port is
the preferred one for a printer, it's
quicker.
This ability to receive all eight bits
in one go allows the Parallel port to be
used for sampling. The intensity of an
electrical signal measured over a period
of time can divided up and each part
allotted a value. This process is known
as analogue to digital conversion, and
the value can be stored in the
computer's memory, and eventually on
disc. There are many samplers available
for the Amiga. Some digitize sound to
near compact disc quality, allowing you
to record speech or music. Vvith good
software
these
samples
can
be
Don't despair there are cheaper ones
now, they are usually slower and may
require three scans of a still picture
in order to obtain a colour image.
I have seen software advertised which
allows you to turn your Amiga into a
sophisticated oscilloscope, I presume
that this also uses an attachment
connected to the parallel port to
digitize the measured signals. This is a
useful tool for the electronics hobbyist
who needs some
of measuring and
but
cannot
displaying
waveforms,
afford the real thing, the Arniga does
have the advantage of being able to
store the results on disc though.
Either port can be selected for
output from the printer selection
screen of Preferences by clicking on
the appropriate gadget.
Finally a word about MIDI, it appears
that both ports can be used for one of
these devices, but make sure your
software is compatible. Also if your
are considering some sort of digitizer,
I would suggest that you use your
printer with the Serial port as this
leaves the Parallel port free and saves
a lot of swapping plugs at the back.§
manipulated in ways that were only rm~~~~==~~~~~~==~~~~~1
possible by cutting and splicing tape on
expensive reel- to - reel tape recorders.
v,ey Repeat Speed
SIDI'! I
(iJ
Ifast
Video digitizers are considerably more
expensive than their audio cousins, and
a lot slower too. A sound sampler
works in real time, that is, as you hear
I
the sound, the hardware is digitizing it.
Real time video digitizers cost many
Reset Coiol's
hundreds of pounds, some are several
thousand,
this
is
due
to
the
considerable amount of processing that L~===""""",=======~!-'===!..l::=
has to be done before the image is in a
suitable form for storage.
REVIEW BRmSH ELECfRONICS WEEK OLYMPIA by CLlspy. I know, some of you are asking what
this has to do with the Amiga, the
answer at the moment is nothing, but
you will be surprised at what work is
being done, work which will affect all
Amiga users.
Olympia is big, and when I say big, I
mean it. By the end of the day I could
have used a couple of stretcher bearers
to carry me home. I feel sorry for
those people who visit the NEC in
Birmingham.
There were 800 + stands at this show
and I think I visited most of them. The
stands were divided into 12 groups,
rather like small shows on their own.
The
groups
displaying
everything
necessary from design and fabrication
of chips through to complete electronic
systems.
Entry to this gargantuan event is by
free ticket, sent to those people in the
electronics and allied industries who
subscribe
to
the
vanous
trade
publications, and by invitation from
exhibitors to their customers. Entry at
the door is also possible, but costs £5.
Only a fool would attempt this method,
which is devised to keep out the
riff - raff and under 16's, sorry kids this
IS a show for business men, yes,
another suit and tie show.
My ticket allowed me In vIa the
Fibre
Optics
entrance,
your
correspondent was given a show guide
and a BEW yearbook!catalogue. This
hefty tome carried a cover price of
£9.95. It reads like a
directory with colour adverts.
telephone
First stop was the knobs, plugs
and socket manufacturers, I only
wanted to know if you could still get
the old round three pin plugs. I end
up with being sent free samples of
their latest connector, plus a VlSIt
from the salesman at a later date, so
that I can order thousands of these
things. I tried to argue that I only
wanted one or two, but he wouldn't
listen. I gave in eventually, just to get
away.
I had a chat with the boss of a
firm
of
cable
and
connector
manufacturers, it emerged that we are
being ripped off every time we buy a
lead or plug, such as a 25 way D plug.
The costs of these components is
really quite low, except when you buy
them from a well known electronics
store or even through your dealer.
A few freebies later I was
passing a stand which did rather catch
my attention. This was a firm of liquid
crystal display manufacturers. What a
colourful sight, the company is called
Stanley, an unusual name for a
Japanese firm. They produce many
different types of LCDs, with various
options of illuminating them. This can
be the common torch bulb or LED,
miniature
cold
cathode fluorescent
tube, or electro luminescence (EL).
The last two methods generate very
little heat. They also make touch
sensitive displays and multicolour dot
matrix LCDs. If you want to build a
lap - top then these are the people to
see for a screen. On the same stand
was a speaking Amstrad, no, not in the
same sense that the Amiga can speak,
this was an audio digitizer in action. A
small plug - in card, a microphone, and
loudspeaker, plus a wallet lightened by
an amount not far short of £300, and
away
you
go.
The
software
accompanying this package allows you
to edit the recorded files and reuse
them in your own programs, you can
even control the hardware from your
own software, as it supports BASIC, C,
and PASCAL. I was definitely not
impressed with this, the microphone and
loudspeaker were worth about £10, so
what do you get for the other £284. A
good digitizer for the Amiga will set
you back between £75 and £100, and
they seem to do the same.
Wandering on past the seemingly
endless cabinets of PC boards I
suddenly spotted something odd. Here
was a board which had most of it's
chips perpendicular, like little black
gravestones in a green field. Puzzled, I
enquired of its purpose. In reasonably
good English, the French salesman
explained that here was their latest
product, on show for the very first
time, a 10Mb silicon hard disk, I
presume he meant hard card. So what's
new I thought, he then told me the
price, that's different I thought
£14,500 including VAT. Mind you there
is more to this thing than meets the
eye.
In a standard hard disk you have a
lot of moving parts, several read/write
heads, stepper motors, etc., thus the
drive is prone to damage from sudden
shock, dirt and dust. The unit is also
bulky and draws a lot of current, it
therefore gets hot, some need cooling
with a fan. This new concept avoids
all these problems by being entirely
solid state. On the board is a SCSI
(Small Computer Systems Interface)
interface, an INMOS transputer for
memory management and, in addition
to the aforesaid 10Mb, two small
batteries. One of these is for retaining
the memory's contents when you
switch the thing off, I was assured
that data retention of up to ten years
is guaranteed, do Duracells last that
long? ( more on that point later). The
other battery is the first one's
back - up. The board is 120,000 times
faster than the access time of any
current hard disk, and can transfer
data, along it's own SCSI bus, at up
to 5 Mb per second. It also has 4
serial links, at up to 20Mb per sec.,
for interconnection with sister boards,
or other computers. Not cheap but
interesting. The company, DSID, were
also showing plug in ram discs of 512k
or 1Mb sizes, they were £1800 and
2,300 respectively
makes the
Commodore ASOl memory expansion
look like the bargain of the century at
£150 for 512k.
Every stand seemed to be kited
out with an Amstrad, not a real IBM
to be seen, I wonder why.
Suddenly here was a name I
could relate to, Commodore. The
company,
Kerridge,
were
in
the
complete
systems
business.
The
pleasant saleslady explained how they
will equip a company from scratch
with all that is necessary to conduct
stock control, payroll, and accounts.
The
demonstration
machines
were
Commodore PC40s, instead of Amstrads,
because they found them to be better
machines for the pnce. All their
software
operates
in
a
UNIX
environment, see the article CLIspy
comments.
Prize draws abounded, would I like a
new car, a holiday in Scotland, or even
Hawaii,
how about
a
bottle
of
champagne. No I didn't win any of
them in case you ask.
Another familiar name, Cherry, well
known for their digitizing pad for the
Amiga. Here they were showing their
range of keyboards, micro - switches and
LED displays, however at the back of
the stand I did spot the famed graphics
tablet. The salesman leapt at me, "Can
I be of any assistance?", he asked. I
told him of my quest for Amiga related
items at the show, and wondered
wether they were going to be bringing
out any new products for our machine.
"Sir", he replied, "this is NEW, the
mark 4 digitizer, we released it only
two weeks ago.". Well, reading through
the leaflet it does seem better than the
Km.3, but I cannot comment on that as
I have never used the Mk.3, the Editor
is only person I now who has, maybe
he will review the new one in another
issue. What I can tell you is that the
MkA is expected to retail at around
£450, and that it is a full size A3
drawing tablet with a cursor/mouse and
a stylus. It has a high rate of data
as well as improved
transmission,
shielding and resolution. There is a
menu driven easy set up facility, plus
the ability to configure the tablet from
the computer via an RS232 connection.
