ALF Products Inc., or ALF (named after an assembly language instruction for "rotate the A register Left Four bits"), was a
Colorado
Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the wes ...
company primarily known for its computer-controlled music synthesizers and floppy disk supplies and duplicators.
History
In 1971
Tim Gill
Tim Gill (born October 18, 1953) is an American computer software programmer, entrepreneur, philanthropist, and LGBTQ rights activist. He was among the first openly gay people to be on the Forbes 400 list of America's richest people.
He is the fo ...
, a
Wheat Ridge High School
Wheat Ridge High School is a public secondary school operated by the Jefferson County School District R-1 in Wheat Ridge, Colorado, United States.
Extracurricular activities
Athletics
State championship titles:
*Baseball: 1992 (5A)
*Boys' ice h ...
student with an interest in computers, visited the computer terminal room at
Lakewood High School looking for "other intelligent life-forms". There he met Philip Tubb, a Lakewood High School student, who shared his interest in computers. This meeting inspired Philip to start the Jefferson County Computer Club. As a freshman, Philip had served as Student President, and he had good relationships with the school's and district's staff. He was able to create the only student-founded multi-school club in the district. Using log-on messages on the county's
Hewlett-Packard 2000-series
time-shared computer system, club meetings were announced county-wide and held at various high schools.
![ALF Products Second Logo](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a8/ALF_Products_Second_Logo.jpg)
At the Jefferson County Computer Club, Philip Tubb met many other students who shared an interest in computers. He also shared a strong interest in electronics with John Ridges, a Wheat Ridge High School student. John designed and built one of the first computer-controlled music
synthesizers, a
polyphonic unit with 6 voices (each with an 8
octave range and 8 volume levels). It could be controlled by a remotely located computer when connected between a
teletype
A teleprinter (teletypewriter, teletype or TTY) is an electromechanical device that can be used to send and receive typed messages through various communications channels, in both point-to-point and point-to-multipoint configurations. Init ...
(or similar device) and its
modem
A modulator-demodulator or modem is a computer hardware device that converts data from a digital format into a format suitable for an analog transmission medium such as telephone or radio. A modem transmits data by Modulation#Digital modulati ...
. The
ASCII
ASCII ( ), abbreviated from American Standard Code for Information Interchange, is a character encoding standard for electronic communication. ASCII codes represent text in computers, telecommunications equipment, and other devices. Because ...
serial data flowing on that connection was used to issue commands to the synthesizer. John also wrote programs in
BASIC which allowed music to be entered in text format, saved on the computer's hard drive, and played back using the device. The synthesizer got the nickname "Mesmerelda" due to the hypnotic effects of its status
LEDs
A light-emitting diode (LED) is a semiconductor device that emits light when current flows through it. Electrons in the semiconductor recombine with electron holes, releasing energy in the form of photons. The color of the light (cor ...
during playback.
While a student at Lakewood High School, Philip Tubb was hired part-time to operate the district's computer. In that job, Philip also taught seminars on programming to many of the county's high school math teachers who, with little if any prior instruction, were struggling to teach the programming classes. With those contacts, Philip and John began demonstrating Mesmerelda to music classes at several high schools, introducing the students (and teachers) to this new concept of computer-controlled music. Many of the students were interested in music but not skilled enough to perform using a conventional instrument. These students were excited by the idea of using a computer to play music, eliminating the need to master an instrument first. The potential market for computer-controlled synthesizers was apparently larger than the two had assumed.
After high school, Philip Tubb joined fellow former computer club members Tim Gill and Rich Harman at the
University of Colorado
The University of Colorado (CU) is a system of public universities in Colorado. It consists of four institutions: University of Colorado Boulder, University of Colorado Colorado Springs, University of Colorado Denver, and the University o ...
. Philip soon discovered the computer science classes were based almost entirely on
mainframe computers, which he considered obsolete by that time. He dropped out after one semester to study programming independently. Late in 1975, Philip began discussing the idea of starting a company to make computer-related electronic products with John Ridges (who by then was a student at the University of Colorado). Colorado law at that time required an incorporator to be 21, and required at least three directors. Neither Philip nor John were 21 years old; Rich joined the project and signed the incorporation paperwork for "A L F Products Inc." in November 1975. The three served as the board of directors at ALF through 1992. The name "ALF" was chosen from a list of assembly language instructions for the Hewlett-Packard computer. It stands for "rotate the A register Left Four bits". This particular instruction was chosen largely because the letters have no curves and would therefore be easy to draw with a
plotter or other line-
vector graphics
Vector graphics is a form of computer graphics in which visual images are created directly from geometric shapes defined on a Cartesian plane, such as points, lines, curves and polygons. The associated mechanisms may include vector display ...
device.
ALF developed miscellaneous products before doing more serious work on computer-controlled music synthesizers. Several former Jefferson County Computer Club members became ALF employees, including Tim Gill (who left a job at Hewlett-Packard to join ALF). ALF created several products for the
Apple II computer. Tim Gill wanted ALF to work on products for the new
Apple III
The Apple III (styled as apple ///) is a business-oriented personal computer produced by Apple Computer and released in 1980. Running the Apple SOS operating system, it was intended as the successor to the Apple II series, but was largely consi ...
