VH1992-Technololgy

Technology Evolution made the 19^th BG history possible

Upon retirement I upgraded my desk top computer and scanned family photos – including those taken on Guam in 1945. With this 1992 equipment I began the task of compiling a history of the 19^th BG. I soon realized available desk top technology was simply not up to the task; but kept going on faith that technology would be developed to meet the needs, I didn’t realize it would take so long.

Microprocessors

Microprocessors made desk top computers possible and the microprocessor evolution became possible when the semiconductor industry achieved greater photo resolution developed CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor) technology – CMOS made it possible to package more transistors on a chip and run cool enough.

Arithmetic processing had gone from 1 to 4 bits to 8 bits using TTL (Transistor to Transistor Logic) technology, however TTL consumed too much power. A bipolar transistor, as use in TTL (transistor to transistor logic), must flow current from the input to the output in order to cause the transistor to be “on”. MOS transistors are commanded by an electrical charge, there is nil input current flow. TTL was widely used for industrial logic applications and packaged as modules for main frame computer applications.

CMOS uses two “complementary” transistors between high and low power; one is off when the other is on, thus there is no current flow except for the instant when both transistors are changing state. This greatly reduced heat load which permitted placing many 8 bit registers on the same chip, improve the ability to perform arithmetic, and implement a variety of programmable logic functions. Software could be written for built in “machine code” functions.

CMOS process TTL vs CMOS

Inverter NOR gate & Truth table

CMOS transistors were soon combined to invert signals and perform logic functions. A standard logic family was: AND, NAND, OR, NOR, EXCL-OR & EXCL-NOR gates. For a AND gate 1 and 1 produce a 1 output. For a NAND 1 AND 1 produce a 0 output, ie Not AND. Truth tables show Output vs Inputs, where input A and B produce output Q. The “output” was designated Q, rather than O to preclude confusion between letter O and number 0.

Family of Truth Tables

A	B	Q	Q	Q	Q	Q	Q
0	0	0	1	0	1	0	1
0	1	0	1	1	0	1	0
1	0	0	1	1	0	1	0
1	1	1	0	1	0	0	1
		AND	NAND	OR	NOR	EXOR	EXNOR

Type D Flip Flop & truth table plus Transmission Gate

The D Flip Flop became the building block for counters, shift registers, latches, etc. Sets of these in 14 and 16 pin Dual Inline packages swept the electronics industry like wildfire initially as TTL parts and then as CMOS parts.

The TG (Transmission Gate) was unique to CMOS and played a very important roll in many applications. By placing a P and N transistor in parallel, it could pass analog plus or minus signals – and the on/off signal be independent of the controlled signal.

I used a 4016 CMOS part, with four TG’s on one chip, to make an “H” switch to digitally control signals through an analog servo valve. I places a TG in each vertical leg and the coil in the cross bar. By commanding diagonally opposite pairs an analog would flow plus or minus through the coil.

The Arithmetic Logic Unit (ALU) was the first step toward a microprocessor. The following fig shows how it is commanded to perform various arithmetic functions. I had used these to make a digital signal processor for controlling analog hydraulic servo actuators.

This entered the domain of decimal, binary, hexadecimal numbers and the world of 1’s and 2’s complement numbers – which are an essential part of performing arithmetic.

Hexadecimal numbers permit showing a double column decimal in a single column.

Arithmetic Logic Unit; paved the way to microprocessor

Diagram of the registers in the 6502 Microprocessor Mnemonic Codes for Machine Language Programming

Two microprocessors, the 6502 and 6800, dominated the field in the beginning. Engineers working for Motorola broke away and started their own company called MOS, which was later bought by Commodore. Thus it was not a surprise that the MOS 6502 and the Motorola 6800 processors were much alike. The 6502 soon become the most widely used microprocessor; used by Apple, Commodore, Rockwell and the Japanese

Rockwell created a Microelectronics Division under their Autonetics division and produced the 6502 under license from MOS. The chief engineer of Microelectronics came from MOS and taught after-work classes which I attended – thus able to know about the state of the art as it was happening.

To harness the new microprocessors it was necessary to have an associated family of 8 bit registers to interface with the outside world – and to include RAM (Random Access Memory) chips for running programs. In the beginning Intel concentrated on making memory chips and had not started their x86 processor series.

