Personal computer News Letter PLEASE note that the
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1. PCN8102 11 02 81 11 CONTENTS Editorial IBM Internal Use Only e e e s e e 9 e o e e External Press e o e gt e Letters to the Editor die e a lin CRE RCA AR contributions dd va 8102 01 8102 02 8102 03 8102 04 8102 05 8102 06 8102 07 8102 08 8102 09 8102 10 8102 11 Contents ASYNCHRONOUS COMMUNICATIONS SOFTWARE SUPPORT TECHNIQUE TO SWITCH DISPLAYS VIA SOFTWARE QUERY FOR PC EDUCATION PLANS AND MATERIALS QUERY FOR MANUFACTURING APPLICATIONS FOR THE IBM IBM PC DATABASE QUERY FOR OCR WAND CONNECTION TO IBM PC QUERY ABOUT PASCAL OR VISICALC PERFORMANCE PARTIAL RESULTS ON RGB MONITOR INVESTIGATION QUERY FOR PC CONNECTION TO HTAM A GRAPHICS ON THE MX 80 AND MX 100 PRINTERS ADDENDUM TO THE VISICALC DOCUMENTATION IBM Internal Use Only EDITORIAL This last month has been perhaps the most hectic one of my life I have been receiving 20 to 40 calls or network messages each day since I announced the PC newsletter The majority of the messages have been requests for the neusletter Please check on your system to see if the newsletter is already available Many people have agreed to be a central receiver for a node on the network some are handling a whole site Note that I have moved to the Santa Teresa Lab My network addresses are still the same but I have a new phone number Please help the person that inherited my old office by re2. an in depth evaluation in which we will let you know if indeed IBM has succeeded in producing the perfect personal computer SB 86 CONVERTS CP M 8 BIT SOFTHARE FOR USE ON IBM PERSONAL COMPUTER From COMPUTER WORLD Oct 19 1981 on Paga 55 It describes an operating system developed by Microsoft that is for the IBM Personal Computer The operating system 5B 86 is designed to make IBM s personal computer compatible with a broad range of existing CP M software and will be marketed by Lifeboat Associates It facilitates run ning 8 bit CP M application programs on the 16 bit IBM personal Computer EPSON S MX 80 A PRINTER THAT SHOULDN T BE OVERLOOKED From 80 Microcomputing August 1981 p 126 A hardware review article that explains the features of the printer It shows the various print styles graphics characters and discusses programming techniques RANGE OF SOFTWARE FOR 16 BIT PROCESSORS BROADENS DRAMATICALLY From Electronics October 6 1981 p 37 This article reports on interviews with Tony Gold president of Lifeboat Associates Inc and with Bill Gates President of Microsoft The article contains many comments about the IBM PC it s software and future offer ings External Press 3 IBM Internal Use Only LETTERS TO THE EDITOR EDITOR I had an opportunity to visit one of the Sears Business Centers in Dallas prior to their opening which actually occurred on October 14 1981 The store was remarkably i
3. has to work at TTL levels where the detection of light produces a change from 5 volts to 0 volts The joysticks as specified in the TRM doesn t everyone have a Technical Reference Manual yet are to contain dual 100k ohm pots You will probably see some disk directory entries without dates This occurs when a file is created without the DATE command having been used It is automatically called when DOS is booted UNLESS an Autoexec program exists The solution is to issue the date command yourself or more per manently add the DATE command to your batch CAutoexec d program Don t forget when DEF SEGing to B0000 or wherever to drop a 0 For example DEF SEG B000 The Asynch adapter requires a cable of your own making You will see different instructions telling which wires need to be run from end to end One communications program may use less lines than another My recommenda tion is to make or find a cable with all pins wired This may be overkill but removes another worry Don t put your TV set close to the disk drives Guess why EDITOR A min imum of 10 inches is recommended to keep from zapping your diskettes You can program your own characters 128 of them if you have the color graphics adapt See TRM A 59 and A 75 Good news The games adapter can double as a general purpose analog to digital input card See TRM 2 117 for how to info More good news Although BASIC screen editor doesn t contain a find or
