Cover of the January 1980 issue of Byte
Byte had already been around for a few years by 1980. It's page count was already near 300 pages and still ramping up but the introduction of the IBM PC was still more than a year away (along with other popular machines like the Commodore 64). The January 1980 issue includes:
Foreground
- Computerize A Home - Automating your home using a Z-80 based computer and X10 controllers (which were pretty new at the time).
- A Computer Controlled Light Dimmer, Part 1: Design - Building a computer controlled dimmer using AC phase control.
- A Furnace Watchdog - Monitoring the burner cycles of a gas heater using a homebrew 8080A based computer.
- Telephone Dialing By Computer - Building a dual-tone multiple-frequency dialing device that interfaces with an ASCII computer terminal. This is basically a computerized dialer where you can select the number to dial from a menu.
- Analysis of Polynomial Functions With The TI-59 - The second part of a guide to working with polynomial functions on a TI-59 calculator.
- Alpha Lock For Your ASCII Keyboard - A guide to basically building your own CAPS LOCK key...not a given on keyboards of the time.
- Relocating 8080 System Software - When upgrading your system, sometimes it was necessary to relocate system software to different memory locations. Here is a guide to do so.
- Eighteen With A Die, A Learning Game Player - A game that learns as it plays.
Table of Contents from the January 1980 issue of Byte
Background
- Making Color Slides With An Intercolor Microcomputer - Creating slides (which most people use PowerPoint for today) used to be a much more complicated process and also involved photography and transparencies.
- What Computers Cannot Do - Non-terminating searches and more.
- Indirect Addressing For The 6502 - The 6502 has thirteen addressing modes but not all modes can be used with all instructions. This article discusses how to implement indirect addressing with jump to subroutines instructions among other things.
- The Plot Continues - Building a plotter.
- A Computer-Generated Reminder Message - A BASIC program that will scroll reminder messages with the ability to define one time or periodic events.
Nucleus
- Editorial: The Era of Off-the-Shelf Computers Has Arrived - In the early days of personal computing, you mostly had to build your own machines. By 1980, there were a number of off the shelf solutions including various CP/M machines, the TRS-80, Apple II, and others.
- Letters - Letters from readers about Tic-Tac-Toe, UNIX-style file systems, and more.
- BYTE News - 32-bit CPU rumored from Intel; 2-inch floppy drive developed in Japan; flat panel terminal displays (plasma) becoming available; 64K EPROMS available by mid-year; and more.
- Technical Forum - Tips for receiving weather satellite photos and a program for creating mazes.
- Programming Quickies - A Pascal program for balancing your checkbook, a French/English dictionary written in BASIC, and more.
- Book Reviews - Reviews of Illustrating BASIC and Implementing Software for Non-Numeric Applications.
- What's New? - A brief look at new software including Apple Writer, Dental System I, a C compiler for the 8080 and Z80, a Pascal compiler for the 6800, a Lisp interpreter for the Apple II, and more. Plus new hardware including the AmZ8000 System from AMD, The Discovery Computer System MP Series A multiprocessor S-100 CP/M Computer, the SDK-86 kit with an 8086 processor, the Texas Instruments TI-99/4, a new motherboard for the KIM-1, SYM-1, and AIM-64, and more.
Back cover of the January 1980 issue of Byte
...and more!
Check out some of my other recent posts:
Vintage Photos - Lot 4 (089-092)
https://ecency.com/photography/@darth-azrael/vintage-photos-lot-4-089
Digital Archaeology: Dell Inspiron 531s
https://ecency.com/retrocomputing/@darth-azrael/digital-archaeology-dell-inspiron-531s
Vintage Photos - Lot 4 (085-088)
https://ecency.com/photography/@darth-azrael/vintage-photos-lot-4-085
Compute!'s Gazette (April 1988)
https://ecency.com/retrocomputing/@darth-azrael/compute-s-gazette-april-1988
Vintage Photos - Lot 4 (081-084)
https://ecency.com/photography/@darth-azrael/vintage-photos-lot-4-081
Advanced Computer Entertainment (September 1990)
https://ecency.com/retrogaming/@darth-azrael/advanced-computer-entertainment-september-1990
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You Like It Darker by Stephen King.
The Altar Path by Joseph Lisiewski.
Red Star Falling by Steve Berry.
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Home automation has been going on for a long time. When we built our house over 20 years ago we used X10 and still have some of those units, but they are not generally automated now. They had a tendency to burn out if a bulb blew and they don't work with modern LED lights. I am looking at some modern wireless ones to replace them.
I used to read Byte when I could get hold of it. There were some good computer magazines back then, but I rarely read any now. Have you seen this zoomable archive of all issues of Byte?
i remember the home automation stuff, X10 controllers and software, being available for popular computers back in the 8-bit days. It never really caught on in a mainstream way but until the Internet really started taking off, most people didn't own computers. These days, home automation is mostly done via things like Google Home and Alexa. i still prefer the idea of a closed system vs. having everything on the Internet though.
I hadn't seen that zoomable archive before. That's pretty neat.
I've played with Home Assistant and may use it again as it lets you use different systems with overall control. The big companies can let us down as Google did to me by removing support for my heating system.
!INDEED
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