Death of a cult. (Apple Computer needs to alter its strategy) (column)
The Apple Macintosh has become a mainstream business computer
rather than the 'cult' machine it was when first introduced, and
Apple needs to change its marketing strategy accordingly.
Macintoshes gradually began to appear in corporations over the
years, but price has remained a major obstacle. The new low-cost
Macintosh Classic makes Apple's technology more accessible to the
corporate mainstream and offers better performance than AT
computers running Microsoft Windows. NuTek Computers has
announced a Macintosh-compatible chip set that could lead to the
introduction of Mac 'clones.' Users who believe in the Mac
'religion' need to realize that there is no longer 'one true'
operating system as file transfers become easier and more
IBM-compatible machines are interconnected with Macintoshes.
Today's managers can be 'platform agnostics' who choose equipment
based solely on practical considerations.
Next year in Xanadu. (Ted Nelson's hypertext implementations) Swaine, Michael.
Hypertext innovator Ted Nelson's Xanadu Operating Company is
nearing the completion of a potentially revolutionary new
operating environment, Xanadu/Server, which could make Apple's
System 7.0 operating system appear incremental by comparison.
Xanadu/Server implements a new data storage and retrieval model
designed specifically for hypertext and electronic publishing. It
could link such information as literature and summaries or reviews
and can be networked. Xanadu/Server supports an unlimited variety
of link types. Xanadu documents are not files because they can
include parts of many documents and integrate them into a single
identity. Documents can include graphics or multimedia elements
as well as text.
WordPerfect. (WordPerfect for the Macintosh 2.0) (evaluation) Taub, Eric.
WordPerfect Corp's $495 WordPerfect 2.0 for the Macintosh is a
long-awaited upgrade that offers more powerful formatting controls
and style management features than any other Macintosh word
processor but is difficult to use. The new version offers a
totally reconstructed user interface and style sheets that
automatically create a set of formatting codes when the user
defines a style. WordPerfect 2.0 has very powerful page-layout
features including the ability to anchor text and graphics frames
to pages or paragraphs and let frames 'flow' as if they were
characters. Column formatting is extremely flexible, and there is
an outstanding macro editor that lets users record macros for
playback and edit them with a full-scale macro language capable of
generating mini-programs. Documentation is good, but its import
and export capabilities are weak; the program cannot import most
popular Mac formats or export to anything but PC WordPerfect.
WordPerfect is also slower than Microsoft Word, but power users
will appreciate its wealth of features and those in mixed
environments who have standardized on WordPerfect for the PC will
enjoy its compatibility.
Radius Pivot for Built-In Video an Radius Color Pivot. (Hardware Review) (new Mac monitors)(includes related article on design of
Radius Inc's $1,995 Color Pivot and $1,295 Pivot for Built-In
Video are two new variations on the company's popular Pivot
monitor for the Apple Macintosh. Both share the original Pivot's
ability to switch from portrait to landscape mode on the fly as
the user rotates the monitor 90 degrees. Each has a screen
slightly larger than that of the AppleColor High Resolution RGB
Monitor and can refresh the screen after rotation in a few
seconds. Driver software is provided. The manuals warn against
rotating the monitor while a dialog box is on-screen, a procedure
which could force users to reboot. Pivot for Built-in Video is a
gray-scale monitor designed for use with any Mac that has internal
video circuitry; performance is excellent. The color Pivot has
very high resolution, but its electron beams tend to misconverge
around the edge of the display, and its reds look somewhat orange.
It is nevertheless a superior product.
CrystalPrint Express. (Software Review) (high-speed desktop laser printer) (evaluation)
Qume Corp's $5,595 CrystalPrint Express laser printer is the
fastest desktop unit available, combining a small footprint with a
print rate nearly twice that of the Apple LaserWriter IINTX. It
has a 12-ppm Sanyo print engine and a powerful reduced instruction
set computing (RISC) microprocessor that quickly handles
graphics-intensive jobs. The CrystalPrint Express uses a Weitek
PostScript clone, which generally works well but cannot read the
'hints' in Adobe Type 1 fonts. Its 35 built-in fonts come from
Bitstream Inc and have their own hinting scheme. Resolution can
be set at 300 or 600 dpi. The CrystalPrint Express is a good buy,
selling for less than some slower and less versatile printers.
Its main drawbacks are the lack of support for hinted fonts and
the lack of a SCSI port for attaching a disk drive to store
downloadable fonts.
4D Write, 4D Calc, 4D XREF. (Software Review) (add-ins for Acius' Fourth Dimension database software) (evaluation)
ACIUS Inc's 4D Write, 4D CALC and 4D XREF are add-in programs for
the company's 4th Dimension relational database management system
that offer word processing, spreadsheet and database analysis
capabilities respectively. The three products offer a higher
level of integrated functionality than 4D itself, and each
directly references fields in 4th Dimension databases. The
database designer can control the user of the modules within
applications, adding them for personal use or restricting others
from accessing them. Users can have varying degrees of
interaction via free-floating windows. 4D Write and 4D Calc are
not replacements for stand-alone programs but compare well with
such midrange products as WriteNow. 4D Calc is not as powerful as
Excel but has many of the most frequently used spreadsheet tools.
4D XREF is a tool for developers that analyzes scripts and
provides lists of procedures, variables and commands. 4D Calc and
4D Write cost $295 each, while 4D XREF is $200.
ConvertIt! (Software Review) (utility for converting HyperCard stacks to IBM PC format) (evaluation)
Heizer Software's $199 ConvertIt! is a utility for converting
HyperCard stacks between the Macintosh and the ToolBook program
for IBM-compatible machines running Microsoft Windows. It
consists of a Mac program for exporting stacks and other PC
software and a PC program for importing stacks to ToolBook.
ConvertIt! does not completely map stacks into ToolBook format;
developers will still need to do some work to ensure
compatibility. It does convert all HyperCard objects to ToolBook
objects, but the two programs treat graphics differently; ToolBook
does not use icons and tends to 'trap' mouse clicks in Mac bit
maps that have been converted into graphic objects. Icons are no
longer associated with buttons when they become ToolBook objects.
A major drawback is the fact that ConvertIt! does not completely
convert HyperTalk scripts to the ToolBook equivalent. Users can
choose to convert as much of a HyperTalk script to ToolBook's
OpenScript as possible, a slow process, or to leave them out
entirely and rewrite them from scratch. A HyperTalk script
converted to ToolBook is nevertheless a useful reference.
ConvertIt! does not convert external commands and functions, a
potentially serious problem for some users. ConvertIt! is
indispensable for those who use both HyperCard and ToolBook
despite its inadequacies.
Reports 2.0. (Software Review) (Nine To Five Software Reports 2.0 report generator for HyperCard 2.0) (evaluation)
Nine to Five Software's $149.94 Reports 2.0 is a report-generation
package for HyperCard 2.0 that offers a layout integrator
integrated with HyperCard itself and new features such as color
support and custom ImageWriter page sizes. The program adds a
Reports button to any HyperCard stack that brings up a palette for
creating, editing and printing reports. It can be launched only
from within HyperCard, and sophisticated reports demand
user-written scripts. The user can divide layouts into header,
footer, detail, break and total sections. Printing is a matter of
returning to the original stack, clicking on the Report button and
clicking the Print icon. Documentation is poor, but Nine to Five
offers excellent technical support via telephone and CompuServe.
Project-scheduling tools. (FastTrack Schedule, MacSchedule) (Software Review) (evaluation)
AEC's $235 FastTrack Schedule 1.5 and Mainstay's $245 MacSchedule
2.5 and $345 MacSchedule Plus are project-scheduling tools that
specialize in creating professional-looking Gantt charts and
presenting project information intelligently. The programs are
not designed as full-scale project management packages, but are
solid tools for project managers. A Gantt chart is a time line
showing all scheduled project tasks with start and stop dates.