, but Philip Tubb had concerns about the viability of that computer. Tim soon left ALF to start
Quark, Inc.
Quark Software Inc. (founded 1981 in Denver, Colorado, USA) is a privately owned software company which specializes in enterprise publishing software for automating the production of customer communications. The company's original goal was to "c ...
and wrote
Word Juggler for the Apple III. Despite this parting, ALF and Quark maintained a relationship over the years. One item ALF manufactured for Quark was a
keyboard
Keyboard may refer to:
Text input
* Keyboard, part of a typewriter
* Computer keyboard
** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping
** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware
Music
* Musi ...
enhancement circuit that allowed Word Juggler to be used with the Apple II.
ALF was known for its whimsical advertisements and subtle humor in owner's manuals and product brochures. ALF's "Rock Star" ad noted that "Some companies will say anything to sell you a music card" and proceeded to ridicule selected quotes from competitors' ads. One of the quotes was actually from one of ALF's own earlier ads. The "guitarple" in the ad is not a real instrument; ALF constructed it only for the photo shoot. ALF's "Craftsman" advertisement was featured in
Creative Computing's 1980
April Fools
April Fools' Day or All Fools' Day is an annual custom on 1 April consisting of practical jokes and hoaxes. Jokesters often expose their actions by shouting "April Fools!" at the recipient. Mass media can be involved in these pranks, which may b ...
issue. The magazine, when turned upside down, appeared to be "Dr. KiloBYTE's creative Popular Personal Recreational Micro Computer Data Interface World Journal", a take-off on the names of several computer magazines at the time. This issue included 73 pages of humorous articles, with all the pages numbered in
hexadecimal; ALF's ad appeared on page 3F.
As computer-controlled music became more and more popular, much larger companies began entering the market. ALF decided to switch their focus to equipment for duplicating
floppy disks, which had little competition, and became a dominant supplier in that field. As compact discs began to replace floppy disks, ALF realized a larger partner was needed for that market. A buyout by
Rimage Corporation, who had recently completed their IPO, was negotiated. Most former ALF employees left soon after the acquisition; Philip Tubb and John Ridges remained with Rimage for a few years.
Products
Early products
ALF's first products were adaptations of the
punched tape
Five- and eight-hole punched paper tape
Paper tape reader on the Harwell computer with a small piece of five-hole tape connected in a circle – creating a physical program loop
Punched tape or perforated paper tape is a form of data storage ...
reader in the
Model 33ASR Teletype which allowed it to operate at higher speeds. Display-based terminals were becoming popular for use on time-shared systems, and they could operate at higher speeds than the Teletype. ALF created an interface card which allowed the Teletype's reader, which normally reads 10 characters per second, to read at 30 characters per second when used with a display-based terminal. It was sold only to schools in the local district; no attempt was made for larger marketing. Another version allowed the reader to operate at 55 characters per second, but modems that could operate at such speeds were not widely used at that time.
Next, ALF produced a number of incidental
S-100 products: a card extender, which facilitates testing an S-100 card by raising it above the other cards in the computer; an S-100
motherboard; an S-100 motherboard testing card, which simplified checking for assembly errors on a motherboard; and a random number generator. The motherboard testing card was sold though local hobby-electronics stores, and the motherboard was used in a subsequent product (the AD8).
AD8 Music Synthesizer
ALF's first computer-controlled music synthesizer, designed in 1976–1977, was called the AD8 (a
homophone
A homophone () is a word that is pronounced the same (to varying extent) as another word but differs in meaning. A ''homophone'' may also differ in spelling. The two words may be spelled the same, for example ''rose'' (flower) and ''rose'' (p ...
of 88, the number of keys on a
piano
The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keybo ...
). It was intended for use with any S-100 computer, but could be used with any computer via a
parallel bus
In data transmission, parallel communication is a method of conveying multiple binary digits (bits) simultaneously using multiple conductors. This contrasts with serial communication, which conveys only a single bit at a time; this distinction ...
. The primary hardware was a one-voice synthesizer card; up to eight cards could be used to create a polyphonic system with one to eight simultaneous voices. A
controller card, which had its own
6502
The MOS Technology 6502 (typically pronounced "sixty-five-oh-two" or "six-five-oh-two") William Mensch and the moderator both pronounce the 6502 microprocessor as ''"sixty-five-oh-two"''. is an 8-bit microprocessor that was designed by a small te ...
processor, connected to the user's computer and the synthesizer cards. Each one-voice card had the following controls:
[ALF Products advertisement]
"Music."
''Creative Computing'', Vol. 4 No. 1, Jan/Feb. 1978 pg. 124. Retrieved 2013-04-11.