Another Toshiba stand, the first was
promoting
uninterruptable
power
supplies. This one had their recently
released 4 inch colour LCD pocket TV
set on show, but what caught my eye
was their latest 6.5 inch full colour
active matrix LCD monitor. Imagine, a
TV screen only half an inch thick, it
won't be long before we are really
going to see the fabled "hang it on
the wall like a picture" TV set.
Downstairs in the mam halls
were
other
big
names
in
the
electronics industry, like Philips, NEC,
and SGS - Thomson, but where was
Motorola, not at this show it seems.
Wandering about I came across
Sony, here was the stand for the
computer user. I know you probably
think of them as only making discs
and Walkmans, but Sony have new
products which are set to make mass
storage
of
data
easier,
quicker,
cheaper, and more compact.
You have all heard of CD, the
new medium which has now begun to
outsell the LP as the most preferred
method for replaying music. CD - ROM
is another facet of this technology, it
enables the computer user to read
large amounts of data from a compact
and robust source. Unfortunately it is
not possible to write to these devices.
Sony
produce
several
drives for
CD ROM, 1 disc drive size and 4 full
size with different options. These can
include audio out, so that the unit can
double as an ordinary CD player, SCSI
controller,
and
Sony's
own
bus,
through which, when used with the
appropriate adaptor card, connection
can be made to a Pc. One feature
was
a
great
that
I
thought
improvement on the CD system was
Sony's CD - CADDY, this is a plastic
case, similar in appearance to a 3 1/2
inch floppy disc, which holds the CD.
It prevents damage being done to the
disc during handling. No matter what
the adverts claim, CDs
are
not
indestructible.
WORMS is a new in - word in the
computer industry. It stands for Write
Once Read Many timeS. It is an optical
system of mass data storage which, as
its name implies, can only be written to
once,
and
therefore
provides
a
permanent uneraseable record. Each disc
is 12 inches in diameter and can hold
up to 3.2 Gb, a Gb or Gigabyte is equal
to 1000Mb or 1000 unformatted Amiga
discs. Sony claim the life expectancy of
these discs to be at least 100 years.
Now the piece de - resistance,
a
rewriteable optical disc. Sony were
promoting
this
new
device
for
incorporation
into
new
computer
systems, rather than as an add - on.
Whereas all the Sony systems I have
been talking of so far use a laser beam
to read the data, in the case of the
WORMS, that beam is also used to
write by burning a pit in the disc, the
new system uses a combination of laser
and magnetic fields.
All magnetic
recording systems require a magnetic
field to read, write and erase, a
stronger field is normally used for
writing and erasing. The Sony system
needs the extra power that a laser
beam can provide to write and erase.
The disc is read by the laser only, this
is because changes in the magnetized
layer alter the polarization of the
reflected laser beam. Again the system
has a SCSI interface and each disc can
store up to 650Mb of data. The drives
are expected to cost around $5000, and
each disc may well set you back £50,
although this is quite cheap when you
consider the cost of an equivalent
number of floppies for the same
amount of storage.
Next to the Sony stand were
Citizen. They had a range of printers
and disc drives on show. Their pride
and joy is a one inch high 3 1/2 inch
drive, ideal for portable computers.
Sony also had one of this size on
display, but Citizen were claiming to
have got there first. Apart from this
new drive, the salesman would not let
on about new products. They are on
the way though.
Panasonic had a WORM system as
well as many different monitors. The
only problem was that all of their
sales staff were indifferent, a similar
fate was to happen at the British
Aerospace stand later on, everyone
else was only too pleased to talk.
Now you may have noticed that
SCSI keeps cropping up when I talk of
interfaces, this system is the preferred
one for bus add ons for the Amiga.
The ST506 is a cheaper interface used
by the PCs for connecting hard discs
etc.. At a guess I would say that SCSI
is more versatile and that is why a lot
of manufacturers are now using it.
Scattered around the exhibition
were
several
stands
promoting
development
areas,
like
Wales,
Wiltshire, and Cornwall. There was
also
a
recruitment
village,
with
numerous well known companies trying
to attract staff.
Earlier I spoke about batteries.
There were quite a few companies
here, Ever Ready, Varta and Duracell,
and
many
less
well
known
manufacturers like SAFT and Epson,
yes,
Epson
the
printer
company.
Everybody knows of Duracell's TV ads
that claim their batteries last longer,
well Kodak are confident that their
Ultralife range will last twice as long
as the best alkaline.
Another chip company, this time
of more interest to Amiga owners,
that I spotted, was Micron Technology,
famous for their RAM upgrades. Here
they were selling an extensive range
of memory chips. Only one let down,
the salesman was an ST owner, but I
\vas in such a good mood that I
forgave him for this.
These new cells are lithium based and
have a shelf life of ten years, they are
not cheap to buy, but are cheaper to
run.
I must mention the automatic
hard/floppy drive tester that I saw,
this £5000 machine was fitted with a
variety of connectors and was able to
test four different drives at once,
then report on their possible faults.
Ideal for the busy repairman.
Hyundai, a name more associated with
cars than computers, were here with
their range of ROMs, RAMs and other
chips. I knew that Yamaha were a big
Japanese company, into ships, bikes,
musical instruments, and HiFi, but it
appears that Hyundai are just as big in
Korea.
I
had now covered all of
Olympia, except for the Military test
equipment section, which was by
special invitation only. Oh well, maybe
next year.
I must say that I enjoyed this
event and found all of the staff that I
met very helpful and a pleasure to
talk to.
Sony's Optical disk caddy system
Which Harddisk?
by Tony Miller There have been a few harddisks on
the market for the MOO, all of which
have been in the £600 - £800 price
range... Suddenly, we are seeing £300­
£400 hard disks appearing all over the
place. Are they as good as the more
expensive ones?
We thought we would have a look at
one and compare it to one of the more
expensive harddisks. So lets begin the
battle of two harddisks:
AmiD rive
V
SupraDrive
The Arnidrive is new and still very
hard to get hold of. It should be
available at the CBM show from the
Micro
Anvika
stand.
It
is
an
autobooting harddisk (if you have 1.3
roms in your Arniga). There is no
through port, which makes any further
expansions very hard to fit. And with
no option for internal memory upgrades,
it limits you to the 1 meg internal
memory. The purpose of the drive is
maximun power for minimum price. The
colour matches the Arniga, but the size
of it is a little large. The interface and
harddisk are in the same unit with a
separate power supply. Available in
30megs and 40megs, both for a price of
£399.
The Supra Autobooting drive is far
more expensive. It retails at £699. But
you get a little few extras. For a start
the interface and harddisk are in two
seperate boxes. This allows for more
than one harddisk· to be fitted to the
same interface. In fact it allows 7
harddisks to be fitted to one interface.
There is also a through port for
further expansions and the option to
add 2megs of ram \vithin the interface.
The power for which, comes from the
harddrive and not the Arniga. I think
though that the main reason that I
like the Supra Drive is that when I
had problems \vith my interface, I rang
Frontier in the UK and they were so
helpful, \vith a replacement interface
on my door by the follo\ving morning.
Ok, I had to pay for it, but still it
was service that I will not forget in a
hurry. For compatability, expandability,
technical
information,
and
backup
service, I think you would be hard
pressed to beat the Supra Drive from
Frontier.
Harddisks
available
(with
approx
prices) :
SupraDrive
ArniDrive
30megs
30megs
,,­
£699
£399
SHO\V by CUspy Those of you who listen to
cannot have failed to have noticed the
heavy advertising for this show. Billed
as
for
the
computer
professional, I thought I just had to go
along.
This is one of those suit and tie
events, with the majority of visitors In
their late twenties and early thirties.
of them earn between £12,000 and
a year,
are involved In
programming or sofnvare engineering.
After
filling
out
a questionnaire,
concerning who I was, what I knew,
how much I currently earned etc.,
I
was allowed to enter in among the
thronging crowds.
I was immediately accosted by a pretty
girl, something that was to happen
practically
every ten feet I moved,
must be my good looks, she asked me if
this was my first visit and what did I
want from the show. Replying
to
all her questions I was informed that if
I wanted to start my own company, I
should visit stand so and so who were
offering the best deals. Thanking her I
moved on, complete with the obligatory
carrier bag full of leaflets and a free
pen.
