Agat (computer)

The Agat () was a series of 8-bit computers produced in the Soviet Union. It used the same MOS Technology 6502 microprocessor as Apple II and Commodore 64. Commissioned by the USSR Ministry of Radio, for many years it was a popular microcomputer in Soviet schools. First introduced at a Moscow trade fair in 1983, the Agat was primarily produced between 1984 and 1990, although a limited number of units may have been manufactured as late as 1993. By 1988, about 12,000 units were produced, over 9 months of 1989 — about 7,000.
Architecture and design.
The Agat was inspired primarily by Apple II, though being largely different from it in design. A domestically produced "partitioned 588 series" CPU was used on early pre-production series, which simulated the MOS Technology 6502 microprocessor instruction set. While this permitted some degree of compatibility with the Apple, timing differences between the two CPUs rendered certain tasks (such as floppy disk access and sound generation) impossible. Later models incorporated actual MOS 6502 CPUs which permitted a greater degree of interoperability between the two platforms.
Early editions of the Agat came with a cassette tape reader and a keyboard, although later editions replaced the tape reader with a 5¼ inch floppy disk drive. The keyboard utilised the standard Russian keyboard layout, and offered a choice between either Cyrillic or Latin symbols. Earlier models had very limited upgradeability, but later models incorporated additional upgrade and peripheral slots to allow expansion. Other available peripherals included a printer, mouse, and memory upgrades. The display was provided through a 30 cm Secam television, rather than a specialised computer monitor, that was connected to the rest of the machine through a 1 metre long cable.
Editions.
Apart from the initial model, there were a number of different versions of the Agat produced:
Production.
The initial run of Agat-4 machines were produced at the "Lianozovsky Electromechanical Plant" (LEMZ). Production was difficult, as the LEMZ facilities were more intended for the production of motor vehicles and radar equipment, rather than computers, and the administration of the plant was not closely associated with the designers of the Agat. Future production runs occurred at more appropriate facilities such as the "Volzhsky Plant of Computer Technology" (EWT) and the "Zagorski Electromechanical Plant" (ZEMZ).
Usage.
Compared to other computers available in the Soviet Union at the time, the Agat was several times cheaper, which led to its widespread adoption in schools and other educational institutions across the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc. This is reflected in the fact that most of the software available for the Agat is of an educational nature—including a BASIC interpreter, text editing programs, and the "Shkol'nitsa" ("schoolgirl") package, designed to assist teachers in the classroom.
The official selling price for the Agat was 3,900 rubles, as much as twenty times the average monthly salary, which put it out of reach of all but the most privileged of private individuals.
Reception.
"BYTE" in November 1984 called Agat "a bad copy of the Apple". While stating "my overall impressions were favorable, considering the source", the reviewer found that "the operating system and ROM seemed to be a direct lift from the Apple", the internals were a "nightmarish wire maze", and that performance was noticeably slower than that of a real Apple. He reported that ELORG planned to sell the computer (with software) for $17,000, and that its officials were "shocked" when told how much computing power that amount of money would purchase in the United States. The reviewer concluded, "it wouldn't stand a chance in today's international market, even if they gave it away. It has neither the polish nor the sophistication to compete".
Yuri Rogachyov, one of the key figures in the history of the Soviet computer industry, co-founder of M-series computers, and head of the Scientific Research Institute of Computer Complexes in 1983—1988, stated that Agat computers were not produced at the time when the "BYTE" reviewer arrived in the Soviet Union, and that what he saw during a visit to the Fyodorov Eye Microsurgery Complex in Moscow in 1982 was a custom-built mock-up device intended for testing and debugging medical software, bearing little relation to even the early Agat systems.


Back to My Mac

Back to My Mac was a feature introduced with Mac OS X Leopard (10.5) that uses Wide-Area Bonjour to securely discover services across the Internet and automatically configure ad hoc, on-demand, point-to-point encrypted connections between computers using IPsec. The current version of the feature requires users to have iCloud set up, as well as an Apple ID.
Due to its generality, "Back to My Mac" can work for many Bonjour-enabled services, not just Screen Sharing (similar to Apple Remote Desktop) and File Sharing. Users must have a router that supports either Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) or NAT Port Mapping Protocol (NAT-PMP) with either of those features enabled in their connected router. It uses UDP port 4500 for point-to-point IPsec connections (which may be mapped to different UDP ports on the public side of a NAT router).
As of October 12, 2011, Apple has included "Back to My Mac" in its iCloud service rather than the previously used MobileMe, thus making it free to use.
On August 9, 2018, Apple updated a support document to note that "Back to My Mac" would not be part of the macOS Mojave (10.14) release. The support document was updated again on May 31, 2019 to indicate that "Back to My Mac" services would be discontinued for all other versions of macOS as of July 1, 2019.
Uses.
Back to My Mac can be used to edit and transfer files from one Mac to another. In one instance an Apple Store employee used this technology to capture the image of a person who stole a MacBook, using the built in iSight webcam.


Antix (video game)


Armored Fist 2

Armored Fist 2 is a video game developed and published by Novalogic for the PC, released in 1997.
Gameplay.
"Armored Fist 2" is a tank simulation and strategy game with over 50 missions in Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East.
Reception.
"Armored Fist 2" was the best-selling simulation of tank warfare released in 1997. In the United States, it sold 26,961 copies and earned $1.21 million that year.


Bubble Ghost

Bubble Ghost is an action video game originally created by Christophe Andréani for the Atari ST and published by ERE Informatique in 1987. The player controls a ghost who guides a floating bubble by blowing on it.
Gameplay.
The objective is to guide a bubble throughout a number of halls in a haunted house. If the bubble hits any walls or obstacles, then it will pop and the player loses a life. Obstacles include lit candles, electricity and fans. These can be all controlled by the ghost, who can wander around the level freely and blow at things - such as the bubble to add speed, the candle to put out the flame, or switches to turn them on or off.
The ghost is controlled using the mouse. A press on the left button of the mouse makes the ghost rotate to the left. A press on the right button of the mouse makes the ghost rotate to the right. A press on a keyboard key (Shift) makes the ghost blow.
The game is made of 35 halls (levels). Each time the player makes the bubble exit a hall, he wins 1000 points + left bonus. Action on animation may add 5000 points to the player. The bonus is re-initialized at every new hall. A new bubble is added to the player account each time the bubble exits towards the top of the hall.
Ports.
The original "Bubble Ghost" was created by Christophe Andréani (design, programming) on an Atari ST computer. The game has been adapted for other computers throughout the world.
Some years later, ERE Informatique was bought by Infogrames. Infogrames published a new version of "Bubble Ghost" with updated graphics, "Bubble +" ("Bubble Plus").
A Game Boy version was published in 1990. It was the first French game adapted for the Game Boy.
Development.
The game was programmed in C (editor and compiler: Megamax C) and 68000 assembly language on an Atari 1040 ST computer. The graphics were made with the Degas Elite drawing software. The digital sound of the introductory page of the game ("Welcome to Bubble Ghost") was built using ST Replay. This is the author's voice. The other sound effects use the synthesizer inside the Atari ST.
Here are some notes from the author when creating the game:
Reception.
The following French magazines have published "Bubble Ghost" review:
Following US magazine has published "Bubble Ghost" review:
Following French magazines have published "Bubble +" ("Bubble Plus") review:


The Manhole

The Manhole is an adventure video game in which the player opens a manhole and reveals a gigantic beanstalk, leading to fantastic worlds.
Summary.
The game was first released on floppy disks in 1988 by Cyan, Inc. (now "Cyan Worlds") and distributed through mail order. In 1989, it was produced for Activision as a CD-ROM version based on the floppy disk game. This version was the first computer game distributed on CD-ROM (although there had already been two games released in late 1988 in Japan for NEC's PC Engine game console on its CD-ROM² format). It runs in black-and-white on the Apple Macintosh line of computers. It was created using the HyperTalk programming language by brothers Rand and Robyn Miller, who founded the company Cyan and would go on to produce the best-selling adventure game "Myst". The Manhole was later also released for the PC Engine and FM Towns.
The game was re-released for MS-DOS twice, once in 1992 by Activision as "The Manhole: New and Enhanced" (including a Windows 3.1 version) and again in 1995 as "The Manhole: CD-ROM Masterpiece Edition" by Broderbund which featured the use of color, music, voice, sound effects, and some new characters. Cyan artist Chuck Carter designed all of the color graphics in about 3 months using StrataVision 3D. In 2007, the game was released on GameTap. As of February 2011 the game is available from Good Old Games, iTunes, and as part of the "Cyan Complete Pack" on Steam.
"The Manhole" is a notable computer game because like Cosmic Osmo and Spelunx it has no goal and no end; as a software toy the object is simply to explore and have fun.
Reception.
Describing "The Manhole" as "the first children's software to require a hard disk", "Macworld" in March 1989 stated that its "realistic sounds, the fantasy-filled graphics, and the stack construction are truly impressive". The magazine "highly recommended [the game] for young children[, and] it's hard to imagine a playful soul of any age who wouldn't enjoy exploring the mind-tickling world inside The Manhole".
"The Manhole" won a Software Publishers Association Excellence in Software Award in 1989 for Best New Use of a Computer.


Zipit wireless messenger (Z2)

The Zipit wireless messenger is a small clamshell device originally produced by Aeronix, which is now under the spin-off Zipit Wireless, Inc., that enables Instant Messaging (AOL Instant Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, MSN Messenger). The newer Z2 also supports SMS while on Wi-Fi wireless networks. The Zipit Wireless Messenger received the iParenting Media Award in 2005 and the Zipit Z2 was awarded “DigitalLife 2007 Best of Show – Portable Gear” by PC Magazine. The Z1 was also recognized by the InnoVision Technology Awards as an award winner in the Technology Application category. They are $49.99.
Geekcorps, a humanitarian organization trying to bridge the Digital Divide has proposed the Zipit as a leading low-cost communication device.
Z2.
On Sept. 27, 2007, Zipit Wireless introduced the Zipit wireless messenger 2 (Z2). It has
The Z2 runs Linux.
Homebrew.
A number of people have run Linux on the Z2. The most common implementation uses Debian with the Fluxbox window manager. This installation supports mouse emulation, the dillo web browser, pidgin, and other Linux programs.


