Byte (August 1985)

2 days ago

_{Cover of the August 1985 issue of Byte}

If you were interested in in-depth technical coverage then I think Byte was the best multiformat computer magazine around. Eventually, as the market became PC only, Byte would also. The August 1985 issue includes:

Features

The Amiga Personal Computer - An advanced look at the Amiga 1000, the first in the 68000 based Amiga line of computers from Commodore. This is a very detailed preview of the machine.

Ciarcia's Circuit Cellar: Build The BASIC-52 Computer/Controller - A single board computer designed for running BASIC. It includes an Intel 8052AH-BASIC micro-controller, an 8K BASIC interpreter, and 48K of RAM/EPROM. Basically, this was designed to act as a controller solving a specifi problem.
The DSI-32 Coprocessor Board, Part I: The Hardware - A look at the hardware of the DSI-32 co-processor board which includes a National Semiconductor NS32032 CPU.

Programming Project: Context-Free Parsing of Arithmetic Expressions - A programming project that will help you create a program that parses normal numerical equations using the correct order of operations.

_{Table of Contents from the August 1985 issue of Byte}

Themes

Prolog Goes to Work - A look at the Prolog programming language.

Logic Programming - Using a procedural programming language to implement logic processing in a computer.

Declarative Languages: An Overview - A look at the history of programming language with an emphasis on "declarative" languages (like LISP). SCHEME, a LISP derivative was what my Intro to Computer Science class used back in the day.

Program Transformation - A program development methodology presented by a professor at Imperial College in London.

Functional Programming Using FP - Creating hierarchical programs without using recursion.

A Hope Tutorial - A tutorial on one of the new functional programming languages.

Reviews

The Tandy 1000 - A low cost PC-compatible computer. There would ultimately be many Tandy 1000 models. This first one was like a much better IBM PCjr.

IBM Pascal 2.00 - A review of IBM's Pascal 2.00 programming language. I remember using Pascal in high-school on an IBM PC but I have no recollection what version it was. This would have been like 5 or 6 years later though.

Review Feedback - Feedback on reviews of the Compaq Deskpro, Level 5 Research's Insight, the HP 110, MultiMate, the MT 160 printer, ITT XTRA, the Juki 6100 printer, hardware benchmarking in general, and more.

_{The Tandy 1000}

Kernel

Computing at Chaos Manor: The West Coast Computer Faire - A look at the 10th annual West Coast Computer Faire in San Francisco.

BYTE Japan: COMDEX in Japan - New products seen at COMDEX in Japan include a Fujitsu lap-size portable based on the MBL8086L microprocessor and 128K of RAM, new laser printers, the NEC PC-9801M2/3 based the 8086-2 CPU at 8MHz and 256K of RAM and supporting CP/M-86 MS-DOS and PC-UX (though not PC compatible), and more.

BYTE U.K.: Declarative Update - A look at the Hope programming system and a couple of new books (Principles of Functional Programming and Introduction to Logic Programming).

According to Webster: Greetings and Agitations - Coverage of Turbo Pascal 3.0, Copy II Mac, MacTools, MacASM, MacModula-2, Megamax C and QC-20.

BYTE West Coast: New Microprocessor Chips - A look at the new 80386 which would eventually dominate new PCs and the 80C86 which is a lower powered CMOS version of the 8086.

BYTELINES - Mitsubishi at early stages of developing manufacturing technology for 4-megabyte memory devices; IBM pushes back the intro of the "PC II"; Apple lays off 1600 people; and more.

_{Table of contents from the August 1985 issue of Byte (continued)}

Columns

Editorial - An overview of what's in this issue.

Microbytes - Sinclair survives bankruptcy; Atari shows CD-ROM device at CES; new products featuring the 65816 processor; C compiler released by Manx Software for the Commodore and 128 Macintosh and Apple II; and more.

Letters - Letters from readers about the Macintosh, expanding Mac memory, Sanyo computers, Apple dealer support, BYTEnet, the MAGIC/L programming language, and more.

What's New - A brief look at new products including Zoomracks (framework for creating database, text and appointment applications), Xecom's MOSART 300/1200-bps modem with voice detection, Tektronix AI Systems running Smalltalk-80, the SAM 3001 AT computer, the System/36 PC, the Conquest PC Turbo, the Cardco Digi-Cam and S'more BASIC for the Commodore 64, and more.

Book Reviews - Reviews of Beginning Micro-Prolog, Micro-Prolog: Programming in Logic, A Software Law Primer, and Extraterrestrials - Science and Alien Intelligence.

Ask BYTE - Questions answered about building a 16-bit C machine, S-100 boards for North Star Horizon users, the Sanyo MBC 555, Uninterruptible Power Supplies, RS-232C on the IBM PC, chaining BASIC programs, and more.