H this was going to happen at every
stand, I thought that
better have a
cover story, no, I am not going to tell
you what it was, that
give the
game away.
There were
stands at this event,
offering everything from accountancy
and agency services to penSIOns and
training,
but
most
stands
were
companies
after
freelance
programmers/analysts etc. to work on a
contracting basis for big companies. If
you have the relevant experience, then
the wodge was waiting for you.
I overheard one chap being offered a
job in the States at $100,000 per
not
bad
eh!.
Sorry
no
programmers required!
they were
interested
ID
were
people
with
knowledge of
C
If you know your stuff,
and
with
are
a
Hewlett - Packard or
then there's
money in them thaI' hills. I did
mention Amiga to one company, the
girl wrote doVt'l1 Omega, so they must
have heard of it don't you think.
Everything was going to plan, I
now received about a dozen carrier
bags of leaflets, a free book on
contracting, half a dozen pens, three
key - rings, a credit - card holder,several
beer - mats, and a jumbo sized tee shirt
when the game was nearly up. Here
\vas a gentlemen who knew of the
machine I was talking about. I quickly
changed the subject to it's operating
system, ah ha, this foxed him, he was
not familiar with it, but was still
interested, dratl "Please
in touch,
have you a business card?",he
handed over one of my specially
prepared fakes. Phew that was close!,
he nearly offered me a job.
Apart from all these city gents and
Yuppies, there also appeared to be the
cast of AUo'
,no, they weren't
the real ones, but the imitation Helga
was of a good likeness, she was
entertaining a group of jolly red - faced
gentlemen at the bar. In fact the
champagne was flowing if you knew
where to go.
If any of you want to go on a course,
I'd better warn you that they start at
£100 per day.
Getting onto this gravy train appears,
at the moment, only to be possible if
you were a college graduate with
several years experience at a large
firm.
I don't think that you would pick up
enough of the sort of knowledge these
people require just by studying at home
or attending evening classes. Still there
is always someone out there who will
prove me wrong.
If any of you want to try it, then
good luck, I'd rather have a steady 9
to 5 job. Contracting pays good
money, but the contract may only last
a few weeks, then it is a case of
waltmg for the next job to come
along, or rooting out that next job
yourself. There were just under 3,500
people at the last Contractors Show,
probably more attended this one, all
competing with one another.
The next one on is in the Autumn,
look out for the details in the
business computer press.§
REVIEW
1989 PC USER SHOW & PC CAD
by
OLYMPIA
CLIspy
This was my second visit to Olympia
in two weeks, I was expecting an
exhibition of the proportions of British
Electronics Week, this was not to be.
The PC User Show only took up the
floor of the main hall and a quarter of
it's balcony space. However there was a
room set aside for Lotus 1 - 2 - 3 users.
Again I did not see a single proper
IBM machine, every stand had clones. I
suppose this is what you would expect
at a show where the major clone
manufacturers are exhibiting, but you
would think IBM would make the effort
to attend a show dedicated to the
machine with which they set the ball
not
having
the
rolling,
it's
like
Commodore stand at the Commodore
show!
Off I wandered, first stop a company
called Micropolis, hard disk specialists.
What intrigued me was
a poster
lamenting the limitations of the ST - 506
interface, I was immediately assailed by
a salesman. Their main products are 5
1/4 inch drives up to 200Mb capacity,
with a range of 3 1/2 inch systems to
be released later in the year, as well
as larger devices for rack mounting ­
up to 1.5Gb. All have SCSI or EDSI
interfaces. EDSI, I had never heard of
that one, apparently it stands for
Enhanced Small Device Interface, is
similar to SCSI but more standardized.
An international SCSI standard has yet
to be set, this can ca @ - x2some
incompa tibili ty
pro blems.
The
performance of their products is quite
high, for instance, the 1670 series of
5 1/4 inch hard disks can transfer
data at up to 4Mb/sec with an average
access time of 16ms. They also claim a
40,000 hour MTBF - Minimum Time
Between Failures.
Forgot to mention Gigatape, it was a
small stand. Anyway these people are
using
DAT,
Digital
Audio
Tape,
technology to do a faster and more
A
tape back up than
streamers will do, more
boring
about
this
stands later I came
across
Disk supplies, one of
discount disc sellers at the
which I was quite surprised to
see
\vith
Gultronics
and
of Tottenham Court Road.
I was now at the back of the main
hall
all the small stands were,
Solidisk, well known to
and
owners.
that I didn't see at the
were advertising in the
guide, were
Technologies. They
have a
dongles for the PC and
devices can be used
to
software
from
unauthorised access. Just send
the
company
they will rush you an
evaluation kit.
disk
abounded, add on
drives were
Magstore Ltd.
seemed to be the only company with an
optical system in use. They also had a
DAT tape back
in operation as well.
The Magstore
uses a 5 1/4
inch optical
with a capacity of
200Mb. It is quite slow compared to a
hard disc, 170ms access
and a
transfer rate of
average, but
does
have
the
advantage
of
uneraseability
archive purposes and
costs around
The
drive will take discs
and
Panasonic, who claim a ten year media
life, and Plasmon, who claim thirty
years. The
an
incredible amount of storage capacity,
1.2Gb plus, in a small credit card size
cassette, which can be reused, or
altered, if needs be.
access time is
not of the essence, it can
20
seconds to find a file, then this is the
device for you, providing you
a
or Mac.
you noticed how croppmg up in this article, businessman has cottoned on to that the Apple machines have
something to offer over the
based
Ponder this thought, the
uses the same processor, similar
and front ends as the Mac.
are the order of the
day, subscribe
have a free copy,
register
here
for
your
free
don't forget to claim
this, that, but no other!
cascades from all the
stands,
about the prices. Simple
utilities, that we take for granted on
our
are only available to the
user for high prices. Graphics,
sound, and animation packages cost
the earth, usually with the need for
an additional
because of the
hardware
I can honestly say
that
I
was
not
impressed
with
anything that I saw. All the machines
quality graphics cost
capable of
a fortune, the "I can buy ten A500s
for that price"
It is true
that the graphics found on the Sun
workstations and the new 286 and 386
processor based
are very good,
Amiga, but we
much better than
are talking about thousands of pounds
for a system and not hundreds.
Epson had the
stand here, a
comprehensive range of printers and
PCs were on display, as well as a
proud showing of their latest releases.
These
include a new
the
G05000, two ink jet printers
two
dedicated colour printers.
is a 300x300 dpi, 6
laser printer with
new
but if you want speed
ink jet
SQ2550 132 column, 24
is the beez neez - only 594 cps in
super draft mode. It also has 9 fonts
and will cost around £1350. Colour
printing, using a four colour ribbon,
does not come cheap with Epson. Their
new LQ860, cheapest dedicated colour,
weighs in at £770, I'd think seriously
about a colour ink - jet, better quality
for a similar price. Epson printers are
very good, but very expensive.
Although most of the Epson stand was
taken up with printers and PCs, they
were sharing it with their special
products division. this company fields a
range
of
lap - top
portables
and
accessories, such as mini printer and
ROM - packs. They also have two types
of hand - held terminals for data entry
etc. They transmit to a host computer
via an infra - red link, rather like these
new transmitter video programmers, and
have mini printers, RAM cards, and bar
code reader peripherals. Apart from the
usual keyboard means of entering data,
the EHT - 10 terminal uses a touch
sensitive LCD screen to interact with
the user. Each unit is about the size of
a video tape.
Printer rivals, Brother, also had a
large and interesting stand. Among the
numerous dot matrix machines were a
range of PCs, a new desktop FAX
machine for under £700, a colour
photocopier for under £5000 and, two
new laser printers. The HL 8E laser has
seven built in fonts as well as a plotter
font, this gives it the capability to
produce 56 variations in its printed
output
styles.
A
Hewlett - Packard
CADjCAM emulation is also included
for the £1995 it costs, it does 8 pages
a minute. However, the HL 8D will
print both sides of the paper at once
for £2995. The
Brothercolor
5500
photocopier utilises the new "cyocolor"
technology recently shown on the BBe's
Tomorrows World. The process uses
special paper coated with capsules of
dye, these contain contain one of
three colours, which are sensitive to
coloured light. When exposed to
different coloured light these dye
capsules
harden
relative
to
the
coloured image on them. The paper is
then passed through a set of rollers to
burst the unhardened capsules, and
therefore impregnate the paper, the
whole thing is then "cooked" for a
crisp permanent image
gas mark 7!
