Victor 9000 Hardware Reference Manual

Hardware

Revie.,

Victor Victorious

The Victor 9000 ,Computer

Microcomputers are proliferating

because they

can

do

so

many

tasks so well. Each time microcomputers take over

another

task, they threaten some

old technology. As

word

processors,

for

example,

microcomputers

threaten the typewriter. As

number

crunchers, microcomputers threaten

the calculator. Each

company

whose

main

product

is

threatened faces a

hard

choice: perish

or

become a com-

puter

company.

What's

more, such a

company

must

make the right com-

puter

on the first try because the

fierce

competition

in the microcom-

puter

market

gives few entrants a sec-

ond

chance.

The

rules permit only one roll of the dice in the game called "You

bet

your

company."

Victor Business

Products

has been

making

calculators for 60 years. Vic-

tor

saw

the need to

make

a computer,

and

the Victor 9000

is

Victor's roll of

the dice. I've been

lucky

enough to

have

the use of a Victor 9000 for a

few

months,

and

I think the machine

is

an

excellent microcomputer with

an

outstanding

array

of

standard

features.

216

November 1982 ©

BYTE

Publications

Inc

Phil

Lemmons

West

Coast

Editor

Of

course, the

microcomputer

business

is

not

really a game of

chance like dice,

but

a competition re-

quiring judgment, expertise,

and

a

variety of resources. Victor comes to

the competition much

better

prepared

than

most

new

entrants. First of all,

Victor

is

a subsidiary of Kidde Inc., a

three-billion

dollar

conglomerate. Second, Victor has experience in designing

and

manufacturing micro-

processor-based electronic

products.

Third,

Victor has a great deal of experience in dealing with business people

and

the needs of the contem-

porary

office. Fourth, Victor

is

start-

ing

out

with a

network

of 50

branch offices in the United States to distribute

and

support

the machine.

Fifth,

and

perhaps

most

important,

the chief designer of Victor's machine

is

not

a novice

but

Chuck

Peddle, a

founder

of the microcomputer in-

dustry

who

understands as well as

anyone

where the technology

is

going

and

how

to

bring

maximum

perfor-

mance to the

market

at

an affordable

price. (In

an

interview starting

on

page 256 of this issue,

Chuck

Peddle

discusses his goals in designing the Victor

9000

and

makes some observa-

tions

on

trends in the microcomputer

industry.)

Getting Started with the Victor

9000

Victor's experience has

shown

them

that business people

want

a machine they can set on a desk, turn on, and use. As

photo

1 shows, the Victor 9000 consists of a system unit, a detached

keyboard

with a coiled

cable,

and a monochrome

monitor

that

can rest

atop

or

alongside the

system unit.

The

system unit

and

key-

board

fit

comfortably

on a

standard

typing table,

or

on a cluttered desk

designed

before

microcomputers came out. While the Apple III occupies 361

square

inches

and

the IBM

Personal

Computer

420

square

inches, the Victor 9000 takes

up

only

310.

If

you

buy

the machine directly

from

your

local Victor

branch

office, Victor will deliver the machine, set it up,

connect the cables,

and

make sure

everything

is

working

. The

Opera-

tors' Reference

Manual

takes it from

Photo

1: The Victor 9000

mi

croco

mput

er, consisting

of a system

unit, keyboard,

and

high-resolution green-phosph

or video

monitor

that tilts a

nd swivels.

there. It tells y

ou

how

to

turn

on

the

ma

chine

and

insert th e user-

orienta-

tion disk

that

comes inside the

manual'

s fro

nt

cover.

Once

turn

ed

on, the

machine

reinforces the

manual's advice

: the

bottom

of the

monitor

's screen

shows

the image of a

little floppy disk with an a

rrow

in-

dicating y

ou

should

put

a disk

into

a

dri ve. The us

er-orientati

on disk dis-

plays a

menu

that leads you into

ex-

pl anati ons of

how

to ba

ck

up

the

system disk,

how

to

control

the

vo

lume of the Victor 9000's

speaker

,

how

to set the

numeric

key

pad

so

that

it

works

just like a

calculator, how

to

use the key

board,

how

to

control

the

display,

how

to use the

fundamental

commands

of the

operating

system ,

a

nd

so on. The

Oper

ators' Reference

Manual explains how

to

run

applica-

tions

pro

grams,

and

each

program

sold

by Victor has it s o

wn

instruc-

tional manua

l.

At

least two of these

program

s h

ave

their own dis

k-ba

sed

tutorials, too. In

short

, y

ou

can

set

the machine

on

a desk,

turn

it on,

and

start

to use it.

Standard Equipment:

Complete

and

Versatile

Some

computer

sys tems to

day

are

sold "unbundled

,"

that is, in

parts

.

This

makes

the initial

purchase

price

seem

low

. F

or exampl

e, you

can buy

a $1500 computer

that

lacks

inter-

faces for a

modem

or a printer

,

doesn

't

have

enou

gh system

memory

to

run a major

applications

program

,

and

has

no

high

-speed

mass

storage

at

all.

To

be

sure,

you

can

complete

such a system

by

ordering

all the

necessary

components

one

by

one,

but

dining

a la carte

is

always

more

expensive

than

ordering a full

dinner.

If

the

unbundled

system

is

an

IBM

Personal

Computer

or

an

Apple

II

Plus

, the

buyer

can

save

money

by

buying

many

of the

components

from

third-party

manufacturers.

But

that

can

make

it

harder

for

owners

to

get

service for their

completed

machines

,

mainly

because the

manufacturer

of

the

system

unit

can't

be

expected

to

support

an

add-on

product.

The

standard

Victor

9000 costs

$4995.

Although

it is

an

open-bus

system

with

slots for

adding boards,

the

Victor

9000 isn't just a lonely 8088

sitting

in a box of

empty

slots

and

sockets.

The

Victor 9000 comes

with

128K

bytes

of

RAM

(random-access

read/write

memory)

on

the system

board, two

612K-byte disk drives,

two

serial

I/O

(input/output)

port

s,

two

parallel

ports

, a

truly

high-res-

olution

video

monitor,

a choice of

three

keyboards

with

up

to

103 keys,

an

amplifier

and

accompanying

speaker,

and

a

CODEC

(coder-

decoder)

that

can

digitize

and

reconstruct

a real

human

voice . This

standard

hardware

configuration

leaves

four

bus

slots

open.

Even

if

you

increase

memory

to

896K

bytes

,

the

machine

still has

two

empty

slots.

The

standard

purchase

price

also

in-

cludes

the

two

most

popular

operat-

ing

system~

for the 8086/ 8088 proces-

sors-Digital

Research 's

CP

/M-86

and

Microsoft's

MS-DOS. Documen-

tation

is

good, too. The Ope

rators

'

Reference

Manual

is clearly

written

,

beautifully

typeset

and

printed, and

carefully

coordinated

with a menu-

driven

user-orientation

program

that

is the

best

I've seen. (There a

re

hard-

ware

options

on

the Victor 9000;

I'll

discuss

them

later.)

All the

hardware

features

are

flexi-

ble. In

one

case, the flexibility

is

mechanical

: a cleverly desig

ned

turn-

table

on

top

of the

system

unit

enables the

monitor

to

tilt as

much

as

11 degrees

and

swivel as

much

as 42

degrees

in

either

direction.

Most

of

the

hardware

is flexible,

however

,

Nov

ember

1982 ©

BYTE

Publications Inc 217

Circle

280

on

inquiry

card

.

No

other

acoustic

modem gives you all these features at

this

low

price.

The

MFJ-1232

Acoustic

Modem

gives

you

a

combination

of

features,

quality

and

performance

that

others

can't

match

at

this

price.

0-300

Baud,

Bell

103

compatible. Originate/

Answer

. Half/full

duplex. RS-232,

TTL,

CMOS

level

compatible.

Use

any

computer.

Cassette

tape

recorder

ports

save

data

for

reloading

or re-

transmission. 6 pole

active

filter

handles

weak

signals.

Carrier

detect

LED

indicates

adequate

signal

strength

for

data

recognition. Quality

"

muffs"

gives

good

acoustic

coupling,

isolates

external

noise

for

reliable

data

transfer. Crystal

controlled

. "

ON"

LED.

Aluminum

cabinet.

110

VAC

or 9 volt

batteries.

9x1

V2x4

in.

Apple

II,

II

Plus:

software

and

cable

for

modem,

MFJ-1231,

$39.95.

Plugs

into

game

port.

No

serial

board

needed.

Mn

P.S

·1.

3J!

·~~~NSFEr.

SWITCH

-

i : •

••.

'.~

•••

It's like

having

an

extra

port

MFJ-1240

RS-232

TRANSFER

SWITCH.

Swit-

ches

computer

between 2 peripherals

(printer,

terminal,

modem,

etc

.).

Like

having

extra

port.

Push

button

switches

10

lines

(pins

2,3,4,5,6,8,

11,15,17,20).

Change

plug

or

cable

to

substitute

other

lines.

Push

button

reverses

transmit-

receive

lines.

LEOs

monitor

pins

2,3,4,5,6,8,20.

PC

board

eliminates

wiring,

crosstalk,

line

inter

-

ference. 3 RS-232

25

connectors.

7x2x6 in.

$99

95

MFJ-ll08

AC

POWER

CENTER.

Adds

convenience,

prevents

data

loss,

head

bounce,

equipment

damage.

Relay

latches

power

off

during

power

transients.