4. programming languages would appear too close together 5 Here is the mapping of a few of the characters The choices illustrate some of the worse case situations 1234567812345678123456 748 1 Xx x 2 XXXX 3 XX X X SAX XX XXX XX 4 XX X X X X xX X x X xX x 5BXXXXXX X X x X X X Xx X 6 X X X X X Xx CAM IX X X Xx xX X X X 8 X x x XX XX IXAXKXKX X x XXX 2 XX X XX XX 3 XX X x xX X X 4 XXXX X X X XXX 5 XX X X X XX 6 XX xx X Xx X X 7XXXX XX X X XxX XXX 8 ARA X In summary if you want excellent text characters you must get the IBM monochrome display If you want to do all points addressable graphics you must get the Graphics adapter It is too bad that one adapter can t be used for both purposes Jim Gilliam VMCPLKSK K58PJHGC Poughkeepsie EDITOR Congratulations on taking initiative in starting this interest group and providing a forum for discussion about the IBM PC My own interest stems from having my own micro system already a UK designed and made NASCOM 2 system based on the Z80A chip However the IBM PC has a very interesting specification and myself Cand many others are awaiting it s launch in Europe Following your own article item 8101 04 I think that all development groups working with network software or hardware should have priority in getting experience with the IBM PC My own group develops and maintains the software used in the EMEA network together with business communi cations applications I think
5. the cost advantages of using the IBM PC must be enormous when used to perform editing and other off line preparation work such as preparing mail for sending to ETS VNET ITPS etc which will reduce cpu utilisation and line loadings Letters to the Editor 7 IBM Internal Usa Only Finally I only got to hear about your Newsletter from a friend who knew someone else etc How about an advertisement in the VM and MVS Neus letters to spread the word EDITOR The PC Newsletter was announced in the MVS and Small Systems newsletters on 9 15 was submitted to the VM newsletter on the same date Also I would like to be on your distribution list for the Neusletter Regards Roger Lee VMCRESPGND LEE Respond Network Services group Portsmouth England HELLO FROM BOCA This is being written on an IBM PC dialed in to VM I thought PCN readers might like to hear a little about Boca as well as perhaps a feu PC hints and kinks I ve been here two weeks now on loan from San Jose with another few days to go Jim Shumacher and I have been setting up a hotline hub for the use of PC site coordinators The atmosphere here is joyous but still very very busy Despite their very heavy load of work most everyone is keeping their cool and helping us where they can Here are some goodies you may find useful For those of you who don t have your systems yet put this newsletter away for later The light pen you nead to start looking for
6. 309 600 1200 and i1800 bits second are completely supported At 2400 bits second the Program will operate correctly as a terminal except buffer over flows may occur when listing some files at the terminal Operation at 4800 and 9600 bits second is also possible but difficulties may be experienced during terminal operation However no loss of data should occur during file transfers e g Downloading a file at any of the above line speeds Question What type of modems can be used Ansuer Any Full Duplex start stop modem or acoustic coupler compatible with the RS 232 C signal standard can be used Modems using a Half Duplex line protocol cannot be used Question Is a Break Key provided Contributions il 8102 02 PCN8102 IBM Internal Use Only Answer Yes During terminal operation pressing the Fi Function Key produces a BREAK signal on the communication line Question Will the program be the basis for 3270 function Ansuer No Question Will the program spool terminal 1 0 Answer No Only the 24 lines of text displayed on the screen are retained A user change to the BASIC portion of the Communi cations Program would be necessary either to keep more lines in memory or asa file Question Can I access the SOURCE and DOW JONES systems Answer Yes terminal parameters can be specified for the Communications Program that permit access to thesa systems Question Can I print out what I receive a
7. C Although the magazine s claim that it is a World exclusive Benchtest may be a little exaggerated it is certainly the most comprehensive article I ve yet seen in an external publication 5 closely printed pages approx 30K bytes of text There is not much factual information that hasn t already appeared in var ious internal documents but the review is full of glowing praise for all parts of the system hardware software and documentation In fact I have PCN8102 11 02 81 G IBM internal Use Only not been able to find a single note of criticism Their conclusion sums up the tone of the article nicely probably the most professionally put together system I have seen Lots of them look good then you find they fall over or the manual is unintelligible neither is the case with this Personal Computer Ina word it s a knockout I wish it was on sale here That last remark echoes the feelings of myself and many European IBM ers who ara green with envy at you U S IBM ers who are already able to order the PC Keep up the good work with your newsletter it s read with avid interest over here Sincerely Roger Davey VMCUITVMI EDUC Uithoorn Laboratory Netherlands EDITOR I wonder if you might be able to clear up some confusion since you have worked with the IBM PC It seems that there are at least two statements in circulation which are contradictory One indicates NO FULL SCREEN EDI TOR The othe
