Byte (March 1980)

about 12 hours ago

_{Cover of the March 1980 issue of Byte}

If you were buying a computer magazine in the early 1980s, there's a good chance it was Byte. It tended to be technically oriented with lots of projects to build yourself but it also had reviews and other coverage. Some issues were quite large. The March 1980 issue includes:

Foreground

Ease Into 16-Bit Computing: Get 16-Bit Performance From an 8-Bit Computer - A look at Intel's 8088 CPU, a 16-bit 8086 on the inside with an 8-bit data bus.

Electron Behavior in a Chemical Bond - Discussion of and a BASIC implementation of the Schrodinger equation to simulate the behavior of an electron in a diatomic chemical bond.

Solving Problems Involving Variable Terrain, Part 2: Special Cases, Including Hexagonal Grids - The second part in a series on calcuating map movements with specific examples for game implementation.

A Power-Line Protection Circuit - A design for building your own surge protector.

Landing Module Simulation With Random Surface - An implementation of a Lunar Lander type game with M6800 assembler code.

The Dirt-Cheap Bootstrap, More Notes on Bringing Up a Microcomputer - Solving problems including single-stepping the processor, transferring data to memory, and using a keyboard or panel to enter data.

Hydrocarbon Molecule Constructor - Organic chemistry on the Apple II.

Super Tic - A 3D tic-tac-toe game written in BASIC for the North Star.

_{Table of Contents from the March 1980 issue of Byte}

Background

Hewlett-Packard's New Personal Computer, The HP-85 - This $3250 personal computer includes a built-in 5-inch display, data cartridge drive, and thermal printer. It is based on a custom 8-bit processor and includes 16K of RAM. One unique feature for its time was the bit-mapped display.

TRS-80 Performance, Evaluation By Program Timing - Some BASIC programs for benchmarking the TRS-80.

Electronic Planimetry - Using a computer to calculate the area of a two-diemnsional object by tracing its perimeter. The computer used in this article is the Terak 8510.

Operation Codes For 8080, 8085, and Z80 Processors - An overview of the opcodes for these CPUs.

To Err Is Human - Defining an error correction process for assembly programming.

Nucleus

Editorial: Hunting the Computerized Eclipse - Implementing a computerized control system for photographing solar eclipses.

Letters - Letters from readers about building cheap computers, biorhythms, and more.

Programming Quickies - Short programs for calculating gear ratios for 10 and 15 speed bikes, performing multiplication and division on the KIM-1, and implementing The Towers of Hanoi puzzle game.

BYTE News - France to introduce home terminals, IBM introduces the model 3101 ASCII terminal, Microsoft BASIC to be used on TRS-80 successor, and more.

Book Reviews - Reviews of What Computers Can't Do by Huber L. Dreyfus, Z80 Software Gourmet Guide and Cookbook by Nat Wadsworth, Brain, Mind and Computers by Stanley L. Jaki, and more.

BYTE's Bits - Steve Wozniac receives 1979 ACM Grace Murray Hopper Award, new freely available real-time BASIC, and more.

Product Review: Lucidata P-6800 Pascal - An implementation of Pascal designed for Southwest Technical Products Corporation (SwTPC) compatible systems running FLEX or mini-FLEX.

Technical Forum - A BASIC program to simulate "rubber stamping" a simple message using an impact printer.

Desktop Wonder: The Periodic Chart at Your Figertips - A periodic table program for the TI-59 programmable calculator.

What's New? - A Z80 based disk operating system written in PL/M, the A2-3D1 animation package for the Apple II, Pascal-80 for 8080/8085 based computers, EFAMOS multitasking OS for 8080, 8085, and Z80 based systems, a Space Shuttle landing simulator, and more.