Multi-filters

isolate

equip-

ment,

eliminate

interaction,

nOise,

hash.

Varistors

suppress

spikes.

3

isolated, switched

socket

pairs.

One

un-

switched

for

clock,

etc. Lighted

power

,

reset

switch.

Pop-out

fuse

. 3

wire, 6 ft.

cord. 15A,

125V, 1875

watts.

Aluminum

case.

Black.

18x23/.x2

in. MFJ-l107,

$79.95.

Like

1108

less

relay. 8 sockets,

2

unswitched. Other

models

available,

write

for

free

specification

sheet.

Order

from

MFJ

and

try

it. If

not

delighted,

return

within

30

days

for

refund

(less

shipping).

One

year

unconditional

guarantee.

Order

yours

today.

Call

toll

free

~7-1BOO.

Charge

VISA, MC.

Or

mail

check, money

order

.

Add

$4.00

each

for

shipping

and

handling

.

CALL

TOLL

FREE... 800-647·1800

Call

601-323-5869

in

MS,

outside

continental

USA

MFJ

ENTERPRISES

INCORPORATED

'

921

louisville

Road,

Starkville,

MS

39759

218

November 1982 ©

BYTE

Publications Inc

At

a

Glance

Name

Victor 9000

Manufacturer

Victor

Business

Products

3900

North Rockwell

St.

Chicago,

IL

606 J 8

Hardware

Size:

width

J 5 in

ches.

depth J 3 inches, heig

ht

7 inches;

weight (including

two

disk

dri

ves

) 28 pounds

Electrical needs: input

VOltage,

95-137

V AC, 190

-270

V AC; input frequency,

47

-63

Hz Processor: Intel 8088 Cycle

time: main storage, 333

ns;

access

tim

e,

333

ns

Memory: J

6K

bytes

of

built-in ROM and J

28K

bytes

of

built-in

user

RAM;

expandable to 896K bytes

Standard: keyboar

d;

two

disk

drives; four expansi

on

slot

s;

built-in speaker; CODEC

(coder-decoder for digitized voice); power-on self-

test; J 28K

bytes

of

dynamic RAM,

4K

bytes

of

static graphics RAM, 1

6K

bytes

of

ROM; -two 6 J 2K-byte floppy-disk drives; high-

resolution (800 by 400) green-phosphor monitor

with

antiglare

screen,

tilt and

swivel;

two

programmable asynchronous/bisynchronous

RS-

232C

seria

l I/O ports;

two

parallel

I/O

ports, one Centronics standard. one 50-pin KK; MS-

DOS

and CP/M-86 operating

systems;

choice

of

three keyboar

ds.

detached,

with

numeric pad and up to

103 keys,

cursor controls.

edi

ting

keys,

programmable function

keys

Disk drives:

two 6 12K

-byte 5-inch, single-sided floppy-disk

drives; average

access

time.

235

ms;

track-to-t

rack

stepping time, 3

ms

Software

Operating

Systems:

CP/M-86,

MS-DOS,

Unix (to be available fir

st

quarter 1983)

Languages: Microsoft GW-BASIC, price to

be

determin

ed;

Microsoft

BASIC-86,

5400;

CBASIC-86,

5400;

MS-Pascal,

5600;

MS-FORTRAN. 5600; MS-COBOL. 5800;

Microfocus Level

II

COBOL. 5 I J 00,

with

Forms

2, 5 13

00

Applications:

Word

processing: Victorwriter I

(Select),

5500; Victorw rit

er

II

(B

enC

hmark), 5645,

with

mailing

list,

5890; Wordstar, 5500.

with

Mailmer

ge,

5700 Electronic spreadsheets: Victorcalc (Report Manager). Multiplan, Supercalc. 5300 each Database management:

dBase II, 5695

Accounting: accounts payable, accounts receivable, general ledger,

.payroll

Other:

order processing. inventory control, purchase-order writing, Time Manager

(scheduling).

Project Manager, Personnel Manager, Victor

Pha

rmacy

System,

Victor

Business

Equipment Dealers

System,

Victor Financial and Banking

System,

installment

lending, communications

Hardware

Prices

Standard system

with

sys

tem unit, J 28K bytes

of

RAM.

two

single-sided

disk

drives,

keyboard, monitor, CP/M-86,

MS-DOS,

54995

System with double-sided floppy

disks.

55950

Winchester disk and controller, J 0 megabytes (formatted). 54495

I 28K-byte memory boar

d.

5800 purchased

with

system. 5895 purchased later

384K-byte memory board.

52500 purchased

with

system.

52695 purchased lat

er

because it

is "soft-tooled

,"

i.e.,

under

software

control.

Every

key

on

the

keyboard

can

be

programmed,

not

just

the 10

programmable

function

keys. If you'

don

't like the typefaces

displayed

on

the screen,

you

can

design

your

own

with a utility

called

CEDIT.

The

serial

ports

can

be

pro-

grammed

for

both

asynchronous

and

bisynchronous

communications.

In

the

same

spirit

of

adapting

to

every-

one's

needs, Victor

is offerin g a

vari-

ety

of

applications

software-m

ore

than

one

application

program

for

every

common

major

task

.

The

System

Unit

The

system

unit

contains

the

main

printed-circuit

board,

the

power

sup

-

ply, two

disk

drives

, a

custom

floppy-disk

controller

board, and

connectors

for

the

keyboard

, the

two

--

• ----===

•

--

----

--

•

Photo

2:

The

back

of

the

system

unit.

Shown

from

left to right

are the keyboa1'd

con-

nector, reset

button, Centronics-compatible

parallel

port, video-disp

lay-terminal

con

nector,

two

RS-232C

serial ports,

and

power

connecto

r.

The

on-off switch

is

just

abo

ve

the

power

connector.

Photo

3:

The

inside

of

the

system

unit

viewed

from

above.

The

disk-controller

board

app

ears

at

the

top, the

power

supply

at

the

bottom

, the spe

aker

at the upper

left,

and

two

of

the

four

expans

ion slots

at

center

left.

The disk-con

troller

board

hides the other

two

expansion

slots

at left

and

the

8088 processor,

which

is

at the

extreme

right.

serial

ports

, the

monitor, and

two

parallel

ports,

Connectors

for the

serial ports

and

the

keyboard

and

monitor

are

on

the

back

of

the

system

unit, shown

in

photo

2.

One

of the

parallel

ports

comes o

ut

to the

back

of the

system

unit with a 36-pin

con

-

nector

that

uses

standard

Centronics

assignments. With

a special

24-pin

connector

and

appropriate

software, you

can

use this

port

to

222

November 1982 ©

BYTE

Publications

Inc

connect

an

IEEE-488 device to the

Victor

9000.

The

second

parallel

port

has

a 50-pin KK-type

connector

on

the

main

printed-circuit

board.

This

port

, called the "user"

port,

is

also

fully

programmab

le.

The main

printed-circuit

board

contains

an

Intel 8088

micropro-

cessor, 128K

bytes

of

RAM

in the

form

of sixteen 64K-bit

chips

(parity

memory

is

an

option),

16K

bytes

of

ROM

(read-only

memory),

4K bytes

of

static

RAM

, a real-time

clock,

an

expansion

bus

with

four

empty

slots,

a

programmable

serial-communica-

tions chip,

parallel

I/O

chips,

an

8259

programmable

interrupt

controller

(to

support

real-time

, multi-user,

and

multitasking

operations),

a CRT-

controller

chip, and

the 50-pin

parallel

port

mentioned

earlier.

Photo

3

shows

the inside

of

the

system

unit

viewed

from

above. The

custom

floppy-disk

controller

board

hides the

disk

drives

and

most

of the system

board.

Photo 4 shows

the system

board

after

removal

of

the drives .

Figure 1

shows a block

diagram

of the

Victor

9000.

The

8088

is

a 16-bit

microprocessor

that

does all

I/O

8 bits

at a tim

e.

Two

separate

8-bit

data

buses, the

IO

bus

and

the BO

bus,

are

in use in

the

Vic-

tor

9000. All

the

Victor

9000's

LSI

(large-scale

integration) I/O

devices

(including the ones

on

the

-disk-

controller

board)

are

driven

from a

separate

data

bus

consisting of lines

100-107.

Memory

, the

expansion

bus

(see table 1

on

page

230),

and

the buf-

fers

for

the

10

bus

are

driven

by

the

bus

consisting

of

lines BOO-B07. The

programmable

interrupt

controller

and

the

"boot"

ROM

connect

directly

to

the

processor

data

bus

,

The

system

clock

runs

at

15 MHz

and

the 8088

runs

at 5 MHz,

or

slight-

ly faster

than

the 8088 in the IBM Per-

sonal

Computer.

The

cycle time for

main

memory

is

333

nanosecond

s

(ns); the access time

is

also 333 ns.

The

8259

programmable

interrupt

controller

provides

eight levels of

prioritized

int

errupts,

that

is, signals

to

the 8088

that

something

else

has

to

be

attended

to.

One

interrupt

lets the

disk

controller

indicate

the readiness

of

a sector

header

from a disk

drive;

one

interrupt

is

for

the serial

ports

;

one

interrupt

is for the real-time clock

and

other

timed

operations; one

in-

terrupt

is

for

parallel

I/O chips, in-

cluding

the

chip

that

communicates

with

the

COOEC;

two

interrupts

are

for

the

expansion

bus

, to be

con-

trolled

by

boards

to

be

added

there;

one

interrupt

is for the

keyboard;

and

one

is

for the

CRT

(cathode-ray

tube )

controller.