8. Personal Computer News Letter Document Number PCN8102 November 2 1981 Keith L Eckhardt IBM Corporation GPD HQ Information Systems V30 G251 Santa Teresa 408 463 3121 8 543 3121 VMCSTLVM3 ECKHARDT ITPSCAAST IBM Internal Use Only PLEASE note that the above address and phone number are NEW IBM Internal Use Only ABSTRACT This document is an IBM Internal newsletter dealing with matters of inter est to users of personal computers for business reasons It contains arti cles written by the user community within IBM that e announce programs and techniques relating to personal computers query for existence of a program or process e describe current Work In Progress WIP give early warning of problems express an individual s point of view letter to the editor Articles may be submitted by anyone within IBM as long as they address one of the above areas and are not e confidential more than two pages in length anonymous Opinions expressed in this neusletter are those of individuals and are not official IBM statements This document is intended for the use of IBM employees It may not be dis tributed outside of the company It may be freely copied or transmitted to others within IBM This document is published on the first working day of each month Please submit your input to the editor as early as possible for editing but not later than five working days before the end of the prior month
9. ceties added An AUTOEXEC capability which acts like PROFILE EXEC in WM i e it gets automatically activated as soon the machina is turned on This allows displaying a Menu to give directions to a naive user Allous editing the last line typed in using DEL ESC Fl etc Has COPY and SUBMIT memory resident speeding up greatly their perform ance tuttere te the editor 5 IBM Internal Use Only e The line editor EDLIN looks the same as ED doun to the individual commands This is a disappointment as one would have liked to have had a full screen editor just as the built in Basic has There seems to ba no compatibility between DOS and CPM on the IBM PC So files created by the one cannot be read by the other The only compatibility between 8080 2830 code and IBM PC code is at Basic source code level But I expect problems in moving a program created on Microsoft Basic on an 8889 to the IBM PC Microsoft Basic Apart from obvious differences in handling screen commands I found subtle differences even in moving from Microsoft 4 4 to Microsoft 5 2 on the same machine Seattle Computer Products has a conversion program that converts Z80 Assembler code to 8036 Assembler code Unfortunately their mnemonics are not completely compatible with Intel mnemonics So one would need their Assembler to assemble the converted code especially since the IBM PC does not have an Assembler announced at this time Jake Ever VMCYKTVMV EVER Man
10. cording my new number and using it SECURITY NON BUSINESS USE NETWORK ABUSE There is very serious concern with some of the information that is being freely distributed within the company Many people are passing rumors over the network about future announcements relating to the IBM PC Others are sending messages that are personal business only Neither of these activ ities benefit the company I want to point out very clearly that this newsletter is for items relat ing to business use of personal computers I received several things this past month that I had to reject as being of personal interest only In the same vein you should not be contacting contributors to this newsletter for personal reasons Finally this is not an IBM Club newsletter and I cannot publish anything dealing with club activities QUESTNONS QUESTIONS QUESTIONS It is obvious that there is great interest within IBM for detailed know ledge of the IBM PC It is also obvious that it has been hard to quickly get detailed technical information There are some things happening that will begin to generate answers to our questions First the long awaited Technical Reference Manual is finally here It has detailed information about the hardware and system softuare Second Boca Raton has established a hotline for site coordinators to use to get answers to questions This hotline will accept both telephone and network input They plan to build a database of Questions and A