FastTrack Schedule allows multiple custom column layouts, making
it easy to enter many project details; MacSchedule supports only
one custom column. MacSchedule has the better spreadsheet and
graphing tools of the products. It can report slipped start and
completion dates, a feature FastTrack lacks. FastTrack can
manipulate data more precisely than MacSchedule and responds
better. It also has a better-designed interface. MacSchedule
Plus is an enhanced version of MacSchedule that includes job
costing.
Digital Darkroom. (Software Review) (new version of image-processing software) (evaluation)
Silicon Beach Software's $395 Digital Darkroom 2.0 image editing
software is an upgrade of an already powerful package that adds
new selection and painting tools, colorization features and an
improved user interface. The program has new pop-up palettes for
easy access to tools and options; the palettes can also be torn
off and moved around the screen. Digital Darkroom 2.0 lets the
user have up to 20 open files at a time and includes five new
selection and enhancing tools. A new brush tool lets users paint
with selected portions of images, and there are Replace, Blend,
Texture, Blur, Stamp, Lighten, Darken, Smudge and Sharpen brush
modes. A new text module supports Adobe Type Manager and TrueType
scalable fonts. Text strings can be stamped into images, and new
colorization controls let the user apply color washes to selected
portions of a gray-scale images. Performance is slightly slow but
adequate, and Digital Darkroom is an excellent value for many
users.
CalenDAr. (Software Review) (Psyborn Systems Inc. CalenDAr desk accessory) (evaluation)
Psyborn Systems Inc's CalenDAr desk accessory is an inexpensive
and convenient scheduling program that displays a small calendar
of the current month and lets users access every program function
from one simple display. Clicking the correct sport on the
calendar brings up the windows used for listing, entering and
editing appointments and reminders. It offers superior sound
enhancements, letting users attach any number of different system
sounds and supporting Farallon's MacRecorder driver for voice
annotation. A frustrating limitation is the fact that CalenDAr
automatically deletes reminders when they come due, but the
program has all essential reminder-software features and a
convenient user interface. It sells for $49.95.
DisplayServer II-DPD. (Hardware Review) (DisplayServer II video card for using VGA monitor with Macintosh) (evaluation)
Lapis Technologies' $549 DisplayServer II-DPD video board for the
Macintosh lets users attach a VGA or multiscanning monitor or even
a television set to an Apple Macintosh as a display device but
suffers from some compatibility problems with popular
applications. Versions of the DisplayServer are available for
every Mac model. The monochrome NuBus version supports nine
different resolutions and can run several Apple monitors. Users
add an INIT to the System Folder and configure an 18-pin jumper
block. The DisplayServer has standard DB9 and DB15 connectors; a
$15 adapter is necessary in order to use an Apple monitor. It
does not work properly with Word 4.0 and Excel 2.2, but produces a
crisp, clear image once running properly. DisplayServer is best
for those who want large-screen monitors; its is more expensive
than Apple's standard monochrome card and monitor, but far less
expensive than full-page or two-page displays.
SnapJot. (Software Review) (evaluation) Gruberman, Ken.
Wildflower Software's $59.95 SnapJot 3.0 Macintosh screen-capture
software is a combination INIT and desk accessory program that
lets users capture any or all parts of a window, dialog box, menu
or the entire screen. The image can be sent to the Clipboard,
printed, saved as a paint or PICT file or placed in a 'floating'
window that acts like any other Mac window. SnapJot can
automatically convert color images to black and white, capture an
entire group of images in multiple windows and activate functions
with hot keys. The program is easy to learn, easy to use and
works flawlessly.
Studio Vision. (Software Review) (Lehrman, Paul D.) (evaluation) Lehrman, Paul D.
Opcode Systems' $995 Studio Vision is a powerful MIDI sequencing
and sound editing program that lets users record audio tracks
along with MIDI data and edit the two tracks together or
separately. It imports sound files from Audiomedia, Passport
Designs' Alchemy and Digidesign's Sound Tools. Editing operations
work by changing pointers; the data on disk remains unchanged, and
any operation can be easily redone. Studio Vision supports
Digidesign's Sound Designer II through 'hot links' for filtering,
time compression and sound mixing. A Strip Silence feature lets
users remove low-level portions of a track. Users can have up to
16 tracks on-line, although only two can be played at any one
time. Studio Vision requires large amounts of disk space; one
minute of sound on one track uses 5Mbytes. The program also
requires a IIci or faster Mac and a hard disk with at least a
28-millisecond access time.
70 things you need to know about System 7.0. (includes related articles on past reports about System 7.0, Adobe Type 1 fonts,
Apple's upcoming System 7.0 operating system has been referred to
as Apple's answer to Microsoft Windows 3.0 and will radically
change the way users work with their Macintoshes. It requires at
least 2Mbytes of memory and a hard disk drive; machines such as
the 1Mbyte Classic configuration will continue to ship with the
latest version of System 6. The most important System 7.0
features are underlying technologies such as file sharing,
interapplication communication, virtual memory and 32-bit
addressing. 'Aliases' will let users create duplicate icons for
any file, folder or volume that can be freely partitioned while
remaining linked to the original file. 'Apple Events' allow
two-way communication between applications on one Mac or across a
network. System 7.0 adds a 'logical desktop' on which the users
can see all disks from inside a Save or Open dialog box. Reasons
to upgrade to System 7.0 include its new TrueType scalable fonts,
the convenience of aliasing, the ability to easily customize the
desktop, virtual memory and support for almost unlimited physical
memory. Tips and shortcuts are presented, along with a list of
'obsolete' utilities users will still need.
Data on the run. (Hardware Review) (palmtop organizers)(includes related article describing the WristMac from Microseeds
Four hand-held computers that offer an interface to the Apple
Macintosh are reviewed. All the machines offer a current
date-and-time display, a calendar display, a telephone-book
database, an appointment-book database with optional advance
alarms, a calculator and a mini word processor. Each has an LCD
screen, but none is backlit. The Sharp Wizard OZ-8000 has
64Kbytes of RAM and support for many kinds of appointments. Sharp
and Traveling Software market software and cable combinations for
data transfer between the Wizard and the Mac, but neither takes
advantage of all the OZ-8000's features. Casio's B.O.S.S. 9500
has membrane keys for functions and displays 6 lines of 32
characters each. It features world-time, secret and mark
functions in addition to its standard functions. Data entry is
complex, and appointment, phone and memo entries may contain up to
384 characters each. Poqet Computer's Poqet PC is a true DOS
computer with 512Kbytes of RAM and DOS in ROM. It includes a
communications program for PC-to-PC transfers, but the software
does not work with the Mac. Atari Computer's Atari Portfolio
suffers from a poorly designed keyboard, a scrolling calendar
display and no Mac software support.
High-speed, low-cost IIci cache cards. (includes related article on caching for other Mac models) (buyers guide)
A guide to cache memory cards for the Apple Macintosh IIci is
presented. Cache cards contain high-speed static RAM chips which
are much faster than the dynamic RAM chips used in system memory.
The cache memory stores frequently used instructions and data, and
gives them to the CPU on request, speeding performance.
Installing a cache card in the IIci is easy; the board plugs into
the machine's 120-pin cache slot. Cache size makes only a slight
difference in performance, and of eight cards reviewed all are
good investments. Users should choose a cache card based on price
and bundled software. The UR Micro MacCache LP32, Total Systems
QuickCache IIci and Micron Xceed IIci are all good buys.
Mac, DOS and VAX file servers. (multiplatform file servers)(includes related articles on optimizing server
A guide to file servers for Apple Macintosh networks is presented.