The

8088

can

address a megabyte

Circ

le 467 on inquiry card.

--+

POWER ON RESET

RESET BUTTON

8088 CPU

1------------

------

- - - - -

--

I

20

11

G '

I 8

I I

I

TRACK L

ED

DOO

R

WRITE

o SWITCH

PROTECT

SENSE

SWI TC H

L

-;XPAN~;;U--;-

- - - - - - -

--l

~

I

cl1-

B I

20Jl

liB

I

~

OOT

e-1

I

ROM

r I

20

I

Q2r8

I

STEPPER

MOTORS

DRI

VE

MOTORS

AB-19

.--

--

--,

I

DISK

BOARD

L _

________

____

_

~

B

ADO-7

ADDRESS LATCH 8 BUFFER

B 2 59

PROGRAMMABLE INTERRUPT CONTROLLER

~

20

CENTRONICS

PARALLEl!

IEEE488

~=AO~-19_;;::::==~:;_;;::=

I

~~;-;::====::::::.-;:===

=,

~==~:::::J:

I I

20 20

BOO

-7

I I

IJ:

I

~~~~

I

18

204t

11

B

201+

lLB

20it

liB

20~

liB

1D0-107

20

-<L.!l

6522

PARALLEL

PORT

6B52 AUDIO INTERFACE

6522 SPARE PORT

SPARE PORT CONNECTOR

6522

KEYBOARD

8

MISC

. CONTROL

720

I COMMUNICATION PORTS

RS - 232C PORTSI2J

Figure 1: A

block

diagram

of

the

Victor

9000.

The

8088 processor is at the left, as are

the

power-up ROM

and

the

programmable

in-

terrupt

controller. At

top

left

is

the

expansion

bus

. The entire

top

center consists

of

the

disk-controller

board. The

CRT

controller

al1d

associated static

RAM

appear

at

right. From left to right alol1g the

bottom

of

the diagram,

you

see a

parallelllO

port

that

can

be

col1figured as

either a Centronics-compatible

or

an lEEE-488 interface; a sYl1chrol1ous

1I0

interface

that

drives

the

CO

DEC

224 November 1982 ©

BYTE

Publications Inc

20

--------l

C·

====::::::;-;4-}-=20~~=]l

u

6522

IDISK

DATAl

I 1

I

I~I

I

~

GCR

~

CONTROL

I i'

I I

I

';' I

iT_

H

;:11:"

I i I. -

I I

Y

~~~~IPLEXER

I

~l

I

--------~

I

DO

I D7

i---------l

I

!l-8

';

,

I

'~

CRT

CONTROLLER

~1,11~

20

=====8====

==~~~I=Lq~~~

r

c

""

