peelings-ii-v4n1-1983

DTACKThe 68000DREAM MACHINEWE (SORT OF) LIED:Motorola has been promoting its advanced microprocessorchip as a vehicle for large, complex systems exclusively.Now, the 68000 does work well as the heart of big, complexsystems. But their promotional literature implies that onecan only build big, complex systems with the 68000, and thatis dead wrong (in our opinion). Nevertheless, the public(that's you!) perception of the 68000 follows Motorola's line:Big systems. Complex systems.Our boards are not complex and not necessarily big (startingat 4K). Our newsletter is subtitled "The Journal of Simple68000 Systems." But since the public has become conditionedto the 68000 as a vehicle for FORTRAN, UNIX, LISP,PASCAL and SMALLTALK people naturally expect all thesewith our $595 (starting price) simple attached processor.Wrong!We wrote our last ad to understate the software we haveavailable because we wanted to get rid of all those guys whowant to run (multi-user, multi-tasking) UNIX on their Apple IIand two floppy disks. Running UNIX using two 143K floppiesis, well, absurd. The utilities alone require more than 5megabytes of hard disk.HERE'S THE TRUTH:We do have some very useful 68000 utility programs. One ofthese will provide, in conjunction with a suitable BASIC compilersuch as PETSPEED (Pet/CBM) or TASC (Apple II), a fiveto twelve times speedup of your BASIC program. If you haveread a serious compiler review, you will have learned thatcompilers cannot speed up floating point operations(especially transcendentals). Our board, and the utility softwarewe provide, does speed up those operations.Add this line in front of an Applesoft program:5 PRINT CHR$(4);"BLOADUTIL4,A$8600":CALL38383That's all it takes to link our board into Applesoft (assumingyou have Applesoft loaded into a 16K RAM card). Now runyour program as is for faster number-crunching or compile itto add the benefit of faster "interpretation". Operation withthe Pet/CBM is similar.68000 SOURCE CODE:For Apple II users only, we provide a nearly full disk of unprotected68000 source code. To use it you will have to haveDOS toolkit ($75) and ASSEM68K ($95), both available fromthird parties. Here's what you get:1) 68000 source code for our Microsoft compatible floatingpoint package, including LOG, EXP, SQR, SIN , COS, TAN,ATN along with the basic four functions. The code is set up towork either linked into BASIC or with our developmentalHALGOL language. 85 sectors.2) 68000 source code for the PROM monitor. 35 sectors.3) 68000 source code for a very high speed interactive 3-Dgraphics demo. 115 sectors.4) 68000 source code for the HALGOL threaded interpreter.Works with the 68000 floating point package. 56 sectors.5) 6502 source code for the utilities to link into the BASICfloating point routines and utility and debug code to link intothe 68000 PROM monitor. 113 sectors.The above routines almost fill a standard Apple DOS 3.3 floppy.We provide a second disk (very nearly filled) with variousutility and demonstration programs.SWIFTUS MAXIMUS:Our last advertisement implied that we sold 8MHz boards tohackers and 12.5MHz boards to businesses. That was sort oftrue because when that ad was written the 12.5MHz 68000was a very expensive part (list $332 ea). Motorola has nowdropped the price to $111 and we have adjusted our prices accordingly.So now even hackers can afford a 12.5MHz 68000board. With, we remind you, absolutely zero wait states.'Swiftus maximus'? Do you know of any othermicroprocessor based product that can do a 32 bit add in 0.48microseconds?AN EDUCATIONAL BOARD?If you want to learn how to program the 68000 at theassembly language level there is no better way than to haveone disk full of demonstration programs and another disk fullof machine readable (and user-modifiable) 68000 sourcecode.Those other 'educational boards' have 4MHz clock signals(even the one promoted as having a 6MHz CPU, honest!) sowe'll call them slow learners. They do not come with anysignificant amount of demo or utility software. And they communicatewith the host computer via RS 232, 9600 baud max.That's 1 K byte/sec. Our board communicates over a parallelport with hardware AND software handshake at 71 Kbytes/sec! We'll call those other boards ha~dicappedlearners.Our board is definitely not for everyone. But some people findit very, very useful. Which group do you fit into?DIGITAL ACOUSTICS1415 E. McFadden, Ste. FSanta Ana, CA 92705(714) 835-4884Apple, Applesoft and Apple II are trademarks of Apple Computer Company. Pet is a trademark of Commodore Business Machines.