Bits & Bytes Talk

This new features lets you the reader express yourself about the Timex world. If you have something you’d like to share with our subscribers don’t hesitate send it in!

To start off here is a letter from a reader of Hattiesburg, Mississippi:

Dear sirs:

I would like to try a 6 month trial subscription to your magazine. Several times I have read requests by editors of TS magazines for input from the readers about hardware and software they would like to see.

I know very little about electronics, but I do know what I would like to see and would be willing to buy. Therefore, keep in mind that I don’t know if these items are possible or economically feasible, it is just my wish list.

ITEM#1: A real time clock that can turn the TS2068 on at a certain time and then run specific programs from disk or microdrive. This would be most useful in home control or robotics programs. One use might be a calendar program that could wake you up every morning, tell you what day it is and what appointments or special events are on your schedule for today. Mated with the Zebratalker voice synthesizer and Zebra’s personal secretary software this would be a nice addition to any home computer. (I am aware that Byte Back makes a real time clock for the TS2068. It just seems that if they could just extend the capabilities just a little more and produce the software for such a calendar program then they would have more than just a piece of hardware for telling the time by computer but a system that no TS2068 owner should be without.)

ITEM#2: A DC power supply for the TS2068 mated with a 9 inch DC monochrome or RGB monitor and microdrive. If all this could be put in a briefcase or a small suitcase then the TS2068 would become truly portable. I travel a lot during the day and I am working on a map program to display the city streets. If I could take my TS2068 with me it would be more useful in finding the streets using this program. As a matter of fact if TS2068’s became portable a lot of owners could show off their computers and increase the popularity of our computer.

ITEM #3: The 32K non-volatile RAM (already available) upgraded to 64K

Item #4: An expansion bus that you could plug several 32K non-volatile RAMs into and use a bank switching operating system to choose banks from the keyboard. (I know that a lot of people have been working on bank switching for a long time.) With this system all your programs would be in memory all the time. You could upgrade your memory 32K (or preferably 64K) at a time. It would also be nice to plug in my OS 64 cartridge, Spectrum Emulator, and game cartridges all at the same time.

Item#5: Some way to “network” the TS2068 with other TS2068s, TS1000s, and ZX81s. That way you could use the cheaper TS1000s to handle lesser home control or robotics programs and report back to the TS2068.

Well, that’s my wish list. Maybe if electronics geniuses who keep producing peripherals and the user groups who keep finding new uses for the TS2068 continue their excellent work long enough they will convince Timex (or someone with more business sense) to reintroduce the TS2068 to the U.S. market. They wouldn’t even need to make the peripherals since there is already a wide choice available. (I can’t understand why Timex is still selling the TS2068 in Mexico but not in the U.S.)

Sorry I’m so long winded. It’s just that I’ve finally found the time to write, I could probably go on for days. I hope this letter does a little good. I would like to help develop the items above but my electronics abilities so far are just above zero.

PETE KELLY
Hattiesburg, Mississippi

Editors: Well, that a nice wish list you got there Pete. With all these items the TS2068 would be a “mean machine”. Actually, some of the items are probably available. If you put a Real time clock that can turn on your computer at a certain time and if you have the FDD68 from AERCO (we was told that it gets the first program on the disk when turned on) you would be able to take a Speech synthesizer and a Calendar program and create the 1st item. For the other items, well, we don’t know. Does anybody want to comment on this?