.------------'-

" i -

I

SCREEN

MEMORY

1-

'-

I I

I

~~~~~~B=DD-=BD

7

~=~r-~III~I~~~~~

I I I I I 1 1

I

I I

I

I I

I

I I I

I

I I

I

-

'--

0

'---

1

20

-<L.9

~8

8253

TIMERS

2

IRQ2

BR I

GHTNESS 8 CONTRAST

~8

VIDEO

CONTROL

o

I

I I

I

L _

-.!!ISPLAY

!!STE~ _~.

(coder-decoder) that can

tum

a voice into a serial bit stream

and

vice versa;

another

parallel port; a

keyboard

interface port, based

on a

6522 that also controls some

other

functions in th e system;

two

RS-232C serial ports that can be programmed for asynchronous

or

bisynchronous communications;

and

the timer that sets the bits per

second

(bps) for the

communications

ports

and

provides an

interrupt for the

system

clock. Table 1 identifies the descriptions

and

names

of

the signals on the data buses

and

the expansion slots.

November

1982 ©

BYTE

Publications Inc 225

of

memory,

but

the

Victor

9000 uses

memory-mapped

I/O-that

is, it

ad-

dresses some of the

input

and

output

devices as if they

were

part

of system

memory.

This

increases the speed

of

I/O

but

reduces the

amount

of real

memory

that

can

be

addressed. Since

the 8088

can

address a megabyte,

however,

you

are

unlikely to feel a

pinch . Despite the

memory-mapped

I/O,

the user

of

the

Victor

9000 can

still have 896K

bytes

of

available

RAM.

Memory

can

be

expanded

with

128K-byte, 256K-byte,

and

384K-

byte

memory

boards.

If

you

add

two

of the 384K-byte

boards,

you

can

have

the full 896K

bytes

of

RAM

and

still have

two

bus

slots

open.

Besides

the RAM

already

described, the Vic-

tor

9000 also has 4K

bytes

of

static

RAM

used

with

the

video

monitor,

and

16K

bytes

of

ROM

containing

"sanity test" diagnostics

and

instruc-

tions for loading the

operating

system

from

disk.

Mass Storage

Packing 612K

bytes

of

data

onto

one

side of a SIf4-inch floppy disk

may

cause jitters

in

people

who

witnessed problems in

mere

double-

density systems only a

year

or

so ago,

but

I used the drives

hard

during the

time I

had

the Victor 9000

and

didn't

experience

any

problems

with

the

drives in

any

operation

with

either

CP

/M-86

or

MS-DOS.

One

thing I

did

to

tempt

fate

and

strain

tech-

nology

was

to edit

and

save

and

re-

edit

and

resave huge

Words

tar text

files. Even

with

files

approaching

60K

bytes, the Victor

9000's drives per-

formed flawlessly.

The

quality

and

reliability of the disk drives result from the ingenuity used in designing the disk-controller

board

and

in

encoding the

data. The

Victor

9000 uses

Group

Code

Record-

ing (GCR), a technique

of

compress-

ing

data

by

squeezing

out

zeros.

Data

is

encoded

for

storage in such a

way

that

there

are

never

more

than

two

zeros in a

row.

The

Victor

9000 also

has

unusually

precise

control

of

the

rotational

speed

of

the drives.

One

common

source of read-and-write errors is a difference in rotational

speed between

two

drives.

To

achieve highly precise

control

of

228

November 1982 ©

BYTE

Publications Inc

Photo

4:

The

system

board vi

ewed

from

above. The 8088 processor is at the right , the

four

expansion slots at the left,

and

one

of

the parallel

and

both

serial ports are along

the

bottom.

The

two

vert

ical

rows

near the top,

which

consist

of

8 chips each, are 128K

bytes

of

dynamic

RAM.

rotational

speed, Victor replaced the

control

electronics

normally

supplied

by

drive

manufacturers

with

a

custom

board

that

controls

both

drives. A microprocessor

on

the Vic-

tor

disk

board

takes

tachometer

pulses from the drive

motor

and

uses

them

to

control

motor

speed,

The

board

can set

motor

speed to

any

of

15

values, controlled

within

1 per-

cent. Different speed settings

are

used

for

different tracks.

Why?

In

order

to

achieve

constant

linear speed of the

media traveling

under

the

read/write

heads.

When

the Victor 9000 is

doing

disk

input

or

output,

you

can

hear

the

drive

motors

quietly changing speed,

as

if there were a IS-speed transmis-

sion inside

with

a gifted

driver

shift-

ing

from

one speed to

another

as nec-

essary.

One

benefit of

constant

linear

speed

is

that

the

outer

tracks of the

disk can hold much

more

data. An-

other

benefit is increased reliability.

Three

6522

versatile

interface

adapters

(VIAs), which

are

special

parallel

I/O

chips, divide

most

of the

work

of controlling the drives.

Two

ports

on

one 6522 VIA select read-

and-write

data;

the second 6522

selects speed

and

controls

the drives'

stepper

motors

; the third 6522 con-

trols

head

selection

and

the LEOs

(light-emitting diodes)

that

indicate

drive

activity

and

also determines the

status

of the spindle

motors. The

8088

processor

controls

and

monitors

all

the signals coming from the 6522s,

besides

monitoring

the

status

of the

drive

doors

, turning

on

the LEOs, and

transferring

data

into

memory.

The

track-to-track stepping time is

3 milliseconds (ms)

and

average disk-

access time

is

235 ms.

The

Victor

9000's

operating

systems use a logical

sector

size of 128 bytes

and

a physical

sector size

of

512 bytes .

A valuable feature for

program-

mers

who

want

to write disaster-

proof

applications

software

is the

Victor

9000 disk system's ability to

condition

an

interrupt

on

the opening

or

closing of the disk

drive

doors.

Using this feature, a

program

might

save

a user from trying to write to a

drive

with

an

open

door

, which,

Circle

241

on

inquiry card.

DA.TA

PLOTTING

SOFTWARE

FOR

MICROS

'

'''

..

l

yt

I(lI

Iff4 ~ P\Jtlr

u

1'" Mil ,

1""015>-1

It

" IIUII

,U

I~

m.~

rtI11'.I~ tO~,!~9

ro

v,~

I~

IR\Olll.

$ IC,l.I'

!.

21

Programs

Fully

Documented,

Copyable

BASIC

listings

Apple

II

and

IBMpc

PIE CHARTS • BAR CHARTS

STOCK MARKET CHARTS

3D SURFACES

• HISTOGRAMS

LOG PLOTS •

CURVE

FiniNG

REGRESSION ANALYSIS

DATA MANAGEMENT

STATISTICAL ANALYSIS

TEXT ON GRAPH ICS

All

programs listed

in

Applesoft BASIC

in

a

248

pg

book with theory, equation

s, full

ex-

planation

of

how they work. Modular

and

menu driven. Use

as is, modify

and

combine

for your own applications, or use

as

building

blocks

to develop your own programs. Op-

tional

5 y." disks

of

listings availble for Apple

II + 00S3

.3

48K

and IBMpc

00S1

.1

48K

.

Th

is is your best buy

in

data plotting software!

Book: $28.50

Disk: $19.95

ALSO AVAILABLE

Graphic

Software

for

Mlcros

:a self-teaching guide

to writing

20

and 3D graphics software-61

programs-H_.the

best

book

available

on

micro

graphics

..

"-Creative Computing 2/82.

Book

: $21 .

95

Disk:

$19.95

Engineering

Software

for

Micros: 25

programs

for CAD, Fourier

analysis, optimization, etc.

Book: $28.50

Disk: $19.95

Structural

Analaysls

Software

for

Micros: 14

programs-20 ,

30

trusses , frames & more.

Book:

$39.95

Disk: $24.95

KERN PUBLICATIONS

Send check, money order,

VISA/MASTERCARD

no with

exp date to

19 0 Duck

Hill Rd,

PO Box

1029, Du

xbury,

MA

0

2332

. Add

$2

per book postage

In

US,

$3 UPS,

$4

Canada, $1 2 air Europe and Central America,

$1

B

elsewhere. Specify Apple or IBM with disk orders.

For

faster delivery

cali

(617)934-0445

230 November 1982 ©

BYTE Pub

lications Inc

Pin Signal 1

/0

Description

50

A19 1/0

Bu

ffered-address bits 8 to 19. These

1 A18

1

/0

lines

are driv

en

fr om the 8088 during

49

A1

7 1

/0

normal operation a

nd

are valid from

2

A16

1/0

the falling edge of address-latch

48

A15

1

/0

enable (ALE

) to the rising edge of t

he

3

A14

1

/0

. If an external device takes

47

A13 1

/0

cont rol of the system v

ia

HOLD and

4 A12

1

/0

HOLD ACKNOWLEDGE, the

se

lines

46 A

11

I

/O

are tri-stat

ed.

5 A10 1

/0

45

A9

1/

0

6

A8

I

/O

29

BD

7

I

/O

Time multiplexed buffered addressl

22

BD

6 I/O

data bus. During norm al operation,

28 B

D5

1

/0

the lower 8 bits of addre

ss (AD

O-

23 B

D4

I

/O

AD7) are valid

on

the falling edge of

27

BD

3

I/

O

ALE.

24

BD

2

I/

O

26

BD

1

I/

O

25 B

OO

I/O

9 ALE

0

Buffered addre

ss-

latc h enable. Processor signa

l that indicates

BDO-BD

7 cont ain valid addresses. Typically used to l

atc

h low-

orde r 8 bits of address.

11 RD

0

Buffered read strobe . Processor signal ind icating

'a read cycle.

14

WR

0 Buffered write strobe. Processor signal

in

dicating a write

cyc le.

8

D

EN

0 Buffered data enab

le. Provid

ed by the processor for use

as

an

enable for transceivers.

33

DL

ATCH

0 Data latch. The falling edge of this signal m

ay

be used

to

st robe data genera

ted from a processor read access.

30

EX

TI

O

Externa l I/O. Contr

ol

line that prevents internal data-bus bu

ffers from conflicting with external buffers when mapping external I

/O into address space EOOOO

to EFFFF hexadecimal.

CS

EN

should be used as a control signal to disabl

e internal

buffe rs via EXTIO and enable external buffers if usin

g address

space

EOOOO

to EFFFF. Addresses used

by the

system cannot

be

disabled by EXTIO.

19

CS

EN

0 Chip

se

lect enable.

This line is synchronized to PHASE2.

It is

true from a

fa

lling edge of

PHA

SE2 to the next fall

ing

edge of

PHASE

2,

when address space E

OOOO

to EFFFF hexadecimal

is accessed.

40 CLK15B

0

15-MH

z clock. S

ign

al from which all system timing

is

derived.

Its period is 66.6 ns with a 5

0%

± 1

0%

duty cycle.

38 CL

K5

0

5-M

Hz clock. Signal is

in phase with the 8088 clock input. I

ts

period

is

200

ns

with a 33% duty

cyc

le.

20

PHASE2

0

1-MHz clock. Signal

is

asynchronous with CLK5.

Its period

is

11'

s with a 40/60% duty cycle. Useful to interface 6800-type

I/

O c ircuit s.

21

XA

CK

External acknowledge. This line

is normally hi

gh and may

be

pulled low by external devices resulting in pulli

ng

the 8088

READ

Y input low, gener ating wait states.

This line is resyn-

chro

nized by the system logi

c.

17

HO

LD

Input to the 8088. This is an external

request for control of t

he

system buses.

18

HLDA

0 Buff ered ho

ld

acknowledge.

Sys

tem respon

se

to HOLD re-

ques

t. When true (high) the following signals are tri-stated:

A8-A19,

BDO-BD7, ALE,

10

1M,

RD, WR,DT

IR,

DEN

, SSO, and

INTA

DLATCH is co ntrolled by extern al

logic.

41

RE

ADY

0 Status line. This line reflects

the sy

nchronized

READY in

put to

th

e 8088.

10

10 iM

0 Buffered 8088 sta

tu

s line. Distinguishes between a memory or

I

/O

bus cycle.

7

SSO

0 Buffered 8088 status line.

Conti

nued on page 234

Tabl

e 1: The s

ig

nal names and descriptions for the Victor 9000 expansio n

bus

. The

expansion bus

is

basicall

y a buffe red extension of the

sys

tem's 8088 processor plus

add

itional timi ng

and contr

ol signals re

quir

ed to interface the system. The expansion

bus consists

of a mult

iplexed buffered data bus (BDO-BD7

),

a buffered

addr

ess bus

(A8-A19), and vari

ous timing, control, interrupt,

and powe

r lines.

Circle

215

on

inquiry

card.

ATTENTION

NON-TECHNICAL

(]SERS

Are

you lost in a

sea

of

technical

jargon

and

buzzwords

such

as

.....

SCHEMA

...

RELATIONAL

DBMS . . .

INVERTED

DBMS

...

NAVIGATIONAL

PATHS .

..

If these terms are confusing

your

choice

of

a Data

Management

System for

your

Micro

, then why

not

go

with

the Champ!

DATA

CHAMP is a fresh alternative to a

traditional

DBMS package, in that the

cryptic, user supplied

commands

are