* An 8 octave range (96 pitches)
*
Volume
Volume is a measure of occupied three-dimensional space. It is often quantified numerically using SI derived units (such as the cubic metre and litre) or by various imperial or US customary units (such as the gallon, quart, cubic inch). Th ...
control with 256 levels
* Two programmable
waveform
In electronics, acoustics, and related fields, the waveform of a signal is the shape of its graph as a function of time, independent of its time and magnitude scales and of any displacement in time.David Crecraft, David Gorham, ''Electro ...
generators (
sample-based synthesis
Sample-based synthesis is a form of audio synthesis that can be contrasted to either subtractive synthesis or additive synthesis. The principal difference with sample-based synthesis is that the seed waveforms are sampled sounds or instruments ...
)
** Scanned-
RAM
Ram, ram, or RAM may refer to:
Animals
* A male sheep
* Ram cichlid, a freshwater tropical fish
People
* Ram (given name)
* Ram (surname)
* Ram (director) (Ramsubramaniam), an Indian Tamil film director
* RAM (musician) (born 1974), Dutch
* ...
D/A with 64 elements
** 256
amplitude
The amplitude of a periodic variable is a measure of its change in a single period (such as time or spatial period). The amplitude of a non-periodic signal is its magnitude compared with a reference value. There are various definitions of am ...
levels per element
* A
low-pass filter
A low-pass filter is a filter that passes signals with a frequency lower than a selected cutoff frequency and attenuates signals with frequencies higher than the cutoff frequency. The exact frequency response of the filter depends on the filt ...
with 16 levels
* An
envelope
An envelope is a common packaging item, usually made of thin, flat material. It is designed to contain a flat object, such as a letter or card.
Traditional envelopes are made from sheets of paper cut to one of three shapes: a rhombus, a sh ...
generator
** Rise rates of 0.004 to 1.3 seconds in 256 steps
** Fall rates of 0.003 to 7.8 seconds in 256 steps
** 256 sustain levels
*
Stereo channel selection (left or right)
The AD8 was also able to produce various
white noise
In signal processing, white noise is a random signal having equal intensity at different frequencies, giving it a constant power spectral density. The term is used, with this or similar meanings, in many scientific and technical disciplines ...
effects, which were particularly useful for
percussion
A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Ex ...
sounds, by programming the waveform-RAMs with
random numbers.
ALF created a demonstration record, "Computer Controlled Synthesizer Performances", containing performances from Mesmerelda and the AD8.
Costing almost twice a much as the
Altair 8800 or similar computer required to control it, the AD8 was too expensive for most hobbyists at the time. Few systems were sold.
Quad Chromatic Pitch Generator
![ALF Products Quad Chromatic Pitch Generator](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3a/ALF_Products_Quad_Chromatic_Pitch_Generator.jpg)
Around the same time as the AD8, ALF sold a simple pitch generator card in two versions: one that plugged directly into an S-100 computer, and one that could be connected to any computer via parallel interface.
Each card could produce four simultaneous voices, and multiple cards could be used in an S-100 system. There were no controls other than pitch (the same 8 octave range as the AD8). It could serve as a computer-controlled
sequencer by connecting the individual voices to external equipment, such as conventional analog synthesizers. Additionally, a standard audio cable allowed connection to an ordinary audio system.
Apple Music Synthesizer / Music Card MC16
![ALF Music Card MC16](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/21/ALF_Music_Card_MC16.jpg)
The S-100 computers that customers used to control the AD8 or Quad Chromatic Pitch Generators varied widely in configuration; there was no single standard for even major items such as the type of display, keyboard interface or layout, tape device for software distribution, and so forth. This lack of standardization was a significant obstacle to ALF creating user-friendly software for their products. When
Apple
An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple trees are cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, where its wild ancestor, ' ...
introduced the
Apple II in 1977, it was available with only one display and keyboard format, which allowed software to be created that would work for all users. Unfortunately, the Apple II was less powerful than most S-100 computers and the
accessory cards it could accommodate were physically quite small. It was necessary for ALF to design a synthesizer much simpler than the complex AD8.
ALF used the AD8 to simulate a wide variety of possible synthesizer designs. These ranged from very simple ones much like the Quad Chromatic Pitch Generator (which was obviously too simple for desirable music) to far more complex schemes using nearly the full capabilities of the AD8 (which was already known to be too expensive). These simulations could be operated in
real-time
Real-time or real time describes various operations in computing or other processes that must guarantee response times within a specified time (deadline), usually a relatively short time. A real-time process is generally one that happens in defined ...
and their Relative Enjoyment Factor (REF) measured to determine how usable each design would be as a functional music synthesizer. The target goal was a REF above 80. Numerous designs were evaluated and considered along with their estimated production cost. Finally, a design retaining the 8 octave range, accurate tuning, and a combination of ADSR envelope and volume control was selected; the programmable waveform generation and filtering functions of the AD8 were omitted. The final REF achieved was greater than 82.