General purpose analog computer

The General Purpose Analog Computer (GPAC) is a mathematical model of analog computers first introduced in 1941 by Claude Shannon. This model consists of circuits where several basic units are interconnected in order to compute some function. The GPAC can be implemented in practice through the use of mechanical devices or analog electronics. Although analog computers have fallen almost into oblivion due to emergence of the digital computer, the GPAC has recently been studied as a way to provide evidence for the physical Church–Turing thesis. This is because the GPAC is also known to model a large class of dynamical systems defined with ordinary differential equations, which appear frequently in the context of physics. In particular it was shown in 2007 that (a deterministic variant of) the GPAC is equivalent, in computability terms, to Turing machines, thereby proving the physical Church–Turing thesis for the class of systems modelled by the GPAC.
This was recently strengthened to polynomial time equivalence.
Definition and history.
The General Purpose Analog Computer was originally introduced by Claude Shannon. This model came as a result of his work on Vannevar Bush's differential analyzer, an early analog computer. Shannon defined the GPAC as an analog circuit consisting of five types of units: adders (which add their inputs), multipliers (which multiply their inputs), integrators, constant units (which always output the value 1), and constant multipliers (which always multiply their input by a fixed constant "k"). More recently, and for simplicity, the GPAC has instead been defined using the equivalent four types of units: adders, multipliers, integrators and real constant units (which always output the value "k", for some fixed real number "k").
In his original paper, Shannon presented a result which stated that functions computable by the GPAC are those functions which are differentially algebraic.


Track0

Track0 (pronounced 'track zero') is the area located at the start of a computer disk and is predominantly used to store information regarding the layout of the disk (the partition table) and executable code needed to boot an operating system. Track0 typically consists of the first 64 sectors of the disk (since each sector is normally 512 bytes, this corresponds to 32,768 bytes = 32KiB). Since the first sector of a disk is sector zero, the first 64 sectors are sectors 0 to 63.
The first sector of Track0 is known as the master boot record (MBR) and contains the initial code used to boot the operating system (bootstrap code). Near the end of the MBR is the Partition Table: a predefined structure containing the layout of the disk.
Track0 is also increasingly used to store licensing information for particular pieces of software because it is an area of the disk outside of the OS filesystem and not seen or used by most computer users (and therefore cannot be easily modified or replicated).
The origins of Track0 came about from the original specifications of PCs, where computer hard disks were defined in terms of Cylinders, Heads and Sectors (CHS system). In this context, Track0 was defined to be all the sectors on the first cylinder and first head. As with many (now legacy) original PC specifications, the terminology stuck and the first 63 sectors of modern hard disks are still referred to as Track0. Track0 is physically located on the outer edge of the disk platter.
Track0 is also the name of a terminate-and-stay-resident MS-DOS program that allows users to revive floppy disks with defective first tracks by swapping it with another track under the hood. With DOS, the first track of a floppy disk is used to store system information. If the first track is defective, the whole disk becomes unusable. Track0 tries to work around this limitation.
While it was the first program of its kind, Track0 entered the game when the use of floppy disks had already declined. Even so, a plethora of similar programs appeared shortly after the release of Track0.


Apple Pugetsound Program Library Exchange

The Apple Pugetsound Program Library Exchange (A.P.P.L.E.) is a users' group established in 1978 by Val Golding.
History.
The group provided software, hardware and support services for the Apple world until 1990. Val Golding left the group in 1984 and the group became a Co-Operative in 1985.
From 1990 to 2001, the group existed as a user's group only providing support to local northwest computer users. In 2001, Bill Martens began to look into the possibility of preserving the information associated with the company and in contacting many of the former writers, board members and staff, found that there was an interest in preserving and rebuilding the company. Thus in February 2002, this effort began in earnest with the production of Call-A.P.P.L.E. Magazine being restored once again.
Purpose.
A.P.P.L.E. is an all-volunteer Apple / Macintosh users group. None of the members of the board or of the staff are paid; they dedicate their time to this project for the love of the computer world.
While much of the current group is still based in the Seattle area, production is now handled in Japan and Canada.
The purpose of the group is to provide information, software, hardware, documentation, and support to all levels of users regardless of the Apple computer that they are using. For those members who wish to support our efforts can check the section below on volunteering. We always encourage the enhancement of the "user helping user" concept and continue to believe that this is the best way for those who need help to gain the assistance they need.
The A.P.P.L.E. is one of the oldest official Apple Users Groups in existence and specializes in providing users with usable freeware and shareware. They also publish their magazine, "Call-A.P.P.L.E.", on a monthly basis in addition to online libraries.
Publications.
A.P.P.L.E. has published numerous books over the years, most related to modifying or programming the Apple II and Apple /// series of computers. The first book published by the group was the personal notes of Steve Wozniak and Randy Wigginton. The 300 plus pages were photocopied and the "Wozpak" was produced complete with program tape. The book was later typeset and reproduced as the "Wozpak][" with floppy disk.
Other books included the "Call-A.P.P.L.E. In Depth" series and the "Call-A.P.P.L.E. Compendium" series which were primarily related to the source code listings from the magazines. Most of these books included floppies classified in the Anthology series. The Anthology disks were mostly Applesoft and Integer basic programs from the monthly issues of Call-A.P.P.L.E. magazine. The 1981 Pascal anthology was produced by current A.P.P.L.E. president Bill Martens. Most of these books and software are still available today in CD or DVD format.
A.P.P.L.E. has produced 19 volumes of "Call-A.P.P.L.E." magazine from 1978 to 1990 and 2002 to 2007. The magazine is produced on a monthly basis and contains information about all aspects of Apple computers all the way from the Apple-1 to the latest Macintosh computers with Mac OS X.
A.P.P.L.E. has also produced other publications over the years including "/// Cheers!" (1984–1985), "32 Little Apples" (1984–1986), "Mac A.P.P.L.E." (1986–1988), "Mac Horizons" (1988–1989), "The APDA Log" (1984–1989), "The Mac Tech Quarterly" (1989–1990) and the "Co-Op Spirit" (1991–1994).


Wmii


Nine Princes in Amber (video game)

Nine Princes in Amber is an interactive fiction computer game with graphics. The game was published by Telarium, a subsidiary of Spinnaker Software, in 1985. The game is based upon the fantasy novels "Nine Princes in Amber" and "The Guns of Avalon" by Roger Zelazny.
Gameplay.
The single-player adventure is controlled via typed keyboard commands. Words and sentences are entered in a text parser. The player uses action commands (e.g. take, sit) and communication commands (e.g. ask, demand, hug) for the interaction with non-player characters. There are 40 different possible solutions to end the game.
Plot.
The plot takes place in a fictional fantasy world. The player prince Corwin is the son of king Oberon, who rules the kingdom of Amber. Corwin wants to become king but his eight brothers, especially his brother Eric, are also interested in the throne of Amber. Prince Corwin must escape assassination attempts and intrigues enacted by his siblings, and yet must forge alliances with some of his siblings to become the reigning king of Amber.
Development.
The adventure has static 2d graphics, a theme song and sound effects. It was implemented for the C 64, DOS, Atari ST, MSX2 and Apple II. The MSX2 version is a translation into Spanish ("Nueve Principes en Amber") with new illustrations. The game is based upon the fantasy novels Nine Princes in Amber (Doubleday 1970) and The Guns of Avalon (Doubleday 1972) by Roger Zelazny. It was developed by a group of 20 people at Spinnaker Software and published by Telarium (1985). The design, writing, and game coding was done by Andrea Bird.
Reception.
In the year 1986 a German reviewer called "Nine Princes in Amber" a precious adventure ("Edel-Adventure"). He praised the intelligent writings, the suspenseful storyline and the text parser.
In 2006 a study about the history of interactive fiction maintained, that on the one hand Nine Princes in Amber "is not a bad game – in fact, it is one of Telarium’s best, and working out the conversational 'puzzles' can actually be oddly satisfying at times". On the other hand, the authors "seemed to be aiming so much higher." They wanted to create a very ambitious gameplay. Because of hardware constraints in the 1980s and general limitations of character interaction in interactive fiction they were not able to actualize this aim completely. "Antic" in 1987 stated that the game had "uneven plot pacing and content ranging from the exciting to the banal". The magazine criticized the port from 8-bit computers not fully using the Atari ST's more powerful graphics and sound, and "substandard" text parser. The reviewer described the game as "essentially a computerized 'Classics Illustrated' adaptation of the books rather than an adventure game in the Infocom or even Scott Adams tradition", stating that he finished it in "about two (interrupted) hours". After finishing the game, however, he found that reloading saved games to see another of the 40 endings was interesting. The reviewer concluded that "this game comes up short. It's simply not interesting or well-executed enough to be recommended", suggesting that readers buy "The Pawn" instead.


Z shell

The Z shell (Zsh) is a Unix shell that can be used as an interactive login shell and as a command interpreter for shell scripting. Zsh is an extended Bourne shell with many improvements, including some features of Bash, ksh, and tcsh.
History.
Paul Falstad wrote the first version of Zsh in 1990 while a student at Princeton University. The name "zsh" derives from the name of Yale professor Zhong Shao (then a teaching assistant at Princeton University) — Paul Falstad regarded Shao's login-id, "zsh", as a good name for a shell.
Zsh was at first intended to be a subset of csh for the Commodore Amiga, but expanded far beyond that. By the time of the release of version 1.0 in 1990 the aim was to be a cross between ksh and tcsh – a powerful "command and programming language" that is well-designed and logical (like ksh), but also built for humans (like tcsh), with all the neat features like spell checking, login/logout watching and termcap support that were "probably too weird to make it into an AT&T product".
Zsh is available as a separate package for Microsoft Windows as part of the UnxUtils collection of native Win32 ports of common GNU Unix-like utilities.
In 2019, macOS Catalina adopted Zsh as the default login shell, replacing the aging GPLv2 licensed version of Bash, and when Bash is run interactively on Catalina, a warning is shown by default.
In 2020, Kali Linux adopted Zsh as the default shell since 2020.4 release.
Features.
Features include:
Oh My Zsh.
A user community website known as "Oh My Zsh" collects third-party plug-ins and themes for the Z shell. As of 2019, their GitHub repository has over contributors, over 250 plug-ins, and over 140 themes, of varying quality. It also comes with an auto-update tool that makes it easier to keep installed plug-ins and themes updated.