replaced

with

a simple question and

answer

dialogue. This

unique approach

allows users

with

little

or

no

technical

background

to

quickly

master the basic

and create systems

of

their

own design.

In

addition,

DATA

CHAMP supports

an

extensive

combination

of

options which allows the advanced user to develop highl y sophisticated systems .

DATA

CHAMP FEATURES .

...

.....

.

• Extensive sorting

[,

selection

capabilities

• Powerful, easy to

use

REPORT

writer

and

LABELS

programs

• General purpose

program

to pass

DATA

CHAMP files to

popular

word

processing packages

• Programs can be accessed

through

a

helpful,

descriptive

MENU

Program,

or

may

be run

directly

by the

more

experienced user

•

Frequently

used sequence

of

answers

to a

program

may be stored and then

subsequently recalled

with

a single

response

•

Available

for

CP/M" users (64k),

or

IBM

PC/DOS··

users (128K)

Order

now, and take advantage

of

our

money

back

guara ntee.

Just send us

$395 and we will send you a version

of

DATA

CHAMP f

or

your

evaluation. If

within

30

days you decide

not

to keep

DATA

CHAMP, then return all materials

to us and we will refund

your

money.

(Okla. residents add

5%

sales tax)

[)I1TI1 CHI1

I':1P

Innovative

Micro

Systems

12506

East

21

st Street

Tul

sa,

OK

74129

(91

8)

437-2865

~.

Visa

__

Mastercard

__

#

Computer

Di

sk

Signature

____

_______

_

Name

___

______

___

_

Company

____

_____

_ _ _

Street

___

_______

__

_

City _

________

____

_

State

_ _

___

_ Zlp

_____

_

Data Champ is a Trademark

of

Innovati

ve

Micro

Systems Inc .

"CP/M Is

a Trademark

of

Digital Research

""Trademarks

of

IBM

Dealer Inquiri

es

Welcome

234

November 1982 ©

BYTE

Publications Inc

Pin Si

gnal

11

0

D

escripti

on

12

DT/R

0

Buffered data transmit/receive. Processor signal typically used to

contro

l the direction of system transceivers .

The combination of

1

01M,

DT/R,

and

SSO

provide current bus-

cycle status:

10/M DTIR

SS

O

D

escription

0 0

0

Instruction fetch

0

1 Read from memory

0

1

0

Write from memory

0

1 1 Passive (no bus cycle)

1

0 0

Interrupt acknowledge

1

0

1 Read from

110

1 1 0

Write to

I/O

1 1

1

Halt

15

NMI

Nonmaskable interrupt.

An

edge-triggered input which causes

a type-2 interrupt. A transition from high to low initiates the

in-

terrupt at the end of the current instruction.

16

IR

O Interrupt request. This input should be driven with an open col-

lector driver; it

is

"collector

ORed" with five 6522s and one

6852 and

is

pulled to + 5 volts

(V)

through a 3.3K-ohm resistor.

A

low level

on

any of these circuits generates a high-level input

to the system 8259 at

I

R3

level.

43

IR4

Interrupt request level

4.

Direct access to

IR4

of the system

8259.

42

IR5

Interrupt request level

5.

Direct access to IR5 of the system

8259.

13

RESET

0

System reset. Generated at power on or from the Reset switch.

44

Ground

39

Ground

35

Ground

31

Ground

37

+5

V

36

+5

V

250

mNexpansion board

34

+ 12 V

250

mNexpansion board

32

-12

V 50 mNexpansion board

under

CP

I

M-86

and

depending

on

the BIOS

(basic

input!

output

system),

would

crash the

program

and

lose the

data

that the user intend-

ed

to save_

Display

The first thing that

you

notice

about

the Victor 9000

is

the quality of

its

display_The

clear definition of

characters

and

the

sharp

monochrome graphics are a pleasure to the eyes_

A nylon mesh minimizes glare_

A total

of

320,000 pixels (picture

elements),

800

by

400,

account

for the high resolution. (The Apple III has graphics resolution of

560

by

192,

and

the IBM Personal

Computer

of-

fers 640

by

200).

One

immediate

benefit of the high resolution

is

the

availability of a 132-column

by

50-line display

format

for electronic

spreadsheets like Victorcalc

and

Multiplan.

The

extra 52 columns

and

25 lines

make

a large table

much

easier to comprehend

and

reduce your

dependence

on

notoriously

volatile

human

memory. It should be

possible to

have

more

than

the stan-

dard

25 lines available for

word

pro-

cessing, too,

but

the

two

Victor

word-processing programs

that

I used

did

not

take advantage of the higher

resolution,

nor

did the third, which I

saw

but

did

not

use. Ph

oto

5 shows the Victor display with an assortment of character sets.

Photo

6 gives a taste

of the machine 's

breathtaking

graph-

ics capabilities,

and

photo

7 shows a scientific application of the high resolution.

The Victor

9000 uses the Hitachi

46505

CRT-

controller

chip

,

equivalent to a

Motorola

6845. A

separate

memory-arbitration

circuit

allows the

CRT

logic to access system

memory.

Together

the controller chip

and

the

memory-arbitration

circuit

minimize the demands

made

by

the

display

on

the processor

and

give the

displ

ay

logic access

to

the entire 128K

bytes of

on-board

RAM.

Two

hardware

registers contain

pointers to tell the

CRT

-controller

Photo

5: The

video

monitor

displaying characters

in

different fonts and sizes.

Photo

6: A graphics display

on

the Victor 9000 video monitor.

Photo

7:

A scientific application

of

the Victor 9000 video monitor.

236 November 1982 ©

BYTE

Publications Inc

chip

where

two

tables are located in

system

memory.

The

first table

is

called

screen

RAM

and

the second

table is called

dot

RAM.

These two

tables interact together

with

the CRT-

controller chip

to

produce

the display

on

the

monitor.

Just

how

they in-

teract depends

on

whether

you

are in

the

character

mode

or

the high-

resolution graphics

mode

.

In the

character

mode,

the screen

RAM

(which

is

really the 4K bytes of

static RAM) acts in a

manner

similar

to the refresh

RAM

of

modern

video

term

inals. The screen

RAM

in the

Victor

9000,

however,

uses a 16-bit

word

to represent each of the 2000

character

positions displayed

on

the

monitor:

7 bits define the character

according to its

ASCII value, 4 bits

can

be

thought

of

as font designators,

and

the remaining 5 bits determine the character's attributes (underscore, . reverse, etc.). In

order

to locate the

actual

dot

representation of the

character

in

dot

RAM, the 11 bits

defining the

character

and

font

are

then combined

with

the

pointer

that

points

to the

dot

RAM

by

the CRT-

controller chip.

Each

character

is

made

up

of 16

scan lines of

10 pixels (dots) each.

Dot

RAM

contains a pixel

map

of each

character

in the font, with a 16-bit

word

devoted to each of the 16 scan

lines of the

character

cell for a total

of

32 bytes

per

character.

Only

10 bits

of

each scan line

are

actually

displayed, however.

A 128-character font occupies

4K

bytes

of

dot

RAM,

and

multiple fonts

may

reside in

dot

RAM

simultaneous-

ly.

Thus

the entire process is similar

to

that

of

modern

video terminals ex-

cept

that

system RAM

is

used instead

of

a fixed

character

ROM

.

In graphics mode,

however,

the

process

is

different.

When

graphics

mode

is

entered, the screen

RAM

is

loaded

with

data

so

that

the CRT-

controller

chip is forced

to

cycle

through

1250 consecutive "character"

cells in

dot

RAM. Because the

dot

RAM

is actually system RAM,

you

can

then use this 40,000-byte area

(1250 cells, 32

bytes

per

cell) as a

bit

map

for high-resolution graphics ,

with

each of the 320,000

bits

being in-

dividually

addressable.

The

Victor 9000 can display

characters in half intensity, in reverse video, underscored,

or

blinking.

Brightness

and

contrast

of

the screen

as a whole

are

also

under

software

control.

Applications

programs

should therefore be able

to

manipu-

late these factors,

and

the Victor

operating systems themselves enable

you

to adjust brightness

and

contrast

from the

keyboard.

While software

control of brightness

and

contrast could be useful for achieving special visual effects, I found myself wishing

for

plain, old-fashioned

contrast

and

brightness

knobs

on

the

monitor.

Whenever

you

load

the

operating

system

, it resets brightness

and

con-

trast

to its

own

default values. Pre-

sumably

these default values

could

be

altered to suit individual taste,

but

otherwise

you

have

to

enter

a few

keystrokes

(pressing the

Alternate

key

along

with

the Brightness key

and

the

Contrast

key) to adjust the

monitor

whenever

you

reload

. the

system. This becomes a

minor

an-

noyance

if

you

're in a

hurry

.

D A T A

THE·SMALL

VOICE·HEARD

238 November 1982 ©

BITE

Publications Inc

Circle

117 on

inquiry

card .

110

Ports

The

two

standard

RS-232C serial

ports

on

the Victor

gaO\)

'nave

remarkable

versatility.

The

Intersil

7201

programmable

communications

chips

can

support

full-duplex asyn-

chronous

communications

, as can

most

serial

ports

on

other

microcom-

puters. But the

7201s can also

support

both

bisynchronous

communications

and

SDLC (synchronous

data

link control), a special kind of bisynchronous

communication

. Software

determines

which

type

of

com-

munication

the

ports

will

perform

and

at

what

speed (up to 19 .2 kbps

for

asynchronous

operations,

and

up

to 56

kbps

for bisynchronous) .

The significance of the Victor 9000's use of

7201 chips

is

that

you

will

probably

never

have

to

add

a special

board

to

communicate

with

another

computer

,

even

if

your

company

switches from

IBM to

DEC mainframes

or

vice

versa.

The

6522 parallel

ports

(designer

Peddle's favorites) are also

program-

mable. Certain pins

can

be selected

for

use as

interrupt

signals .

As

noted

earlier, one

port

has a

standard

Centronics-compatible 36-pin con-

nector

. A special 24-pin connector

and

appropriate

software

can

turn

this

port

into

an

IEEE-488 interface.

The

second parallel

port

has a 50-pin

KK-type

connector

on

the main

printed-circuit

board.

This

port,

called the user

port

, is also fully

pro-

grammable

.

Keyboard

The

Victor 9000 has a separate

keyboard

connected to the system

unit

by

a coiled cable

that

is

long

enough

to let

you

hold

the

keyboard

in

your

lap if

you

wish . A still longer

cable

(12

feet) is available as

an

op-

tion .

Three

keyboards

with

up

to 103

keys, all sculpted

and

most

with

auto-

repeat

capability

, are available

and

have

a soft

touch

that

is easy to adjust

to. Victor gives its

distributors

a utili-

ty

program

, KEYGEN,

that

programs

the

keyboard

without

requiring

knowledge

of

8088

assembl

y

language.

That

should

make

it possi-

ble for

distributors

to tailor the key-

board

for

any

application

that

a

:

em

owner

happens to have. For

------'

matter, since the

key

caps are

easy

to rearrange,

you

could

replace

the

standard

QWERTY

keyboard

layout

with the

Dvorak

(see

"A

Short

History of the

Keyboard"

by

Phil

Lemmons in this issue,

page

386),

and

the calculator-style numeric

pad

with

the

more

efficient

push-button

telephone arrangement.

Three principal models of the

keyboard

are

available:

one

for

pro-

grammers, one for

word

processing,

and

one called

"standard."

Some of

these leave 7

programmable

keys

free, some leave

10

free. But these

three models are only the beginning.

Like almost everything in the Victor

9000, the

keyboard

is "soft-tooled."

An

8048 8-bit microcomputer, which

has its

own

ROM,

translates the out-

put

of each key. Pressing

