Motorola gets 3.5 μm gates on CMOS logic

UK university designs 68000 micro for Cambridge Ring Darkstar is a 68000-based scientific and industrial computer designed by a team at Bath University, UK. A company called Sirius Microtech has been set up to make and sell the machine. The realtime multitasking operating system used, Tripos, was designed for use with a Cambridge Ring. It is a package-based message passing system written in BCPL. The filing system is a multilevel tree structure. Sirius Microtech says it is secure against both program and hardware crashes. The filing system contains enough redundancy for files to be retrieved if there is a hardware disc error. Languages supported by Tripos are FORTRAN, ALGOL 68, MODUL~-2, LISP (a mainframe LISP), REDUCE and PROLOG. 'REDUCE is an algebraic processing application attached to LISP, PROLOG and BCPL', said managing director of Sirius Microtech, Rod Perry, at Darkstar's launch. 'We will be able to offer PASCAL shortly.' Hardware is built around an 8 MHz 68000 with memory management, DMA and a realtime clock. There is up to 6 Mbyte of main memory in the standard rack and from 40 to 320 Mbyte of Winchester space available. Up to 4.8 Mbyte of formatted storage is possible on floppy discs.

Motorola gets 3.5 JJm gates on CMOS logic The MC54/74HC families of logic circuits use Motorola's 3.5/sin silicon gate CMOS technology. The circuits combine the features of TTL Schottky with those of CMOS. Devices are available to match the functions and pinout of many existing TTL and CMOS circuits. The range includes gates, buffers, flipflops, latches, transceivers, line drivers, counters, registers, encoder/ decoders, comparators, translators and monostable multivibrators. (Motorola

Ltd, York House, Empire Way, Wembley, Middx HA9 0PR, UK. Tel: 01-902 8836. UK distributor: Lock Distribution Ltd, P 0 Box 0L64, Neville Street, Oldham OL9 6PY, UK. Tel: (061) 652 731 I. Telex: 669619)

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I/O consists of four serial lines selectable to 19.2 kbaud, an IEEE 488 interface, and a centronics interface. Options are a Unibus link and eight RS232 serial ports acting as a cluster terminal controller. 'Ethernet support will be available later this year', said Rod Perry. The launch version of Darkstar is a midrange machine. Its main memory is ½ Mbyte with 40 Mbyte in Winchester. The price is about £11 000. Sirius Microtech has already had orders 'for a number of systems'. Production has started and about 50 of the midrange model will be built in the next twelve months. (Sirius Micro-

Floating point arithmetic is in hardware.

tech Ltd, 15A lexandra Way,A shchurch Industrial Estate, Tewksbury, Gloucs GL20 8NB, UK. Tel: (0864) 298349)

Darkstat disc storage

Analogue boards for Apple are aimed at labs and industry Plug-in anaologue input boards for the Apple lie, I1+ and II personal computers have been announced by UK company Data Translation. The DT2832 and DT 2834 interface boards are for measurement and timing in laboratory research and industrial process control. The DT2832 includes a 12-bit A/D converter system. This is jumper selectable for 16 single-ended or eight differential analogue input channels. Software allows the user to select a gain of 1,2, 4 or 8. The board also has a programmable timer. This contains a realtime clock and two auxiliary clocks. The DT2834 has the same features as the DT2832 but with gains of I, I0

or 500. The full-scale voltage range accommodated is from 20 mV to 10 V. The boards are also available with optional 14- or 16-bit A/D resolution. Both boards can be programmed in any language resident in the Apple computer system. The DT710 screw terminal panel comes with the DT2832 series boards. It is for connecting analogue input and clock signals. It includes a DC-DC power converter which generates all power needed by the DT2832 board. The DT710 is powered by a +5 V supply or the Data Translation AC-DC power supply option. (Data Translation

Ltd, 430 Bath Road, Slough, Berhs SL7 6BB, UK. Tel: (06286) 3412. Telex: 849862)

Analogue input board plugs into Apples

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