![ALF Music Entry](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/df/ALF_Music_Entry.jpg)
The product was originally sold as "ALF's Apple Music Synthesizer", but Apple was concerned that customers might think the product was sold by Apple rather than being Apple-compatible; ALF changed the name to "Music Card MC16" ("MC" for "Music Card" and 16 being the last digits of the product's part number). It was the first hardware music product sold for the Apple II, and was one of the largest selling hardware accessories for the Apple II (aside from Apple's diskette drive) for some time. The product was demonstrated to Apple and Apple dealers late in 1978, and volume sales began in June 1979.
![ALF Music Entry Screen 2](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ca/ALF_Music_Entry_Screen_2.jpg)
The sophisticated software written by John Ridges for this synthesizer was the first to implement graphical entry for a personal computer music product. At the time, his music entry program was the largest
Assembly Language program available for the Apple II (even larger than the entire
Applesoft BASIC
Applesoft BASIC is a dialect of Microsoft BASIC, developed by Marc McDonald and Ric Weiland, supplied with the Apple II series of computers. It supersedes Integer BASIC and is the BASIC in ROM in all Apple II series computers after the origina ...
language interpreter), and one of the few programs to utilize Apple's
hi-resolution graphics. It was also perhaps the first software for an Apple computer to use a
graphical user interface
The GUI ( "UI" by itself is still usually pronounced . or ), graphical user interface, is a form of user interface that allows users to interact with electronic devices through graphical icons and audio indicator such as primary notation, inst ...
(GUI) with icons and pointing elements (the "IMP" portion of
WIMP
Wimp, WIMP, or Wimps may refer to:
Science and technology
* Weakly interacting massive particle, a hypothetical particle of dark matter
* WIMP (computing), the "window, icon, menu, pointer" paradigm
* WIMP (software bundle), the web stack of Wind ...
interfaces); several years ahead of Apple's
Macintosh
The Mac (known as Macintosh until 1999) is a family of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc. Macs are known for their ease of use and minimalist designs, and are popular among students, creative professionals, and software en ...
. Since the Apple II had no mouse, the GUI was implemented using the Apple's
"game paddles"; one moved an arrow to select the desired icon, and the other moved the selected icon to the desired position on the musical
staff on the screen display. When entering a musical note, the sound of the note was simultaneously played by the synthesizer for confirmation that the correct pitch had been selected.
Advanced functions in the software allowed repeated sections of music to be played without entering them more than once, and allowed the notes to be played on multiple voices simultaneously for purposes of
additive synthesis. Additive synthesis is normally performed using sine waves, but since no waveform generator (like that on the AD8) had been included, each voice could create only
square waves. Additive synthesis can also be done using square waves, but the range of possible sounds is more limited (in particular, no sound less harmonically complex than the base square wave itself can be created). Tests with the AD8 had shown that very interesting sounds could be created with square wave additive synthesis when each voice used slightly different ADSR envelopes and/or small shifts in timing. Therefore, the MC16 was designed with very fine ADSR control.
Each card could produce three simultaneous voices, each with an 8 octave range (starting at the same pitch as a piano but extending 8
semitone
A semitone, also called a half step or a half tone, is the smallest musical interval commonly used in Western tonal music, and it is considered the most dissonant when sounded harmonically.
It is defined as the interval between two adjacent no ...
s higher) with excellent tuning accuracy (within 2
cents) and 256 envelope/volume levels with an exponential scaling (78
dB range). Each voice could also produce quarter tones (pitches exponentially halfway between each piano pitch). Two cards could be used for six voices or three cards for nine voices; with two or three cards the audio output was in stereo.
Apple Music II / Music Card MC1
![ALF Music Card MC1](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7b/ALF_Music_Card_MC1.jpg)
After the original Music Card MC16 had been selling in volume for some time, engineers at ALF learned that
Texas Instruments
Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) is an American technology company headquartered in Dallas, Texas, that designs and manufactures semiconductors and various integrated circuits, which it sells to electronics designers and manufacturers globa ...
(TI) had put essentially the entire MC16 card's circuitry into a single
integrated circuit, the
SN76489N. TI had significantly reduced the pitch range and tuning accuracy, compared to the MC16, and reduced the 256 envelope/volume levels down to 16 (and the 78 dB range down to 28 dB). TI added a
pseudorandom number generator
A pseudorandom number generator (PRNG), also known as a deterministic random bit generator (DRBG), is an algorithm for generating a sequence of numbers whose properties approximate the properties of sequences of random numbers. The PRNG-generate ...
circuit which could be used to create white noise effects similar to what ALF had demonstrated on the AD8 synthesizer using random amplitudes, although TI probably intended it more for sound effects than for simulating percussion instruments.
ALF designed a card with three SN76489N chips, thus allowing nine simultaneous voices (similar to three MC16 cards). The product was originally named "ALF's Apple Music II"
[ALF Products newsletter, 1980]
''ALF Alpha 2''
Retrieved 2013-04-11. and was later renamed (at Apple's request) "Music Card MC1". Rather than starting at the same pitch as the lowest note on a piano (A0, the A below the C three octaves below Middle C) like the MC16, the MC1 started 15 semitones higher, at C2 (the C two octaves below middle C); and rather than having an 8-octave (96 semitone) range, it had a 6-octave (72 semitone) range.