File servers all consist of a computer, hard-disk drive and
software that lets network users access the hard disk, but a wide
variety of configurations are available. Distributed servers,
such as Sitka Corp's TOPS, let each Mac on the network act as
either a client or a server. Dedicated file servers require that
a Mac be set aside to send files to other Macs and allow server
processes such as E-mail to run in the background. AT&T's
StarGROUP LAN hardware and software can provide file service to
the Macintosh via a Unix-based implementation of Microsoft's LAN
Manager. Novell Inc's NetWare for Macintosh is an add-on to its
powerful PC-based network operating system that lets users add
Macs to a network with a PC file server. Several vendors also
make Mac file servers for DEC VAX minicomputers. Installing
server software on non-Mac platforms is a complex process. The
best price/performance ratio for all-Mac networks is Apple's own
AppleShare. NetWare for Macintosh offers excellent security
features and lets users share files with DOS or OS/2-based
machines. A table of file-server features is included.
Is it time for CD-ROM? (guide to 16 CD-ROM drives)(includes related articles on using IBM-compatible CD-ROMs with the Mac,
A guide to CD-ROM drives for the Apple Macintosh is presented,
along with a report on tests of 16 drives. CD-ROM discs are
read-only and are not used for personal data storage. One reason
why only 300,000 CD-ROM drives, 10 percent of which are connected
to Macs, have been sold is the fact that CD-ROM technology is
locked into aging standards. The drives are slow, and access
software is often awkward to use. CD-ROM drives are also
expensive, but prices are falling. The potential advantages of
distributing software and data on CD-ROM are enormous. Compaq,
Mack Truck and others are distributing their manuals, corporate
databases and training materials using the technology, and many
reference books and shareware libraries are available on CD-ROM.
Buyers should consider how they plan to use their drives before
making a purchase; some drives work better with Adobe Photoshop
than others, while others include superior features for playing
audio CDs. Drives from Mirror, PLI and EMAC are recommended.
Silver platters that matter. (CD-ROM titles) (buyers guide)
A guide to CD-ROM titles available for the Apple Macintosh is
presented. Software libraries available on CD-ROM include
public-domain libraries published by large user groups and bundled
applications such as Microsoft's The Microsoft Office. Many
CD-ROMs are educational, such as Wayzata Technology's About Cows;
others are sophisticated game programs, such as the award-winning
Cosmic Osmo from Activision. Macintosh CD-ROMs often use
HyperCard as a front end. Voyager's Exotic Japan is a HyperCard
2.0 stack with such features as an animated display of how to
handle chopsticks. There are approximately 200 Mac-based CD-ROM
titles now available.
Desktop publishing. (Adobe Multiple Masters font technology; Streamline 2.0 auto-tracing program; product news) (product
Adobe announces Multiple Masters, a new font technology that lets
users and developers create many variations on a single font.
Font weight, width, size and/or style can be altered, and optical
scaling allows maximum readability at all point sizes. Adobe will
ship its first Multiple Masters products by the end of 1990 and
will provide a stand-alone program for creating new fonts. The
company has also introduced Streamline 2.0, an upgrade of its $195
PostScript auto-tracing package that supports gray-scale images
and can assign grays or colors to art. Streamline 2.0 can save
images in PICT or DXF format and sells for half the price of
earlier versions. Altsys has introduces Fontographer 3.2, a new
version of its font-creation program that supports NeXT-compatible
and Windows 3.0 fonts as well as Macintosh fonts. Ventura
Software now offers 12 international dictionaries for its Ventura
Publisher 3.0.1 desktop-publishiing software.
Photoshop unmasked. (using Adobe Photoshop image-editing software) (tutorial)
Tips and techniques for using Adobe's Photoshop image-editing
software are presented. Photoshop and other high-end painting
programs use the 'masking' principle, which lets users isolate an
area in which to work and protect the area outside the selection
from the effects of all tools. Adobe provides a unique 'Alpha
channel' feature for storing and manipulating masks in Photoshop.
Photoshop can save and restore masks, moving them between
foreground and background. Alpha channels are editable images and
can be used with any Photoshop filter, painting tool or selection
tool. The program supports eight-bit masking because its alpha
channels are gray-sale images. Eight-bit masking lets the user
creates such special effects as montages and textured masks. Tips
for producing unusual effects are presented.
Screened effects. (altering halftone screens) (tutorial) Ashford, Janet.
Tips for creating special effects by altering the halftone screens
in graphics programs such as Aldus FreeHand, Adobe Photoshop and
Digital Darkroom are presented. Specific instructions for
transforming a pencil drawing into an eye-catching design with
FreeHand are given. A scanned image can act as a template for
tracing with FreeHand's corner and curve tools. The next step is
to add solids and gradations with basic and linear graduated
fills. Specifying and applying a line screen renders the
background and the graduated fills as a series of slanted parallel
lines. Color is added next, and the image size and screen type
can be changed.
Bridges. (networking) (product announcement) Bortman, Henry.
The AG Group introduces LocalPeek, a new software-based LocalTalk
network-analysis tool for the Apple Macintosh that provides a
graphical view of network traffic statistics. It gives highly
detailed information about individual LocalTalk data packets. IBM
will now market and support Novell's NetWare network operating
system for OS/2 and AIX file servers. Oracle Corp's new $299
Oracle Card is a full-color front end for Oracle databases that
strongly resembles HyperCard. It lets users store draw and paint
images as data on Oracle servers. Macintosh and Windows 3.0
versions of Oracle Card will be available in the 2nd qtr of 1991.
Groupware grows up. (Software Review) (Group Technologies Aspects work-group software) (evaluation)
Group Technologies Inc's Aspects work-group software for the Apple
Macintosh lets 2 to 16 users sharing a document on a network see
each other's changes in 'real time.' The product uses a new
concept in sending documents across a network by 'holding
meetings' in which the document is sent to all participants and
unloaded into the RAM of each user's Mac. Participants can be on
any AppleTalk-compatible network or on a modem line. Aspects has
native word processor, drawing and painting formats and can import
files from Microsoft Word, MacWrite II, ASCII, PICT and MacPaint.
There is no outliner or spreadsheet program, a significant
drawback. The initiator of a meeting becomes its moderator by
default and can choose 'mediation levels' such as Full, Medium and
Free For All depending on the number of users who are allowed to
edit a document at the same time. Aspects is a powerful product,
but it is useful primarily as a brainstorming tool. It does not
support color graphics, and its import capabilities are limited.
Aspects is nevertheless an example of an up-and-coming trend in
networked computing. It costs $299 for a single user, $895 for a
five-user package, and $1,295 for a 10-user package.
The hit-or-miss method. (random approach to network troubleshooting) (tutorial)
Network troubleshooting is a difficult process, but much of it can
be performed effectively using a random approach. Tips for
troubleshooting Macintosh-based networks are presented. Cycling
the power to network devices can pinpoint problems on a LAN, and
using the Chooser to turn AppleTalk off or clicking Restart
isolates an individual workstation. Switching network drivers is
another way to force the Mac to rejoin the network repeatedly and
realert other devices of its presence. A utility program for
turning off all INITs helps eliminate INIT conflicts. Viruses are
another source of network trouble. Other tips include reloading
software, swapping out devices, reinstalling Ethernet or
token-ring software, reconfiguring passwords, adding more RAM and
reading the manual.
Living without System 7.0. (guide to utilities that implement System 7.0 features under System 6.x)
A guide to utilities that implement capabilities similar to those
in System 7.0 for the Macintosh under System 6.x is presented.