Please note that any prices I quote
are recommended retail prices, and
that you can get the items cheaper
through a dealer. This brings me on to
Star. Nothing really new here, the
glossy leaflet tells me that the LC 10
costs £229 and the colour version
£299, both printers can be bought for
about £40 less in the High St.
S&S Software are offering a "no fix,
no fee" software recovery service for
lost or corrupted data. They also have
a virus toolkit for sale at £50, don't
tell Steve Tibbet, of VirusX fame, or
he'll want to charge a fee. Their
Chairman apparently said 'This virus
business has been blown up out of all
proportion", but they are managing to
make money out of it.
An intelligent uninterruptable power
supply, don't laugh, is now available
from Galatrek International.
The box is connected to the
protected computer via an RS232
interface. In the event of a power
failure,
the
UPS
instructs
the
computer, using special software, to
close and save files and shutdown the
system before the batteries run down.
Neat!
The best thing that I picked up at
the show was from the Seikosha
company. It is a little booklet called
the "Alternative Computer Show Guide".
you can probably guess this is a
comical publication. It includes methods
for getting into shows such as these
for free, and when you are in there, a
guide for spotting the hazards and
freebies.
It was now time to VISit the CAD
village, ??, it wasn't worth the effort
of climbing the stairs. All that was on
show up here was repeated down below.
Commodore were noticeable by their
absence, I thought they were trying to
corner the market with their cheap
range. Arch rivals Atari were here
though.
The
transputer
village
was
as
impressive as the CAD one had been it was dull. When you demonstrate an
Arniga to a PC user you always get the
"Arniga effec!", you know, their jaw
drops, especially when you tell them
that an A500 only costs £350. Well
none
of
these
transputer
based
machines had that sort of effect on me.
The Atari stand only really caught my
attention because of the large video
screen showing their new Folio pocket
Pc. 'The new folio" I exclaimed to a
salesman,"Ugh", he replied. I think he
was disappointed that the expected
demonstration models had not arrived
for the show, even though a display
cabinet, with the hopeful sign "Watch
this space", was ready and waiting. This
new pocket
looks like a serious
contender for the electronic filofax
market, Psion Organiser watch out. The
Folio has 63 keys, 128k RAM, and a
40x8 character LCD display. There is an
expansion bus for extra RA\1, up to
640k, and peripherals. No disk drive,
the Folio uses 32/128k memory cards. A
built in speaker can be used to "dial" a
telephone,
according
to
the
video
narrator,
have doubts about this
the
facility being available in the
beeps on the demo video sounded
distinctly
American.
Your
correspondent has to admit a liking
for the enemy's new toy.
Atari were also demonstrating their
Transputer Workstation. Contrary to
popular belief this is not a souped up
ST, it is, in fact, a completely
separate computer, housed in a very
large box. The only part the ST plays
is as an interface between the user
and the box of tricks. An unofficial
spokesman explained the role of the
ST as merely a cheap, off the shelf,
ready made, keyboard, mouse, and I/O
subsystem,
which
is
capable
of
operating independently of the host. I
would suggest the same result could be
achieved by connecting an A500 to the
same big box and voila, a Commodore
Amiga Transputer Workstation! The
system has four resolution modes, from
512x480 in true colours to 128Ox960 in
16 colours (from 4096). Intermediate
video modes have a palette of 16
million colours. A good monitor is
therefore necessary.
I had now covered the whole show,
except the Lotus village, and could
find no reason to go round again.
British Electronics week was more fun,
and
more
interesting than todays
effort. Perhaps it will be better next
year, as the show will incorporate
European Unix user.
CLIspy comments.
WHAT IS THE AMIGA?
by
Tony Miller
Currently there are two models of the Amiga, the lower priced ASOO, and the top
of the line Amiga 2000. The first one to be marketed, the Amiga 1000, is no
longer produced, but is still available if you know where to look. At the time of
writing, there was about to be released a third version of the Amiga, the Amiga
2500. With a bit of luck it should be available at this show.
Two main characteristics set the Amiga apart from any other computer available
on the market in this price range. One is the incredible graphics with an ability
to display up to 4096 colours on the screen at the same time. The second is its
ability to do multitasking - the capability of running, simultaneously - several
different programs.
Other features of the Amiga are:
- Four channel true stereo Output.
512K RAM on the Amiga 500
1 megabyte on the Amiga 2000.
Both models are expensively expandable.
- Built - in disk drive with a capacity of 880K.
- MC68000 microprocessor, the same one used in the Apple Macintosh and the
Atari ST.
Amiga ASOO
The Amiga ASOO is the smallest and cheapest of all the Amigas.
The technical specification of the Commodore Amiga 500 sets new boundaries in
the word processing, file management and the combination of text and graphics.
Sensational graphics facilities let you draw quickly with the mouse, enlarge,
reduce and move images, change colours from a palette of 4096, overlay logos
all at the touch of a button.
A dedicated four channel synthesiser chip will produce digitised sound effects in
stereo. So the audio facilities match the graphics. And the Amiga 500 can
interface with video and musical inputs - the creative possibilities are endless.
For the business user, a multitasking environment lets the operator do more
than one Job' at once. Thus, although the Amiga 500 was primarily designed as a
superlative games machine, it is ideal for creating presentation documents, 3D
simulation and animation, graphic design layouts and archives.
This magazine was put together on an ASOO
Amiga 2000
The objective of the Commodore Amiga 2000 it to provide the optimum design
for the business or professional user by allowing the user the flexibility to
configure the system to meet current need., and to modify or expand the system
as these need<; change. Flexibility is inbuilt in the areas of memory, storage,
output, and even in the area of co processing with another Operating System, and
a growing range of Commodore and 3rd party board) and peripherals will be made
available over the coming months.
Compatibilty with existing Amiga software, seven internal expansion slots, MS ­
DOS capability and genuine multi-tasking, make the Commodore Amiga 2000 the
most flexible business micro computer ever to sit on the comer of a desk.
these
were taken from the official Commodore promotional literature.
I have used both machines myself, and find that out of the two, I much prefer
the Amiga 500. There isn't an internal fan in the ASOO which means that I could
word - process in peace and quiet. The A2000s fan was very distracting when one is
trying to concentrate on that important letter/magazine article. As for the
software compatibilty, again I was dissapointed to find that there is software
around that refuses to run on an A2000. I believe that there is a problem with
the keyboards control location in memory, which results in some games not been
able to run.
And the last thing that put me off the A2000 was the size of it and the cost
of it. It takes up far more room than the ASOO and costs nearly three times the
amount. Although the machine is far bigger, internally, there is not that much
more room. (If that makes sense??) To add a hard disk to the A2000 there are two
options. Add a Hardcard that takes up the room of two expansion boards or add a
hard disk that takes up the room of the second floppy drive or the
drive. If
you want to add a second harddisk, then get the hacksaw out!!! On the other
hand, to add a harddisk to the A500, just plug the interface into the expansion
port and away you go.. Of course you lose more desk space for every expansion
you add.
Specifications
- expandable to 9Mb
256Kb of Rom (Kickstart 1.2)
- Motorola 68000, 7.14Mhz
Connectable Peripherals:- up to three
disk drives
- up to three
disk drives
- Printer
Harddisks
- Genlock
- Frame grabber
- Audio digitiser
- Midi Interface
- Modem!!
- etc.
t~.
Boffi
,
00
If you have any problems that you need the answer to, then just write
to us and we will worry about it.
1
IVIOTOROLA 68000 ASSEMBLY LANGUAGE
by
Richard Hartschorn
The 68000 Assembly Programmer's Model
The 68000 has:
8 general purpose 32 bit accumalator registers
DO to D7, called Data Registers
7 general purpose 32 bit pointer registers
AO to A6, called Address registers
1 special purpose 32 bit pointer register
A 7 or SP, called the Stack Pointer
1 special purpose 32 bit pointer register
PC, called the Program Counter
1 special purpose 8 bit flag register CCR,
called the Condition Code Register
The majority of the instructions you can code in 68000 Assembly
involve at least one of these registers as either the source of a number
or as the destination of a calculation.
