Software and Documentation, Personal Editor by IBM and SixPakPlus by AST Research Inc.
date: label: date made
content: 1982 - 1983
name: label: maker
content: IBM
label: maker
content: AST Research, Inc.
notes: label: Description
content: 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.
label: Description
content: 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.
label: Description
content: 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.
label: Description
content: References:
label: Description
content: “PC Mag,” October 1983, p. 521.
label: Description
content: “PC Mag,” Dec 4, 1985, p. 231.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Computers
label: See more items in
content: Computers & Business Machines
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2012.3098.028
label: catalog number
content: 2012.3098.028
label: nonaccession number
content: 2012.3098
objectType: label: Object Name
content: software
label: Object Name
content: software and documentation
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: paper (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: plastic (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 9 1/2 in x 8 in x 2 in; 24.13 cm x 20.32 cm x 5.08 cm