Many users will not want to upgrade to System 7.0 itself
immediately because bugs are inevitable and because not all
applications will be System 7.0-compatible. Commonly used
file-management utility packages duplicate many of the features of
Finder 7.0. Magic Software's POWERicons offers an aliasing-like
capability that lets users close' an application's icon while the
program itslef remains open. EveryWare's allShare and Symmetry
Software's EasyShare use the Chooser to retrieve files from other
Macs. Connectix Corp makes several memory enhancement utilities
for System 6.x: Virtual lets a 68030 Mac use up to 14Mbytes of
virtual memory, while Maxima gets around the Mac's 8Mbyte RAM
limitation. Optima/32 lets users work with all available RAM on
the Mac IIci, IIsi and IIfx. Apple offers a free TrueType INIT
that lets System 6.07 use TryeType screen and printer fonts;
earlier versions of System 6.x support Adobe Type Manager. The
public-domain GeoPanel utility lets users bypass the Control Panel
DA and open multiple cdevs from the Finder. Olduvai Software is
readying Balloon Helper, an INIT that lets System 7.0-ready
programs display balloon help under System 6.x.
Keyboard care and feeding. (Apple Macintosh keyboards)(The Expert's Edge) (tutorial)
A guide to selecting and caring for an Apple Macintosh keyboard is
presented. Apple supplies keyboards only with its Mac Classic and
Mac LC models; it offers a small Standard keyboard and a large
Extended keyboard, and there are several third-party keyboards
available. The $129 Apple Standard keyboard has only 81 keys and
is best for users with little desk space. The Apple Extended II
keyboard costs $229 and has 105 keys in a very good layout.
DataDesk International's Mac-101 is a $194 101-key Mac keyboard
with 15 function keys and a bundled macro utility. The $239
Switchboard can be used with either PCs or Macs; the user can mix
and match accessories. Northgate Computer Systems' OmniMac Ultra
costs only $99 and has 119 keys and a PC-like layout. Key
Tronic's $197 MacPro Plus resembles the Apple Extended II keyboard
and has an adjustable response. Most users buy extended keyboards
but ignore the function keys. Many macro utilities are available
for assigning commands to function keys, but the MacroMaker
program bundled with System 6.x is under-utilized. Tips for using
MacroMaker are given, along with a guide to keyboard maintenance.
Users should clean keyboards with a vacuum-cleaner attachment at
least once a month.
List magic. (creating scrolling lists in applications)(Power Programming) (tutorial)
A programmer's guide to creating scrollable lists in Macintosh
applications is presented. Every list has an associated window
and is located with a view rectangle called rView. Developers
create a list with the List Manager routine LNew; a dataBounds
argument defines the list's dimensions. The LSearch routine lets
the programmer search for strings within the list and returns the
cell ID of the cell in which it found the data in a VAR parameter.
LSetCell and LAddToCell add data to cells created via LAddRow and
LAddColumn. Mouse-based list tracking is automatic. Turning off
drawing capabilities until the user has entered all data in a list
is a good idea. Routines used by modal and non-modal lists are
discussed.
A coprocessor for a coprocessor? The 34082 floating point coprocessor for the 34020 graphics processor. (Hardware Review)
Texas Instruments' TMS34020 Graphics System Processor and 34082
floating point coprocessor are designed to work closely with each
other. The excellent graphics performance of the combination is
demonstrated by the use of a C language program to execute
Mandelbrot equations representing three fractal images. The
TMS34020 features a 32-bit external data path, support for several
video RAM capabilities, multiprocessor interface, faster cycle
times and larger internal cache than predecessor 34010 plus a
coprocessor interface. The 34082 is designed to work with the
TMS34020 coprocessor interface, including an internal ROM that
contains firmware programs that can be triggered by instructions
sent by the TMS34020. Details of the design and functioning of
the TMS34020 and 34092 and their performance on the Mandelbrot
routines relative to other processor architectures are discussed.
Adding the power of DSP to your application. (digital signal processing) (tutorial)
The use of off-the-shelf digital signal processing (DSP) products
to add DSP capability to microcomputer applications to achieve
real-time processing performance is demonstrated through the use
of several fast Fourier transform (FFT) DSP algorithms. The FFT
algorithms are implemented in three ways: as C-language programs
running on an IBM PC-type microcomputer, as C programs running on
a DSP add-in coprocessor board from Communications, Automation and
Control (CAC, Allentown, PA) and as DSP assembly language programs
running on the same DSP board. AT&T Microelectronics DSP32c
Assembler and DSP32c C Compiler are used for code generation. The
FFT algorithms are run from within the Digital Signal Processing
Headquarters programming environment from Bittware Research
Systems (Baltimore, MD). Performance improvements of as much
80-fold over non-optimized C code were achieved.
Getting numeric coprocessors up to speed: new processors require new techniques. (includes related article on the advent of the
Analysis of Cyrix 83D87 and EMC87 floating-point (FP) coprocessors
demonstrates how new generations of FP coprocessors achieve FP
math performance equivalent or even better than their
complementary Intel microprocessors (MPUs) executing integer
operations. Historically, the FP counterparts to the Intel 8088
through 80386 MPUs have executed corresponding FP multiplication,
division and other instructions at a far slower rate. The Cyrix
coprocessors, though, employ improvements in internal architecture
and in microcoded algorithms plus a 'memory-mapped' operation mode
to achieve their outstanding performance. The memory-mapped
coprocessors exploit a page high in the 32-bit address space in
the protected mode of the 80386 where the MPU does not insert
internal wait states when accessing locations on the page. The
space can be used to double the rate of information that a Cyrix
device sends to the MPU about instructions the coprocessor will
carry out. The functioning of the Cyrix coprocessors, porting to
memory-mapped mode and generating FP code are discussed.
The initial root filesystem: porting UNIX to the 386. (an ongoing series on porting UNIX BSD to the Intel 80386 microprocessor)
A viable filesystem is developed to contain files and programs
used by a port of the UNIX BSD operating system kernel to the
Intel 80386 microprocessor environment. The filesystem provides
the ability to create, read, write to or destroy programs and data
files stored on some bulk media. A root filesystem contains those
programs necessary to boot the operating system, create a
hierarchy or tree of filesystems and to fix filesystems, even the
root filesystem itself. The programs include installation,
universal bootstrap, operating system kernel, initialization,
utility and operation applications. The creation, debugging and
downloading of the root filesystem is described.
Implementing the GPIB: developing polled and interrupt-driven routines. (general-purpose instrumentation bus) (tutorial)
Polling and interrupt-driven routines are developed that enable
the Texas Instruments TMS9914A General Purpose Interface Bus
(GPIB) Controller to implement an embedded GPIB. The GPIB is a
bit-parallel/byte-serial bus with a unique handshaking facility
that requires all systems attached to the bus accept the current
byte before the next byte is delivered. A complete GPIB only
requires the TMS9914A chip, one OR gate and two drivers. The
TMS9914A provides the functionality specified by the IEEE 488.1
standard for the GPIB. The parallel and serial polling routines
developed set the SRQ command line low to tell the controller that
a device requires the TMS9914A's services. Code for TMS
initialization routines and integrated interrupt handler is
provided. Details of the functioning of the TMS9914A and the
serial and polling routines are described.
Making Smalltalk with Widgets: an extensive class library and a sophisticated interface editor highlight Widgets/V 286. (Software
The 149.95 Widgets/V 286 software package from Acument Software
(Berkeley, CA) is an easy-to-use toolkit that improves the
efficiency and productivity of Smalltalk/V 286 programmers. The
toolkit consists of two major components: a library of about one
hundred classes of enhanced programming objects consisting of
alternative user interface components for the Smalltalk/V 286
environment and an easy-to-use interactive interface editor that
facilitates the visual development of Smalltalk window-based
applications. The editor can create sophisticated user interfaces
with the advanced pop-up menu, menu bar, button, valuator, pane,
prompter and other 'widgets' included in the class library, many
of which are unavailable or crude in Smalltalk/V 286 itself. The
programming of an appointment management utility program
demonstrates the usefulness of the Widgets/V 286 package.
