Dennis Barker
5 YEARS AGO IN BYTE
386SX Showdown
Even though we'd criticized the 386jr architecture, SX machines were now selling for as little as 286s were. We tested 24 of them, with prices starting at $2000. Our favorites came from Zeos, Hewlett-Packard, AT&T, and Micro Express.
End-user programming was the focus in State of the Art.
We looked at database query languages, scripting languages, and multimedia authoring systems. Things had come full circle: Just as in the old days, if you really wanted to get the most out of your computer, you had to know how to program, even though it was a different kind of programming.
Windows 3.0 applications were multiplying like bunnies
now that the OS itself was out. We looked at IBM's
Current PIM; Vellum, a CAD crossover from the Mac; Ventura Publisher; VisionWare's XVision, which turned a PC into an X Window System server; and Authorware's eponymous Professional authoring system.
Computers are still inaccessible to many people.
But a few companies had tried to fix that. "Opening Doors for the Disabled" looked at adaptive technology that made PCs useful for people with sensory or physical disabilities: speech-synthesis systems, text magnifiers (e.g., ZoomText), head-controlled mice, braille I/O devices, and a talking pocket computer called Braille 'n Speak.
OS/90 was a tiny OS that developer GeoWorks said
had all the windowing and graphics capabilities of OS/2 and Windows. Here's the kicker: It ran adequately on an 8088, and its kernel used less than 100 KB.
10 YEARS AGO IN BYTE
What do you call a machine that has zippy color graphics,
custom chips for an
imation and stereo sound, text-to-speech routines, a video coprocessor, a multitasking OS, a GUI, and a price lower than a Mac's? You call it an
Amiga.
We got a special preview at Commodore headquarters. Even though the ROM code and OS weren't yet frozen, our editors were wowed.
Declarative languages got lots of coverage in this issue,
sparked by growing interest in Prolog (which Japanese computerists had picked for the Fifth Generation project). Besides Prolog, we examined John Backus's FP, Lisp, and Hope, one of the "new generation of functional languages."
The Tandy 1000 hit the market that month.
Having a price of $1746 (with a monochrome monitor), it was a good alternative to the IBM PC. Performance-wise, it was slower. The most infuriating thing was the size of the box: It was too small for most IBM-compatible expansion cards.
Intel's 386 meant 32-bit computing was coming as a standard engine for PCs.
The chip would ha
ve a 12- or 16-MHz clock, and Intel estimated it would be two to three times faster than the 286. But all you could get then were technical papers. Production wasn't scheduled to start until mid-1986.
If you didn't want to wait for Intel, you could get National Semiconductor's
NS32032 chip
-- one of the first commercially available 32-bit CPUs. The chip had eight 32-bit-wide general registers and five modes to help support high-level languages. Definicon Systems had built a board around it. The DSI-32 plugged into a PC. It also had an FPU and an optional MMU (memory management unit).
15 YEARS AGO IN BYTE
Go Forth and spread the word about the control freak of
programming languages. Besides an article by Charles Moore himself on the language he invented, this issue offered a tutorial and reported on uses for this versatile language, such as controlling cameras to film spaceship sequences for
Battle Beyond the Stars.
Using such high-tech components as rubber cement and pipe insulation,
Steve Ciarcia explained how to build your own modem for less than $50.
"High-performance, high-quality, and large-capacity hard-disk drives
are now a low-cost reality for your personal-computer system." This described a 5-MB Winchester drive that was available for $1500.
"We think this machine will be a great success...the Amiga
will probably have a great effect on other personal computer companies and the industry in general."
THE LAST BLASTS QUIZ
In honor of the last Blasts column, a tiny trivia test: What was the name of Intel's first 32-bit chip? What was it optimized to run? Send your answers to dbarker@bix.com. The first correct respondent will receive a BYTE T-shirt.
Blasts from the Past