Justin Bieber on Twitter


Vizastar

Vizastar was the first integrated software package for the Commodore 64 home computer. At the time of its introduction it was the only package for the C64 with features comparable to Lotus 1-2-3, including spreadsheet, database and graphics components. It had the ability to split or merge files between the database and spreadsheet components and could split the screen into up to nine windows.
To alleviate the C64's somewhat limited memory capacity when running complex software, Vizastar included a ROM cartridge that provided an additional 4K RAM and also served as a form of copy protection. This allowed the program to remain compatible with third-party floppy disk drives for the C64, such as the Indus GT and MSD Super Disk, unlike many copy protected packages. Commodore serial printers were supported, as were RS-232 and Centronics printers with the appropriate interface.
The spreadsheet had a maximum size of 1000 rows by 64 columns, or 64,000 cells, but because only about 10k of memory was left available after the program was loaded, not all the cells could be used. The additional cells provided flexibility in the dimensions of the spreadsheet. The spreadsheet module had a macro feature that could execute a series of commands at once.
The database had a capacity of 1200 fields, which could each hold 124 characters. In order to keep down the programs memory requirements, it was necessary to export a database to the spreadsheet module in order to sort it.
It was later ported to the Commodore 128.
Reception.
"Commodore Microcomputers" stated that ""Vizastar" packs so much muscle into the 64 that it is hard to believe you're running it on a 64K machine". The reviewer approved of the software's speed, "excellent documentation", and use of windows to show multiple portions of a document. He concluded, "I ... could find no major weaknesses. It seems to be a 64 application program beyond reproach ... "Vizastar" is an all-star!" "Compute!'s Gazette" said "There's nothing quite like "Vizastar 128" for the Commodore 128 ... Each application, if available separately, would be a good solid program". The magazine concluded that it was "a gem of a program", and "as close as it comes" to Lotus 1-2-3 for the 128. "Info" said of Vizastar 128, "Despite minor quirks this is a powerhouse program with few of the compromises normally associated with integrated programs". The magazine added that if the company could combine it with Vizawrite Classic, "it would become the Commodore 128 Appleworks".


IBM System i

The IBM System i is a family of midrange computers from IBM. It was first introduced as the AS/400 (Application System/400) in June 1988, alongside the OS/400 operating system. It was intended as the successor to IBM's System/36 and System/38 platforms. Early AS/400 systems used the same IMPI architecture as the System/38, but later systems moved to the PowerPC-based IBM RS64.
It was re-branded multiple times by IBM - first as the AS/400 Advanced Series in 1994, followed by AS/400e (the "e" standing for e-business) in 1997, eServer iSeries in 2000, eServer i5 (along with OS/400 becoming i5/OS) in 2004, and finally System i in 2006.
In April 2008, System i and System p were consolidated into the IBM Power Systems platform. The i5/OS operating system was rebranded to IBM i, and retained full backwards compatibility with the previous hardware platforms.
Summary.
The predecessor to AS/400, IBM System/38, was first made available in August 1979 and was marketed as a minicomputer for general business and departmental use. It was sold alongside other product lines, each with a different architecture (System/3, System/32, System/34, System/36).
Realizing the importance of compatibility with the thousands of programs written in legacy code, IBM launched the AS/400 midrange computer line in 1988. AS stands for "Application System." Great effort was made during development of the AS/400 to enable programs written for the System/34 and System/36 to be moved to the AS/400. Programs on the System/38 were directly compatible with the new AS/400 (after they were 're-encapsulated' by the operating system).
In 2000, in accordance with IBM's eServer initiative, the AS/400 series was rebranded as the eServer iSeries. In 2006, it was again rebranded as the IBM System i. In 2008, almost 20 years after being introduced, the System i and IBM System p product lines were combined into a new product line called the IBM Power Systems line.
The AS/400 operating system was originally named OS/400 (following the pattern begun with OS/360 and followed with OS/2). The operating system has undergone name changes along with the rebranding of IBM's server lineup. The operating system was rebranded as i5/OS to correspond with the introduction of POWER5 processors and the rebranding of the hardware to eServer iSeries. In 2008, the operating system was rebranded to IBM i, with the introduction of the IBM Power Systems.
The operating system is object-based. Features include a RDBMS (DB2/400), a menu-driven interface, support for multiple users, block-oriented terminal support (IBM 5250), and printers. IBM i has built-in security, and support for communications, and web-based applications which can be executed inside the optional IBM WebSphere Application Server or as PHP/MySQL applications inside a native port of the Apache web server.
Unlike the "everything is a file" feature of Unix and its derivatives, on IBM i everything is an object (with built-in persistence and garbage collection). IBM i offers Unix-like file directories using the Integrated File System. Java compatibility is implemented through a native port of the Java virtual machine.
Like IBM's mainframe operating systems, IBM i uses EBCDIC as the inherent encoding.
OS/400 Version 4, Release 4 (V4R4) introduced LPARs (logical partitions) allowing multiple virtual systems to run on a single hardware footprint.
Features.
The IBM System i platform extended the System/38 architecture of an object-based system with an integrated DB2 relational database. Equally important are the virtual machine and single-level storage concepts which established the platform as an advanced business computer.
Instruction set.
One feature that has contributed to the longevity of the IBM System i platform is its high-level instruction set (called TIMI for "Technology Independent Machine Interface" by IBM), which allows application programs to take advantage of advances in hardware and software without recompilation. TIMI is a virtual instruction set independent of the underlying machine instruction set of the CPU. User-mode programs contain both TIMI instructions and the machine instructions of the CPU, thus ensuring hardware independence. This is conceptually somewhat similar to the virtual machine architecture of programming environments such as Java and .NET.
Unlike some other virtual-machine architectures in which the virtual instructions are interpreted at run time, TIMI instructions are never interpreted. They constitute an intermediate compile time step and are translated into the processor's instruction set as the final compilation step. The TIMI instructions are stored within the final program object, in addition to the executable machine instructions. This is how application objects compiled on one processor family (e.g., the original CISC AS/400 48-bit processors) could be moved to a new processor (e.g., PowerPC 64-bit) without re-compilation. An application saved from the older 48-bit platform can simply be restored onto the new 64-bit platform where the operating system discards the old machine instructions and re-translates the TIMI instructions into 64-bit instructions for the new processor.
The system's instruction set defines all pointers as 128-bit. This was the original design feature of the System/38 (S/38) in the mid 1970s planning for future use of faster processors, memory and an expanded address space. When at a point in the future 128-bit general purpose processors would appear, IBM i will already be fully 128-bit enabled. The original AS/400 CISC models used the same 48-bit address space as the S/38. The address space was expanded in 1995 when the RISC PowerPC RS64 64-bit CPU processor replaced the 48-bit CISC processor.
For 64-bit PowerPC processors, the virtual address resides in the rightmost 64 bits of a pointer while it was 48 bits in the S/38 and CISC AS/400. The 64-bit address space references main memory and disk as a single address set which is the single-level storage concept.
Software.
The IBM System i includes an operating system originally known as OS/400, later as i5/OS and IBM i. System i is also capable of supporting multiple instances of AIX, Linux, Lotus Domino, Microsoft Windows 2000 and Windows Server 2003. While OS/400, AIX, Linux and Lotus Domino are supported on the POWER processors, Windows is supported with either single-processor internal blade servers (IXS) or externally linked multiple-processor servers (IXA and iSCSI). iSCSI also provides support for attachment of IBM Bladecenters. Windows, Linux, and VMware ESX(VI3) are supported on iSCSI attached servers.
LPAR (Logical PARtitioning), a feature introduced from IBM's mainframe computers, facilitates running multiple operating systems simultaneously on one IBM System i unit. A system configured with LPAR can run various operating systems on separate partitions while ensuring that one OS cannot run over the memory or resources of another. Each LPAR is given a portion of system resources (memory, hard disk space, and CPU time) via a system of weights that determines where unused resources are allocated at any given time. The operating systems supported (and commonly used) under the LPAR scheme are IBM i, AIX, and Linux.
Other features include an integrated DB2 database management system, a menu-driven interface, multi-user support, non-programmable terminals (IBM 5250) and printers, security, communications, client–server and web-based applications. Much of the software necessary to run the IBM System i is included and integrated into the base operating system.
The IBM System i also supports common client–server systems such as ODBC and JDBC for accessing its database from client software such as Java, Microsoft .NET languages and others.
History.
The IBM System i, then known as the AS/400, was the continuation of the System/38 database machine architecture (announced by IBM in October 1978 and delivered in August 1979). The AS/400 removed capability-based addressing. The AS/400 added source compatibility with the System/36 combining the two primary computers manufactured by the IBM Rochester plant. The System/36 was IBM's most successful mini-computer but the architecture had reached its limit.
The first AS/400 systems (known by the development code names Silverlake, named for Silver Lake in downtown Rochester, Minnesota, where development of the system took place, and Olympic) were delivered in 1988 under the tag line "Best of Both Worlds" and the product line has been refreshed continually since then. The programmers who worked on OS/400, the operating system of the AS/400, did not have a UNIX background. Dr Frank Soltis, the chief architect, says that this is the main difference between this and any other operating system.
The AS/400 was one of the first general-purpose computer systems to attain a C2 security rating from the NSA (Gould UTX/C2, a UNIX-based system was branded in 1986), and in 1995 was extended to employ a 64-bit processor and operating system.
The 1995 change-over from IMPI, with 48-bit addresses, to PowerAS, with 64-bit addresses, required that all programs be 'observable', i.e. that the debugging information had not been stripped out of the compiled code. This caused problems for those who had bought third-party products that had no source and no observability. In 2008, the release of i5/OS V6R1 (later known as IBM i 6.1) caused similar problems due to changes to the TIMI in that release.
In 2000, IBM renamed the AS/400 to iSeries, as part of its e-Server branding initiative. At that time, it adopted more PC server-like features, such as PS/2 keyboards and mice and VGA video output, mostly coming from IBM PS/2 and Intel server line (called eServer xSeries), replacing proprietary technologies. In 2001, it switched to the POWER4 processor from the PowerAS processors used by previous generations.
The product line was further extended in 2004 with the introduction of the i5 servers, the first to use the IBM POWER5 processor. The architecture of the system allows for future implementation of 128-bit processors when they become available.
Although announced in 1988, the AS/400 remains IBM's most recent major architectural shift that was developed wholly internally. Since the arrival of Lou Gerstner in 1993, IBM has viewed such colossal internal developments as too risky. Instead, IBM now prefers to make key product strides through acquisition (e.g., the takeovers of Lotus Software and Rational Software) and to support the development of open standards, particularly Linux. After the departure of CEO John Akers in 1993, when IBM looked likely to be split up, Bill Gates commented that the only part of IBM that Microsoft would be interested in was the AS/400 division. (At the time, many of Microsoft's business and financial systems ran on the AS/400 platform, something that ceased to be the case around 1999, with the introduction of Windows 2000.)
Hardware.
The AS/400 was originally based on a custom IBM CISC CPU which had an instruction set architecture, known as "Internal Microprogrammed Interface" (IMPI), similar to that of the IBM System/370. It was later migrated to a POWER-based RISC CPU family eventually known as RS64.
CPU in AS/400, iSeries, i5, Power Systems.
The System i5 used POWER CPUs, which were developed and manufactured by IBM. The POWER 4/5/5+ chips contain two cores. There are Multi-Chip Modules (MCM) available. They have 2 CPUs (4 cores) or 4 CPUs (8 cores) in one MCM.