Motorola, who originally specified the 68000 microprocessor, defined a
syntax for their Assembler that allows most possibilities of source to be
used as a destination too.
The 68000 machine code uses
68000 chip has a 16 bit data bus.
16
bit
opcodes
and
externally the
The fundamental unit in 68000 Assembler is the 16 bit"Word". As a
general rule any 68000 instruction that uses Wordsize will run smaller
and faster than another size, and the only reason to use Assembly
language is to have your program small and fast. Internally the 68000
has a 32 bit data bus which permits ordinary arithmetic on 32 bit
numbers, called Longwords.
All of the standard Assembly language instructions are available on a
68000. Unlike other processors you must always specify whether an
instruction is to work as on Byte, Word or Longword data by appending
.B, .W or .L onto the end of the instruction text. The size you specify
for the instmction is forced onto the source and destination of the
data.
If an instmction directly uses an Address register as a source or
destination the 68000 processor forbids you to use the
extension.
Motorola decided that its naughty to use the Byte size with address
registers and if anyone can think of a reason for this I'm open to
suggestions. The Data registers are allowed to use all three sizes and
there is no technical reason why Address registers shouldn't.
EFFECfIVE
In the 68000 Motorola have tried to combine all the addressing
modes older 8 bit processors use in order to specify the source and
destination of an instruction. The location of any number is called its
Effective Address
This is not necessarily an address in the
memory of the 68000, although usually it is.
Once you have mastered all of the possible Effective Addresses in
the 68000 you will find that most programming techniques can easily be
implemeneted in 68000 Assembler.
The whole range of Effective Addresses the 68000 uses is tabulated below, for reference. ASSEMBLER TEXT EA
NAME
$00
$08
$10
$18
$20
$28
$30
$38
$39
$3A
$3B
$3C
$3C
$3C
DATA REGISTER DIRECT ADDRESS REGISTER DIRECT
ADDRESS REG. INDIRECT
ADDRESS REG.POST INCREMENT
ADDRESS REG. PRE DECREMENT
ADDRESS REG. WITH DISPLACEMENT
ADDRESS REG. WITH INDEX
ABSOLUTE SHORT
ABSOLUTE LONG
PC RELATIVE
PC RELATIVE WITH INDEX
IMMEADIATE BYTE
IMMEADIATE WORD
IMMEADIATE LONG
DOl D11 D2 / . . . . . · .D5,
I
D7
I
I
AO ,
A2, ...... AS ,
A7 (Ai) 1 (A2 ) , (A3 ) .......... (A 7 ) (AO)+/(
)+ ............ (A7)+ (AO)/-(A') ............ (A7) $OOOO(AO) .......... $FFFF(A7) $00 (AO I DO. w) .... $FF (A 7 ,D7 . L) $0000 ................. . $00000000 .......... $FFFFFFFF $OOOO(PC) .......... $FFFF(PC) $OO(PC/DO.W) .... $FF(PC,D7.L) £$00 1 £$01 ....... . £$FEI £$FF £$0000,
0001 ......... £$FFFF £$00000000 ........ £$FFFFFFFF boggle at the number of variations of Effective Address, spot
the conventions.
$
says a hexadecim31 number follows.
£
says a number ( not an address ) follows, 1234 IS
different to £1234.
(x) says x is the address In memory of the number that the
processor is to use.
POST SCRIPT
The 68000 chip is "microcoded". The processor fetches each machine
code word from memory and translates it using tables stored in its
microcode ROM. The Z80 is designed with hard wired logic so that each
instruction fetched from memory directly controls the chip registers.
Using a high level language you may have seen the difference between
interpreted and compiled code.
The 68000 interprets its machine code, the Z80 runs its machine code
directly. When Motorola sees fit to release a hard wired 68000 we may
see a "truly remarkable" increase in speed of our machine code.
'C' -
by Bill Moore
OK, so how does one go about wntmg a regular column about 'C'?
The answer is, "'With trepidation!", because there is a very real problem.
The problem is you lovely people out there.
Half of you drive a 'C' compiler everyday of your lives, and are far
more expert than I shall ever be. Half of you don't O\\>TI a 'C' compiler,
but wish you did. Half of you see nothing wrong with BASIC, and are
only reading this to confirm your belief. (Arithmetic was always my
weak subject.) Actually, AmigaBasic is not a bad language, but it does
have limitations. Indeed, I don't think the Amiga would be your
favourite computer if AmigaDOS were written entirely in BASIC!
So what I shall do is this. I shall start to write this column in such
a manner that each issue starts simple so anyone can read it, but
gradually gets deeper as you go on to parts aimed at people with
compilers. So, lovely people, with each issue, start reading this column,
and when your brain begins"" @,a hurt, turn to another page. But, keep
this series so that when you do get a compiler, you will be able to
come back to it and hopefully it won't be so bad after all.
A simple program in 'C'
Programs written in 'C' can be very long or very short. Here
short one which is also quite friendly:
mainO { printf( "Hello,
IS
a
Darling!");}
Yes, that is an entire program. Probably you can see what it does.
But unless you have already met 'C', you will not find it imrneadiately
obvious why it is written the way it is. But before I explain in detail,
I should make it clear that, unlike most other languages,
takes no
notice of the ends of lines. It just carries on from one line to the
the above program could be \vritten
next, as if there were no break.
this way:
finclude < stdio.h >
mainO
{
printf( "Hello, Darling!");
}
This layout makes the structure of the program more visible.
The most important concept in
is that of a function.
function
consists of a name, followed by round brackets. Here are two functions:
mainO
printfO
The program defines one function, mainO, and uses the other
function, printfO. It does not need to
printfO, because
is
already predefined in a library of functions supplied with your compiler.
Some details about the function printfO are however useful to the
compiler, so the line "£inc1ude < stdio.h > is added to tell the compiler
how to find these details.
"Hello, Darling!" is a string, which is supplied as an argument to
printfO·
PrintfO("Hello, Darling!"); is a statement, complete with a semi - colon
to denote the end of the statement. This statement proceeds to display
the string on your monitor. This particular statement asserts a function
printfO, but there are also other types of statement. So to use a
function, you include it in a statement.
defining a function is a bit more complicated than that. You
you have to
also have to define the body of the function, that
define what the function is to do.
II
So
the example,
< stdio.h >
more about header files in the future!
mainO
defines the name of the function.
{
indicates the beginning of the body.
printf( "Hello, Darling!");
}
is a statement in the body.
indicates the end of the body.
So all the program does is define a function called mainO. This is
indeed the main function of any program, since when a 'C' program is
run, AmigaDOS locates the function mainO on the appropriate file, and
runs it. Mark you, it does prefer you to first compile your lovely neat
program into a string of gobbledegook that only a computer, in this
case the Amiga, can understand.
The above program is a modification of a famous 'C' program used
by the inventors of the language, Messrs Kernighan and Ritchie, in
their book 'The C Programming Language" second edition. The
difference is that the word "World" has been replaced by "Darling" to
make it more user friendly.
To run the program, it must first be compiled. Lattice C v5.0 and
Manx C are the commonest compilers for the Amiga. Unfortunately,
they don't come cheap.
To compile in Lattice, you would first use an editor such as ED (or
LSE supplied with Lattice C - LSE is more user friendly) to create a
file called, for example, "Darling.c", containing the code listed above.
Enter:
Ie - L Darling.c
and the compiler will create a file called "Darling". To run the program
just enter the word "Darling" in the eLI.
In future issues, I shall expand this program, so it becomes a very
useful little utility which, if added 10 your startup - sequence, will
remind you of any birthdays coming up! This can really save you from
getting into trouble, particularly from anyone called Darling! This
utility lives on my word processor disk, which is very fulL Had I
wanted 10 write it in BASIC, there would have been no room for it and
AmigaBasic on the disk.
However, before I treat you to "Birthdays", I shall give you the
opportunity to compare how fast the Amiga runs in BASIC and in C. I
shall give a listing in the next issue of the 'Sieve' benchmark in both
languages. So, a race between C and BASIC] I suspect I know who will
win, but I admit I don't know by what margin. Watch this space!
VROOM SPUTTER 00
..
SPUTTER.
•
~/1
~.
