Designed especially for beginners
DREAM 6800
Talks directly to your TV and is
programmed in a high-level language!
Are you one of the many people who have been turned off plays; teaching young children
elementary arithmetic; practising
microprocessors and computers by all the complexity and never-
morse code;: timing events in the
ending jargon? Well, here is your chance to really start learning kitchen; hex/binary (variable base)
about the subject. This simple and easy to build computer costs calculator; metric conversions; bar
around the $100 mark, yet talks directly to your TV without the need charts; simulations (like LIFE); data
for a costly video terminal. communications experiments; etc.
Educational institutions will find it
One of the other big features is the built-in cassette interface highly motivational for introductory
which means you can store your programs on any cassette machine-level programming courses.
recorder. And there is a whole raft of sample programs to get you It's also a serious computer!
started. All you have to do is punch them in via the hexadecimal
keyboard. In no time you'll have a whole library of your own
HARDWARE SPECIFICATION
programs, easily accessible on cassettes.
So start reading now. We've even provided a comprehensive * Processor: Motorola M6800.
* Clock: M6875 with 4.00MHz
glossary to help you wade through all the jargon which is inevitable crystal.
in this new and exciting field. The title of the computer is itself a bit * RAM (On-card): 1K x 8 (2 x 2114)
of jargon: DREAM 6800, which stands for "Domestic Recreational Off-card expansion to 32K.
and Educational Adaptive Microcomputer ..." * ROM (CHIPOS) 1K x 8 (2708).
Now we'll let the designer, Michael Bauer, of the Division of * Display: 64 x 32 dot matrix; each
dot is 4 TV lines square. Uses 256
Computing and Mathematics at Deakin University, tell his story... bytes of RAM at loc. 0100 for
refresh by DMA.
Video output: 1Vp-p @ 75 ohm.
* Input/Output: One M6821 PIA
controls:
Surprising as it may seem, there are 2. A more useful display: Chunky
— Hex keypad (16 keys in 4 x 4
very few so-called "hobby computers" graphics output to your colour or B&W
TV giving a 64 x 32 dot matrix display. matrix) plus 2 extra keys, Func-
which inexpensively satisfy the needs of
tion & Reset.
recreational home computing. The 3. Better software: As well as the — Tape I/O: 300 Baud;
choice is between an "evaluation kit" usual operating-system or monitor (us- 2400/1200Hz FSK; Out: 0.5Vpp;
(eg, 6800-D2, KIM-1, Mini-scamp etc.) ed for memory examine and deposit, In: 300mV — 3Vpp.
or a BASIC system with CRT terminal, tape load and dump, go to user — RTC timer interrupt: 50Hz
8k memory, etc. The latter will set you program, etc), CHIPOS incorporates a (frame sync.).
back a few hundred dollars, while the high-level language interpreter, CHIP- — Audio bleeper: 2400/1200Hz (8
evaltiation kit doesn't give you enough 8, which was specifically invented for ohm spkr).
capabilities. And besides, a hobby is video games, graphic displays, — Display/DMA enable-disable
supposed to be pleasurable, not give simulations, etc. Further, CHIPOS sup-
you headaches. There are much easier, line.
ports machine-language programs as * Add extra PlAs, ACIAs, etc,
less expensive ways to produce a well, for those applications where without any additional logic.
headache, other than sitting up all CHIP-8 is inadequate. * Power requirements (worst case):
night for days on end, hand assembling
a ridiculous machine-code , program to 4. Wider appeal: People not into +5V (1A), —5V (100mA), +12V
play "Lunar Lander" (with a 7-segment electronics or computing will also find (100mA).
LED readout), or trying to write an the DREAM 6800 fascinating. Lots of TV NOTE
animated video game in a high-level games and other programs have Power supply, keypad and TV RF
language like BASIC which wasn't in- already been written in CHIP-8, so modulator are off-card extras.
vented for that purpose in the first you'll be able to impress your "non-
place for a terminal that only displays believer" friends right away. And you Right about now the sceptics will be
alphanumerics. won't hear the old: "Oh yeah, but what saying: "But there's only 1K of RAM
Here's what the "DREAM 6800" does it do?" and similar phrases. This is and the video refresh buffer's got to be
home video computer has to offer:- a fun computer! in there somewhere, and a scratchpad,
1. Lower cost: the parts should come 5. There are hundreds of and a stack or two...good grief! there
to about $100. applications: TV games; advertising dis- won't be enough left for a program! In
86 Microprocessors & Personal Computers
