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The Technical and
Informational Journal for the
Amusements Industry
P.O. Box 1 065
Merchantville, NJ 081 09
609/662-3432
SEPTEMBER/
OCTOBER 1984
VOLUME 6, NO. 7
Publisher/Editor
James Galore
Administrative Assistant
L.T. DiRenzo
Art/ Advertising Coordinator
Paul Ehlinger
Circulation Promotion
Linda Geseking
Layout
Dale Melani Graphics
Contributing
Technical Writers
Sam Cross
Todd Erickson
Erwin H. Boot
Mark Battersby
Bill Turner
Bill Johnston
Jodi Pearl
Robert DuFresne, Jr.
STARHECH JOURNAL, September/
October 1984, Vol. 6, No. 7. Copy-
right 1984 by Star.rech Journal, Inc.
All rights reserved. Address inquiries
to: P.O. Box 1065, Merchantville, NJ
08109. Phone: 609/662-3432. Sub-
scription rates: USA-$56.00. Canada-
$63.00. Other Countries-$98.00.
Please remit payment in US funds.
POSTMASTER: Send address
changes to STAR•TECH JOUR-
NAL, P.O. Box 1065, Merchantville,
NJ 08109. STAR•TECH JOURNAL
(ISSN 0739-1 048) is published by
Star•Tech Journal, Inc., 18 North
Centre St., P.O. Box 1 065, Merchant-
ville, NJ 08109. Second-class postage
paid at Camden, NJ and additional
mailing offices. Advertising rates
available upon request. Contents of
the articles herein are verified as
much as possible. However, any
reader using this information does
so at his/her own risk. All manu-
scripts become property of Star• Tech
Journal. No part of this Journal may
be reproduced without permission.
~
NEWS BITS
*THE GIGABIT RAM
*WORLD'S FASTEST Ic•s USE
GALLIUM ARSENIDE
*1,000 CHARGE CYCLES
IN CARBON-LITHIUM CELL
*CLEVELAND COIN INTRODUCES
THE UNIVID 1000 TEST FIXTURE
*POWERFUL VIDEO-PROCESSOR ICa
START TO APPEAR
THE GIGABIT RAM
S
Chou, Director of Intel's Portland
■ Technology Development effort,
predicts that, by the year 2000, IC makers
should be producing integrated circuit
dynamic RAMs containing 1 gigabit of mem-
ory. In the last 15 years RAM ICs have gone
from 1 K bits to 1 M bits, a 1,000-times in-
crease in bit density. He predicts further that
the chips will be organized as 128M by 8-bit
words and 64M by 16-bit words. The tech-
nology should be CMOS with power supply
voltages as low as 2v. The problems now are
what to do with that much memory and how
long it will take to test the device.
WORLD'S FASTEST IC'S USE
GALLIUM ARSENIDE
T
wo new digital integrated circuits, a
universal shift register, and a binary
counter, have been introduced by Harris
Microwave Semiconductor Co., of Melbourne,
FL. Based on gallium arsenide (GaAs) tech-
nology, they operate at five times the speed
of the fastest silicon-based integrated circuits
available today.
The speed and miniaturization character-
istics of the two new products are particularly
applicable in very-high-speed signal process-
ing, test instrumentation, computing, and
telecommunications applications.
1,000 CHARGE CYCLES IN
CARBON-LITHIUM CELL
M
atsushita Electric of Osaka, Japan,
has developed a new 3-volt
carbon-lithium battery which assures at least
1,000 charge-discharge cycles. Mass pro-
duction is scheduled for late 1984.
The new battery uses activated charcoal
for its positive electrode and lithium for the
negative one. It uses a non-aqueous organic
electrolytic solution. A special metal material,
coupled with lithium, forms the negative elec-
trode. The new metal absorbs lithium when
charging, to form an alloy, and ionizes lithium
when discharging.
The new coin-type battery, R2020, is 20-
mm in diameter and 2.0-mm thick. Output
voltage is 3, in contrast to lead or nickel-
cadmium types, whose output has been
limited to 2 volts.
CLEVELAND COIN
INTRODUCES THE UNIVID
1000 TEST FIXTURE
F
rank Batistic of Cleveland Coin has
designed a low cost universal test
fixture to meet the needs of the amusements
industry.
The Univid 1000 will allow a relatively
untrained serviceman to power up and test
raster-scan video game logic boards and
monitors. The unit sells for $895.00 and
should be able to pay for itself in a matter
of weeks.
Listed below is the fact sheet from
Cleveland Coin for the Univid 1000:
• Tests almost any color raster-scan video
game on the market today, regardless of
manufacturer. One fixture will do the
whole job!
• Can be used to test and repair both
monitors and boards. A powerful diag-
nostic tool.
• Incredibly realistic simulation of game
play without the cabinet.
• Designed with enough power and flex-
ibility to test the video games of the
future.
• Will test almost any conversion kit.
• Exclusive Color Inversion System. Only
one monitor needed to test any color
raster-scan video game.
• Use your own monitor or purchase
Cleveland Coin's low cost, high resolu-
tion/data grade monitor.
• Dual audio amplifiers, accepts any sync
signals, built in control ball, two joy-
sticks, dual power supply (15 amps on
5vdc).
• Full 90 day warranty and toll-free service
numbers (in the continental U.S.).
• Save thousands of dollars on unneces-
sary game repairs and down time. Can
pay for itself in a matter of weeks.
For further information contact Cleveland
Coin, 17000 S. Waterloo Rd., Cleveland, Ohio
44110. 1-800-321-2778. 1-800-362-1296
(in Ohio).
POWERFUL VIDEO-PROCESSOR
ICs START TO APPEAR
T
exas Instruments Inc. and Motorola
Inc. are both gearing up, to market
more powerful integrated circuits for con-
sumer applications ranging from video
games to videotex. The circuits will be
equipped with on-chip logic, registers, and a
color-mapping memory with which they can
address many multicolor requirements.