[ALF Products newsletter, 1980]
''ALF Alpha 3''
Retrieved 2013-04-11. The Music Card MC16's software was modified to operate the MC1.
MC16/MC1 accessories
ALF sold disks containing the data for songs,
which could be played back using the MC16 or MC1 synthesizers. Many of the songs were entered by ALF's customers,
and ALF paid a nominal licensing fee to them for the rights to distribute their work.
ALF also sold a disk of "Basic Ear Training Skills"
which drilled students in rudimentary skills such as identifying major, augmented, diminished, or minor
chords. Due to the relatively poor tuning accuracy of the MC1, the Ear Training programs were only offered for the MC16.
Other accessories included the "Timing Mode Input Board", which allowed one voice of an MC16 card to be used to control playback tempo; and "Process", a collection of editing functions and other aids for use with the music entry program.
PAL9000 radio direction finder
![ALF Products PAL9000 on car](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4b/ALF_Products_PAL9000_on_car.jpg)
Moving away from music products, in 1981 ALF designed a
radio direction finder designated the PAL9000 (for sequence-Phased Antenna Locator, with the 9000 being a play on the movie
2001's
HAL 9000
HAL 9000 is a fictional artificial intelligence character and the main antagonist in Arthur C. Clarke's ''Space Odyssey'' series. First appearing in the 1968 film '' 2001: A Space Odyssey'', HAL ( Heuristically programmed ALgorithmic computer) ...
). The product consisted of an array of eight helical
antennas which could be mounted on top of a vehicle, and a control box with a circle of LED direction indicators which was typically mounted inside for viewing by the driver or a passenger. It was originally intended for use in the sport of
amateur radio direction finding. Customers included the
US Border Patrol
The United States Border Patrol (USBP) is a federal law enforcement agency under the United States' Customs and Border Protection and is responsible for securing the borders of the United States. According to its web site in 2022, its mission ...
, who used it to track dogs they had equipped with radio transmitters, and various taxi companies, who used it to locate drivers who interfered with radio dispatch by
continuously transmitting.
The product used a digital
FIR filter
In signal processing, a finite impulse response (FIR) filter is a filter whose impulse response (or response to any finite length input) is of ''finite'' duration, because it settles to zero in finite time. This is in contrast to infinite impulse ...
and other advanced digital techniques to continuously determine the direction of the incoming radio signal based on its interaction with the eight separate antennas. A user-supplied FM radio or transceiver, tuned to the desired transmission frequency (within the unit's 144 to 148 MHz range), was also connected to the display unit and to the antenna assembly. The PAL9000 was excellent at indicating the direction of incoming radio signals, but in some situations use of the product was hampered by the fact that a radio signal may be coming from something reflecting the signal (such as a large building) rather than from the originating transmitter itself.
Copy System CS3 / Total Accuracy Copy Program
![ALF Products Copy System CS3](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/20/ALF_Products_Copy_System_CS3.jpg)
When ALF began selling music cards for the Apple II, floppy disk drives were not yet common on the Apple, so the software was supplied on cassette tape. ALF worked closely with a local cassette tape duplication company, helping them modify equipment designed for voice and music to copy cassettes with data in Apple's format. They asked ALF to design equipment to copy floppy disks so they could do business in that market as well, but ALF, wanting to focus on their own products, declined. When ALF later began offering the music card software on floppy disks, they quickly discovered that existing methods for copying the disks were slow and extremely unreliable. ALF went back to the cassette duplication company to work with them on creating floppy duplicators, but by that time the cassette company had decided not to enter the floppy business.
ALF had some experience with floppy drives and hard drives, particularly with the S-100 systems, and began designing disk copying software and hardware for internal use. At computer industry conventions, ALF was often asked by other software and hardware companies how ALF was getting their disks copied, since this was a common problem in the industry. When they discovered ALF had designed their own equipment, many companies asked if they could buy the equipment or if ALF would copy their disks. ALF began copying disks for several software companies, at first largely as favors to the exhibitors ALF's employees had socialized with at the conventions. These casual arrangements soon evolved into a full-fledged disk copying service which ALF began advertising in computer magazines.
Later ALF began selling two related disk copying products. One was a software product that ran on a standard Apple II computer, but copied disks faster than Apple's software and much more reliably. The other was a product that combined that software with additional hardware to allow even faster copying. The software-only product was originally named "PenultiCopy"; "penulti" from "penultimate", meaning second best or second from the top (i.e. second compared to the hardware product), but unfortunately more often meaning next to last. This was soon changed to the more apt name of "Total Accuracy Copy Program".
[ALF Products newsletter, 1983]
''ALF Alpha 5''
Retrieved 2013-04-11.
The hardware-enhanced product was originally called simply "Copy System", which was later expanded to "Copy System CS3" as ALF introduced additional models of hardware-based copiers. The power supply in the Apple II was not capable of running more than one disk drive at a time, which of course limited the speed at which disks could be copied. The hardware of the CS3 replaced the power supply in the Apple. Since this high-capacity power supply was physically too large to fit within the Apple II, it was placed directly behind the Apple II and connected by means of a short cable. The CS3 with several drives could copy about 200 disks per hour (including a complete verification of each copy).
