glennw (08/20/82)
>From uucp Thu Aug 19 03:21:43 1982 >From uucps Thu Aug 19 03:13:26 1982 remote from mhuxa >From uucp Thu Aug 19 03:02:13 1982 remote from mhuxt >From uucp Thu Aug 19 02:53:44 1982 remote from eagle >From floyd!cmcl2!philabs!sdcsvax!vicki Thu Aug 19 02:43:00 1982 remote from harpo Date: Wed Aug 18 23:29:20 1982 To: philabs!cmcl2!floyd!harpo!eagle!mhuxt!mhuxa!mhuxh!glennw Mail-from: ARPANET host BBN-UNIX rcvd at 3-Aug-82 1235-PDT Date: 3 Aug 1982 15:20:08 EDT (Tuesday) From: Martin Schoffstall <schoff at MINET-FRKEM> Subject: starting off with the pc To: info-pc at isib Cc: schoff at MINET-FRKEM I am about to acquire an IBM PC but I don't want to spend a fortune on add-ons, I need to know if anyone could offer some advice or experiences with the following: 1. I'd like to buy the 16k system ($1265) with the color card ($300) from IBM (these are Computerland prices). 2. 16k is not enough but I don't want to pay through the nose for an extra 48k, in BYTE there are offerings for this 48k for about $110, has anyone out ther done this? if so how difficult was it to install? 3. Of course I'd like one floppy disk (slot #2 will be a winchester hopefully) there are some offerings again from BYTE but do they work and where do I get my DOS? If anyone could help with these problems I'd appreciate it. Martin Schoffstall P.S. my real address is not in Frankfurt but schoff at bbn-unix ------------------------------------------------------------- 3-Aug-82 14:55:43-PDT,2026;000000000001 Date: 3 Aug 1982 1455-PDT From: Billy <BRACKENRIDGE at USC-ISIB> Subject: Starting off with the PC To: schoff at BBN-UNIX, info-pc Martin: Good luck finding a 16K system. The Computerlands I have checked out refuse to sell them. I had to go to an IBM product center to get a minimum system. The wholesale price for a 16K system is $922. I have never seen a system discounted below the announced single system price of $1265. I bought my system from IBM for: $1265 16K system $300 Color monitor card $220 Disk controller card $40 DOS I then bought my monitor, disks, extra memory and communications controller from various discount suppliers. My total investment is pushing $5K. That $1265 price is deceiving. It is only the start... Maynard Electronics in Longwood Fla also makes a Disk controller board for under $200. To fill out the extra 48K memory you will need 27 16K ram chips. These chips wholesale for less than $1.50 each. If you pay more than $2.50 retail you are getting what you deserve. The chips are real simple to put in, no tools are needed. Just don't bend the pins and make sure they are all pointing the right direction. The disk drive is where you can really save money. IBM is selling single sided drives to their retailers for $289. I have seen the same drive selling for about $200. I suppose this explains why the Southern California Computerlands refuse to sell the basic 16K system. A double sided (TANDON TM100-2) drive retails at discount supply houses for $279 and is worth the extra money for the added capacity. If you are really cheap you can go to Radio shack and spend $6.00 for a cassette cable (part #26-1207) This will give your single disk system a 640K backup capability on a 60 minute cassette. The cassette controller is already built in to the system. I might add that I have never seen a Computerland selling this part. Good luck with the Winchesters. I have no answers for you there. ------- ------------------------------------------------------------- 3-Aug-82 14:48:33-PDT,715;000000000001 Mail-from: ARPANET host MIT-DMS rcvd at 3-Aug-82 1437-PDT Date: 3 Aug 1982 1738-EDT From: MAZE at MIT-DMS (James Mazer) To: Info-PC-Request at USC-ISIB Message-id: <[MIT-DMS].239633> Hello ... please add my name to the mailing list - Maze@mit-mc (note: mc, not dm..). Also, I don't know how new this list is, but if there are archives could you please forward them? Finally, I do not yet have an ibm, and am debating between a variety of computers .. at the moment the ibm is number one, but i have not heard from vary many users as to the problems/ advantages/features yet.. if you or any one you know would like to fill me in on the above it would be very much appreciated.. thanks -Jamie ------------------------------------------------------------- 3-Aug-82 09:14:45-PDT,823;000000000011 Mail-from: ARPANET host WPAFB-AFWAL rcvd at 3-Aug-82 0906-PDT Date: 3 Aug 1982 (Tuesday) 1316-EDT From: HUNEYCUTT at WPAFB-AFWAL Subject: Obvious.. To: Info-PC-Request at USC-ISIB Hi Dick, I'm not an IBM PC owner, but am interested in the 8088 structure and system software IBM has used. Recently heard that IBM left room on-board for the Intel numeric coprocessor. Not bad! What I'd kinda like to do, seeing as how I got a ton of cash tied up in my S-100 system, it build the 8088 S-100 board specified is earlier Byte articles and emulate the IBM machine. Sort of the best of both worlds. If this stance doesn't put me out-of-bounds for your list, I'd like to be included. Thanks for your time, Doug Huneycutt, 1Lt USAF Air Force Institute of Technology (Huneycutt@Wpafb-Afwal) ============================================================ END OF INFO-PC DIGEST ------- 4-Aug-82 22:26:56-PDT,6424;000000000001 Date: 4 Aug 1982 2226-PDT From: INFO-PC <INFO-PC at USC-ISIB> Subject: Info-PC Digest V1 #2 To: Info-PC: ; Info-PC Digest Wednesday, 4 August 1982 Volume 1 : Issue 2 Today's Topics: IBM Basic Compiler Printer Interrupts Internal Memory Chips (2 msgs) Displays (2 msgs) Turtle Graphics ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 4 Aug 1982 0032-EDT From: Steve Barber <BARBER at MIT-XX> Subject: IBM Basic Compiler To: INFO-PC at USC-ISIB I have heard (and seen) bad things about the available BASIC compiler for the IBM PC. Specifically I have gotten inexplicable 'Internal Error' messages. IBM wasn't much help. Has anyone else experienced difficulties here and if so, what caused them? Steve ------------------- Date: Wed Aug 4 01:58:15 1982 From: decvax!utzoo!watmath!csc at Berkeley To: utzoo^decvax^ucbvax^INFO-PC@Usc-Isib Subject: Printer interrupts Has anyone got the standard IBM printer to run in an interrupt driven manner on the IBM? I'm writing the IBM PC version of a multi-tasking OS for the 8086 and have tried to write an int. driven driver using the printer adapter on the B/W video card, but I quite often lose interrupts. Looking at the schematic shows that the interrupt is asserted for as long as one of the printer's handshake lines (I forget which) is asserted (about 10us), NOT til the int. is acknowledged, which is bad. Has anyone else had this problem? Please reply to me, at decvax^utzoo^watmath^csc@Berkeley (on the USENet). p. rowley, univ. of waterloo ------------------------- Date: 4 Aug 1982 9:55:05 EDT (Wednesday) From: Martin Schoffstall <schoff at MINET-FRKEM> Subject: chips To: brackenridge at usc-isib Cc: schoff at MINET-FRKEM, info-pc at isib Did you make a typo or are you serious about filling out the extra 48k with 27 16k ram chips? If so could you explain that to me. -thanx- schoff at bbn-unix -------------------------- Date: 4 Aug 1982 1042-PDT From: Billy <BRACKENRIDGE at USC-ISIB> Subject: Re: chips To: schoff at BBN-UNIX cc: info-pc In-Reply-To: Your message of 4 Aug 1982 9:55:05 EDT (Wednesday) No I didn't make an error. Your source of confusion may come from the fact that 27 sounds like an odd number. The IBM-PC has one bit of parity with each byte. That makes 9 bits per byte. (27/9) * 16K = 48K. Perhaps you also are not aware that there are sockets for these chips already on the processor board. Any additional memory beyond 64K requires a seperate memory board. The hardware also requires that this space be fully populated before any additional memory is added to the system. A recent poll at a local PC users group indicated that nearly everyone in the group had at least 128K of memory. I have 576K and wonder how people get along with less. ---------------------------- Date: 4 Aug 1982 (Wednesday) 1237-EDT From: PATTERMANN at LLL-MFE Subject: IBM games To: info-pc at USC-ISIB Hi! Does anyone feel that someday the IBM PC will have available in it's software base arcade style video games? Are any of the big software houses that write games for ATARI and APPLE converting programs for the IBM, or writing new ones? My reasons for asking are this ; One of the major things I want to do with my home computer (which I havn't bought yet) is to play good arcade quality video games, like ones found on the ATARI 800. I also want to do LISP and C programming, use a good spreadsheet program, and use the system for word processing. I just am not yet sure that the IBM PC as it stands now, will address the video game market and if so, when? Any other opinions...... I think one problem that exists is that the IBM Personal Computer has three possible displays; the monochrome monitor, the RGB monitor, and the television. The best games would run on the RGB monitor, but how many gamers spend the $800 for a RGB monitor, and I would think the majority of the IBM PC's are sold with the monochrome monitor (I could be wrong...). I'd be interested in other opinions. Thanks, Ed -------------------------- Date: 4 Aug 1982 2152-PDT From: Dick Gillmann <GILLMANN at USC-ECL> Subject: Re: IBM games To: PATTERMANN at LLL-MFE cc: info-pc at USC-ISIB In-Reply-To: Your message of 4-Aug-82 2113-PDT There are more possibilities for displays than you have mentioned. I am typing this on a high-resolution black-and-white (well, black-and-green actually) monitor (an AMDEK Video-300) connected to the color graphics card. The term "color" here is deceptive. The card actually has 3 separate outputs: RGB, composite video, and video for connecting to an RF modulator. All 3 can be used at once. I am driving my AMDEK off the composite video. I can display 80 columns clearly and the AMDEK costs less than $300. One might ask, why not use the IBM monochrome display with the "color" card? Well, the reason why not is that the cabling and signals aren't compatible. I just got an advert from Automated Business Machines for a cable that allows you to drive the monochrome display from the "color" card. They want $95 for it, though. I'm sure you could do it yourself alot cheaper. Yet another possibility is to have both display cards and two (or more) monitors. I've seen this done by stores. Which card is more popular? Well, everyone I know has the color graphics card. The only reason to get the monochrome card is for its excellent character resolution. I would imagine this means it's mostly used by businesses. /Dick Gillmann ---------------------- Date: 4 Aug 1982 (Wednesday) 1646-EDT From: ODELL at LLL-MFE Subject: Turtle Graphics To: info-pc at USC-ISIB I have enjoyed having my IBM Personal Computer for about two months. I work at NMFECC at LLNL and they keep me so busy at work that I seldom have time to develop new programs. When I do have time I use NETWORK CONSULTING's version of UCSD PASCAL. I also use the pc to connect to the computers here at work. If anyone has a turtle graphics system available I would like to know about it. ----------------------- End of Info-PC Digest *********************