Array bounds checking with Turbo C: hardware assisted bounds checking thanks to a DOS extender. (Borland International's Turbo
A program is developed that adds hardware-assisted bounds checking
of arrays to Borland International's Turbo C 2.0 compiler when it
is used with the MS-DOS extenders from ERGO Computing-Extenders
(Peabody, MA). MS-DOS extenders enable most of the code of a
program to be run in protected mode and the addition of array
bounds checking to programs. The Intel 80286 (80386 and 80486 as
well) microprocessor (MPU) maintains two kinds of descriptor
tables, local descriptor tables (LDTs) in which applications have
their respective memory allocation information stored, and global
descriptor tables (GDTs). LDT and GDT registers hold the size of
and point to their respective tables with sels (selector:offsets).
General-protection faults due to faulty pointers or sels, array
overruns or problems in address arithmetic sometimes occur in the
conversion of programs to protected mode. The Ergo extenders
provide a private sel that accesses the LDT data arrays to enable
the MPU to perform bounds checking with no runtime overhead. The
Turbo C/Ergo heap structure is also discussed.
Windows and Gates. (Microsoft Windows is a viable development environment; Bill Gates is profiled) (column)
Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical user interface and related
Software Developer's Kit (SDK) constitute viable development
environments, as illustrated in brief product comparisons and an
analysis by a panel at the spring 1991 Windows & OS/2 Conference
in San Jose, CA. Microsoft continues to add capabilities to
Windows in contrast to Macintosh System 7.0, where the firm is
eliminating features to get the product out the door. Asymetrix's
ToolBook and Spinnaker Software's Plus provide HyperCard-type
functionality to the Windows environment. Panelists at one
session at the conference concurred that there are Windows
programming tools that offer more performance or functionality
than SDK, but no mainstream applications have been written with
them. Microsoft Corp co-founder and CEO Bill Gate's power,
influence in the computer industry and history are briefly
discussed.
D-Flat. (development of a C language library that converts a subset of the IBM SAA Common User Access interface library into C
The first in a series of columns develops the basic source code to
implement the D-Flat programming environment C-language library
for creating MS-DOS text-mode applications. The D-Flat C library
was designed to be a small text-based subset of the IBM SAA Common
User Access (CUA) interface library that could run on low-end
laptop computers while providing 'adequate' performance. D-Flat
provides CUA-standard windowing, menu, clipboard and dialog box
facilities for applications development. Applications written
with D-Flat compile with Borland International's Turbo C 2.0 or
Microsoft Corp's Microsoft C 6.0 compilers. Hardware
platform-dependent C files that bind the D-Flat library to the IBM
PC microcomputer platform and support the D-Flat operating
environment are developed in this issue.
The lesson of the fallen Viking. (structured programmers should understand the host hardware environment) (tutorial)
PASCAL and other structured language programmers should have a
basic understanding of their host hardware. Developers of
communications programs, for example, should understand the
functioning of the UART (universal asynchronous
receiver/transmitter) chip employed in each serial port on IBM PC-
and AT-class microcomputers. The UART provides
serial/parallel/serial conversion of data and interrupt management
to ensure the reliability of the serial communications. Details
of the functioning of the UART input/output ports, I/O addresses
and registers are discussed. A good strategy for learning how to
use the UART registers is to construct procedures for reading a
character from and writing a character to a UART. A basic Turbo
PASCAL terminal program is developed that uses polling to access
the UART. UART register bit fields, testing flags, baud rate and
divisor latches are also discussed.
Further ruminations of the Edsun CEG/DAC. (Hardware Review) (Continuous Edge Graphics Digital-to-Analog-Converter)
Edsun Laboratories' CEG/DAC (Continuous Edge Graphics
Digital-to-Analog Converter) (CEG/DAC) enables a VGA system to
display graphics at near 24-bit-per-pixel (bpp) quality, but is
better suited to static than dynamic images. The CEG/DAC is not a
true 24-bpp device but achieves its performance by embedding
information to reprogram the palette in the bitmap and pixel
weighting, a process of specifying pixel colors as weighted mixes
of adjacent pixels. Pixel weighting also works well for
eliminating jaggedness in lines in static images but does not work
well for performing temporal aliasing for sequences of animated
images. Methods for working around CEG/DAC's limitations in
generating dynamic images are discussed. Several routines
demonstrate the visual capabilities of the technology.
A fast pseudo random number generator. (tutorial) Maier, W.L.
Routines are developed to implement the fast 'r250' pseudo-random
number generator of E. Stoll and S. Kirkpatrick and test the
output results. The r250 algorithm, named for a 250-element array
it employs, is based on a recursive formula that is discussed at
length. Implementing the r250 algorithm requires a function to
initialize the generator and one to return a random integer when
called. The r250 method performs one XOR and two index
calculations to generate a pseudo-random number, while the
commonly used linear congruent algorithm requires a
multiplication, addition and division. The XOR operation is less
time-consuming than multiplication, making the r250 method an
often faster way of generating a pseudo-random number.
The authority of voice. (voice input) (column) Wiggins, Robert.
Voice recognition has not developed sufficiently to be an
efficient method for computer input, but current products,
especially those from Articulate Systems Inc, constitute the first
step toward the input method of the future. Voice-controlled
computers will be easier to use and more efficient than
technologies such as keyboards and mice. Currently, Articulate's
Voice Navigator II allows users to input short verbal phrases,
such as commands. Voice Navigator can also act as a mouse
extension, allowing users to change tools within a program without
moving the mouse. One problem with voice-input products is the
increased noise levels associated with such devices. Human
psychology can also be problematic because users tend to raise
their voices when repeating commands, but the raised voice is
difficult for the computer to identify.
In praise of Prodigy. (videotex service) (column) Kawasaki, Guy.
The Prodigy videotex system, which was designed by Sears, IBM and
CBS, has been criticized for censoring public messages on the
system, charging for electronic mail messages and terminating
dissenting members. Macintosh users should attempt to antagonize
Prodigy, which represents IBM and everything wrong with IBM
computing. Macintosh users should join Prodigy, send electronic
mail messages to Prodigy's system operators complaining about
children accessing obscene messages on the service, threaten to
boycott Prodigy's advertisers and cancel their memberships.
Personal best: two new Apple printers. (Apple StyleWriter and Personal LaserWriter LS) (Hardware Review) (includes related
Apple's $599 StyleWriter ink-jet printer and $1,299 Personal
LaserWriter LS laser printer are quiet, easy-to-use and
aggressively priced. Both printers offer TrueType, Apple's new
scalable font strategy. The StyleWriter has a modular design that
allows a sheet feeder to be added. The StyleWriter offers 360
dots-per-inch (dpi) resolution, but the ink tends to smudge and
printing is very slow. The StyleWriter cannot be networked. The
LaserWriter LS uses a Canon four-page-per-minute print engine that
offers 300 dpi print resolution. The printer does not include as
much firmware as its predecessors, but it uses compression to
accelerate the printing process. The LS is connected to the
printer via a serial port that transfers data at 909K-bps.
Despite this fast transfer, the printer is slower than similar
products.
Fast, full-featured fax modems. (review of six facsimile modems)(includes related articles on one-way fax upgrades,
Six facsimile (fax) modems with 9,600-bps fax transmission speed
and 2,400-bps data transmission rates are reviewed. The products,
ranked in order of reviewer preference, are Dove Computer's
DoveFax, Abaton's InterFax 24/96, Cypress Research's FaxPro,
Orchid Technologies' OrchidFAX, Computer Friends LightFAX 9624 and
Prometheus Products MaxFax. All the fax modems use CCITT Group 3
protocol. The products require optical character recognition
(OCR) software to turn received faxes into text. The fax
resolution is greater than Mac screens, so small type is illegible
without being magnified. Fax activity reports and multiple
directories of fax contacts can be useful. The packages are rated
on several criteria: ease of fax creation, minimizing call
duration, performance on bad phone lines, printing time, image
fidelity, data transmission capabilities and overall ease of use.