11. e Jones VMCMANVMI MPF5LFJ Manassas 8 725 5685 EDITOR Using the BIOS listing in the technical reference manual I mapped a few of the characters for the graphics adapter not the IBM monochrome display printer adapter I understand that the BIOS listing contains the mapping of the first 128 characters which can be used when the graphics adapter is in graphics mode I have several comments and questions about the characters PCN8102 11 02 31 6 IBM Internal Use Only 1 As you can see from the mapping which follows lower case characters with descenders hit the last line of the character box and upper case characters hit the top line of the character box Thus lower case characters like g 4 y and j will merge with upper case characters and lower case characters with ascenders like f and j That is the characters in these situations will merge together with no vertical spacing between lines 2 Are the characters used when the graphics adapter is in text mode the same as those mapped in the BIOS listing 3 Notice that the q and g are the same except for the last line What happens when the cursor is below these characters 4 I would expect all caps to be very readable but there would never be more than one vertical scan line between characters This is easily verified by noticing a 00 in the last byte of every capital letter and a non 00 in the first byte of every capital letter The display when using all caps typical of most
12. er and more inter esting and that isn t too surprising as the same company that set up the Bell stores set up the Sears Business Centers As far as my limited expe rience goes the Sears Business Center was the most attractive and func tional computer store that I had ever been in It definitely looks like Sears will be a very strong contender in the burgeoning small computer retail market An interesting aspect of the Sears Business Center in Dallas is its location It is adjacent to a Radio Shack Computer Center on one side and two doors down is a Xerox store My guess is that this small block of stores probably represents the greatest amount of personal computer retailing in the country The manager of the Radio Shack was said to welcome the Sears store with the comment that it will bring them addi tional business he s probably correct but with the Sears offerings that remains to be seen For those of you who have never seen the packaging of software available for the IBM PC IBM has done a superlative job Each program comes com plete with documentation and diskettes in a sturdy and attractive slip case that will make a very professional and attractive display when set up near the computer Stan Berlin VMCMSNVMI BERLIN Dallas 8 641 7217 EDITOR Thought you and or your readers might be interested to know that the November 19831 issue of the U K magazine Personal Computer World con tains an extensive review of the IBM P
13. ers and engineers with micro computer experi ence have an excellent opportunity to show their professionalism by volun teering to teach classes to bring the newcomers up to speed To aid in education and employee awareness GPD will place one machine in the library at each site Each machine will be used by the library staff part time At lunch hour it will be taken to the cafeteria so that every one will have some chance to see and touch it The rest of the time it will be available for people to sign up for short individual sessions SOFTHARE PERSPECTIVE Boca Raton has done an excellent job in choosing quality software products for the PC I expect when new programs are announced in the future that they will be of similar quality Note however that the products Boca has announced are mostly aimed at the Very Small Business user and the private user These users operate in a stand alone environment with occasional need to connect to a large system to search a data base This is much different from the totally on line environment that most of us use daily It is my belief that we will have to write most of the soft ware to provide the on line functions needed within the company There are some important points here to be discussed First many people are saying that true distributed processing is now possible There is significant processing power in the IBM PC that can off load a lot of work from the large computers Second applications
14. feel this is getting a little long for the Newslet ter More next time Stan Rosenfeld VMCSTLVM3 ROSENFEL Santa Teresa 8 543 3690 Letters to the Editor 9 IBM Internal Use only CONTRIBUTIONS 8102 01 ASYNCHRONOUS COMMUNICATIONS SOFTWARE SUPPORT This document attempts to answer the most frequently asked questions about the Asynchronous Communications Support program or Communications Program for short for the IBM Personal Com puter Question Will an IBM Personal Computer with the Communications Program replace a 3101 Answer The Communications Program provides most of the straight terminal features of the 3101 It does not support the escape sequences CESC character plus graphics that permit a host system to control the cursor position on a 3101 It does not support 3101 block mode If you are using a 3101 to log into a system as a plain ASCII terminal the equivalent of a model 33 35 Telatype you can use the IBM Personal Computer with the Communications Program If you are connected to a system that utilizes tha 3101 escape sequences such as the Yale IUP running on an IBM Series 1 you cannot use the Communications Program Question What can I upload and download Ansuer The Upload and Download functions operate with VM 370 and TSO Most files of textual material for example a memo or a program source file can be Uploaded and Downloaded There are restrictions on the length of file lines records that ca