Both products included software tools for adjusting the disk drive's motor speed (a common problem on Apple's drives), software for more advanced maintenance, and detailed technical instructions on maintenance procedures. The CS3 also included a small circuit assembly which stabilized the Apple II's clock to allow one of the drive's maintenance adjustments to be performed without needing special drive exerciser equipment.
AD8088 Processor Card and AD128K Memory Card
![ALF Products AD128K Memory Card](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fb/ALF_Products_AD128K_Memory_Card.jpg)
In June 1982, ALF began selling a card for the Apple II that added an
Intel 8088
The Intel 8088 ("''eighty-eighty-eight''", also called iAPX 88) microprocessor is a variant of the Intel 8086. Introduced on June 1, 1979, the 8088 has an eight-bit external data bus instead of the 16-bit bus of the 8086. The 16-bit registers and ...
processor,
the same processor as used in the
IBM PC which had been introduced nine months earlier. Since the Apple II had only an 8-bit processor running at 1.023 MHz, ALF's AD8088 with its 16-bit processor running at 5 MHz allowed for much faster operations. An optional card, the AD128K, added up to 128K of memory for the 8088 (more than twice the memory available on the Apple II) and/or an
Intel 8087 floating-point math coprocessor.
Much like Microsoft's
Z-80 SoftCard
The Z-80 SoftCard is a plug-in Apple II processor card developed by Microsoft to turn the computer into a CP/M system based upon the Zilog Z80 central processing unit (CPU). Becoming the most popular CP/M platform and Microsoft's top revenue sou ...
, which allowed the Apple II to run software written for the
Altair 8800 (or other S-100 computers) and operating systems such as
CP/M, ALF's AD8088 allowed the Apple II to run software written for IBM's PC and operating systems such as
CP/M-86 and
MS-DOS
MS-DOS ( ; acronym for Microsoft Disk Operating System, also known as Microsoft DOS) is an operating system for x86-based personal computers mostly developed by Microsoft. Collectively, MS-DOS, its rebranding as IBM PC DOS, and a few ope ...
. A version of CP/M-86 for the AD8088 was sold by Clone Software Corporation. Unlike the SoftCard and most other processor cards for the Apple II, ALF's AD8088 allowed the Apple's processor to operate simultaneously along with the AD8088's processor. The AD8088's processor could access the relatively slow memory in the Apple II, the fast memory on the AD8088 card itself (2K, 4K, 6K, or 8K bytes), and the fast memory on the accessory card (64K or 128K bytes). The AD8088 also had 4K bytes of
ROM
Rom, or ROM may refer to:
Biomechanics and medicine
* Risk of mortality, a medical classification to estimate the likelihood of death for a patient
* Rupture of membranes, a term used during pregnancy to describe a rupture of the amniotic sac
* ...
memory.
Three applications were included with the product: FTL, MET, and MEMDISK.
FTL
FTL, Formula Transfer Link, was an application that allowed floating-point math operations in Apple's Applesoft BASIC to be sent to the AD8088's 16-bit processor for evaluation rather than being evaluated by the Apple's 8-bit processor. This resulted in much faster execution and better accuracy. For even faster performance, math operations could be handled by the optional 8087 coprocessor. No modifications were needed to the user's Applesoft programs; FTL was activated simply by running an installation program after booting up the Apple II. FTL was also compatible with popular BASIC compilers (Microsoft TASC and On-Line Systems Expediter II).
A similar program, "The Pascal Patch",
was sold by Micro Magic. It allowed the AD8088 to speed up math functions in Apple's
Pascal programming language.
MET
MET, Multiple Event Timer, was an application that allowed the AD8088 to be used for
software profiling
In software engineering, profiling ("program profiling", "software profiling") is a form of dynamic program analysis that measures, for example, the space (memory) or time complexity of a program, the usage of particular instructions, or the f ...
or other precision timing functions. For profiling, the programmer would insert a write instruction to the AD8088 card (for example, using
POKE
Poke may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
* Poke (''Ender's Game''), a fictional character
* Poke (game), a two-player card game
* Poke, a fictional bar owner in the television series '' Treme''
* The Poke, a British satirical website
Fo ...
in BASIC) at the beginning and end of each code section to be profiled, and execute the program. Next, a program supplied by ALF would be used to read the precise timing measurements stored in the AD8088's memory. This allowed the programmer to determine the amount of time each section took to execute, which is useful for determining which sections would benefit from optimization. MET could time intervals as short as 50 microseconds.
MEMDISK
Supplied with the AD128K, this application allowed the entire contents of a floppy disk (except the bootup tracks) to be read into the card's memory. The AD8088 could then be used directly by most software as if it were an Apple Disk II controller. The advantage of doing this is that the AD8088's solid-state memory is much faster than the mechanical rotating storage of a floppy diskette. The disadvantage is that any data changed on the memory-disk is lost if the power fails. Normally the user would write the memory-disk back to a floppy disk when finished making modifications.