I~r'
<>~<>
Lattice
3·C-4­
/:3~2-7
€
AMIGA C COMPILER
AMIGA880K
C for the Amiga
Disk 1
Introducing new Lattice C for Amiga DOS, Version 5.0. In recent hl:'nchmarks, Lattice C S,() was off to the
races hefore \lanx 5.6 was even olTthe starting linl...'. In
fact. statistics prme that no other language. no other
compiler, gives you faster, more efficient programs.
Period. And it no\\' SUPPOl1S 68020 and 68881.
BVfE* Benchmark
Lattice C 5.0
Manx C 3.6
% Difference
dhampSl()IWS
42.4
62.7
.')2%
clhryslones/'-'ee.
1605
1017
':iH%
matrix manipulation
1'5.7
50A
6H'xJ
scbigrd
70.2
H2.H
1'5%
sono
76.4
110.9
.') 1%
sieve
Yi.4
40.'5
1')'Yil
And it's thl:' most comprehensive, exclamation point
l\:othing else gi\'es you such a complete programming
C'm·ironl1ll:'nl. All these tools :md utilities are included
in the Lattice c: 5.0 package:
.. Lattice c: COl1lpii<.:r .. Compill'f' Companion ['lilitil's
.. Sourcv Ln'vl 1)1Ihllggl'r (CodvProilc) • C()de profilcr
.. C;loi1al Optimizer .. jih c: FUllction Lii1r:lric'i .. Blink
OH:Tlay Linker .. Assl'mhler .. Disassembler • Lihr:trian
• Sample Files 8.: Examples • Lattice Screen Editor • In­
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Our new, easy-to-use, Source Level Dubugger.
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and multi-tasking dehugging. And our new Glo]);iI
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So choose Lattice if you want to program on the fast
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To purchase rallice C 5.0 or/or II/ore il!j(mn{{ti()ll,
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In Illinois: )121<)1()·I(,()(l
THE AMIGA AND THE SMALL BUSINESSMAN
by Pete Symes
I run a manufacturing company in
South London and it didn't take me
long to realise that to run it more
efficiently the purchase of some kind
of computer was going to be necessary.
Initially I just wanted a Word Processor
to handle my correspondence. The
choice of WP was mainly due to the
fact that I didn't have a secretary at
the time and I was like most other
males in business
a two fingered
typist! So off I went to my local
electrical store and bought an Amstrad
pew 9512. Now as a word processor it
was very good, albeit a bit on the slow
side, but nonetheless a very good entry
machine for the novice. As time went
by, and a lot of reading of the PCW
magazines I realised that I could
computerise a lot more of the business,
hopefully to make it more efficient and
my life that bit easier. So off I went
and purchased some more software,
accounts, database, spreadsheet, that
sort of thing. For a while everything
seemed to be fine, a little bit slow bu t
more or less useable.
As
the
business
became
more
profitable, I decided to treat myself.
Being a fan of computer games, I
decided to buy the best games machine
around, of course the first choice was
an Amiga 500. So there I was, PCW at
work and an Amiga at home. It didn't
take me long to realise that the Amiga
was not only a very good games
computer but with its multi tasking
capabilities it could also be a superior
business machine.
I decided to do a bit of research and
discovered that a lot of the serious
business software was now available
for the Amiga. The idea seemed sound,
sell the Amstrad (Good idea - Ed.) and
use those funds
to finance the
necessary software for the Amiga.
That is what happened and the Amiga
was duly installed in the office.
In order to run the recently
acquired software at its full potential,
more memory and a second disk drive
were a must. Cheque book in hand I
rushed round to the local computer
store. Happiness once again ruled in
the office.
Meanwhile
the
business
had
risen dramatically. I was now handling
more clients, so the demands upon the
various programs had risen also. The
Amiga was coping more or less ok but,
it was beginning to be a chore, and
also
very
slow,
swapping
disks
continuously.
The
nature
of
my
business means that I have to have
my
accounts,
instant
access
to
database
information
and
correspondance.
Due to the increase in business
(couldn't afford to do it otherwise!)
off I went, now under the much
appreciated guidance of the Amiga
Meditators, and purchased a Supra 20
meg hard disk complete with the
necessary interface. (The interface is
the reason why they are initially more
expensive
than
their
IBM
counterparts.)
At last I thought, the perfect
setup - a 1 meg Amiga 500, two floppy
drives and a 20 meg hard disk.
However for those users who don't
know, no offence intended as I didn't
know either, is that when you hook up
a hard disk to the Arniga and partition
it the way I have, that is with four
partItIOnS
primarily
for
ease
of
maintenance and a bonus of greater
speed, it takes up memory. So from
being used to having 1 meg available I
was now down to about 650k. It was ok
though, I was able to do what I wanted
and the hard disk was perfectly reliable
so what more could I ask for?
Well, as you no doubt know, the
more you use the Amiga the more you
realise what it can do. As I recently
read, it is only limited by your own
imagination, I would like to add to that
though, the size of your wallet also
helps! I am very fortunate to be able
to finance my now very strong interest
in computers via the company.
It had come to a stage where I was
now having to think of new ways of
producing my product to keep one step
ahead of the competition. Being a
predominantly
engineering
based
company, the possibilities of CAD/CAM
(Computer
Aided
Desigm
and
Manufacture)
were
very
appealing.
However, that old problem of the Amiga
being a very memory hungry machine
reared its head again. The need for
more memory in the near future was
very apparent.
When I purchased the Supra drive,
the thing that sold it to me, apart from
its reliability and user support, was the
facility of adding a 2 meg ram board to
the interface. Admittedly I could add
the extra memory externally, but if you
knew
my
office
and
the
space
constraints that I work under, you
would understand that the internal
option would be preferable.
I ordered the extra memory and four
months later it arrived. This was not
the fault of Supra. The need to keep
up with their competitors had caused
Supra to redesign the board to accept
an auto - booting ROM and that,
coupled with the well known lack of
DRAMs, had slowed delivery.
Installing the board was not as
simple as the instructions lead me to
believe.
After
disconnecting
the
interface, power off of course, I found
that the internal interface board was
of a different design and didn't have
the through power supply connector.
There I was, after waiting four months
the proud owner of 2 megs of memory
I couldn't use. So
when in a panic
phone 01- 4 - Arniga. They asked me to
bring the unit round, possibly the first
one in the country.
After
stripping
the
interface
down
and
carefully
exannrung it,
they told me that everything was
there apart from the 2 pins needed to
feed the power through to the new
board. So they soldered the two pins,
kindly donated by an old RS232
connector, onto the board. With bated
breath we connected the interface up
to a machine and 10 and behold the
extra memory was recognised.
I did call Supra to make sure
that the soldering of the pins was the
correct thing to do, I know that
sounds like closing the stable door
after the horse has bolted, but they
assured me that it is what they would
have reccomended. The system has
now been running for a month with no
problems whatsoever.
I hope that you have found this
little tale not only entertaining but
also useful. If you are looking for a
hard disk and more memory, I would
suggest that you take a serIOUS look
at the Supra system. It is not only
very easy to install but also very
reliable.
I cannot praise Supra,
Frontier Software
and
the Amiga
Meditators more highly for their very
friendly and helpful support.
w
Editors' note:
The Supra system with a 2Mb RAM
board fitted works out about £150
cheaper than buying a separate hard
disk and external memory expansion. In
effect you are only then paying £50
more than you would for an equivalent
PC hard disk. Very cost effective.
01 for Amiga
(08
Sales and Wants
If you would like to advertise here then please send your ad to the address
in the front of the mag. Mark your envelope in the top left hand corner "Sales
& Wants".
Unfortunately we cannot accept any advertisements for pirate software, disc
swapping parties or anything in the least bit naughty. If you want a box
number then we can arrange that.
For Sale. B2000 with Rom 1.3, 2 floppy drives, A1084 Monitor, 3 Megs of Ram
and a 1 meg unpopulated ram board. 2 harddisks, a ST506 20meg and a SCSI
40meg. All inside the B2000 and working. Retail value £4779, Want £2000. Reply
box 1
For Sale. A2000 with Rom 1.2, 2 floppy drives, A1084 Monitor, IBM - XT Bridge
board. Retail value £2200. Want £I500 or prepared to swap for ASOO with 2
drives and harddisk. Reply box 2
Read and Write.
