Software and Documentation, Personal Editor by IBM and SixPakPlus by AST Research Inc.

Description:

This box contains a binder with documentation, software, and keyboard mapping chart for IBM’s Personal Editor version 1.00 released in 1982. It also holds the documentation for AST Research Inc.’s SixPakPlus memory expansion and /IO card and the SixPak utility programs.

Before the computer mouse, windows, icons and the menus of modern operating systems were commonplace, text editing was completed using commands. Programs like IBM’s Personal Editor facilitated the process by providing pre-defined commands and function keys for commonly used actions (e.g. copy, move, erase, margin, and tab settings). The program also provided the user with the ability to redefine keys to perform repetitive editing tasks.

In the early 1980s, AST Inc. designed add-on expansion cards for IBM personal computers as well as other compatible computers. A typical AST multifunction card would include a RS-232 serial port, parallel printer port, battery-backed clock/calendar, game port, and 384 KB of dynamic random access memory. This 1983 version of the SixPakPlus User’s Manual includes instructions for installing the expansion board and setting the configuration switches. The SuperPak User’s Manual describes the utility programs that accompanied the expansion card. These programs provided the means to maximize the addressable user memory. They allocated a portion of the memory for use as a superfast disk drive and print jobs could run as background tasks thereby freeing the computer for other work.

References:

“PC Mag,” October 1983, p. 521.

“PC Mag,” Dec 4, 1985, p. 231.

Date Made: 1982 - 1983

Maker: IBMAST Research, Inc.

Location: Currently not on view

See more items in: Medicine and Science: Computers, Computers & Business Machines

Exhibition:

Exhibition Location:

Data Source: National Museum of American History

Id Number: 2012.3098.028Catalog Number: 2012.3098.028Nonaccession Number: 2012.3098

Object Name: softwaresoftware and documentation

Physical Description: paper (overall material)plastic (overall material)Measurements: overall: 9 1/2 in x 8 in x 2 in; 24.13 cm x 20.32 cm x 5.08 cm

Guid: http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746b1-c691-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa

Record Id: nmah_1695398

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