CS5 Turbo / CS6 Turbo II diskette copiers
![ALF Turbo II](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2b/ALF_Turbo_II.jpg)
The Turbo series of disk copiers used an Apple II computer but did not use any of Apple's disk hardware. Apple's hardware consisted of a controller card, plugged into an expansion slot, connected to one or two external drive units. Their external drive units used the computer's power supply, which could only handle one drive at a time. ALF's disk controller card similarly plugged inside the Apple, but connected to one or two pairs of drives; each pair had a dedicated power supply so all drives could be operated simultaneously. Two controller cards could be used to operate a total of eight drives. ALF's controller could read and write not only Apple's various disk formats, but formats for other brands of computers as well.
The CS5 Turbo system, introduced in 1984, could handle Apple,
Atari,
Commodore
Commodore may refer to:
Ranks
* Commodore (rank), a naval rank
** Commodore (Royal Navy), in the United Kingdom
** Commodore (United States)
** Commodore (Canada)
** Commodore (Finland)
** Commodore (Germany) or ''Kommodore''
* Air commodore ...
, and
TRS-80
The TRS-80 Micro Computer System (TRS-80, later renamed the Model I to distinguish it from successors) is a desktop microcomputer launched in 1977 and sold by Tandy Corporation through their Radio Shack stores. The name is an abbreviation of '' ...
disk formats as well as most standard
FM 5.25" formats. The CS6 Turbo II system, which used an upgraded controller card, added the popular IBM PC formats and most standard
MFM 5.25" formats. This controller card, along with one of the dual-drive units, was also sold for use with the
AD8088 Processor Card to allow CP/M-86 and MS-DOS users to read and write disks in both Apple II and IBM PC format; but most units were sold for disk copying purposes. With eight drives, a single Turbo II system could copy 319 Apple II or
Commodore 64 disks, 283 Atari disks, 158 single-sided IBM PC or Atari Enhanced disks, 158
Kaypro
Kaypro Corporation was an American home and personal computer manufacturer based out of San Diego in the 1980s. The company was founded by Non-Linear Systems (NLS) to compete with the popular Osborne 1 portable microcomputer. Kaypro produced a ...
or TRS-80 disks, or 86 double-sided IBM PC disks per hour (all including complete verification of each copy).
The CS6 Turbo II was also available in a version for use with automatic disk loaders, such as the Mountain Computer model 3200. When using an automatic loader, blank disks are fed from a stack in a hopper, rather than manually placed into drives one at a time. The loader has two output bins, one for good copies and one for defective disks. Each Turbo II system could operate one or two automatic loaders.
In addition to the standard 48 track-per-inch 5.25" drives, the CS6 was available in a version with 96 track-per-inch drives (quad density) for
DEC Rainbow
The Rainbow 100 is a microcomputer introduced by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) in 1982. This desktop unit had a monitor similar to the VT220 and a dual-CPU box with both Zilog Z80 and Intel 8088 CPUs.
The Rainbow 100 was a triple-use mac ...
and
Tandy 2000
The Tandy 2000 is a personal computer introduced by Radio Shack in September 1983 based on the 8 MHz Intel 80186 microprocessor running MS-DOS. By comparison, the IBM PC XT (introduced in March 1983) used the older 4.77 MHz Intel 8088 pr ...
formats. A 3.5" drive version could copy
Amiga, Apple
Macintosh
The Mac (known as Macintosh until 1999) is a family of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc. Macs are known for their ease of use and minimalist designs, and are popular among students, creative professionals, and software en ...
and
Unidisk,
IBM PC Convertible
The IBM PC Convertible (model 5140) is a laptop computer made by IBM, first sold in April 1986. The Convertible was IBM's first laptop-style computer, following the luggable IBM Portable, and introduced the 3½-inch floppy disk format to the IB ...
, and other standard 3.5" formats.
Formatted disks
ALF obtained blank disks at very low prices due to the huge quantities needed for its disk copying service. ALF began selling blank disks in bulk packaging, instead of the usual ten-pack boxes, and with some advertising in the major personal computer magazines
[ALF Products advertisement]
"Blank Disks"
''Creative Computing'', July 1983, Volume 9 Number 7 pg. 239. Retrieved 2013-04-11. quickly became a major disk vendor. As competition in bulk disk sales began to increase, ALF looked for a way to distinguish its bulk disk products and soon hit upon the idea of selling pre-formatted disks. Normally, the user would have to
format each disk before being able to use it in their computer, which was time-consuming. With pre-formatted disks, the user could use the disk in their computer immediately upon receipt. ALF, being a manufacturer of disk copying equipment, had a significant advantage in producing pre-formatted disks over most of the bulk disk vendors. Soon, ALF was formatting and selling millions of disks each year. ALF also formatted disks for some of the major disk manufacturers, such as
Nashua Corporation
The Nashua Corporation (NASDAQ: NSHA) was an American company headquartered in Nashua, New Hampshire that made labels, specialty papers, and imaging products and services. On September 15, 2009, it was bought by Cenveo, Inc. As of early 2010, it ...