A microprocessor system, with address, data & control buss’s Internal architecture of a 6502 microprocessor

Internal architecture of 6520 PIA (Peripheral Interface Adapter) chip Signal Timing

Autonetics was selling more 6502 microprocessors than any other kind in the market place. In the meantime Commodore bought MOS and the rights for the 6502, and sold 6502 processors to Apple Computer for their early machines and produced four machines of their own.

Pre Retirement Desk Top Computers

Commodore built an 8K machine, then 16 K then 32 K and finally a 64 K machine. Autonetics engineers produced the AIM 65, a 64K machine for in house use but the company never backed it as a sales product – they did produce hand calculators using the 6502 and sold 6502’s in large quantities to Japan.

First Commodore 8 K 8 bit machine with built in tape recorder and Rockwell AIM 65 K machine.

Collins division of Rockwell set up a program where the company would finance the purchase of Commodore computers for employees with monthly pay roll deductions to pay for them. Autonetics soon followed. I signed up and bought the machines in these photos. I don’t recall the cost but they were over $1000 each, expensive in 1975-1980 dollars. Programming was initially done in machine code. Only dedicated engineers and hobbyists had the incentive and tenacity to use the early machines. The Commodore 8K machine was the first user friendly machine, coming out about the same time as the first Apple machine. The 8K machine had a tiny keyboard, and built in cassette for saving programs. The software, an early version of BASIC by Microsoft, was stored in Read Only Memory chips built into the machine. A user could write instructions in Basic, then command Run and the machine would interpret the Basic instructions as it ran, converting Basic to machine code for the microprocessor – this was called Interpretive Basic.

16K Commodore PET 2001/16 Dual Super Disk Floppy Drive and cassette tape recorder

The next Commodore was a 16 K RAM machine, with a separate stand alone cassette tape for storing programs and data. This still used a small sized screen. Admiral TV, at one time one of the largest producers, had gone out of business and Commodore bought large quantities of their TV tubes converting them into monitors. These Commodores were built like a car where the hood lifted up in order to get to the mother board. The “video card” was a board under the Tube as part if the lift up lid.

The third Commodore was a 32K RAM machine with full size monitor and keyboard. These became very popular with engineering firms, especially when Commodore came out with a Dual Floppy Disk. These used 5 ¼” floppy, truly floppy, disks that wrote in standard density of 360K and 1.2 meg “high” density. These connected via an IEEE cable, an edge connector off the mother board. The IEEE standard had been used for years by Hewlett Packard for lab test equipment. Not long after others came out with floppy drives which using an RS232 protocol Serial cable.

DOS (Disc Operating System), by Microsoft entered the world as a way to make it easier to talk with the floppy drives. Shugart, which became Seagate, were the first to provide floppy drive mechanisms. DOS was a godsend to us early users. It’s still in use today buried out of sight in Windows software but still retaining much of its early protocols – since upgraded from 8 bit to 16 bit to 32 bit and now 64 bit code. Microsoft was a key player in making the PC a practical and very useful machine.

32K Commodore PET 2001/32 with full size Monitor IEEE cable connection to Floppy & Printer

Dual 5 ¼ “ Floppy disk Tractor feed Dot Matrix printer

These printers worked remarkably well

Typical Commodore Keyboard with shift key activated Graphics characters

RAM (Random Access Memory) was the pacing development. These were initially small capacity and expensive, leaving a desk top computer little breathing room.

An outfit in Canada began making enhancements for the Commodore 32, by adding an extra mother board with a Motorola 68000 microprocessor and used these to interface with IBM mainframes. It became apparent these little guys were starting to eat IBM’s lunch. To play catch up IBM came up with a plug in mother board design in which they could plug in electronics from current desk top providers. The IBM motherboard, with ISA (8 bit) plug in slots became known as the “IBM Standard”. Soon “IBM Clone” machines were being built for less and included improvements. Intel developed chip sets to manage data flow and introduced the PCI (16 bit) slot which became a standard.

What had been Interpretive BASIC soon merged with DOS as if one. When IBM needed something in a hurry to catch up, they contracted with Microsoft for the software for their PC’s. Microsoft retained the rights and IBM and Microsoft made it available on floppy discs – it could then be upgraded and not frozen in chips.

Commodore and Apple were consuming all available 8 bit processor chips, thus when Intel came out with their I-86 8 bit microprocessor, IBM bought a significant holding in Intel to assure they would have a microprocessor for their “IBM PC” for which sales took off due to the IBM name. To compete Apple switched to a new Motorola 68000 16 bit chip causing Intel to come out with a I-286 16 bit processor. Though Commodore’s MOS came out with a 16 bit processor they could not keep up and lost out, by then huge amounts of money were require to produce the more complex chips.