Mount (Unix)

In computing, mount is a command in various operating systems. Before a user can access a file on a Unix-like machine, the file system that contains it needs to be mounted with the mount command. Frequently mount is used for SD card, USB storage, DVD and other removable storage devices. The command is also available in the EFI shell.
Overview.
The mount command instructs the operating system that a file system is ready to use, and associates it with a particular point in the overall file system hierarchy (its "mount point") and sets options relating to its access. Mounting makes file systems, files, directories, devices and special files available for use and available to the user.
Its counterpart umount instructs the operating system that the file system should be disassociated from its mount point, making it no longer accessible and may be removed from the computer. It is important to umount a device before removing it since changes to files may have only partially been written and are completed as part of the umount.
The mount and umount commands require root user privilege to effect changes. Alternately, specific privileges to perform the corresponding action may have been previously granted by the root user. A file system can be defined as user mountable in the codice_1 file by the root user.
Examples.
To display all mounted partitions:
$ mount
proc on /proc type proc (rw)
sysfs on /sys type sysfs (rw)
devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,gid=5,mode=620)
/dev/sda1 on /boot type ext3 (rw)
/tmp on /var/tmp type none (rw,noexec,nosuid,bind)
10.4.0.4:/srv/export/setup_server on /nfs/setup_server type nfs (ro,addr=10.4.0.4)
To mount the second partition of a hard disk drive to the existing directory "/media/PHOTOS" (mount point):
$ mount /dev/hda2 /media/PHOTOS
To unmount by referring to the physical disk partition:
$ umount /dev/hda2
To unmount by referring to the mount point:
$ umount /media/PHOTOS
To remount a partition with specific options:
$ mount -o remount,rw /dev/hda2
Derivatives and wrappers.
codice_2 is a wrapper around the standard mount program which permits normal users to mount removable devices without a matching /etc/fstab entry. This provides a robust basis for automounting frameworks like GNOME's Utopia project and keeps the usage of root to a minimum.
This package also contains a wrapper pmount-hal, which reads information such as device labels and mount options from HAL and passes it to pmount.
The codice_3 package contains programs for mounting, unmounting and ejecting storage devices. The goal for gnome-mount is for GNOME software such as gnome-volume-manager and GNOME-VFS to use this instead of invoking mount/umount/eject/pmount or direct HAL invoking methods. GNOME previously used pmount. Note, gnome-mount is not intended for direct use by users.
All the gnome-mount programs utilize HAL methods and as such run unprivileged. The rationale for gnome-mount is to have a centralized place (in GConf) where settings such as mount options and mount locations are maintained.
As with all unix-like commands, the options are specific to the version of mount and are precisely detailed in its man page.
In addition to the system call mount, the function mount_root() mounts the first, or root filesystem. In this context mount is called by the system call setup.


PathMinder

PathMinder is file manager software, or DOS shell originally designed for use under DOS disk operating systems. Published by Westlake Data Corporation of Austin, Texas, and designed by Albert Nurick and Brittain Fraley, it was first released on 30 September 1984 and became fairly popular. Although the user interface was composed of text characters, it had many graphical elements, especially when PathMinder Plus was released in 1989, and the Reconfigurable User Interface was introduced.
PathMinder won numerous computer industry awards and product comparisons, and was nominated for PC Magazine's Technical Excellence award.
PathMinder was the first DOS shell to incorporate an integrated text editor, the first to include an application manager, and the first to include activity logging.
The program filled a required niche in the market, as DOS shipped with no graphical file manager, until the generally unsuccessful DOS Shell that was provided with MS-DOS 4.
PathMinder had several key features which contributed to its success, including a virtual loader that required only 4kb of RAM when other programs were running, an important feature when less than 640kb of RAM were available on systems of the day.
A version of PathMinder was independently developed in 1988 to run on the CP/M operating system.
PathMinder suffered a terminal decline after the widespread usage of Microsoft Windows. Westlake Data released a version of PathMinder designed for the Windows 3.1 operating system called PathMinder Does Windows, but it met with little critical or commercial success.


DUsers

DUsers is an Apple Macintosh users' group at Drexel University in Philadelphia. It was founded in the Fall of 1983 by Drexel students interested in learning more about the Macintosh, even before it was released to the public. Drexel University had made the decision to require that all incoming freshmen of Fall 1983 were required to buy a computer, and had selected Apple as the provider.
DUsers is widely acknowledged as the first Macintosh users group. The first president was Denise Walls, a Mechanical engineering major from Williamsport, Pennsylvania and the first vice president was computer engineering major Steve Weintraut of Cherry Hill, New Jersey.
A few years after the DUsers were formed, there was a large gala event held at Drexel to premiere the release of a documentary called "Going National", that chronicled Drexel's implementation of a Mac-centric campus. The event was attended by Steve Jobs, who was the founder of Apple computer. The original President, Denise Weintraut (Walls), and Vice President, Steve Weintraut, started dating that night and a few years later were married in June 1988. They have 3 children, Zachary Weintraut, Nicholas Weintraut, and Emily Weintraut.
The DUsers held 2 large Macintosh expos on campus, MacFair 85 and MacFair II (1987). Both of these events were very successful and raised a large amount of money for the group's activities.
Some of the other key founding members of the DUsers were Terrill L. Frantz, Seth Grenald, Charles Stack, Christine Axsmith, Debbie Pollack, Arthur Cohen, Scott Brown, Dave Dubin and J.C. Dubs
In the fall of 2004, DUsers was officially disbanded, with all its remaining assets turned over to TechServ, a club based primarily on performing community service through technology and supporting the open source software movement.


ICL DRS 200


Commodore OS

Commodore OS (full name: Commodore OS Vision) was a free-to-download Linux distribution developed by Commodore USA and intended for Commodore PCs. The distribution was based on Linux Mint, available only for x86-64 architectures, and used the GNOME 2 desktop environment. The first public beta version was released on 11 November 2011. It has been continually updated through Commodore OS Vision 0.8 Beta and never came out of beta phase. 1.0 did come out of Beta and was released on DistroWatch.com.
This operating system is no longer in development. The company is now closed and its web site is no longer active.
History.
The first beta release of the OS was released on 12 November 2011, announced as an operating system for "pre-installation on all future Commodore USA hardware". Commodore USA went defunct in 2013, the website hosting the OS is down and its last release was on 9 July 2012. However, it continues to have a small community support - with an unofficial 32 bit version of the operating system released on 22 February 2012.
Compatibility.
Commodore OS was not compatible with Commodore 64 software. It did contain VICE, an open-source program which emulates Commodore Systems.
Design.
Commodore OS was designed as a way to imitate the look and feel of Commodore's legacy systems, and as a complement to the all-in-one-keyboard style of the personal computer. Commodore OS includes a collection of software intended to imitate classic Commodore software.
It was fully compatible only to Commodore USA products often causing kernel panic on general PCs. An Improved Fusion version was promised but never released.


Datasoft

Datasoft, Inc. (also written as DataSoft and Data Soft) was a software developer and publisher for home computers founded in 1980 by Pat Ketchum and based out of Chatsworth, California. Datasoft primarily published video games, including home ports of arcade games, games based on licenses from movies and TV shows, and original games. Like competitor Synapse Software, the company also published other software: development tools, word processors, and utilities. Text Wizard, written by William Robinson and published by Datasoft when he was 16, was the basis for AtariWriter. Datasoft initially targeted the Atari 8-bit family, Apple II, and TRS-80 Color Computer, then later the Commodore 64, IBM PC, Atari ST, and Amiga. Starting in 1983, a line of lower cost software was published under the name Gentry Software.
Datasoft went into bankruptcy, and its name and assets were purchased by two Datasoft executives, Samuel L. Poole and Ted Hoffman. They renamed the company IntelliCreations and distributed Datasoft games until it closed.


Quedex

Quedex is a game released for the Commodore 64 in 1987 by Thalamus. It is the third game developed by Finnish game programmer Stavros Fasoulas. The game consists of ten planes where the player steers a silvery ball and must find an exit square in order to leave the maze-like play-area. The name "Quedex" derives from the subtitle "The Quest for Ultimate Dexterity". In 1988, Epyx released ports of "Quedex" for the Amiga and MS-DOS under the name Mindroll.
Gameplay.
The ten levels can be played in any order the player chooses. The game contains features and challenges such as jumping, going through teleports and finding keys that open gates. Only Planes 4 and 8 feature music, due to their more frenetic nature.
Completing a plane took you to a brief bonus plane, in which a set sequence of directions had to be repeated.
Ports.
"Quedex" was released in America by Epyx under the name "Mindroll" on the Amiga and MS-DOS in 1988, and on the TRS-80 Color Computer in 1989. Silent Software was behind the conversion. The game also bore Thalamus copyrights. The look and feel of "Mindroll" was more bizarre and arcane in nature, with the sphere becoming an eyeball or 8-ball and the plane walls being ornately decorated. However, while the graphics were more colourful, the frame rate dropped greatly on both formats.
Reception.
The game was positively reviewed by "Zzap!64" who described it as "an original, beautifully designed and superbly implemented puzzle package". It was given an overall score of 92%, earning the magazine's "Sizzler" accolade. "Commodore User" were also impressed by the game, praising the "superb" graphics and sound and stating that it was "a strange game but a great game". It was awarded a 9/10 overall rating.


List of ZX Spectrum games

This is a sortable list of games for the ZX Spectrum home computer.
There are games in this incomplete list.