or

releasing

a

key

causes the generation of a code

corresponding to the key's location.

The

8048

constantly

scans the keyboard to detect changes in the state of

any

key. When the 8048 sees

a change, it generates

an

8-bit code .

WI

CAT

has

the

68000

While others are promising, WICAT Systems for nearly two years has been quietly delivering their complete

68000

computers. The

Sy

stem 150 is a popular desktop

computer with

large memory and

hard dis

k,

unmatched

in

price/

periormance The System

100 is

its expandable software compatible high pe

riorm ance companion.

Conc

urr

ent's integral

'"

database and menusystem greatly accelerate th

e development of applications Full

UNIX'M

System 3 with

no

compr

o-

mises

is

ready.

Conc

urrent can discuss your needs

and

help you

sele

ct the proper

configu

ra

tion. Please write or call

(513) 281-1270.

Seven bits identify the key ,

and

the

other

bit indicates the key's

new

state.

The

data

is

sent serially to a 6522

parallelllO

processor that interrupts

the central processor after receiving 8

bits.

The

8088 performs final inter-

pretation

of the keystroke using the

keyboard

table

produced

by

the

KEYGEN utility

and

then incor-

porated

into the operating system.

Victor's

system-generation

soft-

ware

enables

you

(or

Victor

distributors

and

offices) to construct

versions of the operating systems that

incorpor~te

different tables of key-

board

values. Several

standard

tables

to

support

specific

applications packages exist, such as a table that programs

the

~eyboard

for

Wordstar,

,

and

Victor's software-support people

can

construct

more

keyboard

tables

as the library of software grows.

It

is

conceivable for

two

people,

one using the QWERTY

keyboard

and

the

other

using the

Dvorak

keyboard,

to share the same machine

without

coming to blows. In

order

to

avoid

having to move the key caps

Motorota 68000. 256 K memory. 10MB

Win c hester

disk. 760KB floppy. termin al.

sys

tem softwar

e.

choice

of

Pasca

l.

FORTRAN.

C. Asse

mbler. BASI

C.

COBOL

Single

user

1S0-1 ... . . $

9ASO

Three

users

150-3

.....

$10,850

Six

users

150-6(512K) . $12,850

MU

LTI

BUS

IS a trademark of

INT

EL

Corpo

ration

UN

IX

IS

a tradema rk

of

Bel

l Laboratories

OPTIO NS: gr

aphiCS. prin

ter

s.

IEEE

488

instrumen-

tations Int

erface

. Vi

deod

isk controllers. AI D boards

Concu

rrent

Corporation

1870

Madison

Road

Cincinnati,

Ohio

45206

HIGH

PERFORMANCE MICROCOMPUTERS FOR SCIENCE & INDUSTRY

242 November 1982 ©

BYTE

Publications Inc

Circle

123 on inquiry card.

around

at

every change of user, the

two

people

would

have to have one

keyboard

each. All they

would

need

then

would

be

two

different versions

of the

operating

system, one incor-

porating

each

person

's

favorite

keyboard

table. Just plug in one

keyboard

and

load

one operating

system, then

unplug

the

first keyboard, plug in the second, and load

the second operating system.

The

change

would

take less than a

minute.

To

sum up, the Victor keyboard

has lots of keys

and

unsurpassed

adaptability.

Software

Operating

systems: Both

CP

/M-86

and

MS-DOS come with the machine

at

no

extra charge . Each

is

approx-

imately 40K bytes in size. Victor is

promising to offer

Unix for the Vic-

tor

9000 sometime in the first quarter

of 1983.

The

company

is

planning to

demonstrate it

at

COMDEX

(Las

Vegas) later this

month

.

Languages: Victor offers Digital

Research

CBASIC-86, Microsoft

GW-BASIC

,

Microfocus

CIS-

COBOL,

Microsoft

COBOL,

Microsoft FORTRAN,

and

Microsoft

Pascal.

GW-BASIC (GW for Gee

Whiz)

is

an enhanced version of

Microsoft

BASIC-86. It

is

the BASIC

that

runs

on

the IBM Personal Com-

puter.

Gregg Williams discussed it in

his January 1982

BYTE

article "A

Closer Look

at

the IBM Personal

Computer

" (page 36).

The

Victor ver-

sion of

GW-BASIC implements all the commands listed in that article except

On

Pen

and

On

Stri

g.

(On Pen enables handling input from a light pen .

On

Strig does the same for a

joystick.) Victor

GW-BASIC maps the color-related commands on the IBM Personal

Computer

to levels of

intensity

on

the Victor

monochrome

monitor

.

Microsoft

FORTRAN

is

an im-

plementation of

FORTRAN

77

and

requires 256K bytes of

RAM

. CIS-

COBOL

from

Microfocus

(with

Forms

2, Level

5)

is

an

ANSI

(American

National

Standards

Institute) high-intermediate-level version of

COBOL

and

runs in a

128K-byte

CP

/M-86 system. MS-

COBOL

is

an

ANSI intermediate-

level implementation

of the language

and

requires

MS-DOS

and

128K

bytes of RAM.

CBASIC-86 runs

under

CP 1M -86

and

requires 128K

bytes of

memory.

GW-BASIC re-

quires the same

amount

of

memory

and

MS-DOS. MS-Pascal

runs

under

MS-DOS

and

requires 256K bytes of

RAM.

Applications software:

The

applications software available directly from Victor

for

the Victor 9000 must

set some kind of record. A

variety

of

)I~

ATARI'

0·-

---

software

ultimately becomes avail-

able

for

every

popular

micro-

computer,

but

Victor

is

itself

pro-

viding a

variety

of correctly installed

software from the beginning.

Taking

into

account the variety of

human

taste, Victor

is

offering more

than

one

program

for the three kinds of

major

applications

that

almost everyone

needs:

word

processing, electronic

spreadsheets,

and

database manage-

ment.

For

word

processing, Victor offers

three different programs: Victor-

OI(l

DATA

,

All Prices Subject

To

Change

COMPUTERS

PRINTERS

ATARI

400K-16K -$289

80G-16K -

$649

410-$77

810-$429

830-$155 850-$159

ALTOS

5

-150 -$2249

5

-50 -$4599

NORTHSTAR

Advantage-$2600

Horizon

64QO-$2600

TELEVIDEO

802 -$2649

802H -$4999

806 -

$5249

800A -$1400

FRANKLIN

ACE 1000

$1099

244

November 1982 © BITE Publications Inc

OKIDATA

M80 -$305

M83A -$649

M82A -$399

w/Tractor & Gr

ap.

$479

M84P -

$999

M84S -

$1099

ANADEX

9500A -$1290

9501 A - $

1290

CITOH

F-10P -

$1370

F-10S -

$1479

1550P -

$659

Prowriter

1550CO -

$709

8510AP -$479

8510ACO -$570

DATASOUTH

OS120 -

$595

OS180 - $

1249

DIABLO

630RO-$1945

620-$1295

NEC

8023 -$469

7710 -$2350

3510-

$1949

7720 - $

2590

TI

810-

$1240

820-

$1795

Viewpoint -$485

HAZEL

TINE

1500-$995

ESPRIT -

$515

TELEVIDEO

910 -$569

925 -$718

920 -

$735

950

- $

899

ZENITH

Z19 -$699

~"""".,..."'"

Circ

le

185

on inquiry card.

writer

I (Select, from Select Informa-

tion

Systems),

Words

tar

(from

Micropro),

or

Victorwriter II (Bench-

mark,

from Metasoft). Select

is

easy

to learn,

but

Wordstar

seems

to

me to

do

more

and

run

faster. I haven't used

Benchmark

but

I've seen it in use ,

and

it seems to rival

Wordslar.

Victor also offers three electronic

spreadsheets : Victorcalc, a version of

Report Manager (from The Image

Pro-

ducers) , which has

an

optional train-

ing disk;

Multiplan (from Microsoft

),

said

to be quite

powe

rful;

and

Super-

calc (from Sorcim),

noted

for its very

effective

HELP feature.

At

this writing, Victor

is

shipping

only

one

database

management pro-

gram, dBase

II

(from Ashton-Tate) ,

but

Victor promises a second data-

base manager soon.

Condor

Com

-

puter

Corporation

does offer its

Con-

dor

Series 20 DBMS for the Victor

9000. Victor also offers the following

software: accounts receivable, accounts

payable, general ledger, pay-

roll, order processing,

inventory

control, purchase-order writing, timemanagement, project

mana

gement ,

pharmacy

management

, financial

and

banking

, installment lending, and

software

for managing a Victor

dealership. As

you

can

see, Victor

is pursuing some "vertical" markets (specialties such as

pharmacy

) as well

as

the "horizontal " markets (general

applications such as accounting and

word

processing).

Both bisynchronous

and

asyn-

chronous

communications software

are

on

the

way,

too.

Performance

in

BASIC

I was hoping to

have

a running version of GW-BASIC on the Victor 9000 in time for this review in order

to

run

some of

BYTE

's

benchmark

programs

. GW-BASIC

may

be

avail-

able as

you

read

this. (Microsoft

is

still adding

enhanc

ements .) Rather

than

wait, I

ran

the

benchmark

tests

under

the

version

of Microsoft

BASIC-86

that

Victor

was

using to

write some of its utilities

and

demon-

stration

programs.

While the resul-

tant

timings of the Victor 9000

prob

-

ably

give a

rough

idea of the Victor 's

capabilities,

you

hav

e to keep in mind

Times

Victor

9000

Radio S

hac\<.

BASIC·

86

5.21,

4·MHz Z80

TRS·80

Benchmark

MS·DOS 1.2 IBM

Applesoft

MBASIC

4.51

Mode

l II

Empty do·loop

7.7

6.43

6.66

5.81

7.98

Di

vision

21.8 23

.8

29

.0

24.9

19.4

Subroutine jump

16

.9

1

2.4

13

.9

9.4

1

7.

1

MID$ (substring)

24

.6

23.0 32.3

1

8.

6

24

.8

Prime·number program

197

.0

190.0 2

41

.0

151

.0

1

89

.0

Di

sk·write program

50.

3

32

.0

17

5.0

NA

246.0

Disk·read

program

21

.3

22

.9 217.0

NA

96.0

Table

2:

The

timings

of

several

microcomputers

in

running

seve n

BASIC

benchmark

program

s. The

computers

timed w ere the

Victor 9000

running

Microsoft

BASIC

-86 5.21

und

er MS-

DOS

1.2, the

IBM

Personal

Computer

running

IBM

Personal Com

put

er

BASIC

under

MS-DOS

1.0, the

Apple

II Plus running

Applesoft

BASIC, a 4-MHz

Z80

running

MBA

SIC

4.51,

and a Radi

o Sha

ck

TRS-80

Model

II

running

Model

II

BASIC. The listings

of

the first five be

nchma

rk prog

rams appeared

in

the

January 1

98

2

BYTE

with the review

of

the IBM Personal Computer. Th e disk- w rite and d isk-read progra

ms

are printed here as listings 1

and

2.

that

the BASIC used

was

not

the

stan-

dard

interpretive BASIC for this

machine. Also keep in

mind

that

the

timings for the IBM

Personal

Com-

puter

were

done

with

IBM BASIC, a

version of GW-BASIC

and

not

the

same as the BASIC used

on

the Victor

9000 in these tests. Both

the

IBM

Per-

sonal

Computer

and

the

Victor

9000

have

8088 processors; the IBM runs

at

4.77

MHz, the

Victor

9000

at

5

MHz. The

two

systems

have

dif-

ferent disk drives

and

controllers ,

which

may

account

for

the dif-

ferences in disk

I/O

benchmarkS. I've

run

the

benchmarks

on

the Victor

9000

under

MS-DOS,

since IBM

Per-

sonal

Computer

DOS

is

an

installa-

tion of MS-

DOS,

in

order

to

avoid

further

conf

using the issue.

Of

course, the

two

different installations

of

an

operating

system

that

is

fun-

damentally

the same

can

also leave

room

for differences in

performance

.

Having

offered all the foregoing

caveats, I

can

at

last refer

you

to

table

2, which

shows

the Victor 9000's

per-

formance

, alongside t

hat

of several

other

popular

microcomputers,

in

seven

benchmark

BASIC

programs

.

The

first five

benchmark

programs

are

list

ed

in Gregg Williams's article

in the

January

1982 BYTE. Listings 1

and

2 give the sixth

and

seventh

pro-

grams.

The

Victor 9000

performed

comparably

to the IBM

Personal

Computer-a

little slower

on

the

empty do-

loop

, a little faster on divi-

sion, a little slower

on the

subroutine

246 No

vember

1982 ©

BYTE

Publications Inc

jump,

about

the same on the string

operation, and

a little

slower

on

the

prime-number

program.

There

is

no

dramatic

difference

between

the IBM

Personal

Computer

, the

Radio

Shack

Model II,

and

the Victor 9000 in the