My first computers, three commodores Prior to retirement I participated in a company plan where the company would buy the computer equipment and employees pay for it with monthly deductions. It was an excellent plan were employees were learning the emerging technology on their own time and the company gaining from increased employee capability. Through this plan I bought the first 8 bit Commodore followed by 16 and 32 bit machines. I took a 16 bit and 32 bit company Commodore with me when on loan to NAA (North American Aviation) from Autonetics division of Rockwell to help start the B-1B program. While at Autonetics, I had written a word processor program in machine code, on my home machines, and used my software on the B-1B program – this was before there was an IBM PC.

My forth computer, an IBM PC: I bought an IBM PC when they were forced to play catch up and enter the desktop market. Those IBM machines used an Intel 8 bit processor and used a Microsoft DOS operating system. DOS software was improving rapidly but Microsoft Word was slow and sluggish. I wrote Microsoft stating that they needed to write their Word Software in Machine code to speed it up. Later I received a letter from them thanking me for my comments and telling of their new faster version of Word. I told Microsoft I knew the hardware technology could support much faster Word software as I had used Microsoft subroutines stored on ROM (Read Only Memory) chips in the Commodore machines. This was before such things as floppy disks and long before hard disk drives, when programs were saved on audio tapes. Microsoft was using the same Commodore machines that we were and had provided Autonetics computer lab with the “Assembler” and “Dis-assembler” that made it possible to write my machine code word processor. An outfit “XYWrite” had written similar machine code software for the IBM PC which I used until Microsoft improved their Word software.

Post Retirement Computer Equipment In 1992 I upgraded to an AST IBM compatible machine that used the new Intel 386 16 bit microprocessor and new Graphics mode software called Windows 3.1 from Microsoft. This used then new 3.5 inch Floppy disc with 1.44 meg capacity. These machines could be upgraded to have more RAM but 1 meg of RAM was considered adequate at the time – RAM was still small and costly. I paid about $6000 for this machine, top of the line at the time. It included a 30 meg hard drive for about $600 and a 60 meg back up tape drive for a bit less. I added to this a $750 HP Scanner and a $1000 HP Laser jet with 300 dots per inch print quality, though the best on the market, both were inadequate, photos produced were of news paper quality.

First Scanner Second Scanner

About 1995 I bought a new HP4C scanner for $1000 – finally I had a quality scanner that could produce photo quality images – on the Monitor. High resolution printers were still not available for the desk top.

Printers that used toner for ink could be upgraded to do 600 dots per inch by the addition of more memory, which was still expensive. I skipped that step, even professional printers used by Kinkos could not do better.

About 1999 quality ink jet printers came out which could produce photo quality images. I used one of these to printed the book covers, in color. The cost of a quality printer had come down to $400 but the cost of ink was $29 black and $37 color per cartridge. When printing a book, ink not the paper, is the primary cost.

Though I upgraded to the newest version of Word, it did a poor job of handling photos inserted in text, and TIF format produced the best images.

In 1995 I had my AST computer upgraded to the new Intel 486 32 bit processor with a mother board that used the IBM standard ISA 8 bit data bus supplemented by a second 8 bit data as a way to feed 16 bits between memory and processor. I also upgraded the amount of RAM and installed a new 60 meg hard drive and a 120 meg back up tape. I also upgraded to Windows 95 and new improved Word software. These changes were welcome, though costly, but still not up to the task I’d taken on.

Assembling my own computers I decided to build my own computer systems to save money and was thus able to make upgrades about every six months.

1957 all transistor stereo amplifier made with early transistors, all ID numbers less than 100 except the #174 “door knob” power transistors by Delco. Tube Voltmeter and Oscilloscope Kits were put together to “tune” the amplifier stages to pass square wave. Knobs are for L/R Treble, Base and Amplify; center for selecting Tuner, Phono, Tape inputs. It really did perform high quality amplification with no hum.