This is the page to air your views or
have a go at the editors.
If you would like to have your say then please write to us at the address in
the front of the mag. Mark your envelope in the top left hand corner "Read
and Write".
•••• a
=..-- ........ A .-. IIL..IIII i k
c:L
C'o·rn·p·u't'e·r·~
229A TOTTENHAH CT RD
LONDON &.I1.P 9AF TEL: 91.-636 2547 (5 LINES FAX: 91.-631. 3667 IliA TELEX:
Amiga A2000 Single Floppy Disk £1090.00
Amiga A2000 Double Floppy Disk £1180.00
Amiga A2000 Single Floppy Disk,
£1395.00
1084S Colour Stereo Monitor
Amiga A2000 Single Floppy Disk,
2090 Hard Disk, 1084S Monitor £1750.00
Amiga A2000HD Single Floppy Disk
2094A 40Mb Hard Disk, 1084S
£2500.00
Amiga A2000, A26020 Single
Floppy Disk, 1084S Monitor
£2900.00
Amiga A2000, A2058, A2094A, AGAFlicker Fixer, 14" High
Resolution Colour Monitor
£4053.00
Amiga A2000, A2058, A2094A, AGAFlicker Fixer, 15" FST High
Resolution Colour Monitor
£4166.00
Amiga A2000, A2058, A2094A, AGAFlicker Fixer, 21" FST High
£6080.00
Resolution Colour Monitor
Amiga A2000 A6820, A2090A, AGAFlicker Fixer, 21" FST High
Resolution Colour Monitor
£6556.00
Amiga A2000, A6820, A2058,
A2094A, AGA-Flicker Fixer, 21"
£8170.00
FST High Resolution Monitor
Amiga Air Miles Pack Inc:
A500, A520, Easyl Disk Wallet,
Star Ray, Nebulus, Who Framed
Roger Rabbit, Spritz Paint
500 AIR MILES FREE
£499.00
Amiga A500, TV Modulator, Spritz £375.00
Amiga A500, 1084S Colour Monitor £650.00
AmDri ve 30Mb Hard Disk (A500)
£399.00
Integrator 11- 30Mb Hard Disk,
Floppy Disk,l Mb RAM Expandable &
SCSI Controller with Thru' port £649.00
£299.00
Amiga 1084S Monitor
£535.00
NEC Multisync II 14" Monitor
£851.00
Amiga 15" FST Colour Monitor
£2737.00
Amiga 21" FST Colour Monitor
£279.00
Philips 8833 Monitor
£530.00
A2086 XT Bridgeboard
£869.00
A2286 AT Bridgeboard
£699.00
A2058 2Mb RAM
£399.00
A2090 Hard Disk
£400.00
A2092 Hard Disk 20Mb HS DOS
£1175.00
A2094 Hard Disk 40Mb
£799.00
GVP Hard Disk 45Mb (A2000)
GVP Hard Disk 80Mb (A2000)
£1200.00
HardFrame (A2000)
£219.00
Supra 30Mb Hard Disk (A500jA1000)£699.95
Amiga 1010 Disk Drive £149.00
Ext 3.25" Disk Drive Thru Port &Switch £ 99.00
Standard External Disk Drive £ 90.00
8-UP! FastRAM (un-populated) £149.00
EXP 1000-1Mb RAM (A500) £499.00
Starboard2 2Mb RAM (A500jA1000) £699.00
Starboard2 1Mb RAM (A500jA1000) £499.00
£149.00
ProRAM A2000 (un-populated) £149.00
A501 512K RAM Minigen Genlock £ 99.00
A2300 Internal Genlock (A2000) £286.00
SuperPic Genlock &Frame Grabber £599.00
£1667.00
Hagni 4005 Genlock (A2000)
£1150.00
Neriki Pro Genlock (A2000)
A520 TV Modulator
£ 24.00
£399.00
AGA Flicker Fixer
£ 12.95
Flicker Master
£1600.00
A2620 68020, 68881 &68851
£179.95
CMI Accelerator Board
£350.00
CMI Accelerator Board + 68881
Mouse Time (A1000)
£ 22.95
BUSINESS SOFTWARE - DATABASE/SPREADSHEET
Acquisition
Analyse
Data Retrieve
Day by Day
Digi Calc
Home Accounts
Maxiplan 500
Maxiplan Plus
Micro Fiche Filer +
Superbase Professional
Superbase Personal 2
Superplan
The Director Toolkit
£249.95
£ 79.95
£ 57.95
£ 29.95
£ 39.95
£ 29.95
£ 99.95
£149.95
£ 00
£246.00
£ 99.95
£ 99.95
£ 29.95
BUSINESS SOFTWARE - WORDPROCESSING/DTP
City Desk
Cygnus Editor Professional
Excellence
Kindwords V2
£114.95
£ 89.95
£219.00
£ 49.95
9491.641.4 ANVI G Professional Page V1.2
Pagesetter
Publishers Choice
Shakespeare
Text Craft
Text Ed Plus
TextPro
The Works (Platinum Edition)
Write &File
Word Perfect
£246.00
£ 99.9~
£ 99.9
£149.%
£ 56.00
£ 59.9
£
57.5~
£199.95
£ 99.9
£229 9
BUSINESS SOFTWARE - CAD
Draw Plus
Draw 2000
IntroCAD
Pro-Board V2.0A
Pro-Net
XCAD
XCAD Designer
£184.0v
£224.25
£ 57.9
£139.9
£139.95
£485.0~
£ 99.9
GRAPHICS - ANIMATION
£ 69.9J
fl03.00
£129.0
£ 35.9
£ 35.95
£ 39.9"
£ 46.9
3D Modeller
Animator/Images
Animate 3D
Animation Effects
Animation stand
Animation Flipper
Animation Multiplane
Animation Rotoscope
Deluxe Paint III
Design 3D
Fantavision (PAL)
Forms in Flight V2
Movie Setter
Page Flipper Plus FX
Sculpt Animate 4D
Sculpt Animate 4D Jnr
The Director
£ 79.95
£ 79.9
£ 39.9
£ 69.95
£ 69.9­
£119.9'
£399.95
£ 99.9'1
£ 57.9
Turbo Silver V3
Turbo Silver Terrain
Videoscape 3D
Zoetrope (PAL)
£139.95
£ 19.9
fl49.0
£ 99.95
GRAPHICS - PAINT
£
GRAPHICS - PAINT
Comic Setter
Comic Setter Clip Art @
Deluxe Paint II
Descartes!
