by Sol Libes
AMATEUR COMPUTING by Sol Libes, President Amateur Computer Group of New Jersey What is Amateur Computing? Amateur computing is private computer use, in one's own home, of one's own computer-a computer that is most usually home-built and microprocessor based. Amateur computing is the prelude to the future of a computer in every home. lt is following in the tradition of Amateur Radio. At the turn of the century when Marconi developed the antenna and demonstrated that radio signals could be transmitted significant distances, amateur radio experimenters eagerly began experimenting. They developed transmitters and receivers, communicated with one another, improved equipment, expanded the range and frequency spectrum. It was not until the 1920's that commercial broadcasting began and the home radio receiver became common-place. It was the radio amateurs, experimenting in basements and attics, who laid the foundation for the home radio receiver. In 1900, if you had tried to tell someone about radio receivers, they would not have even understood what you were talking about. The situation in home computers, today, is much the same. Today, amateur computer hobbyists are embarking on the road toward the home computer. It began in the 1960's with the availability of economical digital lC's (integrated circuits). With them, a few determined pioneers built home computers to perform special functions. Around 1972, a company called INTEL introduced a single IC which contained most of the circuitry for a small control type CPU (central processing unit), This IC, called the 8008 MPU (microprocessor unit) made it possible for amateurs to start building home computer systems. They interfaced them to TTY's (teletypes) and started to use them for general purpose applications (like game playing) and applications for which the manufacturer had not really designed them. But then again, amateur home experimenters are always doing things like that. With the 8008, amateur computing, as a hobby was born. In 1974, INTEL introduced the 8080 MPU-more powerful, faster, and easier to use than the 8008. Motorola and several other manufacturers introduced MPU's, prices dropped and the hobby began to grow, There were several hundred homebuilt computer systems. In January 1975, MITS Inc. introduced the ALTAIR 8800 CPU kit (using the 8080) making it even easier to build a home computer system. Now there are several dozen kits on the market (in a future article we will try to rate them) and several thousand computer hobbyists. The hobby is growing like wildfire-particularly as home machines become easier to assemble, more powerful and lower in cost, Before long, home computing will go commercial too, as radio did, and we will see a computer in every home! Who Are Computer Amateurs? Like radio amateurs, amateur computer hobbyists come from all walks of life. There are high school students, teachers, computer programmers, researchers, radio amateurs, retired senior citizens and others too many to mention. But, they all have a common interest. It is their incessant curiousity and eagerness to learn anything new. It is from these computer amateurs that will come the computer revolution of tomorrow, What Do Computer Amateurs Do? First of all, most computer amateurs build their own computer systems, usually from kits. A typical home computer system, of today, consists of a CPU (the ALTAIR 8800 is currently the most popular), with about 12K (12,288) words of IC RAM (random access memory), 1K (1,024) words of IC ROM (read only memory) containing the Monitor system control program, a key-board input (usually surplus), a TV alphanumeric display (using a black and white TV receiver) for output and an audio cassette (hi-fi type) for program storage. Typical software includes an assembler, program editor, text editor and BASIC interpreter. This typical system presently costs about $1200 to $1500 to build. Computer amateurs use their systems for hardware and software development, for playing games (mostly in BASIC), word-processing, automatic operation of amateur radio stations, monitoring home operating systems, scientific calculations and analysis, book-keeping operations-and much more. There are amateurs with full color graphics displays on color TV sets, amateurs with talking computers-and on and on-there is no limit to the home computer's applications. Can the home-built robot be far away? How Does One Get Into Amateur Computing? lf the preceding has whet your appetite and you want to look into amateur computing, the first step is to attend a meeting of an amateur computer club. There are now several dozen in the country. An up-to-date list of computer clubs follows this article. Learn from the experiences of others. Computer equipment is still expensive. But there is a lot of used equipment available-much of which is sold or traded at amateur club meetings. Also, if you build your own system, the likelihood is that it will not work and will require debugging. Clubs offer assistance to members in getting their hardware up and running. Also, most clubs have a software librarian, so that software can be made available at low cost. Most amateurs make their programs available to other amateurs. Most clubs also do "group purchasing" to obtain discounts for their members. Another important function of clubs, is spreading the word on suppliers-which are reliable and which are not (unfortunately there are some unreliable suppliers in this area). Keep in mind, that when you undertake to build your own home system, IBM will not be there to provide hardware and software assistance (besides who could afford their prices?) and a club will serve as your back-up. In The Next Issue This column will continue in the next issue with a discussion of magazines and books for the amateur computer hobbyist. 90