computational

benchmarks. The

4-

MHz

Z80 system still

does

best

overall!

However, dramatic

differences in

the disk-write

and

disk-read

bench-

marks

do

exist.

The

Victor

9000 writes a 64K-byte file in 50.3 seconds, almost

31/2

times faster

than

an

Apple

II

and

almost

5 times faster

than

a

TRS

-80

Model

II.

The

Victor

9000 reads a 64K-byte file in 21.3 seconds, roughly

10 times faster

than

an

Apple

II

and 41/2

times faster

than

a TRS-80

Model II.

The

IBM

Personal

Com-

puter

is

even . faster

than

the

Victor

9000 in the disk-write

test-32

.0

seconds

compared

to 50.3 seconds .

But the

Victor

reads the disk to verify

the

data

after

writin

g to disk; the IBM

does

not.

Subtracting

the Victor's

read

time (21 .3) from the

write-and-

read

time (50 .

3)

gives a "

write-only

"

time of 29 seconds,

or

3 seconds faster

than

the IBM Personal

Computer.

In

the disk-read test, the Victor

is

almost

2 seconds faster

than

the IBM

Per-

sonal

Computer.

Here

is

evidence

that

the IBM

Per

-

sonal

Computer

and Victor

9000 real-

ly

do

represent a

new

generation

of

microcomputer.

In terms of

computa-

tion, the

two

8088-based systems

don

't significantly

outs

trip their com-

petitors, but in disk

I/O,

none

of the

ot

her

computers

comes close to the

Victor

or

the IBM.

Whatever

the

reason-the

direct

memor

y access

(DMA),

something

about

the

pro-

cessors,

or

a generation 's experience

in

design-the

Vict

or

9000

and

the

IBM Personal

Computer

leave promi-

nent

8-bit systems

shown

in the table

far

behind

even

thoug

h the 8088 does

I/O

8 bits

at

a time, too.

Given the

truism

that

most

pro-

grams

are

"input!

output

bound

"-

that

is,

I/O

is a more

important

fac-

tor

in their overall

performance

than

is speed of

computation-the

choice

narrows

to the IBM

Personal

Com-

puter

and

the

Victor

9000.

And

then

the

choice

depends on

whether

greater

storage capacity

or

faster disk

output

is

more

important

to

you. The Victor 9000's verify-aFter-write disk I/O

accounts

for

its being

about

a

third

slower

than

the IBM Personal

Computer

in disk

output but also helps ensure reliability because the Victor

packs

almost

4 times the stor-

age of the IBM

on

disks of the same

size.

Marketing

and

Distribution

Victor is

supplementing

its

own

so

branch

offices

with

many

indepen-

dent

Victor 9000 dealers.

The

existing

network

of

branch

offices gives Vic-

tor

an

edge

over

most

of its com-

petitors. Victor

has

an

edge

over

IBM, ironically because of

somethin

g

that

Victor

doesn

't

have-compar-

Listing 1: A

BASI

C disk-write bench

mark

program tha t writ

es

a 64K-b

yte fil

e.

H l CLEl\R H

HlO

40 AS="1234567812345678123456781234

567

8"

60

B$=A$+A $

+l\$+l\$

80

NR=500

100 OPE

N "R

",

#1,

"TEST"

120 FIELD #1,

128

AS

Z$

140

FOR

I = 1

TO

NR

160

LSET Z$=B$

180

PUT

#1,

I

200

NEXT I

22

0 CLOSE

#l

24~

PRINT

"DO

NE"

Listing

2:

A

BASIC dis

k-read program that reads the file generat

ed

by the program in

listing

1.

10

CLEAR

1000

80

NR

=500

100

OPEN

fiR",

#1,

"TEST"

120

FIELD

#1,

128

AS

Z$

140

FOR

I =

NR

TO 1 S'l'EP

-1

160

GET

#1,

I

200

N

EXT

I

220

CLOSE

#l

248

PRINT

"DOl·j

E"

able

but

more

expensive

computers

whose

sales

must

be

protected.

While

IBM (at least, at the IBM

Product

Centers

where

I've

asked)

tells people

to

buy a Displaywriter

if

they

want

letter-quality

output

and

a first-rate

word-proce

ssing

program, Victor

is

eager

to

sell

good

word-processin

g

programs

and

to

sell

and

interface a

letter-quality

printer.

Maintenance and

Support

Victor

is offering

three

types

of

maintenance

service:

you

can

carry

y

our

system

to a

Victor

service

center, have

Victor

send

a messenger

to

swap

a failed

component, or

have

Victor

send a technician

to

repair

your

system

on

the

spot.

This

sur-

passes

IBM's service offerings ,

which

had

set a

new

standard

for

the in-

dustry

little

more

than a year

ago.

Victor

's

SO

branch

offices

are

gear-

ing

up

to

provide software

support

as

well

as

hardware

maintenance

.

Because

Victor

will

be

the

source

of

so

much software

on

its

own

machine,

software

support

should

be

easier

for

Victor

than

for

most

com-

panies. Furthermore, the soft-tooled design of the Victor

9000 makes it

easier

for

Victor

than

for

any

other

company

at

this

writing

to

adapt

its

system to

new

software.

The

Victor

branch

offices also sell

all the necessary supplies

for

the com-

puter-paper,

print

wheels, disks,

cables, dustcovers, etc.

Finally, Victor

has

a toll-free

number

to help dealers

with

any

problems in Victor-released software

and

another

toll-free

number

for

technical

support.

Optional

Hardware

Victor is

now

offering

both

doublesided floppy-disk drives, increasing storage to 2.4 megabytes,

and

a

separately housed Winchester

hard

disk, providing 10 megabytes (for-

matted) of storage.

For those

who

have

too

much

in-

vested in the 8-bit

world

to

say

good-

bye

, Victor will

recommend

a Z80 Ex-

ecutive

Card

that

runs

CP

1M 2.2

(8-bit)

programs

without

modifica-

tion.

Victor also sells a full range of

printers-letter

quality

(40 characters

per

second), inexpensive

dot

matrix

(80 cps),

and

high-speed

dot

matrix

(400 cps).

Reservations

I

do

have

a few reservations

about

the Victor 9000; there's

always

some-

thing . In principle, I

would

prefer a

computer

with

an

8086

and

a 16-bit

252

BYTE

Publications

Inc

data

bus. How

much' difference in

performance

this

would

really

make

we

still

don

't

know

. [For some indica-

tion of the difference, see BYTE's

Bits,

October

1982 BYTE, page

468 . .

..

M.

H.J I

would

prefer a

computer

with a standard

bus, par-

ticularly the $-100 bus so

that

existing

peripherals could be

added. Of

course, the IBM Personal

Computer

doesn't

use a

standard

bus

either,

and

Victor

, like IBM, is

making

available

technical information

about

its

bus

.

As I noted

earlier, I

would

prefer

brightness

and

contrast

knobs,

and

probably a knob

for

audio

volume

as well. But these are truly trivial considerations,

and

I can see the

advan-

tage of being able to

control

these

things with software.

I

would

like a

battery-based

clock-

calendar,

but a board

could

be

added

to provide that,

and

someone

will

probably

make

such a

board

if

Victor

doesn

't.

If

life

without

a joystick

and

light

pen

is for

you

without

joy

and

light,

then the Victor

9000 is

not

for

you.

(On

the

other

hand,

if

you

love these

sensory

I/O

devices,

you

would

probably

find the

CODEC

so fasci-

nating

that

you

wouldn't

rest until

you

'd taught the machine

to

yodel.)

You might fault the Victor

9000 for

not

having

standard

CP 1M-format

8-inch floppy disks,

but

few new sys-

tems

do,

and

Victor deliberately

chose

5%-inch drives to keep the

system's

"footprint"

small

and

packed

in

the

data

to

provide

double

the

storage

of a

standard

CP

1M single-

density 8-inch disk.

My

only serious reservation

about the Victor 9000 concerns the pricing of

hardware

options

and

software.

The

basic system price

is

better

than fair , especially because of the versatility of the

standard

hardware

. But

with

the double-sided floppy-disk

drives, the

Victor

9000 costs $5950,

almost

$1000

more

than

the price

with

single-sided drives.

The

128K-

byte

memory

expansion

board

costs

$800

if

you

order

it

with

the machine,

and

$895 if

added

later; the 384K-

byte

board

costs $2500

if

purcha

sed

with

the machine, and $2695

if

pur-

chased later.

The

$4495 price for the

10-megabyte

hard

disk includes the

controller

but

still seems high.

$0

many

hard

disks

are

available for the

IBM Personal

Comp

uter for

so

much

less money.

(Of

course, none of those

is from IBM.)

No

doubt, if

third-

party

suppliers

start

offering alternate

sources for

hardware,

these prices

will

drop.

As to

software

prices ,

Wordstar

is

$500

and

Mailmerge

is

an

additional

$200; Victorwriter II (Benchmark)

is

$645,

and

its mailing-list

program

is

another

$245. Victo rcalc,

Sup

ercalc,

and

Multiplan

each cost $300, which

seems reasonable

but

not

aggressive .

The

price of dBase

II

is $695,

and

that

seems reasonable

but

not

aggressi ve.

In

my

opinion,

more

aggressive mar-

keting

through

lower software prices

Circle 3

on

inquiry card.

Conclusion

would

help Victor gain a

wider

mar-

ket

and

establish itself as a

computer

compan

y.

The

other

side

of

the

coin

is

that

Victor does

have

the cost

of

maintain-

ing its

branch

offices

and

a high level

of support. Both

Sirius Systems Tech-

nology (which, in

collaboration

with

Victor, is

marketing

internationally

the Victor

9000

under

the

name

Sirius

I)

and

Victor have large

and

busy

software staffs installing three

operat-

ing systems

and

dozens of applica-

tions

programs.

Who

else

is

doing as

much?

The

Victor 9000 is

an

excellent microcomputer. The available service and

support

and

the machine 's ability

to fit

on

a typing table

make

the

machine

ideal

for

the

business

market.

The "soft-tooled"

hardware

makes the machine

adaptable

to

un-

foreseen external changes (such as

your

company's

home

office chang-

ing

mainframe

computers

and

expect-

ing

you

to be able to

communicate

with

the new one).

The

keyboard

has

a

good

feel, ample keys ,

and

adapt-

ability

that

approache

s the limit of

QUALITY

COMPUTER

FORMS

AT

PRICES

YOU

CAN

AFFORD

WE

SUPPORT

MORE

SYSTEMS

WITH

FORMS

THAN

ANYONE!

INVOICES

'STATEMENTS'

CHECKS' P.O. '

S'

SHIPPERS'

MEDICAL FORMS

INCOME

TAX

FORMS'W2'S'L

ETIERHEAD

Accounting Plus •

Peachtree • BPI • Open

Systems • Structured

Systems

•

Vector

Graphics.

Howard'

Radio

Shack·

Continental·

Designer'

Libra • Gol

d'

IMS • Alpha

Micro.

Cimarron·

Van

Data

• Durrango • Dynabyte •

Osborne.

Briareus •

MCBA • Apple.

Great

Plains'

Emeritus •

TCS

We Su

ppo

rt 215

Sys

tems Not Listed Here.

So

If

You Don't

See

Your

So

ftware Here Call Toll

Free

For A

Free

Sample Packet Of Forms

For

Your Software.

SHEERCUT

WORD

PROCESSING

LETTERHEAD

SHEER

CUT

LETTERHEAD

FROH

CHECKS TO-GO

USES A NEW PROCESS

TO

PR

ODU

CE

CONTINUOUS

FORM

PAPER

THAT

TRIM

S CLE

AN

WHEN BURST.

NORMAL

COMPUTER

PAPER

USES

FIVE

PERFORATIONS

PER

INCH, BUT

S

HEER

CUT

USES A NEW TEC

HNOLOGY

TO

PRODUCE

80

PERF

S OR

"TIES"

PER

INCH.

THIS

PRODUCES A VERY

CLEAN

AND

UNIFORM

ED

GE

WHEN

BURST,

AND

IS

ECONOMICAL

IN

BOTH

SMALL

AND

LARGE

QUANTITIES.

SHEER

CUT

IS

AVAILABLE

ON A STOCK

FORM

BASI

S

IN FOUR

"CLASSIC

LAID"

PAPERS,

OR

IN

ANY

TYPE

PAPER

ON

A

CUSTOM

ORDER.

EVERY

OTHER

FORM

CAN

BE

IMPRINTED

TO

PRODUCE

CONTINUOUS

FIRST

AND

SECOND

SHEETS.

BLANK

PRICES

ARE

$60

FOR

1,000,

$2

35

FOR

5,000

AND

$qOO

FOR

10,000,

WITH

•

,

'.

,

:.

,

~

.

,

:.

I

:.

I

:.

I

:.

I

:.

,

:.

,

:.

,

,.

,

'.

,

'.

,

:.

,

:.

,

IMPRINTING,

DEALER,

AND

VOLUME

PRICING

AVAILABLE

.

CONTINUOUS AND SNAP-OUT

TAX

FORMS

:.

) .

/.

Ca

ll

For Your Fr

ee

1982

Con

-

tinuous Tax Form catalouge,

.... ....

........

.

....

. ,,"" .

.....

/ .

/ . I I

:.

I

;·h

V'S4

:.

~~