15. locate function EDLIN does But don t make the mistake I did which was to execute EDLIN against a vanilla copy of my BASIC program You must save your program with the ASCII option and use EDLIN against that copy Those of you who have been reading code in ComputerLand may have noticed the strange poke 106 0 This is generally useful for clearing the keyboard buffer when you don t want leftover characters to be read in to your program But it s also currently being used to fix a rather minor bug Namely when a programmed function key is the last key used before an INKEYS is executed such as when a program is started with the RUN function key a hang condition occurs when the the last character is PCN3102 11 02 31 8 IBM Internal Use Only read in Poke 106 0 to the rescue And some not so good news If you have tried to stop an LLIST in Computerland again you know it doesn t want to stop There is a way and that s the bad news Turn off the printer and wait for it to time out about 10 seconds Back to good and fun things As advertised the IBM PC has but one voice EDITOR The number of voices refers to the number of sounds or tones that can be produced simultaneously It takes multiple voices to produce harmony HOWEVER the TRM describes three 3 ways to simultane ously generate waveforms to the speaker A little judicious coding is called for Who s going to be the first TRM 2 5 I have some more but I
16. mpressive everything is prominently and attractively displayed There are many computers that you could sit down at and exercise and there was also what appeared to be a classroom or briefing kind of room They were ecstatic about carrying the IBM PC and if their pre opening que ries are any indication of actual demand IBM had better increase the man ufacturing capabilities of the PC Cand hopefully we will not be constrained by supplies from third party OEM vendors In addition to the IBM PC they also sell the NEC PC 8001 and Vector Graphics interestingly enough they did not have any Atari Computers which was the strong early bet for what they would be selling They also car ried Olivetti typewriters and Casio calculators as well as software mod ems modulators and miscellaneous supplies diskettes paper etc There seemed to be at least three of each of the different brands of computers on display They also had a showcase that very attractively displayed each of the adapters available for the IBM PC They had another large display showing all of IBM s PC Software offerings Rather than run ning the rolling demo which the local Computerland is doing they have DOS up on each machine so that people can sit down and try the computer They were also having a grand opening drawing and the prize was an IBM Personal Computer hope I win The store in some respects resembles a Bell Telephone retail store Cexcept considerably larg
17. n be transferred For example lines longer than 130 characters cannot be uploaded See the User s Manual for other restrictions Question What error checking is done during Upload and Download Answer It is possible to have the system perform parity checking on char acters during upload or download provided the host system sup port this checking A Compare function is provided by which a host system file can be compared against a file on the Personal Comput er Question How do Upload and Download work Answer Upload and Download use the VM 370 CMS and TSO editors for file transfers The Communications Program simulates a terminal user using one of these editors For uploading the program accesses the host editor puts the editor into input mode and then trans mits lines one at a time to the editor For downloading the pro gram accesses the host editor and then lists the lines in the host file one at a time This method of file transfer means that no special program Cor execs are needed on the host system Howev er it permits upload and download to function only with TSO and VM 370 Question PCN8102 11 02 81 10 IBM Internal Use Only Can I transfer files between IBM Personal Computers Answer Yes a straightforward method of communication between IBM Per sonal Computers is provided Once this communication is estab lished one user can select a function that transmits a file and the other can select a function