Rygar

Rygar is a video game created by Tecmo in 1986 and originally released for arcades in Japan as . It is a sidescrolling platform game where the player assumes the role as the "Legendary Warrior", battling through a hostile landscape. The main feature of gameplay is the use of a weapon called the "Diskarmor", a shield with a long chain attached to it.
Plot.
The arcade game begins with the following introduction:
Information gleaned from console manuals reveals that the evil being Ligar has taken over the land of Argool, and Rygar, a dead warrior who has risen from his grave, must use his Diskarmor to stop him. In console versions clues and limited dialogue are given in the form of large, sage-like men encountered in green stone temples throughout the game.
In the Japanese original, references to "Ligar" and "Rygar" are one and the same because the Roman syllables "Li" and "Ry" come from the same Japanese character. In this version, the hero is only referred to as "The Legendary Warrior", while both "Rygar" and "Ligar" refer to the main villain.
Ports.
The game was ported to the Sharp X68000, Commodore 64, Master System (Japan only, and renamed ), ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC and the Atari Lynx. It was also included in a compilation of games called "Tecmo Classic Arcade" for the Xbox. The arcade version was re-released on the Wii Virtual Console.
The Atari Lynx version closely follows the arcade version. However, the layout of some rounds are different, and there are only 23 rounds.
Related Famicom/NES game.
"Rygar", released in Japan as is a fantasy-themed action-adventure platform game with action RPG elements developed by Tecmo for the Nintendo Famicom. It was released on April 14, 1987, in Japan and later that year in the United States for the NES. A European release came in 1990.
The player sends the title character through a number of fantastic settings with the ultimate goal of defeating the evil King Ligar in order to restore peace to the realm of Argool (Argus in the Japanese version). To accomplish this goal, the Warrior must visit five Indora gods who present him with essential items needed for completion of the game. Each of the Indora gods is located in a different realm, and is almost always guarded by a boss. The player can choose the order in which some stages are played, but since certain items are required to reach new areas, choices are somewhat limited. After playing through the five major realms of the game, he must journey to King Ligar's flying castle for the final confrontation.
The main character, his weapon, and many of the enemies remain the same, but the gameplay is quite different. While the arcade version is more of a standard side-scrolling action title, the NES's "Rygar" is an open-ended action-adventure game like "Metroid" (see Metroidvania), which was also released at the time. At the beginning of the game, Rygar has access to some of the worlds, but as the game progresses, new areas open up as the result of finding items such as the grappling hook, crossbow, and wind pulley, which lets him cross previously impassable obstacles. The NES version of "Rygar" was also more of an action role-playing game with a nonlinear open world map in Garloz. It was particularly notable for its permanent power-up mechanic, which at the time blurred the line between the power-ups used in action-adventures and the experience points used in RPGs.
This version of "Rygar" did not allow for game saves. The cartridge did not contain a battery, nor did it feature a password feature. It did however have unlimited continues.
The American NES version replaced some of the soundtracks from its Famicom counterpart but is otherwise graphically identical, save for the title screen and language. The music for both the NES or Famicom versions was composed by Michiharu Hasuya who would later reuse one of Rygar's tracks on the title screen of "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde".
Bug in the PAL Version.
The PAL version of the NES game reportedly contained a computer error which inadvertently increased (substantially) the difficulty in the final portions of the game, particularly in beating the final boss. The PAL version limited the player's tone and last stats to 1023 points instead of 4095, which meant that there was less maximum life and noticeably less damage to enemies.
Reception.
"Rygar" received positive reviews. In Japan, "Game Machine" listed "Rygar" on their July 1, 1986 issue as being the sixth most-successful table arcade unit of the year. Allgame editor Michael W. Dean said of the NES version that "(the) game features excellent control and pacing, the freedom of nonlinear level design, good graphics, a fabulous soundtrack, and one of the coolest weapons that any videogame hero has ever wielded".
Atari Lynx.
"STart" said of the Lynx version that the "simple game" was only recommended to "jump-and-shoot arcade enthusiasts". CVG Magazine reviewed the Lynx version in their March 1991 issue calling the game "dull" and only giving 46 out of 100. Julian Boardman of Raze Magazine reviewed the game in their April 1991 issue and liked "some superb backgrounds" the "wide variety of gruesome monsters" with "enough depth for most gamesters". He also noted the game lacked a certain amount of challenge, giving a final score of 81%.
Robert A. Jung review was published to IGN, in his final verdict he wrote; "Rygar for the Lynx is a "typical" game, neither extremely outstanding nor truly disappointing. While fans of the arcade game will find slight differences, it's close enough to be familiar (especially since the only other adaptation was a vastly different game for the Nintendo). Though there are only 23 levels, the lack of a level skip and game continues means this is an average-difficulty endurance contest which will take some time to finish." Giving a final score of 7 out of 10.
Remake.
In 2002, a remake titled "Rygar: The Legendary Adventure" was released by Tecmo for PlayStation 2. It features a transition to 3-D graphics and portions of the environment are destructible. It was released to generally positive reviews. On May 11, 2007, a Wii port was announced at Tecmo's "Nite Out 07" event, eventually released on January 28, 2009 in North America.


Zeos

ZEOS (ZEOS International, Ltd.) was a PC manufacturer based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Originally based in New Brighton, Minnesota, and founded by Gregory E. Herrick, the company incorporated in Minnesota in 1981. Prior to manufacturing PCs, the company was called NPC Electronics. NPC was a contract assembly business best known for developing a transmitter device called Radio Realty. Marketed primarily to real estate brokers, this product enabled prospective home buyers to tune in and listen to prerecorded information about a property listing while parked in front of the dwelling. Radio Realty was divested in the early 1980s as NPC started developing, manufacturing, and selling PCs under the ZEOS name.
The company went public in mid-1985 by self-underwriting, and officially changed its name from NPC Electronics to ZEOS International.
History.
The company's first PC related product was known as "PC Speeder", a device designed to increase the clock speed (and thereby the performance) of the 8086 processor. The company then began work engineering a motherboard to retrofit the soon-to-be-introduced Intel 386 processor on their existing 286 platform.
The company sold its first PC in November 1987 with its first ad in "Computer Shopper". Rapid sales and growth led ZEOS to become "Fortune"'s fastest growing public company in America in 1991. ZEOS marketed its products primarily through mail order, but also partnered with and distributed PCs to Sam's Club stores. ZEOS also had two retail outlet stores, located in Arden Hills and Golden Valley, Minnesota, where refurbished and customer-returned hardware was resold, often at substantial discounts.
Following a tradition set earlier by CP/M manufacturers like Kaypro and Morrow Designs, ZEOS bundled Lotus 1-2-3 and Ami Pro with its systems while many competitors still included only operating system software, requiring customers to purchase applications separately and elsewhere. This move eventually forced ZEOS' rivals such as Dell and Gateway 2000 to also bundle software with their systems.
During the peak of its desktop business, ZEOS sold 386- and 486-based systems under the ZEOS and Discovery brand names, using various model names including Ambra and Millennium. In the mid-1990s, it sold Pentium-based desktops, branded Pantera, and laptops, branded Freestyle, Meridian, and ColorNote.
ZEOS also was successful in the laptop category, introducing three 486SX based laptops before rival Dell came out with their first. The company also marketed subnotebooks branded Contenda (both 386SL-, 486SL-based) and ZEOS Pocket PC (8086-compatible palmtop, using the NEC V30 processor).
The ZEOS 386SX was once featured on the cover of "PC Magazine", rated as Editor's Choice in its January 30, 1990, issue.
Late generation ZEOS motherboards models were code-named with a zoological theme. Motherboards based on early 486 designs went by classes of birds such as Duck, Goose, Gosling, and Martin. Later 486 and Pentium motherboards used families of serpents (i.e. snakes), such as Rattler, Python, Cobra, Coral, and Boa.
Industry firsts.
Among other notable firsts, ZEOS was the first computer company to offer 24/7 toll-free technical support.
The company was also first to capitalize on e-commerce. Subscribers of the Prodigy online service could browse and order ZEOS PCs long before the World Wide Web had any significant presence.
In later years, the company was first to market preconfigured, ready-to-ship PCs under a campaign called "Computers Now", promising nationwide delivery in under 24 hours. This initiative was successfully achieved through direct marketing.
Merger with Micron Technologies.
In 1996, ZEOS acquired Micron Computer, Inc., and Micron Custom Manufacturing Services, Inc., two business units of Boise-based Micron Technologies. The reverse takeover resulted in Micron Technologies taking a controlling interest in ZEOS. The ZEOS brand was quickly phased out, and the combined company known as Micron Electronics Inc. began trading under the symbol MUEI. The company was sold twice after the original ZEOS/Micron transaction, with the final iteration, MPC Corporation, ceasing business operations December 31, 2008.
Zeos Pocket PC (PPC).
Manufactured around 1991–1992 and selling for $595, the Zeos Pocket PC was a palmtop which ran MS-DOS 5.0 and was broadly similar in form and function to the Poqet PC. The device was also available as Tidalwave PS-1000, Vobis Highscreen Handy Organizer, and Peacock Palmtop PC in other countries.
It was bundled with Microsoft Works and RacePen. Its dimensions were 4.5" × 9.7" × 1.0" and it weighed approximately . The 640x200 monochrome LCD screen was about 2.75" × 7" and was not backlit. The keyboard was 9" wide (compared to 11" for a standard keyboard), making typing slightly tedious for many people. The unit featured two PCMCIA card slots, as well as a serial and a parallel port located on the rear which used proprietary mini-connectors and custom cables, which were included with the unit. The unit powered on instantly using two standard AA batteries and one lithium backup battery. It was manufactured in Taiwan and sold by mail-order.


CAB500

The CAB500 was a French transistor-based drum computer, designed at SEA around 1957 by Alice Recoque.
The computer had an incremental compiler for a language, PAF (Programmation Automatique des Formules) similar to Fortran, designed by Dimitri Starynkevitch in 1957-1959. CAB 500's first model was delivered in February, 1961, and more than a hundred exemplars were built. It had a magnetic drum memory of rotating at and could invert a square matrix of order 25 in half an hour.
The CAB 500 weighed about .