Quick Copy disk copiers
![ALF Quick Copy](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cd/ALF_Quick_Copy.jpg)
The Quick Copy series was ALF's first copier line to have its own
built-in computer, rather than requiring an Apple II computer to function. The first model was introduced in 1987, and copied only standard FM and MFM 5.25" disks (such as the IBM PC formats).
All the Quick Copy models had two disk drives, and were very easy to use. When the unit was first turned on, a green light next to the upper drive flashed, indicating the user should insert the "master disk" (the disk the user wants to copy). While the Quick Copy read the master disk into memory, the user could place a blank disk into the lower drive, and the unit would automatically begin making the first copy. When the unit was finished reading the master disk, the green light would go on, indicating the master disk was read into memory OK (or, a red light next to the upper drive would indicate a problem reading the master). The master disk could then be removed, and the user could insert a blank disk. As each copy was finished, in either the upper or lower drive, the unit indicated a good copy with a green light or a defective copy with a red light. The user could simply continue removing all the good copies and inserting new blank disks in each drive to make as many copies as desired. While the user was removing a finished disk and inserting a blank disk in one drive, the other drive could be in the process of copying; unlike systems where the two drives had to be synchronized.
![ALF Quick Copy Setup](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f3/ALF_Quick_Copy_Setup.jpg)
A small
LCD display showed the number of disks copied, and two "count downs" to show the progress of each drive. The display could also show various menu selections when not copying. Two buttons to the right of the display allowed the user to cycle through and select menu items, and a button to the left of the display could be held to scroll instructions for each menu item across the display. For large volume copying, multiple units could be placed side by side. A single user could operate them and make about 2000 copies per hour.
Starting in 1988, ALF began introducing a number of 800-series models of Quick Copys. Externally, the 800-series models looked the same as the 701 model, but internally the controlling electronics were completely different. Models were available with various 5.25" or 3.5" drives; together, the various models could copy virtually every disk format in use by any personal computer. In the final model (model 832), introduced in 1992, each of the two drives contained both a 5.25" drive and a 3.5" drive; the user could use either the two 5.25" drives or the two 3.5" drives and thus copy a wide variety of disk formats.
100-Series autoloader controllers
![ALF 100-Series autoloader controller](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9c/ALF_100-Series_autoloader_controller.jpg)
In 1989, ALF used the electronics of the 800-series to create the 100-series of copying controllers for automatic loaders. Each 100-series unit operated a single automatic loader, but it could copy both sides of a double-sided disk simultaneously (all of ALF's earlier copiers, and all drives used in computers, could only read or write to one side of the disk at any given moment) and could handle drives that spin twice as fast as normal. Virtually every manufacturer of automatic loaders in the U.S. offered at least one product using ALF's 100-series (companies included Ashby Industries, CopyMaster, Costas Systems, MissionSix, Rimage Corporation, Trace Corporation, and Victory Enterprises). Most built the 100-series electronics directly inside their loader, but ALF also offered a compact metal enclosure that could be located on top of the loader or nearby.
Pro-Series autoloader controllers
![ALF Pro-Series Prototype](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0c/ALF_Pro-Series_Prototype.jpg)
By the 1990s, there were many large disk-copying services, and most of these already had ample installations of copying equipment (purchased from ALF and from other manufacturers). It was also becoming clear that floppy disks were going to be replaced by other media. ALF decided to design the next generation of automatic loader controllers, the Pro-Series, to be a very powerful design that could handle large numbers of automatic loaders with the latest high-speed simultaneous-double-side drives but at a very low cost per capability. The assumption was copying services would be adding equipment only as needed to replace existing equipment as it wore out. The days of massive expansion in production were over, and they would be looking for very low-cost products.
The Pro-Series was designed so a single controller could handle eight automatic loaders, each with a very high speed drive. Additionally, multiple units could easily be connected with an
Ethernet-like twisted-pair cable so that one unit could load the master for use by hundreds of units, and the hundreds of units could all be controlled from one unit's keyboard and display. The use of large-scale
gate arrays
A gate or gateway is a point of entry to or from a space enclosed by walls. The word derived from old Norse "gat" meaning road or path; But other terms include ''yett and port''. The concept originally referred to the gap or hole in the wall ...
, which could later be converted to
application-specific integrated circuit
An application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC ) is an integrated circuit (IC) chip customized for a particular use, rather than intended for general-purpose use, such as a chip designed to run in a digital voice recorder or a high-effici ...
s if sales volumes permitted, allowed all the features and speed of the highest-cost copying equipment to be included in a relatively inexpensive circuit board.
Most of the design work for the Pro-Series was done prior to ALF being acquired by Rimage Corporation in October 1993. The design was completed at Rimage by former ALF employees after the acquisition.
References
{{reflist
Defunct companies based in Colorado