Printing from Mac to LaserJet. (16 add-in products for using HP LaserJet laser printers with Apple Macintosh microcomputers)
Sixteen products that allow Apple Macintoshes to print with HP
LaserJet laser printers are reviewed. The reviewed software
packages are Custom Applications Inc's Freedom of Press, QMS
Software Products' UltraScript, TeleTypesetting Co's TScript, GDT
Softworks Inc's JetLink Express, Insight Development Corp's
MacPrint and Orange Micro Inc's Grappler. The reviewed
printer-sharing devices are ASP Computer Products Inc's Maestro
and SuperJet, Extended Systems Inc's ShareSpool and Pacific Data
Products Inc's Pacific Connect. The other hardware products are
Extended Systems Inc's BridgePort LocalTalk bridge, HP's
PostScript Cartridge and Interface Kit for AppleTalk/HP LaserJet,
Pacific Data Products Inc's PacificTalk LocalTalk bridge and
PacificPage PE 4.0 PostScript cartridge, Extended Systems Inc's
JetWriter serial board and software.
Desktop Publishing. (FontMonger, Page Director and FrameMaker 3.0) Abernathy, Aileen.
Ares Software Corp introduces its $99.95 FontMonger type
conversion software. Type can be converted between Type 1, Type 3
and TrueType formats, and data can be converted between Adobe
Illustrator or EPS files and font characters. Characters from
different typefaces can be combined in one font, and customized
characters can be generated. Managing Editor Software Inc's $895
Page Director, a QuarXTension, is targeted for producing
newspapers or magazines. Quark has also released
NetworkConnection and FeaturesPlus, QuarkXTensions that add
groupware features and utilities to QuarkXPress. Quark introduces
$2,495 Passport, a multilingual version of QuarkXPress 3.0. Frame
Technology Inc's FrameMaker 3.0 is close to release. The new
version includes comprehensive tables and adds other features.
Designing for fax. (designing facsimiles) (Desktop Publishing: Design) (tutorial)
Facsimile (fax) designs should take into consideration the
capabilities and quirks of the fax equipment being used. Standard
fax resolution is 203 by 98 dots-per-inch (dpi), while fine
resolution is 203 by 196 dpi. Designs should be legible at the
lower-quality standard resolution. Fax modems produce
better-quality faxes because they do not require scanning, which
reduces fax quality. Fax modems also offer more scheduling
features and programmability, but fax modems induce scaling
distortions resulting from differences between the Mac's screen
resolution and fax resolutions. Adobe Type Manager 2.0 produces
sharp PostScript type on-screen and on the fax. Most fax modems
produce low-quality photographs and screened artwork. Use sans
serif type with heavy, consistent line weights and large character
openings on fax machines. Printed letterheads, small margins and
type overlays should be avoided.
Bridges. (data communications and connectivity products) Bortman, Henry.
Outbound Systems Inc introduces the $279 Pocket Port, a 2.4-ounce,
2,400-bps Hayes-compatible modem powered by the telephone line.
Novell Inc ships new network operating system packages. NetWare
3.11 prices range from $3,495 for 20 users to $6,995 for 100 users
to $12,495 for 250 users. NetWare for Macintosh 3.0 includes
AppleTalk print spooling and file service similar to AppleShare.
It costs an additional $895 for 20 users or $1,995 for 100 users.
DataViz Inc ships its $199 MacLinkPlus 5.0, which translates
between Word for Windows, WordPerfect 2.0/Mac, MultiMate 4.0,
FrameMaker and Windows graphics. DIT's $250 FloppyWorks allows a
NeXT computer to read from and write to Macintosh disks. RDI
Computer Corp offers $1,695 Companion, an S-bus card and software
that allows a Sun SPARCstation to run Mac SE or Classic software.
A software-only version should be available for $895. Nutek
Computers Inc is developing Macintosh-clone technology consisting
of custom ROMs and software that runs Mac applications under the
Motif interface.
The Mac-to-mini connection. (Bridges: Integration) (tutorial) Elms, Teresa.
Apple Macintosh microcomputers can be integrated into IBM
minicomputer networks to provide intelligent terminals capable of
running user-friendly applications and a familiar graphical user
interface. Establishing the connection between the micro and mini
requires IBM 5250-series terminal emulation, which allows the mini
to send text to what it believes is a dumb terminal. Printer
emulation and file transfer capabilities are also required. A Mac
running MultiFinder can run minicomputer tasks in separate windows
while running Mac applications in their own windows. Protocol
converters without expansion slots can be connected via protocol
converters, which translate ASCII to EBCDIC to connect the Macs
with the IBM mini. Internal 5250 emulation boards can be added to
Macs to provide full-speed connections, but token-ring networks
provide faster links, but the Mac must be connected to an IBM
PC-compatible microcomputer, although Apple is working on a direct
connector to facilitate direct Mac-to-mini connections.
Preventative medicine. (network maintenance) (Bridges: Trouble Shots) (tutorial)
Network troubleshooting can be difficult if there is no way to
measure its performance and no 'baseline' data with which to
compare performance. Running tests on a 'healthy' network can
provide familiarity with troubleshooting tools and give the
network analyst normal data to compare with results from an ailing
network. Recording results from progressive echo tests (PETs)
provides reference points. Traffic monitoring tools can show
network responses to file activity. These responses show how the
network responds to various traffic patterns. Packet-monitoring
tools tell what type of packets are running through the network.
Studying packet patterns can help distinguish when there are too
many or too few packets. Information-gathering tools provide
analysis of the equipment on the network.
Do-it-yourself Mac repairs. (Power Tools) (tutorial) Pina, Larry.
Apple Macintosh II, IIx, IIcx, IIci and IIfx can be easily opened
and some problems can be easily repaired. Macs under warranty
should always be serviced by the dealer. Floppy drive problems
may be caused by loose cables or dirty heads, which can be
repaired by users, or damaged heads, which must be fixed by a
repair-person. Hard disk problems can result from corrupted
Finder software, but loose small computer systems interface (SCSI)
cables, ID number conflicts and termination problems could also be
problems. Boot blocks could be corrupted, or the drive heads may
be stuck. Video cards and monitors can be faulty. Weak
motherboard batteries can cause Mac II, IIx or IIfx computers to
fail to start. If the blinking question mark icon or an error
tone appear upon startup, a single in-line memory module (SIMM)
may be the problem.
Applications are talking too. (Power Tools: Beating the System) Swaine, Michael.
System 7.0's most important feature is interapplication
communication (IAC). IAC allows programs to communicate, allowing
users to pass information between applications. IAC also allows
applications to become more focused. Software packages are
becoming increasingly inclusive, including modules of peripheral
interest to the basic task. Applications should be specialized,
and System 7.0 allows specialization while still allowing the user
to perform the functions previously performed by the peripheral
modules. System 7.0's IAC tools are Publish and Subscribe,
AppleEvents and low-level IAC. Microsoft Corp's Excel 3.0
includes object linking and embedding (OLE), an incompatible IAC
technique. UserLand Software Inc's IAC Toolkit is already
available. HyperCard uses IAC to send messages between stacks.
Living with Murphy. (Murphy's Law; hard disk data transfer) (Power Tools: The Expert's Edge) (tutorial)
A hard disk problem can be difficult to recover from or even
diagnose, particularly if the disk utilities disagree on the
source of the problem. The experience reinforces several rules
all users should follow. More than one backup disk should be kept
because disks sometimes lose data for mysterious reasons. The
backup disks should never be used until the system problem has
been identified and repaired. Once each six months, users should
back up all their files, reformat the hard drive using a low-level
formatting utility, run a disk testing utility, install the System
on the hard disk again, add System enhancements and other files,
restore application programs and restore data files.