Nl (Unix)

nl is a Unix utility for numbering lines, either from a file or from standard input, reproducing output on standard output.
History.
 is part of the X/Open Portability Guide since issue 2 of 1987. It was inherited into the first version of POSIX.1 and the Single Unix Specification. It first appeared in System V release 2.
The version of codice_1 bundled in GNU coreutils was written by Scott Bartram and David MacKenzie.
Syntax.
The command has a number of switches:
The default applied switch is "t".
nl also supports some command line options.
Example.
 $ nl tf
 1 echo press cr
 2 read cr
 3 done
The following example numbers only the lines that begin with a capital letter A (matching on the regular expression /^A/). "filename" is optional.
$ nl -b p^A filename
 apple
 1 Apple
 BANANA
 2 Allspice
 strawberry
It can be useful as an alternative to grep -n:
$ cat somefile
aaaa
bbbb
cccc
dddc
$ nl somefile | grep cccc
 3 cccc


DolphinDOS

DolphinDOS is a hardware expansion for the Commodore computers and floppy disk drives like Commodore 1541, 1541-II, Commodore 1571. It combined the disk controller side RAM expansion and firmware replacement with computer side KERNAL replacement and additional Parallel connection between the disk drive controller and the computer.


PMD 85

The PMD 85 was an 8-bit personal computer produced from 1985 by the companies Tesla Piešťany and Tesla Bratislava in the former Czechoslovakia.
They were deployed "en masse" in schools throughout Slovakia, while the IQ 151 performed a similar role in Czech part of the country. On the PMD 85 were created the first Czechoslovak video games, other platforms were ZX Spectrum and Atari.
This computer was produced locally due to a lack of foreign currency with which to buy systems from the West. After the Velvet Revolution in 1989, production of the PMD 85 was stopped. PMD 85 was not competitive in quality or features compared to foreign PCs available at that time.
Variants.
The PMD 85-2 was an inspiration for the MAŤO personal computer, also sold as a self-assembly kit. It had different hardware and very limited compatibility with PMD; its BASIC, memory structure and I/O were almost, but not completely the same, but tape format was different. It was intended as a home computer, but never really caught on.
Later, the Didaktik Alfa and Beta were produced as more reliable clones.


Alpiner (video game)

Alpiner is an action video game designed by Janet Srimushnam for the Texas Instruments TI-99/4A home computer and published on cartridge by Texas Instruments in 1982. The player climbs six of the world's highest mountains while avoiding trees, animals, falling rocks, and landslides. The mountains in the game are Mount Hood, the Matterhorn, Mount Kenya, Mount McKinley, Mount Garmo, and Mount Everest. The "Alpiner" cartridge originally retailed for $39.95 (USD).
Gameplay.
After selecting 1-2 players and moving past the main screen with the mountains and elevations the game begins. The player must climb the side of each mountain and make it to the summit in the allotted time.
Obstacles placed in the alpiner's way include falling rocks, wild animals, trees, and brush fires that they must avoid to continue up the mountain. In level 7 the avalanche obstacle is introduced, and in level 13, ice falls. Being hit by obstacles will result in sliding a variable distance down the mountain. If the alpiner slides all the way down the mountain, one of the lives are lost. Players receive an additional life every time they make it to the top of Mount Everest.
There are 18 levels in the game divided into 3 rounds. The player must climb each of the six mountains successfully to continue on to the next round.
Sound.
The game can be played with or without the commentary or voices, but to play with them requires the use of the TI "Solid State Speech Synthesizer". The voices and commentary help to warn of approaching obstacles and comment on your progress.
The music heard during gameplay is Anitra's Dance from Act IV of "Peer Gynt" by Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg. The music heard after reaching the top of Mount Everest is a fragment of the Suite No. 2, in D Major II - Alla Hornpipe; from "Water Music", by German composer Georg Friedrich Händel.
Cheat.
Pressing the keys "*#*" (in that exact sequence) on the game's title screen allows players to set their starting number of lives in the game, from 1 to 9 lives, and the level of difficulty, from 1 to 18. However, enabling this cheat displays the word "Test" on the bottom left of the screen, so players cannot fool their friends with the cheat enabled.


Surface Pro 2

The Surface Pro 2 is a Surface-series 2-in-1 detachable produced by Microsoft. Unveiled at an event in New York City on September 23, 2013 and released on October 22, 2013, it succeeds the Surface Pro released in February 2013. While maintaining a design similar to the original design of its predecessor, the Surface Pro 2 has improved hardware specifications compared to it, such as a Haswell Intel Core processor and an increased number of storage options, improved versions of the "kickstand" and cover accessories.
History.
Pre-orders for the Surface Pro 2 were opened on September 24, 2013, and the device was released on October 22, 2013. The Surface Pro 2 launched with the Surface 2, the Touch Cover 2, and the Type Cover 2. Panos Panay, head of Surface at Microsoft was the sole speaker for the event and the advocate for the entire Surface Team and the Surface Remix Project.
On May 20, 2014, its successor, the Microsoft Surface Pro 3, was announced. It is bigger than its predecessor, with a 12-inch display, but at the same time is both thinner and lighter and comes with an improved, multi-stage kickstand which is held up by friction.
Features.
Hardware.
The Surface Pro 2 shares most of its design with its predecessor, the Surface Pro. The device's exterior is constructed from black magnesium alloy. The Surface Pro 2 weighs 915 grams (2.01 lb): the same as its predecessor. The Surface Pro 2 features a 10.6 inches (27 cm) display. The screen has a aspect ratio, which is advantageous for video playback. Unlike its predecessor, the Surface Pro 2 has a two-stage kickstand that can be set to two different angles: 22 and 55 degrees. The new 55 degrees angle was added to make the device more comfortable on the lap. As with the previous Surface Pro, it includes 10.6-inch 10-point 1080p multi-touch digitizer LCD display with a Wacom stylus pen that supports 1024 different levels of pressure.
Surface Pro 2 was shipped with the fourth generation Haswell Intel Core i5-4200U (1.6 GHz with Intel Turbo Boost up to 2.6 GHz). In December 2013, Microsoft updated the CPU to a 1.9 GHz dual Core i5-4300U. The Surface Pro 2 was available with 64, 128, 256, or 512 GB of internal storage; the 64 and 128 GB models includes 4 GB of RAM, while the latter options include 8 GB. The CPU includes the TPM, or trusted platform module, version 1.2.
Like the Surface Pro, the Surface Pro 2 has a gyroscope, accelerometer, ambient light sensor, compass, 2 720p Lifecam cameras, and stereo speakers.
Software.
The Surface Pro 2 ships with Windows 8.1 Pro as its operating system. Microsoft shipped the Surface Pro 2 with a one-month trial version of Office 2013. Since July 29, the Surface Pro 2 has been further upgradeable to Windows 10, which will be free for existing users.
The Surface Pro comes with pre-installed apps that include: Fresh Paint, Xbox Video, Xbox Music, Internet Explorer, Photos, Mail, Maps, People, Skype, Calendar, Games, and OneNote. A suite of MSN apps (formerly Bing apps) that are included are: MSN Food and Drink, MSN Money (formerly Bing Finance), the Bing app (now defunct), MSN Weather, MSN Travel, and MSN Sports.
Reader and Sound Recorder were added with the Windows 8.1 update, as well as an updated version of Fresh Paint.
With Windows 10, Xbox Music app and service will be rebranded to Groove and the Groove music app.
Accessories.
Updated versions of the Surface's cover accessories are available for the Surface Pro 2; the Touch Cover 2 and Type Cover 2 are slightly thinner than the previous versions and now include a "dynamic" backlight system. The Touch Cover 2 has over 1,092 sensors on it compared to just 80 on the original Touch Cover. The keyswitch length of the Type Cover 2 have been reduced from 2.5mm to 1.5mm. A Power Cover accessory is also available to add 30Wh additional battery capacity to the device. Accompanying the Touch Cover 2 and Type Cover 2 is a wireless adapter that allows them to be connected up to 30 feet away via Bluetooth. During its unveiling, Microsoft also showcased the Music Cover; a variation of the Touch Cover that serves as a DJ mixer with playback controls, a 16-button sampler, and three sliders. While mainstream public release has been announced, it will be distributed to musicians through the "Surface Remix Project" campaign. Microsoft also introduced a new accessory called the Docking Station. The Docking Station works exclusively with the Surface Pro and Surface Pro 2, and not with the Surface RT or Surface 2. This desktop style peripheral attaches to the back of the Surface, adding three USB 2.0 ports, one USB 3.0 port, one 10/100 Ethernet port, one mini DisplayPort and 3.5mm audio input/output ports. It supports a resolution of 3840 x 2160 (commonly known as "4K" or "Ultra HD").
Reception.
Tony Bradley from PC World wrote: "A funny thing happened to me when I started playing around with a Surface Pro 2: It became my favorite computer. I'm not a Windows hater by any stretch of the imagination, but I also didn't expect to come to rely on the Surface Pro 2 as much as I did. Normally I use an 11-inch MacBook Air as my primary PC, and I have an iPad mini and a Samsung Series 7 Slate as secondary devices."
Ewan Spence from Forbes wrote: "The Surface Pro 2 takes all the compromises that are present in any hardware design (power, portability, input, connectivity, etc) and makes them work together, and in the process addresses the biggest compromise of all... mixing a laptop and a tablet."
Tom Warren from The Verge wrote: "The Surface Pro 2's unique mix of touch, keyboard, mouse, and pen really does work. It does everything you would expect a regular desktop PC to do."
Brooke Crothers from CNET wrote: "With Surface Pro 2, Microsoft has made a tablet-hybrid that works. It's powerful, portable, and well-made."
Joel Santo Domingo from PC Magazine wrote: "The Microsoft Surface Pro 2 is a worthy follow up to our former Editors' Choice, the Microsoft Surface Windows 8 Pro. It improves performance and battery life, while keeping the form factor and wide accessory catalog the first-gen Surface Pro had going for it."
Charles McLellan from ZDNet wrote: "The Haswell-based Surface Pro 2 delivers improved performance and battery life, and its dual-angle kickstand is also welcome. However, the Pro 2's unchanged chassis design feels bulkier and heavier than ever, and it becomes very expensive when fully accessorised."
Matt Safford from Digital Trends wrote: "The Surface Pro 2 is much improved over the original, but it's still too heavy for a tablet and is no steal at a price starting around $900."
Peter Bright from Ars Technica wrote: "If you're wanting a laptop, get a laptop—and if you just want a tablet, pick up the Surface 2 for half the price."
It has been rated 1 out of 10 for repairability by iFixit.


