Byte (December 1976)

about 23 hours ago

_{Cover of the December 1976 issue of Byte}

Byte was a long running computer magazine that covered a wide variety of systems. It was around for a good chunk of early computer history from the 1970s through the early 1990s. In 1976, if you were into computers, you were probably assembling your own from parts and only had 4k or a luxurious 8k of RAM. If you could afford it, you might have had an IMSAI or MITS system with a 12-inch floppy drive running CP/M. The December 1976 issue of Byte includes:

Foreground

The Cybernetic Crayon - The concept of low-cost (as in under $10000) color graphics was still a novelty at the time. The Cromenco TV Dazzler is a device that could display a color image of what was in a computer's memory. This article provides some programming and hardware ideas to make use of that device.

The Buried Gold in the SR-52 - A look at some hidden features of the Texas Instruments SR-52 scientific pocket calculator.

Stretch That 6800 Clock - A tutorial for designing an interface for slow memory devices with a Southwest Technical Products M6800 Computer System.

Don't Waste Memory Space - A method for reducing string size by using fewer bits for characters.

Signal Processing For Optical Bar Code Scanning - Converting variable width pars into serial signals that a computer can interpret.

The Designer's Eye View of the AC-30 - A technical look at the AC-30 Cassette Interface. This would let you use a standard cassette recorder for computer data storage and retrieval. Not as good a floppy disk but far cheaper at the time.

A Universal Turing Machine - How to build a Universal Turing Machine.

_{Table of Contents from the December 1976 issue of Byte}

Background

Samples of Machine Readable Printed Software - A proposal for software distribution via machine readable printouts.

Software for Reading Bar Codes - A detailed description of how software for reading bar codes works.

Do It Yourself Weather Predicting - Suggestions for hardware and an outline of what the software would need to do in order to make weather predictions with the help of a computer.

Building The AC-30 Cassette Interface - Instructions for building the AC-30 Cassette Interface (introduced above).

Nucleus

Caught By Surprise - How the popularity of personal computing caught most by surprise.

Letters - Letters from readers about ham radio operators, the PDP-8, high level languages, back issues, and more.

Ask Byte - Questions answered about database file size, using a MITS Altair or other machine for trig functions, and more.

What's New? - A brief look at new products including the Lear Siegler Dumb Terminal Kit, the Holmes Tycom Selectric IO Writer, and more.

State of the Art Disk Technology - The introduction of Shugart's minifloppy. This is the 5.25" disk size that would become the standard for years to come. Up to this point, if you had a floppy drive then it would have been a 12-inch model.

Desk Top Wonders - A type-in game for the SR-52 calculator and PC-100 printer.

The First West Coast Computer Faire - Announcing the very first West Coast Computer Faire, featuring The Homebrew Computer Club, The Southern California Computer Society, and much more.