Byte was one of the earliest and most technical computer magazines available. In 1978, things were really starting to take off in the 'small computer' arena. The closest thing to a standard were the S100 bus based 8008 or Z80 machines running CP/M. However, the Commodore PET, TRS-80, and Apple II had all recently been introduced. The February 1978 issue of Byte includes:
Foreground
A Penny Pinching Address State Analyzer - A design for building an inexpensive address state analyzer that displays dynamic fluctuations of a computer's memory bus.
Taking The First Step - An introduction to stepper motors.
Simulation Of Motion - Part four of a series on motion simulation. This part discusses applications for boating and other objects in water.
Add a $3 Light Pen Video Display - A guide to constructing your own very inexpensive light pen.
Sweets For KIM - A type-in lightweight text editor for the KIM.
A Minifloppy Interface - A guide to building an interface for a minifloppy disk drive. "Minifloppy" in this case I believe refers to 5.25" disks. 8-inch disks were more that standard at the time but the smaller floppy drives and disks were cheaper.
CIE Net: Part 1, The Beginnings - The first in a series on the design of a telecommunications network for small systems.
Some Musings On Boolean Algebra - Unifying digital electronics, set theory, and propositional calculus using Boolean algebra.
Personal Computers in a Distributed Network - A speculative article on a possible method for linking computers wirelessly.
The Brains of Men & Machines - The second article in a series. The part looks at motor control of humans vs. machines.
Programming Entomology - A guide to protecting yourself from programming bugs.
A Simple Digital Filter - Using a computer to do the job of an analog filter.
Nucleus
Complete ASCII - A complete ASCII table with binary, octal, decimal, and hexadecimal equivalents.
Languages Forum: The Case for a "Compiler Interpreter" APL Character Representations - The considerations of compilers vs. interpreters were a little different when mass storage was at a premium.
Ask BYTE - A question and answer about TTL integrated circuit devices driving LED displays.
BYTE's Bits - COMP-CON 78 celebrates three years of the personal computer industry.
Languages Forum: Comments on APL Character Generators - A method for displaying ASCII and non-ASCII characters in APL.
Technical Forum: Measuring Program Size - Measuring program size depends on the computer and how it stores data.
Technical Forum: Some Plotting Comments - Approaches to building a plotter.
New York Notes - A report from the first annual Personal Computer Expo.
What's New? - The Delta 4300E video display terminal, the ECMA-34 cassette recorder for computers, a credit card magnetic stripe reader, and more.