Samsung Galaxy NX

The Samsung Galaxy NX is a hybrid mirrorless interchangeable lens camera manufactured by Samsung, announced in June 2013. The Galaxy NX is an Android (4.2.2, upgradeable to Android Jelly Bean MR1) based mobile device which is the first of its kind. It is a 20.3 megapixel using the Samsung NX-mount as well as Wi-Fi and 3G connectivity, and a GPS receiver by which the camera can make geotagged photographs.
While the device runs on Android, it is not a smartphone in the sense that it does not have a telephone function. Instead, its wireless connectivity can be used for telecommunication (including video) over the Internet.
Included software allows for in-camera organizing, editing and online sharing or storage of images and videos. As with other Android devices, other software can be downloaded from Google Play.
The device has a "familiar DSLR look", with a larger LCD touchscreen than is customary for that category but fewer buttons and dials. The touchscreen and voice control are used primarily for controlling the camera.
The device has one processor for Android and another, DRIMe IV, for photographic processing.
The Samsung Galaxy NX was discontinued in 2017.


The Games Machine

The Games Machine was a video game magazine that was published from 1987 until 1990 in the United Kingdom by Newsfield, which also published "CRASH", "Zzap!64", "Amtix!" and other magazines.
History.
The magazine ran head to head with Future's recently launched "ACE" and EMAP's long running "C&VG" magazines. Unhappy with the profits from the title Newsfield decided to call it a day for the title in 1990.
However Newsfield would, more or less, continue with a multi format magazine with "Raze". This new title would concentrate on the ever rising consoles like the Mega Drive as well as the established NES and Master System.
"The Games Machine" in Italy.
A magazine with the same name is still being published in Italy. While it started as an Italian translated version of the British magazine, it currently publishes original articles, and is one of the best selling PC games magazines in Italy.
External links.
 on the Internet Archive


Dell Inspiron All-in-One

This is a list of Dell Inspiron All-in-One computers.
3000 Series.
Inspiron 20 3000 All-in-One Desktop (3043)
Inspiron 20 3000 All-in-One (3052)
Inspiron 20 3000 All-in-One (3059)
Inspiron 20 3000 All-in-One (3064). Features 7th Generation Intel Core i3-7100U processor, 4GB of memory, a 1TB 5400rpm hard drive and Intel HD Graphics 620 with shared graphics memory.
Inspiron 24 3000 All-in-One (3459)
Inspiron 24 3000 All-in-One (AMD) (3455)
5000 Series.
Inspiron 24 5000 All-in-One (5459)
7000 Series.
Inspiron 23 7000 All-in-One Touch Screen Desktop (2350)
Inspiron 24 7000 All-in-One (7459)


Pentax 645D

The Pentax 645D is a medium format digital SLR camera announced by Pentax on March 10, 2010.
Unlike other medium-format DSLRs, which accept digital camera backs of different resolutions or even manufacturers, the 645D has a fixed-back design similar to smaller full-frame and APS-C DSLRs. The fixed back allows the 645D to be fully weather-sealed.
Awards.
The 645D was awarded the Camera of the Year award at the Camera Grand Prix Japan 2011. Pentax celebrated this with the release of a limited edition of the camera.


Koronis Rift

Koronis Rift is a 1985 computer game from Lucasfilm Games. It was produced and designed by Noah Falstein. Originally developed for the Atari 8-bit family and the Commodore 64, "Koronis Rift" was ported to the Amstrad CPC, Apple II, MSX, Tandy Color Computer 3, and ZX Spectrum.
The Atari and C64 version shipped on a flippy disk, with one version of the game on each side. A cassette version was also released for the Commodore 64. The Atari version required computers with the GTIA chip installed in order to display properly.
"Koronis Rift" was one of two games in Lucasfilm Games' second wave (December 1985). The other was "The Eidolon". Both enhanced the fractal technology developed for "Rescue on Fractalus!". In "Koronis Rift", the Atari 8-bit family's additional colors (over those of the Commodore 64) allowed the programmers to gradually fade in the background rather than it suddenly popping in as in "Rescue", an early example of depth cueing in a computer game.
Gameplay.
The player controls a surface rover vehicle to enter several "rifts" on an alien planet which are effectively fractal mazes. A lost civilisation known as the Ancients has left strange machinery, so-called "hulks", within these rifts which are guarded by armed flying saucers of different design and color. Depending on their respective color, shields and gunshots of both the rover and the saucers are of varying effectiveness against each other; part of the game is figuring out which shield and weapon modules work best where.
By means of a drone robot, the rover can retrieve modules with various functions (which are not immediately obvious) from nearby hulks. It can only be deployed when all attacking Guardian Saucers have been destroyed. The modules can then be installed in the rover, analyzed aboard the player's space ship, or sold; the rover can carry up to six different modules at a time which can be activated and de-activated as the player sees fit. A large variety of modules is available: Different weapon and shield modules with varying power levels and color codes, modules that increase the rover's power output, a mapper (activating an extra screen on the rover), and even one module that turns the retrieval probe into a bomb, destroying any hulks the probe is sent to investigate instead of retrieving modules.
Conversely, different types of hulks exist including one that simply "swallows" the probe without yielding a module, requiring the player to purchase a new probe (and possibly sell useful modules to raise the required funds).
The goal of the game is to find and destroy the saucer control base hulk which is located in the 20th rift. To this end, the player must explore the rifts, find hulks, retrieve and analyze modules and understand the color-coding of weapons and shields to overcome the increasingly aggressive and dangerous saucers. The game can be solved in several ways; the quickest is to acquire the bomb module and send the probe into the saucer base with the bomb module activated.
Reception.
"Info" rated "Koronis Rift" four stars out of five, stating that it was the best of Epyx's four Lucasfilm games. "Computer Gaming World" stated that "if KR is a game, it is also a puzzle ... arcade skill alone isn't enough". The reviewer did not enjoy the game because it was so difficult that he spent too much time savescumming, but praised the graphics and sound. "Zzap!64" thought that the game was an improvement on its predecessor, "Rescue on Fractalus", with superior graphics and gameplay. It was given an overall rating of 96%.


Heathkit H8

Heathkit's H8 is an Intel 8080A-based microcomputer sold in kit form starting in 1977. The H8 was similar to the S-100 bus computers of the era, and like those machines was often used with the CP/M operating system on floppy disk.
The main difference between the H8 and S-100 machines was the bus; the H8 used a 50-pin bus design that was smaller, more robust and better engineered electrically. The machine also included a bootstrap ROM that made it easier to start up, including code for running basic input/output and allowing input through a front-mounted octal keypad and front panel display instead of the binary switches and lights used on machines like the Altair 8800.
The H8 required a separate terminal to be truly useful; Heathkit introduced several terminals as well. A successor model, the "All-in-One" Heathkit H89, combined a Z-80 processor board and a floppy disk drive into the cabinet of an Heathkit H19 terminal. This model also was sold in fully assembled form as the WH89. These were later sold by Zenith Electronics with their name on the front as the Zenith Z-89.
History.
Background.
MITS announced the Altair 8800 in January 1975 and started selling kits soon after. Marketed to electronics hobbyists through trade magazines like "Popular Electronics", the company founders felt there would be limited appeal and expected to sell only a few hundred systems. Instead, they received orders for thousands in the first month. Sales were so much greater than expected that MITS was unable to clear the order backlog for the better part of the year.
The Altair sparked off such intense interest in the microcomputer world that a number of other companies jumped in to fill the sales backlog, building machines that were clones of the Altair. The primary component of this design was the S-100 bus, so named because it used a 100-pin edge connector that MITS found at bargain prices when they were designing the machine. Unfortunately, the pins were connected from the backplane with no real thought put into their layout, and it had a number of problems that made it unreliable.
In spite of any design flaws, standardization led to a flourishing of companies selling into the S-100 market. The introduction of floppy disk controllers and the disk-based CP/M operating system dramatically improved the system's capabilities and started the process of turning them into practical small-business tools. By the late 1970s they were starting to displace minicomputers and other systems in a number of roles.
H8.
Heathkit was a long-established player in the electronics market, making kits for products that had proven themselves in the market. Some of these were quite complex, including a color television. In 1977 they decided to enter the microcomputer market, and designed the H8. The machine was announced in July 1977 and started selling that fall at a price of $379.
To be useful, the user also need to purchase a 4 kB SRAM card ($139) and some form of storage controller; at a minimum this would be the H10 paper tape punch/reader or the H8-5 Serial I/O card ($110) which controlled a cassette tape, using a 1200-baud variant of the Kansas City standard format. Another common accessory was the H9 video terminal, which was also driven by the H8-5 card; although any serial terminal would work. Unfortunately, the H9 was inexpensive but ugly in appearance, was limited to upper case characters and 12 display lines, and used a cheap array of switches for its keyboard. It was eventually superseded by the H19 terminal, a nicer design ergonomically and capable of lower-case and graphic-like characters. The H19 became a major product line of its own. The H17 floppy disk system became available in 1978, normally sold with one drive but expandable with a second (and later to three). Use of the H17 required at least 16 kB of RAM. The H8 could use CP/M, and often did, but early machines required either a special version of CP/M that was "org'd" at 8K instead of zero, or a small hardware modification and an updated ROM to do so. Heath also had its own DOS, unsurprisingly named HDOS, which was written by J. Gordon Letwin. Letwin later went to Microsoft to become the chief architect of OS/2.
At the time the H8 was introduced, the computer market was in the midst of a shift from the hobby market that had spawned it to a "user" market that purchased pre-assembled machines. Heath followed this trend and introduced the WH8 in fully assembled form for $475. Like the H8, the WH8 would need to include several other cards to be useful. The disk drive system was also available fully assembled as the WH17. For the CP/M operating system, Heathkit provided the WH67, a 10 MB eight-inch hard drive and the H47 eight-inch floppy disk system.
H89.
In 1978 Heath introduced the Heathkit H88 which combined the H19 terminal and a new Zilog Z80-based single-board processor into the case of the H19. A version with a disk drive incorporated to the right of the terminal screen became the H89. The machines bore a strong resemblance to the TRS-80 Model III and similar all-in-one computers. The H89 was available both in kit form for $1595, and fully assembled form as the WH89 for $2295.
Soon after the introduction of the H89, Heathkit was purchased by Zenith to enter the microcomputer market. They continued sales of the H89 with their own labeling on the front as the Zenith Z89. Eventually, Zenith Data Systems (Heathkit plus the computer division of Zenith) was purchased by Bull HN (CII Bull, Honeywell and Nippon Electric) because they needed a US maker of microcomputers to comply with government purchase requirements. Kit sales were ended soon after that purchase.
Description.
Heath chose not to implement the S-100 bus and instead created their own, known as "Benton Harbor Bus" after their home town. The bus was based on a 50-pin connector and laid out to avoid the electrical problems of the S-100 system (like +5V and ground being placed beside each other). The H8 was packaged in a box-like chassis with pressboard sides and metal sheeting for the rest of the case. The top sheet was heavily perforated to form cooling vents.
The machine was built up from the backplane mounted on the right-hand side panel of the case, with ten 50-pin card slots. The first and last slots were spaced differently from the rest, and the power supplies occupied some of the space needed for the last card. This meant that the last card not only had to accommodate the narrow spacing but also could not be full-length, leaving eight "standard" slots available for full-length cards. The front panel plugged into the first slot and the CPU plugged into the second, leaving seven for further expansion. The card slots were arranged on an angle, which allowed the case to be reduced in height. Each card contained its own voltage regulators, using the Z-shaped mounting bracket as a heat-sink. (Power distribution on the backplane was unregulated +8V and +/-18V; the cards regulated these to their requirements, typically +5V and +/-12V.)
Another notable change was the replacement of the front-panel toggle switches and lights of a standard early-model S-100 system with a keypad and seven-segment LED display (early S-100 machines like the Altair or IMSAI 8080 contained no ROM and when they were started the user had to "key in" a program via the toggle switches to read a paper tape. Once this "loader" program was ready, a paper tape containing a more complete loader would be read in, allowing the user to load programs from cassette or floppy disk).
On the H8 all of this code was already pre-installed in a 1 kB ROM in a monitor program known as "PAM8", occupying locations 0 through 3FF16 and the H17 disk I/O drivers used for booting, occupying a 2 kB ROM occupying locations 180016 through 1FFF16 The ROM contained code to control the keypad and display, booting it directly into an operable state. Several versions of the PAM-8 ROM were sold as upgrades; at one point Heathkit switched to using 2 kB ROMs, occupying through 7FF16 and subsequently to a 4 kB ROM occupying through FFF16. The ROMs interfered with the operation of standard CP/M, which assumed it could write the memory near location 0, in particular the interrupt handler pointers.
PAM8 and portions of HDOS used an unusual address notation called "split octal" where 16-bit numbers were split into two 8-bit numbers printed in octal: the first location was "000.000" and the location after "000.377" was "001.000". In order to distinguish numbers in split-octal notation from 16-bit octal numbers, the two digit groups were often separated by a special symbol.
Most mini- and micro-computers used either straight octal (377 was followed by 400) or hexadecimal.) With the introduction of the optional HA8-6 Z-80 processor replacement for the 8080 board, the front-panel keyboard got a new set of labels and hexadecimal notation was used instead of octal.
Benton Harbor Bus.
The 50-pin "Benton Harbor Bus" was considered an improvement on the S-100 bus.
The 50-pin bus of the H8 contains
sixteen address lines,
eight data lines,
5 interrupt lines,
and the system control lines.
Like the S-100 bus, it does not supply +5 V; each card is expected to have its own local +5 V regulator powered from "unregulated" +8 V on the bus.