Digi Paint
Express Paint V3
Photon Paint V2
Print Master Art Disk I
Print Master Art Disk II
PRISM Plus
Professional Draw
Seasons &Holidays
Sculpt 3D
£ 69.95
£ 19.95
£ 69.95
£ 34.95
£ 59.00
£ 69.95
£ 79.95
£ 29.95
£ 29.95
£ 59.95
£139.95
£ 9.95
GRAPHICS - VIDEO
Deluxe Video
Lights, Camera, Action
Photon Video Cel Animator
Photon Video Trans. Controller
Pro Video Plus (PAL)
Pro Video Plus Fonts Set 1
Pro Video Plus Fonts Set 2
Video Effects 3D
TV Show
TV Text
Videotitler (PAL)
Video Generic Master
£ 69.95
£ 57.50
£119.95
£199.95
£249.95
£ 99.95
£ 99.95
£139.95
£ 69.95
£ 69.95
£110.00
£ 69.95
GRAPHICS - FONTS
Ashas Fonts
Caligrapher
Fancy 3D Fonts
Font Works
Interfont
KaraFonts
Lion Fonts
Masterpiece Fonts
ProFonts I &II @
£ 59.95
£ 89.95
£ 49.95
Cherry Graphics Tablet A3
Digi Droid
Digi View Gold (A500/A2000)
Easyl Dravling Tablet (A2000)
Easyl Drawing Tablet (A500)
Summasketch Plus 12" x 12"
Summasketch Plus 18" x 12"
Adrum
Aegis Sonix
Audio Master II
Deluxe Music Construction Set
Dr T VI.6A
Dynamic Drums
Dynamic Studio
Hot 'n' Cool Jazz
Instant Music
Life Cycles
Music X
Opus-1 MCL
Rock 'n' Roll
Sound Oasis
Studio Magic
Synthia
£ 39.95
£ 57.95
£ 69.95
£ 69.95
£219.00
£ 54.95
£ 69.95
£ 9.95
£ 24.95
£ 29.95
£199.95
£ 99.95
£ 9.95
£139.95
£ 69.95
£ 79.95
MUSIC - HARDWARE
£
PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES
£ 34.95
£ 49.95
£ 34.95
£ 34.95
£ 34.95
£ 34.95
Absoft AC BASIC 3
Absoft AC Fortran
Arexx VI. 3
AssemPro
Aztec CProfessional
BBC Emulator
Benchmark Modula 2
Benchmark CLibrary
Benchmark IFF Library
£ 24.95
£632.00
£ 74.95
£129.95
£379.00
£328.90
£458.00
£688.00
MUSIC PACKAGES
£
GRAPHICS - DESIGN
Architechtural Design Disk
Deluxe Print II
Future Design Disk
Human Design Disk
Interiors Design Disk
Microbot Design Disk
GRAPHICS - HARDWARE
Future Sound 500
Pro Sound
ECE Midi Interface
Eidersoft Midi Interface
Eidersoft Keyboard
£ 99.95
£ 59.95
£ 59.95
£ 79.95
£ 79.95
£ 79.95
£ 54.95
£ 24.95
£ 99.95
£149.95
£295.00
£ 39.95
£ 59.95
£199.95
£ 49.95
£139.95
£ 79.95
£ 79.95
Benchmark Simplifier
F-BASIC
GFA BASIC
Hisoft BASIC
HiSoft DevPac V2
K-Seka Assembler
Lattice CV5
Lattice C ++
MCC Assembler
MCC Cambridge LISP
MCC Pascal V2
Modula 2 (Developers)
Modula 2 (Standard)
£ 79.95
£ 69.95
£ 64.95
£ 79.95
£ 59.95
£ 49.95
£219.95
£356.50
£ 69.95
£149.95
£ 89.95
£149.95
£ 99.95
UTILITIES
A-Talk III
BAD
Butcher V2.0
CLImate
Disk Master (PAL)
Diskwick
Disk 2 Disk
DOS 2 DOS
Encore
FACC II
Family Tree
Fine Print
Flipside!
Gizmos V2
GOMF V3
GOMF Button
Grabbit
Interchange
Interchange Modules @
Pixmate
Powerwindows V2.5
Project D
Quarterback V2.2
Ruby View/Comm
Superback
X-Copy
£ 79.95
£ 39.95
£ 29.00
£ 34.95
£ 39.95
£ 39.95
£ 39.95
£ 39.95
£ 49.95
£ 29.95
£ 39.95
£ 39.95
£ 29.95
£ 56.00
£ 29.95
£ 59.95
£ 29.95
£ 46.00
£ 19.95
£ 49.95
£ 69.95
£ 39.95
£ 49.95
£ 99.95
£ 49.95
£ 29.95
PRINTERS
Hewlett Packard
f745.00
£549.00
£949.00
Deskjet Plus
Deskjet
Paint jet
Prices correct at time of going to press. 2nd June 1989, Commodore Show. We print new price lists regularly.
For an up-to-date price list contact us at any of the addresses below:
220A Tottenham Court Road,
London W1P 9AF
Telephone (01) 636 2547
Fascimile (01) 631 3667
251 Tottenham Court Road,
London W1P 9AD
Telephone (01) 636 2547
Showroom: 13 Chenies Strel
London WClE 7ET
Telephone (01) 636 2547
Telex 94016414 ANV
CHIPCHAT
Four years and $20 million have
enabled Motorola to develop a new
range
of
chips
for
use
in
microcontroller applications, the 32 bit
68300 series. The new 68332 contains
422,000 transistors, and operates at
16MHz. The architecture is based on a
68020 processor core, with 2k of
on - board ram, a second RISC processor,
and two serial I/O sub - systems. Brian
Wilkie, manager of Motorola's Advanced
MCE Operations said, tl ... the new chip
will give the computing power of a
Macintosh in in the size of a business
card". An extensive range of support
software has also been made available.
By the end of this month Toshiba
will be in full production of their 4Mbit
DRA1\1. This is the second time the
company has lead the market with such
an innovative product, the first being
the 1Mb DRAM. Initial price of this
chip is expected to be about £250.
Mitsubishi are currently delivering
samples of a floppy disc drive with
16Mb unformatted capacity. Rather than
using a servo loop to position the
read/write head, Mitsubishi have opted
for a control
interleaved with
data. The drive has a SCSI controller,
disc mechanism controller, and data
controller contained in 3 ICs.
similar, in both function and looks, to
a digitising tablet. However, the work
area of the tablet is formed from an
eleven inch LCD touch screen. This
allows the user to select functions and
menus using the provided stylus or a
finger.
high resolution screen of
the
will display the image of
what is being drawn or digitised on
the tablet, in addition to the host
computer's display. The company sees
many possible applications for this
device.
As you read this, Atari are
marketing
their
laptop
PC.
Demonstrated at the spring Comdex
show in Chicago, the "Portfolio" has a
reduced keyboard, 8x40 character LCD
screen, and 128K of memory. This is
expandable to 640k. The computer is
slightly larger than a video cassette
and will retail for $399. There is no
disc drive, the machine will use 230K
smart cards for storage. A suite of
programs, including a word processor,
spreadsheet, and business management
system are built in.
modem is also
available as an extra.
The company have also developed an
optical "Neurochip", our source believes
it to be a 3 dimensional 32 bit
processor.
British
Rytrak
of
Liverpool have just announced an
ability to mass produce colour LCD TV
screens of up to 14 inches in size.
Developed in association with a large
electronics firm and two universities,
Rytrak hope to go public later this
year in order to secure additional
funding to complete the project.
have
launched
a
interface
man/machine
1000
Flat
Visual
a programmable device
NEe's
Multisync monitor has
been upgraded. The Multisync 3D is a
14 inch, digitally controlled monitor
of
with
a
maximum
resolution
Mitsubishi
revolutionary
called
the
Terminal. It
IS
1024x768. It also has an increased scan
frequency range and a reduced dot
pitch (0.28mm).
Parrot, the UK's only fully integrated
floppy disk manufacturer went into
receivership in mid - May. The receiver
has cut the company's workforce by 142
to
and is seeking a buyer for the
manufacturing facili ties in \Vales.
was formed five years
with
help from the Government.
American National Standard's
Institute (ANSI) has refused to consider
++
the task of standardizing the
language, even though it is widely
promoted by major companies, such as
Microsoft and Zortech. Without
standardization
there
will
be
incompatibility problems in the software
industry, this will lead to a lack of
necessary
widespread
acceptance
required for the language to succeed.
similar problem was encountered back
in 1983 with C.
Alphatronix
have
launched
"Inspire", an erasable optical disk
storage system. Using standard 5.25
inch disks marketed by 3M, Sony and
others, the magneto - optical drive can
eXIstmg systems
be
plugged
into
without any conversion to hardware or
software. This is because the unit is
based
on
internationally
accepted
standards defined by
ANSI, ECMA
and the Japan Study Committee 23.
Each disk can hold 650Mb.
Fuji Photo Film is now marketing
its R5000H Hi Band still video recorder
m Japan. The unit is capable of
capturing still images from TVs or
video cameras and
saving them to
disk. There are four playback modes ­
automatic, frame by
review and
continuous five frames per second. An
optional interface allows connection to
a computer. Price, about £1450.
Coming soon.....
June:
European Unix User Show
Alexandra Palace."
6- 8
6- 8
Computer North - G - Mex Manchester
9 -10
Northern Contractor Show - New Century Ball Manchester.
13 - 15 Software Tools 89 - Wembley Exhibition Centre. >I<
14 - 16 Electrical Products 89 - Olympia
15th. Intel Super Chip Seminar - Cambridge YIoat House.)\<
27 - 29
University of
:;:
September:
5- 6
EuroBus 89 -
Novote! Hotel London.:;:
October:
27 - 28
Autumn
Contractor Show -
Connaught Rooms London.
'" Entrance by ticket only.
We have a limited number of tickets for Leetronex, Electrical Products 89 and
EuroBus 89.
you would like one and you are over 18 then please send a
S.A.E. to us at 01 for Amiga.
First come, first
Sorry about the
limit, these are really shows for
the professional user.
I
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