How to hire a programmer. (Power Tools: Power Programming) (tutorial)
Those who are not proficient programmers can still bring their
software ideas to life by hiring programmers. The program's
intention must be defined, and its target users should be
identified. The program's user interface should be determined and
developed using drawing programs. Next, features should be listed
and defined, menu by menu. A programmer can be located by asking
colleagues for recommendations, checking Macintosh user groups,
professional organizations such as the Macintosh Consultants
Network (MCN) or newspapers. Using headhunters, or contract
brokers, can be complicated and costly. Involving a third party
in the deal can ruin a relationship with the programmer.
Advertising in the Help Wanted section of major newspapers read by
programmers can also be helpful.
The perfect image: true-color displays. (evaluation of 20 24-bit display systems)(includes related articles on true-color for the
Twenty 24-bit color display systems are reviewed. Included in the
evaluation are Apple's Display 8-24 and Display 8-24 GC,
E-Machines Inc's ColorPage T16, T19 and TX/24, Generation Systems
Inc's Color 24, MegaGraphics Inc's 2024 16-inch and 2024 19-inch,
Mirror Technologies Inc's ProView/24, Moniterm Corp's Viking C24,
PCPC's II 16-inch Color and II 19-inch Color, Radius Inc's
DirectColor/24, RasterOps Corp's 24L, Relax Technology Inc's
Ikegami DM2060, Seiko Instruments USA Inc's 14-inch Color, Sigma
Designs Inc's ColorMAX 8/24, SuperMac Technology Inc's Hitachi
19-inch, Hitachi 21-inch and Sony 19-inch. Factors to consider
when purchasing these systems include the display resolution,
Trinitron or competing technologies, brightness, focus, sharpness,
glare, convergence, color tracking and included software.
Easy hard copy: color PostScript printers. (includes related article on new products and an evaluation summary) (Hardware
Five color thermal-wax-transfer PostScript printers are reviewed.
The reviewed printers are NEC Technologies Inc's $8,995 Colormate
PS 80, Oce Graphics USA Inc's $8,990 OceColor, QMS Inc's $8,995
ColorScript 100 10, Seiko Instruments USA Inc's $6,999 ColorPoint
PS and Tektronix Inc's $7,995 Phaser PX. Thermal color printers
currently offer the best balance of price and performance. The
Seiko printer uses an Intel 80960 microprocessor to run
raster-image processors (RIP), while the other printers use
Motorola 68020 chips. The Tektronix and Seiko printers use
proprietary PostScript-compatible RIPs. The Tektronix is
incompatible with Adobe Type 1 fonts. The 300-dots-per-inch
printers produce poorly-defined halftone screens, and the color is
not completely accurate. The printers offer flexible connection
schemes.
PageMaker 4.0 makes short work of long documents. (Software Review) (Aldus Corp. PageMaker 4.0 desktop publishing
Aldus Corp's $795 PageMaker 4.0 desktop publishing software
includes a new Story Editor that acts as a text-editing window
with a 100,000-word spell checker, user-defined dictionaries and a
search-and-replace function. The Story Editor can also act as a
very fast text formatter, letting users modify type styles and
non-printing characters. PageMaker 4.0 can handle documents up to
999 pages long and has a 'Book' command for linking multiple
documents. New linking options make it much easier for users to
update PageMaker publications without tediously re-importing
elements every time they change. Using Aldus's bundled Table
Editor allows a different kind of linking; the user can build live
links among tabular charts. These features make PageMaker 4.0
ideal for network use. Users can also import new 24-bit .EPS and
.TIF color images for photographic-quality pictures. The program
provides extensive typographic controls, but these are not as good
as those in Quark Inc's Quark XPress for the Macintosh.
Zeos and Dataworld SX notebooks: easy on the road and the pocket: $2,295 Zeos Notebook 386. (Hardware Review) (ZEOS International
Zeos International Ltd's $2,295 Notebook 386 is one of the best
values available in a 16-MHz 80386SX-based notebook computer. The
machine has a 9.5-inch, eight-shade VGA display, solid keyboard
and 2.5-inch Conner Peripherals 20Mbyte hard disk drive. It comes
with parallel and serial ports as well as an external VGA monitor
port, but there is no connector for an external keyboard or a
numeric keypad, The screen is also dim, and removing the battery
is awkward. Battery life is a healthy 2 hours and 30 minutes, and
the machine is sturdily constructed. At 7.1 pounds, it is
somewhat larger and heavier than competing machines such as the
Texas Instruments TravelMate, but it is also less expensive.
$2,650 Dataworld NB/320SX. (Dataworld Inc.'s laptop computer) (Hardware Review) (Zeos and Dataworld SX notebooks: easy on the
Dataworld Inc's NB/320SX laptop computer offers 2Mbytes of RAM, a
20Mbyte hard disk, a high-density floppy drive, a backlit VGA
display, and bundled software for a price of $2,650. Options
include a 'Plus' configuration with 4Mbytes of RAM and a 'Super'
system that includes an internal modem. The NB/320SSX weighs 7.06
pounds with its battery and includes a combination AC adapter and
battery charger. Its 80386SX microprocessor runs at 20 MHz, and
the 16-shade VGA display uses a paper-white cathode fluorescent
backlit LCD. One serious drawback is the poor keyboard layout;
there are no non-shifted PgUp, PgDn, Home or End keys, and the Up
Arrow cursor key is awkwardly located. Users can attach an
external keyboard via an adapter. Battery life is only 1 hour and
58 minutes, although the battery is rated for 3.5 to 4 hours of
use. In addition the system must be turned off for the 2.5 to
three hours it takes to recharge the battery. Dataworld uses a
power management chip set to monitor system activity.
Q-Print accelerator board battles Windows printing. (Hardware Review) (Quintar Co.'s Q-Print; Microsoft Windows graphical user
Quintar Co's $495 Q-Print graphics accelerator board is a
hardware/software combination that speeds up the printing of
vector-based graphics under Microsoft Windows. It uses a 50-MHz
Texas Instruments TMS34010 graphics coprocessor to rasterize
images and send them to the printer in the background while the
user continues with other work. Q-Print comes with an OEM version
of Zenographics' SuperPrint 1.1 font rasterizer and replacement
Windows driver as well as SuperQueue, a print manager. Users can
automate printing by creating and spooling a series of metafiles.
Q-Print should be disabled when printing bitmaps or text-intensive
work because it can actually slow down printing in these cases.
The product is a good choice for users who work heavily with
vector graphics and can pay for itself when used with complex
vector files.
SAS for OS/2 brings mainframe power to desktop statistics. (Software Review) (SAS Institute Inc.'s statistical
SAS Institute Inc's SAS for OS/2 6.06 is a powerful statistical
package that offers desktop users features generally only found in
mainframe-based statistics programs. It takes advantage of OS/2's
ability to handle more memory than DOS, allowing up to 7,500
variables in a system with 8Mbytes of RAM. The software includes
a variety of modules; the $825 Base SAS module includes the SAS
programming language, a text editor, a macro language and two
types of language procedures for I/O and statistics. Other
modules, including advanced statistics, a graphical interface and
matrix manipulation language, cost $625 each. The SAS/Assist
interface in the SAS/Graph presentation graphics module is
disappointing, but most of the modules are well designed. SAS for
OS/2 is especially expensive because SAS Institute charges annual
'seat' fees, such as the $360 for additional years of licensing
for Base SAS, to ensure support and upgrades.