18. not possible previously can now be addressed Third IBM does not oun most of the programs offered with the PC The implication is that we cannot make changes to the soft ware that are needed in order to accomplish the first tuo points Distributed processing is a term that is hard to define In fact it may be impossible because of the diverse views on it s meaning I will use it in this document to mean multiple computers connected together sharing data and allowing some choice of where the data is processed What is missing at the moment is a definition of how the big systems will interact with the little ones and what functions will be provided at each level There are many groups throughout the company that will be developing a variety of software and hardware for the IBM PC The development efforts I am referring to are not official ones from the Boca Raton Lab but rath er ones that spring up as internal organizations identify their needs I will be contacting the site coordinators to see if a mechanism can be set up to let each group learn of competing efforts The objective would be to reduce redundant efforts and to share ideas While we are waiting for these efforts to complete we should make good use of the stand alone programs that are available on the PC A point that you must keep in mind is that most of the programs offered by Boca Raton are copyrighted by other companies We do not have the right to make copies for distributi
19. nswers for on line use Note that the hotline is only for a few people to use so you must forward your questions to your local coordinator I am unsure at this point whether I can release the names of the coordinators via the newslet ter For now you will have to locate these people on your own It will help everyone though if you DO NOT call Boca Raton to get answers to your business questions Please use the local communication channels being set up The Technical Reference Manual contains a great deal of information about the internal workings of the system Included are logic diagrams connectors program interfaces and the assembler listing of BIOS I must point out that it is a REFERENCE manual not an instruction manual Some of the information is very technical and only a person familiar with this type of information will understand it EDUCATION IS A CRITICAL NEED Education will be a big challenge over the next year I have already con tacted the San Jose education department and discussed the various options and subjects The current thinking is to have both voluntary education and business classes starting in 1882 on the hardware and the software pack ages There can be some consolidation also some accelerated courses such as BASIC for Experienced Programmers There will definitely be a need Editorial 1 IBM Internal Usa Only for classes for people that have never gotten involved with computing equipment before Programm
20. on within the company Every machine MUST have it s own copy of the software NEW APPLICATION OPPORTUNITIES There are some significant new applications now possible with this machine Some of it has to do with the price of the machine and some with the function it provides For example color graphics may allou us to build editors that work on pictures as well as text The low cost printer gives the ability to print correspondence quickly and to get short items printed for desk review and markup There is enough power in the unit to move some of the mainframe function down to the PC freeing the mainframe of some of it s load And there will be much more as we learn about the IBM PC in greater detail Until next month Keith Eckhardt PCN8102 11 02 81 2 IBM internal Use Only EXTERNAL PRESS In this section I will give abstracts of recent articles from external publications Neither space nor copyright laws allow for the total text to be included IBM PERSONAL COMPUTER THE BIG BLUE GIANT MAKES ITS MOVE Creative Computing November 1931 p 14 Didn t they make any mistakes asked one of our staff members in disbe lief upon hearing our description of the new IBM Personal Computer Not that we could see was the response And indeed it appears that IBM has done just about everything right The above three sentences are part of the opening statements of a very positive article about the IBM PC The article also promises