~~~

=-

~~~~~

~

\

Booth

927

~Checks

To-Go

CALL

TOLL

FREE

NOW:

(800)

854-2750

IN

CA

(800)

552 -

8817

I

(714)

460-4975

~

838

4 Hercul

es St.

• P.O.

Box

425 • La Mesa,

CA

920

41 •

r:~.

'- Your Assurance

of

Value and Service.

~

254

Circ le

75

on inquiry card.

logical possibility.

The

video

monitor

would

make

your

eyes

applaud

if

anatomy

permitted. Mass s

torage

,\;

ample

and

reliable .

The

Victor

9000's

abundance

of

standard

hardware

means

that

your

fou r expansion slots

are

really free ; even

with

896K bytes

of

RAM

, two slots remain free. You

could

have

all

that

memory,

a Win-

chester

controller, and a network

in-

terface

board

without

the

added

bulk

and

expense

of

an expansion

chassis.

The

company

is

offerin

g a

remarkable

range of software, in-

cluding

more

than

one

program

for

word

processing, spreadsheet calcula-

tions,

and

(soon)

database

man

age-

ment.

You

can personalize the

computer

with

the utilities for

programming

the

keyboard

and

designing

character

fonts for the display.

The

CODEC voice-outpu,t system stimulates the imagination, especially

when

and

if

an

input

board

comes

alon

g. Will

Victor

design

software

that

enables

the Victor

9000 to read a

letter

aloud

in

a real

human

voice while you

proofread

the final copy? Will the

Victor

9000

support

spoken electronic

mail? Will

Victor

enhance the time-

management

progr

am

with

polite

spoken

reminders?

Given the choice

between

an

IBM

Personal

Computer

with

two

of its

standard

floppy-disk drives

and

a

Victor

9000

with

two of its

standard

floppy-disk drives, I

would

take the

Victor

9000.

The

Victor is clearly

superior

in

quali

ty of

display

,

amount

of

standard

memory

, stan-

dard

number

and

versatility of 110

ports, and

number

of available ex-

pansion

slots.

The

prices of Victor's

memory

boards

and

Winchester disk ,

however,

would

give me

pause

and

may

hamper

Victor's marketing ef-

fort.

Finally,

two

intangible reasons for

buying

a Vict

or

9000 deserve men-

tion

. First, the

Victor

9000 is

everything

to Victor Business

Prod-

ucts,

not

the

"low

end" of a long line

of

computers. Second,

owners

of the

Victor

9000 will

have

the pleasure of

knowing

that

new

products

and enhancements for their machine will be

coming

from

a design team headed

by

Chuck

Peddle .•