Assembling computers from parts was simple compared to above

1994 Mini-tower machine 10-09-94 Fry’s sale price’s

Item	type	price	Cost with tax
Case	Mini-Tower	40.00	43.00
Motherboard	486/33-3VLB	129.00	139.00
486/33	Intel	239.00	241.00
4megSIM	72pin 70ns	189.99	205.00
I/O card	2 IDE, 2 FD, 2 S, 1 P,1G	24.95	27.00
Video card	SVGA+Cache	39.00	42.00
Harddrive	IDE 540meg	279.00	297.14
Harddrive	IDE	0	0
duoFloppydrv	3.5 + 5.25	109.95	119.00
Monitor	14” SVGA	250.00	269.00
Keyboard		12.00	13.00
Mouse	(serial)	25.00	27.00
Fax Modem	14,400	89.99	96.96
Backup Tape	250, Conners	159.00	169.33
Serial Cable	for Lap link	20.00	21.50
CD-ROM	2speed CCD-110	114.99	123.90
Audio cable	CD to Sound card	11.99	12.77
Sound Card	Sound Blaster 16	115.99	124.98
Earphones		9.99	10.65
Speakers		39.99	42.59
Y power cable		1.99	2.12
Total		1901.82	2026.94

Left 199? Clone of IBM std with ISA plus new PCI slots; Video, memory external devices on cards, serial mouse.

Right 1994 16 bit CPU, 33mhz bus, cache 512K Max, 128meg 72pin SIMMs, ISA 8bit, VESA 8 Bit & PCI 16 bit, video & externals on card.

left 1997Pentium 233 mh, 66 mh buss,72 pin SIMM (SRAM static) 128 pin DIMM (DRAM dynamic) 128 meg max

right: 1998 edge mounted CPU ISA, PCI & AGE slots, onboard IDE & FFD ribbons, PS2 mouse

Edge mount CPU method only lasted two years

5.25 Floppies with 360 K and 1.2 meg

3.5 Floppies with 720K, 1.44 meg & 2.88 meg

Tape drives were long term storage until Hard Disks

SCSI cards for externals common but lost out to IDE format

1998 8bit Pentium 233mhz max 33mhz buss 72 pin SIMM 168 pin DIMM 256 meg max 40 pin IDE PS2 mouse

2002 Pentium 4 800 mhz 133mhz bus PCI AGP LAN socket 478, built in audio and video on some

This became widely used standard.

1997 Technology Ft Worth TX

Two days before we left for the 19^th BG Reunion in Ft Worth TX, I saw an HP CD-Writer on sale for $789 at Fry’s Electronics. This was down from about $1000 a month before & $2000 a year before that – I didn’t buy it. That night the choice kept going through my mind, it had been a goal to put the 19^th BG History on a CD. I’d made a stack of booklets about 18” high – which cost $250 just to make copies at Kinko’s of a full set – a single CD-ROM would be an ideal means of distribution. The next morning I made the purchase.

I had not planned ahead, the scanner required SCSI-I & the CD writer SCSI-II connections. The left computer had been set up to accommodate the HP Scanner’s SCSI-I interface so I installed CD Writer SCSI-II card in the right computer; I was assembleing my own machines to save money. The CD unit writes at 2X speed and reads at 4X speed. Invariably there are problems – I couldn’t get the software to recognize the drive. I was able to install the new software driver but the Plug-N-Play would not recognize the hardware. I tried entering the data manually in the Config.sys and Autoexec.bat files but it would only give a “not installed” message? I finally reasoned this was because the “Windows-95 Registry” still “registered” the prior SCSI-I interface card for the Scanner, though it had been removed for several months. I had to remove the SCSI-I from the registry before it would accept the new SCSI-II definition in the registry. Tenacity is an essential ingredient, equipment problems consumed much time as well as money. The information to be recorded was in the left machine so I connected a Lap Link cable between the two machines; but even at 17700 baud, it was a slow way to move some 300 meg of data.

I moved the ZIP drive from the left machine to the right machine and started installing history files in the right machine from 100 meg “backup” ZIP disks. The data loaded reasonably fast this way. I then used Lap Link to compare files in the two computers and began the process of transferring missing or later dated files until I had all of the desired files in the right machine. The right machine only had a 1.2 gig hard drive compared with the left machines 1.6 gig plus 540 meg drives -- it was necessary to move files to various partitions to make room. Both machines were equipped with 133 meg-hertz Pentiums and Windows-95 software operating in 32 bit mode with all data on hard drives, I felt certain the machines could keep up with each other and the CD writer. It required 25 minutes to “write” 438 megs worth of files to the CD. I removed the disk and looked at it. It had a gold hue and was warm. A laser beam makes very tiny blisters as the means of storing bits. It would require a powerful microscope to see the blisters. I replaced the disk and called up it’s content on the screen with File Manager – my face lit up as it revealed the full set of directories and their sub-directories with files. Fantastic! The content of a stack of books 18” high, all on one disk! A miracle! Yet I was aware the process was already obsolete, being superseded by even better. That night I slept well.