BeBoard

The BeBoard or BE_Board is a single-board computer, similar to Raspberry Pi, developed in Latvia by the Baltic Embedded.
A standard configuration BeBoard has 1 GHz i.MX53 Freescale ARM Cortex-A8 processor and 512MB DDR3-800 RAM.


EACA

EACA International Ltd was a Hong Kong manufacturer active from 1975 to 1983, producing Pong-style television video games, and later producing thousands of personal computers.
The company's products included the Video Genies I, II and III (which were Tandy TRS-80 Model I-compatible) and the Colour Genie. Along with Radio Shack clones, they also produced Apple II computer compatible machines.
The EACA group of companies was established in December 1972 by Eric Chung Kwan-yee (alias Chung Bun), a businessman of humble beginnings from mainland China who stole into the then British colony from Guangzhou as a young man.
Just as distributors were promoting a new 16-bit machine in late 1983, the heavily indebted group went into liquidation at the hands of receivers.


Solar notebook

A solar notebook or solar laptop is a laptop computer with batteries that are recharged by a solar panel attached to the notebook.
Features.
Unlike regular laptops, some models of solar notebooks come with a flap-like structure which functions as a solar panel and can be removed if required. This generates the electricity required to charge its batteries. Like many other laptops, they may include features such as Internet access, GPS and satellite phones. Other models feature external solar modules connected to the laptop and solar keyboard chargers, where the keyboard looks like a solar sheet with the outline of a keyboard imprinted on it. Samsung has integrated the solar panel in the cover (back side of the display)


PB 250

The PB 250 (later Raytheon 250) was a general-purpose computer introduced in 1960 by the Packard Bell Corporation.
Design.
The word size was 22 bits and the memory could be expanded to a maximum of 16,000 words. The performance was 40,000 operations per second. It had the ability to operate as an I/O processor in tandem with another computer; at the time this was considered a "radically new feature" for a less expensive system. The Central Computer weighed .
The design started in November 1959. The computer was intended as a component in special purpose systems, for example, to control electric power plants. The logic design has similarities with the Bendix G-15 computer, which in turn was based on Alan Turing’s Pilot ACE. The circuits were derived from the TRICE digital differential analyzer.
People involved in development:
Features.
The PB250 used a Flexowriter as a console.
It could be operated entirely from a battery power supply.
Uses.
By WANEF (Westinghouse Astronuclear Experiment Facility), whose task was to perform basic research and reactor analysis on the NRX series of nuclear reactors to be used in nuclear rocket engine.
In Saturn 1 first stage checkout.
In TRICE models TC5108/250 and TC5036/250 hybrid computers.
In Hycomp 250 hybrid computer, later replaced by PB440.
In nuclear submarine training systems and in antisubmarine warfare trainers.
PB 250 was licensed to SETI (). It could be connected to SETI 2000 process control system.
In mobile (by van) monitoring and data processing services.


Rockefeller Differential Analyzer

Designed by Vannevar Bush after he became director of the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington DC, the Rockefeller Differential Analyzer (RDA) was an all-electronic version of the Differential Analyzer, which Bush had built at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology between 1928 and 1931.
The RDA was operational in 1942, a year after the Zuse Z3. It was equipped with 2000 vacuum tubes, weight 100 tons, used 200 miles of wire, 150 motors and thousand of relays. According to historian Robin Boast, "the RDA (Rockefeller Differential Analyzer) was revolutionary, and later was considered to be one of the most important calculating machines of the Second World War."


Armour-Geddon

Armour-Geddon is a 3D video game developed and published in 1991 by Psygnosis for the Amiga, MS-DOS and Atari ST.
There is also a sequel of this game called "Armour-Geddon 2: Codename Hellfire" available for Amiga. It was published in 1994.
Plot.
The setting for the game is post-nuclear holocaust Earth, where a privileged group of humans have made it through the war in purpose-built shelters while rest of the humankind suffered. People outside, disapproving how they have been treated, have secretly constructed a laser cannon to even the score.
Gameplay.
The player takes the side of the Sheltered ones trying to prevent the outsiders from shooting the cannon. This is possible only by collecting all five pieces of an ancient neutron bomb and dropping it on the hostile beam cannon. In addition to this, the player must defend the base from enemy attacks and gain time by destroying generators powering the beam weapon.
There is a strategic view where player can allocate scientists to develop more effective weapons and engineers to manufacture them. In the 3D vehicle simulation, the player can pilot six different vehicles in the battlefield including heavy and light tanks, hovercraft, helicopters, fighters and bombers.
Reception.
1992 and 1994 surveys of science fiction games in "Computer Gaming World" gave the title two of five stars, writing that "it can be fun, but resembles a Chinese take-out restaurant, i.e. a half-hour later, you are hungry for something with substance".


Seastalker

Seastalker is an interactive fiction game written by Stu Galley and Jim Lawrence and published by Infocom in 1984. It was released simultaneously for several popular computer platforms of the time, such as the Commodore 64, Apple II, and IBM PC compatibles (as a self-booting disk). The game was marketed as an introduction to interactive fiction for preteen players, having difficulty rating of "Junior." It was the only game to ever use this rating, which was replaced by the "Introductory" label given to games such as "Wishbringer". It is Infocom's twelfth game.
Galley and Lawrence later wrote "Moonmist" for Infocom.
Plot.
The player's character is a young inventor and marine scientist. A research facility called the Aquadome issues a call for help, indicating that the undersea structure is being attacked by a sea monster. With helpful assistant Tip, the player must navigate to the Aquadome in the new untested two-person submarine "Scimitar" and investigate the problem. But that isn't all... it looks like there may be a saboteur within the Aquadome as well.
The game has 30 locations.
Release.
The package includes the following physical items:
Reception.
"Computer Gaming World" noted "Seastalker"s easiness, recommending it only as a beginner's text adventure, particularly for young kids. Exemplifying this are the numerous tips dropped by both in-game characters and the game itself, directing the player to the included Infocards. The review complained of minor inconsistencies like items that could not be interacted with until an in-game character told the player of its existence.
"PC Magazine" gave "Seastalker" 10.0 points out of 12. It also noted the game's relatively low difficulty level, praised the prose, and stated, "I enjoyed myself immensely".


IBM 7700 Data Acquisition System

The IBM 7700 Data Acquisition System was announced by IBM on December 2, 1963.
It was capable of collecting data from as many as 32 sources simultaneously, process the data and transmit results to up to 16 remote printers, display units or plot boards.
The IBM 7700 was short-lived, being replaced by the IBM 1800 Data Acquisition and Control System on November 30, 1964.
Two IBM 7700 Data Acquisition Systems are known to have existed: one at the University of Rochester and the other at Stanford University. Both were donated by IBM.
The IBM 7700 was an 18-bit system, with instructions occupying two 18-bit words. Arithmetic instructions generally executed in two or three machine cycles, except for multiply, about 8 cycles, and divide, 12 cycles. A machine cycle was two microseconds. Address space was 262,144 words, but the two machines known to have been built had 16,384, 32,768 or 49,152 words.
The IBM 7700 was contemporary with the IBM 7000 series but not considered a member of it.
External links.
Technical details about the IBM 7700 Data Acquisition System are from an IBM Systems Reference Library publication known as File Number 7700-01, Form A22-0798-1, IBM 7700 Data Acquisition System. The publication carries an internal date of January 10, 1964.