Byte tended to be a technically oriented magazine that covered a large variety of computers. As the world moved more towards PC compatibility, its popularity faded. Some of the issues were massive, especially some of the earlier ones. This issue from February 1984 has nearly 550 pages and includes:
Cover Story
The Apple Macintosh Computer - A review of the original Macintosh computer. The machine that popularized the GUI windowed interface and the desktop metaphor.
An Interview: The Macintosh Design Team - An interview with Andy Hertzfield, Chris Espinosa, Joanna Hoffman, George Crowe, Bill Atkinson, and Jerry Manock.
Columns
Build the Circuit Cellar Term-Mite ST Smart Terminal, Part 2: Programming - Software for the terminal introduced in the previous issue.
User's Column: Chaos Manor Gets Its Long-Awaited IBM PC - Reviews of the IBM PC, Dedicate/32, Disk Doubler, Eagle 1600 Series, Final Word, Logimouse, Magic Keyboard Write, Spellbinder, Tactical Armor Command, Turbo Pascal, Wordstar, Zenith Z-100 Computer, and more.
Table of Contents from the February 1984 issue of Byte
Themes
Don't Bench Me In - An examination of the meaningfulness of benchmarks.
Beyond MIPS: Performance is Not Quality - A look at quality aspects of systems beyond just performance.
Software Performance Evaluation - Some guidelines for evaluating software performance.
The Age of Benchmarking Printers - Coming up with ways to measure performance of dot-matrix and daisy wheel printers.
ProDOS - A new DOS for Apple II computers that adds support for hard drives and much more.
Knowledgeman - An integrated management system that includes database and spreadsheet functionality.
The IB CS-9000 Lab Computer - A machine from IBM consisting of an 8-MHz Motorola MC68000 CPU, 128K RAM, and more, designed for a lab environment and real time OS.
The Rixon R212A Intelligent Modem - A Hayes compatible 1200bps modem for $499.
Savvy - An intuitive suite of business applications in a unique hardware/software system for both the Apple II and IBM PC.
Table of Contents from the February 1984 issue of Byte (continued)
Features
Apple Announces the Lisa 2 - The Lisa 2 was more of a revision to the original Lisa. It was marketed as the Macintosh XL.
IBM/Apple Communications - Simple programs to transfer text files between the IBM PC and Apple II.
A Low-Cost, Low Write-Voltage EEPROM - An inexpensive EEPROM that can be programmed with your PC.
Foot Control - Adding a foot-operated control key to your keyboard.
Inside a Compiler: Notes an Optimization and Code Generation - An article on compiler optimization with a particular look at evaluating Pascal/MT+86 and Pascal-86.
Writing Device Drivers for MS-DOS 2.0 Using Tandon TM100-4 Drives - Being able to create your own device drivers was a new feature of MS-DOS 2.0.
Nucleus
Editorial: The Compatibility Craze - Concerns about IBM's affect on innovation in the PC market.
MICROBYTES - Commodore plans UNIX like operating system for Z8000 based computers; IBM boosts production; Seagate and Vertext announce 100 megabyte hard drives; Intel introduces new RAM; and more.
Letters - Letters from readers about Morrow Micro Decision, ANSI standards, public domain software, Supersoft, Radio Shack's TRS-80 Model 16, and more.
Programming Quickie - A PASCAL program to validate input.
Technical Forum - Using discrete Fourier transforms to benchmark your computer.