Wednesday Sept 18^th , with the help of Jim Halls moving cart, we carried two large boxes of books and the computer equipment to the reunion conference room. George Savage had arranged for a table on which to set up the computer, which was soon in operation. I took along a pair of speakers and the ZIP drive to demonstrate how music could play while working and how 100 meg ZIP disks were an option for storing data. The computer also contained a “back-up tape” drive but I didn’t demonstrate it. I installed the CD-ROM I’d made the prior Friday and called up it’s files for demonstration. The first files selected were those done with my original scanner and the photos did not display well. I shifted to a file done with the new Scanner and the picture displayed beautifully! It was impressive to see 19^th BG personnel in WW-I type helmets making their way from Luzon to Mindanao Philippine Islands at the start of WW-II. Sgt Bone had taken the photo’s and carried the exposed film with him in his tobacco container while he was a POW. The film was developed when he was released. When moving equipment back to my car I watched in awe as Ausman Perry grabbed my heavy monitor, keeping his balance going down the escalator elevator, I thought for a moment he was going to fall.

In 1997 Microsoft came out with Word software written in 32 bit code; and in 1998 came out with Windows 98 also in 32 bit code.

Hard drives remained low capacity and expensive until a sudden leap from 1” thick hard drives to ½ inch thick drives that reached the DOS limit of 540 meg. Drives of this size had previously cost over $1000. My first “big” hard drive was a 540 meg that cost $600 – I was delighted to have such “huge” capacity. During this time the industry had resorted to “compression” software methods to “double” hard drive and disk capacity. This was a disaster for me -- on two occasions I lost some 6 months work, compressed and non retrievable when I moved a hard drive from one machine to another which, unknown to me, caused loss of conversion codes.

Making 19^th BG History CD’s in 1998 vs 2004 lap top and “Ice cube”

One of the greatest improvements was the availability of CD’s for data storage – these were immediately put to use at the 1998 reunion in Tucson.

About 1999 Intel added 64 bit AGP video card slots, increased processor speeds to 233 mhz and 66 mhz data bus rates and there was a shift to 64 bit SIMM RAM memory cards.

Scanner Printer in desk new serial data cables

In 2000 Microsoft came out with new Office Suite software which included improved Word, Excel, Access and new PhotoDraw and Front Page software. For the first time software was able to accommodate the needs, making the books shown possible. The Front Page software, and improved Word, made it possible to convert Word .doc files to Browser readable files in .htm (HTML) format. This permitted a user to simply click to & from topics of their choice as if browsing the internet.

In 2000 Intel came out with their Pentium III then Pentium IV series. Processor speeds jumped to 1 gig and to 2 gig by 2002. Motherboard chip sets were improved and bus speeds increased to 133 mhz, then by use of Double Data Rate DDR RAM, increased to 266 mhz. During this time hard drives leaped in capacity and came down in price. I went from 20 gig capacity per drive in 2000 to 80 gig capacity per drive in 2002, at a cost of about $100 per drive – since then hard drive capacities have leaped in size.

The limited 700 meg capacity of CD’s required multiple CD’s to hold the 19^th BG history. I found I could significantly reduce file size by changing photo formats from .TIF and .prn to ..jpg format.

DVD technology now permits storing up to 4.7 gig per disk. Most people now have computers with DVD drive capability. At present DVD writers come in two formats, DVD+RW and DVD-RW. I recently purchased a dual mode DVD writer by SONY, that accommodated both formats and used it to store the full content of three prior CD’s – using less than half the rewrite able disks capacity. I put this DVD in a standard DVD drive and called up it’s content in browser software. The technology had finally arrived to archive and distribute the 19^th BG history – and that method is being improved upon.

USB Flash memory sticks have increased in size and dropped in cost.

Internet capability has improved making it possible to easily store the entire 19^th BG history “on line” so that all to have access at any time with no need for a hard copy book or CD copy book.

Today it would be easy, by comparison, to “build” the 19^th history on a desk top computer. Between 1992 and 2002 I had purchased and used four scanners, five printers, assembled machines on the average of two per year, giving away the almost “new but obsolete” machines.

I was fortunate to be able to afford the expense, benefit from what I learned at work and have the support of many friends providing information and encouragement.

The effort provided an excuse to try and keep up – everyone should be so lucky.