INMC 80 News

  

June/July/August 1980 · Issue 1

Page 4 of 48

Letters

Dear Editor,

One night, whilst on a recent visit to California, I happened to be looking for somewhere to sleep. Being particularly hard up, and it being a fine night, I had a nice comfy packing case in mind. I was attracted to a pile of boxes full of shredded paper behind a factory displaying a trade name in the form of a stylized ‘Z’ picked out in blue. I must congratulate the owners of the factory on the quality of their shredded paper, as I spent a very comfortable night, and left the area the following morning thoroughly refreshed. It wasn’t until some time later that I discovered ‘The Paper’. It was a single sheet, that the shredding machine had somehow missed, which must have worked its way into my pocket as I slept. Being a thrifty sort, and paper always coming in useful, I kept it.

On my return to the UK, I (naturally) set to to catch up on my back issues of INMC news, and was intrigued by Dr. Dark’s ‘Search for the Missing Op-code’. ‘The paper’ came to mind, as there was something basically familiar about it. Of course !!!! It was one half of a page from a programming manual, the mnemonics were there, but the shredder had had the op-codes. I offer the following to Dr. Dark, in the hope that he can discover the op-codes which go with these very useful instructions:


ARN Add and reset to non-zero
BTI Blow trumpet immediate
CCS Chinese character set
CRN Convert to roman numerals
BAC Divide and conquer
DAR Develop address out of range
DM Destroy memory
DWS Destroy write protect switch
EIO Execute invalid op-code
EO Erase operator
FBUP Float bus and jump
FSG Fill screen with garbage
GO Generate own operand
HCF Halt and catch fire
HLP Dial 999
IA Illogical AND
IOR Illogical OR
JPLO Jump on lost operand
JPPF Jump on power failure
JSO Jump on sleepy operator
LDBT Load blank tape
LDCM Load then clear memory
LDDRCMove about, continuous
LDID Load invalid data
LDNT Load noise tape
LDPB Load, print & blush
LDTR Load tape & run away
LDTS Load tape & scramble
MTI Make tape invalid
NPN No program necessary
PI Punch invalid
PO Punch operator
PS Print and smear
RBT Read blank tape
R N Reset to n
ROE Randomize op-code
ROM Read operator’s mind
RPM Read programmer’s mind
RT Reduce thruput (Ugh!)
SCT Select and chew tape
SD Scramble data
SLO Scramble I/O
SML Shift memory left
SMR Shift memory right
TOO Execute operand only
TPD Triple packed decimal
TPN Turn power on
TPO Turn power off
WM Write to monitor
XOM Execute NOP & hangup

Regards, Divad Tnuh

With apologies to BYTE.

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