21. r is the Blue Letter which states on page 16 under high lights of the BASIC 830 interpreter the indication that a FULL SCREEN EDITOR does exist Have you seen any evidence of a full screen editor either as a part of the base system or as an option Your response will be appreciated Thank You Ray Blackmore VM PLKSC C56ESRBC Charlotte North Carolina EDITOR In a word the answer is YES There is a FULL SCREEN EDITOR facil ity for the BASIC language only which the BASIC manual describes as a screen line editor This editor allows you to change any program line on the screen and cause it to be stored back into memory It is not like the full screen editors on our VM and MVS systems though because you cannot scroll back and forth over the program You must use the LIST command to place the program segment of interest upon the screen It also doesn t have global find and or replace commands So there is NO full screen edi tor in the sense of a generalized file editor such as SPF and XEDIT Easywriter has a full screen editor for its data but it stores data on the diskettes in a unique format This editor can only be used on Easyuriter data i IBM DOS has a general data editor called EDLIN but it is a line editor It does have the global find ability EDITOR I had a cursory look at DOS and compared it with CPM 2 2 The first impression is of great similarity Even some of the actual commands are the same DOS has a few ni
22. s a terminal Ansuer Yes the Print Screen key on the IBM Personal Computer permits you to print the contents of the screen at any time you are operating as a terminal Frank Bequaert IBM Cambridge Scientific Center TECHNIQUE TO SWITCH DISPLAYS VIA SOFTWARE The demonstration package that DPD has been given uses the follow ing sequences to switch adapters 10 REM SWITCH TO MONOCHROME ADAPTER 20 DEF SEG 0 30 POKE amp H410 PEEKC amp H410 OR amp H30 40 DEF SEG 50 LOCATE 1 12 13 10 REM SWITCH TO COLOR GRAPHICS ADAPTER 20 DEF SEG 0 30 POKE amp H410 PEEK amp H410 AND amp HCF OR amp H20 40 DEF SEG 50 LOCATE 1 6 7 I have used the above sequences personally to switch between the displays I found that I had to keep track of the cursor position independently for each display The first two fields of the LOCATE statement are the row and column for the next output and can be used to force cursor placement Keith Eckhardt VM STLVM37ECKHARDT Santa Teresa 8 543 3121 11 02 81 12 IBM Internal Use Only
23. that receives a file Once these functions are selected and the file names specified on each IBM Personal Computer file transfer is automatic Question Can 1 transfer files from other personal computers to an IBM Per sonal Computer Ansuer Yes the protocol used for transfer of files between IBM Personal Computers can be used with non IBM personal computers This pro tocol is described in the User s Manual It is necessary to write a program for the non IBM personal computer to handle the transfer protocol In most cases this program can be written in BASIC We have successfully transferred files to and from an APPLE II uestion What kind of a cable will I need to connect my IBM Personal Com puter to an modem or host system Ansuer The cable to connect the Asynchroncus Communications Adapter on your IBM Personal Computer to a modem or a host system uses the RS 232 C EIA signal standards for data interchange The cable should have a female connector on the end that connects to the IBM Personal Computer and an appropriate connector Cusually male to connect to the modem or host system cable These connectors are D Subminiature 25 pin connectors At least the following wires 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 20 should be connected from the connector on one end to tha connector on the other If other wires are connected they should not affect operation question What line speeds are supported Answer Line bit rates of 75 110 150
24. ufacturing Technology Institute New York 8 464 7287 EDITOR I was fascinated by a copy of Vol 1 No 1 of the IBM PC Neusletter uhich I got from Owego If there is a mailing list please sign me up imme diately I have some questions I d like to address to anybody who can answer them 1 One of the letters to the editor indicated that a power off was required to switch between the monochrome display and the color graph ics card but there was a note from the editor saying this could be accomplished in software A number of us here are hoping to configure our machines ina fashion similar to a 3277GA TEK 618 Or possibly to use them for physical design sorts of applications which would require a similar configuration The question is can you or can you not switch between the two display cards under program control CEDITOR See contributions section belon 2 Does anybody know the maximum frequency you can get out of the built in speaker with any sort of decent resolution and how might we find this out Furthermore how do you access the speaker i e can you access it in a direct bit toggle fashion which would clearly maximize your ability to control the resulting waveform CEDITOR Letter to Editor by Stan Rosenfeld addresses some of these points Anyway I think this could lead to a whole new era of programming and hardware design at IBM It could even become fun again Keep up the good work on the newsletter Le
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