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Oasis owners can test 514-in Winchesters
Portable from TI aims at professionals Texas Instruments has entered the market for portable computers aimed at professional users. The Compact Computer-40 has an integral LCD display, is programmed in BASIC and can run software loaded from cassette tape or solid state cartridges. The suggested UK retail price of
16-bit D/A on Mulitibus A family of 16-bit multibus D/A converter boards has been released by I ntersil. The ST-716 series is hardware and software compatible with multibus, STD (I E EE-796) and iS BC-series microcomputers. The boards are memory mapped and provide standard output ranges to simplify application in industrial control and instrumentation, according to Intersil. They are dedicated D/A converter output boards which appear to the host computer as contiguous memory addresses. The base, or lowest address, can be positioned by the user anywhere in the memory.
£170 includes 6k of user RAM and 34k of ROM containing the BASIC interpreter. The language is compatible with the Texas BASIC used in their home computer family. A plug-in module port is provided for application software of up to 128k of ROM. The port can also be used to expand the RAM size to 16k. The back of the computer console houses a 'hex-bus' intelligent peripheral interface connector for Texas peripherals. These include an RS232 port, a printer plotter, a tape drive, bar code reader and modem interface. The RS232 should sell for around £100. The printer/plotter is a four colour unit using 63.5 mm wide paper and printing 36 characters/line. Based on the TMS 70C20 CMOS microprocessor, the Compact Computer-40 has a scrollable 31-character LCD capable of displaying both upper and lower case characters. Alkaline batteries will power the unit for up to 200 hours, says Texas Instruments. The contents of the memory are retained when the unit is switched off. A mains adaptor is available. (Texas Instruments Ltd, Manton Lane, Bedford, MK41 7PX, UK. Tel." (0234) 67466)
Oasis owners can test 5 Y4-in Winchesters Users of the Oasis 820 portable peripheral exerciser can now test 5¼-in hard discs. The module, designed and built by Hal Computers in the UK, is called Wadi 5. As well as the link with the Oasis, the name stands for Winchester auxiliary disc interface. The module fits into the lid of the Oasis. It has its own switch mode power supply and provides the 5 V and 12 V DC power supplies needed to test and exercise the disc drives. Procedures made possible with the module include • • • • • • •
recalibrate write sector/track with pattern format current track format bad track format whole disc with given data controller diagnostic RAM buffer check and data pattern test
A write disable keyswitch is provided to help prevent accidental corruption of previously recorded data. (Hal Computers Ltd, Invincible Road, Farnborough, Hants GUI4 7QU, UK. Tel: (0252) 517175)
Multibus and STD users get D/A boards Compatible with 8- and 16-bit multibus systems including the iAPX 86/12 and iSBC-86/12, the ST-716 series supports 20-bit addressing. Bus input registers are double buffered letting each channel be loaded with all 16-bits in parallel (16-bit systems) or in two consecutive 8-bit bytes. Included in the family is the ST716-A with four D/A channels, the ST-716-B with eight D/A channels and the ST-716-C1 and C2 each with four D/A channels and an onboard DC/DC converter. (Intersil Date/(UK) Ltd,
Belgrave House, Basing View, Basingstoke, Hants, UK.)
vol 7 no 3 april 1983
UK users of Intel's Intellec Series It and III microcomputer development systems can get their Winchester subsystems from Comway Ltd. 7-heMDX 750B can also be used as a storage device for a Multibus-based system supporting the RMX 86 realtime multitasking executive. The Winchester disc pro rides 35 Mbyte of unformatted storage at a transfer rate of 6.4 Mbit/s. The controller handles the interface to the system bus and occupies one slot of the Intellec system card cage. Caraway plans the release of a cartridge tape backup. The Winchester subsystem can take this unit in its chassis. (Comway Ltd, Market Street, Bracknell, Berks RGI2 1QP, UK. Tel: (0344) 51654. Telex: 847201)
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16-bit D/A on Mulitibus A family of 16-bit multibus D/A converter boards has been released by I ntersil. The ST-716 series is hardware and software compatible with multibus, STD (I E EE-796) and iS BC-series microcomputers. The boards are memory mapped and provide standard output ranges to simplify application in industrial control and instrumentation, according to Intersil. They are dedicated D/A converter output boards which appear to the host computer as contiguous memory addresses. The base, or lowest address, can be positioned by the user anywhere in the memory.
£170 includes 6k of user RAM and 34k of ROM containing the BASIC interpreter. The language is compatible with the Texas BASIC used in their home computer family. A plug-in module port is provided for application software of up to 128k of ROM. The port can also be used to expand the RAM size to 16k. The back of the computer console houses a 'hex-bus' intelligent peripheral interface connector for Texas peripherals. These include an RS232 port, a printer plotter, a tape drive, bar code reader and modem interface. The RS232 should sell for around £100. The printer/plotter is a four colour unit using 63.5 mm wide paper and printing 36 characters/line. Based on the TMS 70C20 CMOS microprocessor, the Compact Computer-40 has a scrollable 31-character LCD capable of displaying both upper and lower case characters. Alkaline batteries will power the unit for up to 200 hours, says Texas Instruments. The contents of the memory are retained when the unit is switched off. A mains adaptor is available. (Texas Instruments Ltd, Manton Lane, Bedford, MK41 7PX, UK. Tel." (0234) 67466)
Oasis owners can test 5 Y4-in Winchesters Users of the Oasis 820 portable peripheral exerciser can now test 5¼-in hard discs. The module, designed and built by Hal Computers in the UK, is called Wadi 5. As well as the link with the Oasis, the name stands for Winchester auxiliary disc interface. The module fits into the lid of the Oasis. It has its own switch mode power supply and provides the 5 V and 12 V DC power supplies needed to test and exercise the disc drives. Procedures made possible with the module include • • • • • • •
recalibrate write sector/track with pattern format current track format bad track format whole disc with given data controller diagnostic RAM buffer check and data pattern test
A write disable keyswitch is provided to help prevent accidental corruption of previously recorded data. (Hal Computers Ltd, Invincible Road, Farnborough, Hants GUI4 7QU, UK. Tel: (0252) 517175)
Multibus and STD users get D/A boards Compatible with 8- and 16-bit multibus systems including the iAPX 86/12 and iSBC-86/12, the ST-716 series supports 20-bit addressing. Bus input registers are double buffered letting each channel be loaded with all 16-bits in parallel (16-bit systems) or in two consecutive 8-bit bytes. Included in the family is the ST716-A with four D/A channels, the ST-716-B with eight D/A channels and the ST-716-C1 and C2 each with four D/A channels and an onboard DC/DC converter. (Intersil Date/(UK) Ltd,
Belgrave House, Basing View, Basingstoke, Hants, UK.)
vol 7 no 3 april 1983
UK users of Intel's Intellec Series It and III microcomputer development systems can get their Winchester subsystems from Comway Ltd. 7-heMDX 750B can also be used as a storage device for a Multibus-based system supporting the RMX 86 realtime multitasking executive. The Winchester disc pro rides 35 Mbyte of unformatted storage at a transfer rate of 6.4 Mbit/s. The controller handles the interface to the system bus and occupies one slot of the Intellec system card cage. Caraway plans the release of a cartridge tape backup. The Winchester subsystem can take this unit in its chassis. (Comway Ltd, Market Street, Bracknell, Berks RGI2 1QP, UK. Tel: (0344) 51654. Telex: 847201)
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