_{Cover of the April 1985 issue of Byte}

You really got your money's worth when you bought an issue of Byte in the 1980s. For only $3.50 per issue (less if you were a subscriber), you got a whopping 500+ pages. And the cover story in April 1985? Artificial Intelligence. Contents of this issue includes:

Features

• Ciarcia's Circuit Cellar: Build The Home Run Control System - The first part of a series on building a home control system using X-10 modules, sensors and a single board computer.


• Coprocessing in Modula-2 - Writing concurrent programs in Modula-2.

_{Table of Contents from the April 1985 issue of Byte}

Themes

• Communication With Alien Intelligence - How we might communicate with aliens from an artificial intelligence perspective.


• The Quest to Understand Thinking - Attempting to understand how the brain works starting with the simplest steps.


• The LISP Tutor - Developing a computer based tutor effective at teaching the LISP programming language.


• PROUST - A knowledge based systems for automatically debugging Pascal programs.


• Architectures for AI - Improving computational throughput for artificial intelligence.


• The LISP Revolution - LISP was the first language primarily used for AI applications. It is still used today though Python and C++ seem to be the main players now.


• The Challenge of Open Systems - In this context, "open systems" refer to systems of interconnected and interdependent computers.

_{Table of Contents from the April 1985 issue of Byte (continued)}

Reviews

• The ITT XTRA - An IBM compatible computer with 256K of RAM, two double-density 5.25" floppy drives, and monochrome display for $2395.


• Insight - A Knowledge System - Review of this rule-based knowledge system for the IBM PC.

Kernel

• Computing At Chaos Manor: Over The Moat - A look at various products including CP/M Utilities, WRITE, dBASE III, Framework, S1 Operating System, Symphony, System Backup, The World Plus, and more.


• BYTE West Coast: Lasers, Office Publishing, and More - A look at products from Canon, Imagen, Interleaf, Kurzwil, Ricoh, Sun Microsystems, Tardis Software, and Xerox.


• BYTE U.K.: New Database Ideas - A look at Frame Theory for use in database management systems.


• BYTE Japan: The Fifth Generation in Japan - A look at the Hitachi S-810 family of vector super computers. The S-810 was the second super computer from Japan and the first from Hitachi. The fastest of them could reach about 630 MFLOPS.


• Editorial: Golfers and Hackers - A comparison of golfing and hacking.


• Microbytes - An IBM PC emulator for Macintosh users; a memory upgrade for the Mac; Microsoft releases C compiler; Zenith releases new portables with backlit LCD displays; Proteon offers 80 megabits per second networking ($8000 per node); and more.

_{Back cover of the April 1985 issue of Byte}

Read more: https://www.megalextoria.com/wordpress/index.php/2025/08/27/byte-april-1985/

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Check out my other Social Media haunts (though most content is links to stuff I posted on Hive or re-posts of stuff originally posted on Hive):

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Books I am reading or have recently read:

Red Star Falling by Steve Berry.
A Declaration of the Rights of Magicians by H.G. Parry
The British Are Coming: The War for America, Lexington to Princeton, 1775-1777 by Rick Atkinson

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