Borland's heftier C++ now does Windows, too. (Software Review) (Borland International C++ 2.0 compiler)(First Looks) (evaluation)
Borland International Inc's $495 C++ 2.0 compiler is a powerful
development environment for both the DOS and Microsoft Windows
programs. It replaces Turbo C++ Professional and offers an
Integrated Development Environment (IDE) with pull-down menus,
pop-up boxes and mouse support; an excellent debugger; a profiler;
and an assembler. Windows support is the most important new
feature in C++ 2.0. The package includes licensed versions of
Microsoft's resource and help compilers and The Whitewater Group's
Whitewater Resource Toolkit, which together let users program for
Windows without spending $495 for Microsoft's Software Development
Kit. The Turbo Debugger has been extended for use with all
Windows programs and offers a similar interface under both DOS and
Windows. Borland does not provide a printed Windows reference
with the documentation, but there is a coupon for either a free or
discounted copy of Charles Petzold's 'Programming Windows.'
AutoShade adds photorealistic imaging to its repertoire. (Software Review) (Autodesk AutoShade computer-aided design rendering
Autodesk Inc's AutoShade 2.0 computer-aided design (CAD) rendering
program now incorporates Autodesk's own implementation of Pixar's
PhotoRealistic RenderMan specification to provide powerful
three-dimensional graphics capabilities. AutoShade 2.0 seamlessly
integrates RenderMan into its own interface, using prepackaged
'shader' routines to compute how surfaces should look and
determine displacement and lighting characteristics. Users can
achieve sophisticated effects such as smooth-shading even without
resorting to the RenderMan features. RenderMan lets the user add
spotlights and complete shadows. The user works with AutoShade by
generating a 'filmroll' file in AutoCAD for export to AutoShade
and then and either shading .FLM scenes or creating RenderMan
Interface Bytestream (.RIB) files. AutoShade 2.0 has AutoDesk's
usual excellent documentation, sells for $1,000 and requires an
80386 or 80486 microprocessor.
The Unmouse: a more versatile mousetrap. (Hardware Review) (MicroTouch Systems Inc. UnMouse input device)(First Looks)
MicroTouch Systems Inc's $235 UnMouse is a combination mouse,
trackball and digitizing pad that is exceptionally versatile and
can substitute for a wide variety of input devices. It faithfully
emulates a traditional mouse in its mouse mode but acts like a
digitizing tablet in its 'absolute' mode. The 'trackball' mode
employs ballistic tracking. An additional mode lets users use the
UnMouse as a function keypad. It relies on voltage-field
linearizing technology and is touch-sensitive; an included driver
directly supports MS-DOS 2.0 and later as well as Microsoft
Windows 3.0. A jump connector splits power from the keyboard, and
the transparent glass tablet has a resolution of 330 by 220 points
per inch. The absolute mode is the most pleasant to use. No bus
version is available; users can only install the Unmouse via a COM
port.
Xircom's Multiplexor Magic turns one parallel port into two. (Hardware Review) (Xircom Corp. Parallel Port Multiplexor)(First
Xircom Corp's $95 Parallel Port Multiplexor is a connector device
that lets users connect laptop machines to multiple printers, disk
drives and local area networks by converting a single parallel
port into two ports. It is a plug-and-play device that includes a
small driver for ease of installation. Default settings designate
the lower connector as LPT1 and the upper connector as LPT2; the
top connector recognizes interrupt 7 by default. The Parallel
Port Multiplexor gives users who already have two parallel ports a
third one. It works correctly with a variety of different
applications, but some products that write directly to hardware
and bypass DOS and BIOS calls may cause it to malfunction.
PC-File gains ready-to-go apps and viewer. (Software Review) (Buttonware Inc. PC-File Ready-To-Run Applications)(First Looks)
Buttonware Inc now offers a variety of pre-written applications
and add-in programs for its popular PC-File data base management
system. PC-File Ready-to-Run Applications is a set of ready-made
programs that cost $24.95 each. The 14 databases, some for home
use and some for business, include a checkbook, address book,
accounts payable, pre-pay and purchase order invoicing, business
contacts, personnel, inventory and church record keeping. Each
application has of a database with sample records, report forms
suitable to the particular application, predesigned mail-merge
letters and mailing labels. Buttonware also has a new $59.95
memory-resident utility called dbCrayons dBCrayons that lets users
enter a PC-File database via hot keys. Users can search for and
display records, print output and dial phone numbers from database
fields.
Northgate OmniKey 101: keyboard with versatility. (Hardware Review) (Northgate Computer Systems Inc.)(First Looks)
Northgate Computer Systems Inc's $89 OmniKey 101 keyboard offers
customization capabilities for greater versatility. Users can
configure the keyboard for virtually any type of computer via an
eight-position DIP switch and option selection push button. The
Backslash and Asterisk keys can be transposed or the keyboard set
to any of three Dvorak layouts. Settings remain in effect only
until the user shuts off the computer, but Northgate provides
bundled utilities for placing preferred settings in a batch file.
The OmniKey 101 has a crisp, 'clicky' touch in a high-quality
product.
Recognita Plus: OCR with strength in hardware. (Software Review) (Recognita USA Corp.'s optical character recognition
Recognita USA Corp's $495 Recognita Plus optical character
recognition software supports a wide variety of 70 scanners but
suffers from poor accuracy compared with competing products. It
includes separate versions for DOS and Microsoft's Windows 3.0 and
works with Chinon, Sharp, and Siemens scanners as well as more
common hardware. The program uses Omnifont technology but fails
to recognize some fonts; it works well with 12-point Courier but
not with underlined text, smaller point sizes, proportional fonts
or dot-matrix print quality. There is also no spelling checker.
Recognita Plus is a fast scanning package recommended only for
those users whose esoteric hardware is not supported by leading
packages such as Calera's WordScan and Caere's OmniPage.
Pen-based computing: get the point? (column) Machrone, Bill.
Early pen-based computers will not be remarkable in themselves but
will provide an indication of what direction pen-based computing
will take in the future. Dramatic changes in the market are
likely in the early 1990s, just as the laptop market evolved
rapidly. Pen-based machines will start at notebook size and
become smaller, down to the size of pocket calendars, as their
potential to eliminate the need for a keyboard is realized.
Graphical user interfaces are a given for pen-based computing, and
virtually every application must be redesigned for it. A
pen-based interface is very direct and does not force users to
learn new coordination skills, but handwriting recognition remains
the technological problem area. Some pen systems are marketed as
being less 'antisocial' than laptops for business situations, but
taking laptops to meetings is seldom actually frowned upon. The
microcomputer of the future may be a hybrid machine with a liquid
crystal display, a keyboard and a pen interface.
How Microsoft blew it with Word 5.5. (word processing software) (column)
Microsoft Corp made a major mistake when it redesigned the
interface of its Word 5.5 word processor to make the
character-based product resemble the software publisher's Windows
graphical user interface. The company traditionally did an
excellent job of keeping the Word interface consistent over many
upgrades, but Word 5.5 differs so substantially from Word 5.0 that
it can be termed more of a replacement than an upgrade. Word 5.5
uses drop-down menus, a 'ribbon' stripe at the top of the screen
that resembles Windows' menu bar and a small on-screen 'work area'
that provides a pale imitation of a graphical interface.
Microsoft also changed almost all of the commands, a move which
alienated thousands of loyal Word 5.0 users. The company bundles
a copy of Word 5.0 with each copy of 5.5, but users who upgrade to
Word 5.5 and discover that they do not like it have little
recourse.
How much PC power is enough? (short-term vs. long-term value of 8088- and 80286-based systems) (column)
Some users firmly assert that microprocessors earlier than the
80386SX are obsolete and that older systems should be replaced
promptly. Other users and analysts place short-term needs first
and economize by purchasing 80286- or even 8088-based systems.
Many argue that buying more powerful systems is a better
investment, but there is nevertheless a case to be made for 8088s
and 80286s when budgets are severely constrained and when a
business is heavily invested in older equipment. Proponents of
286-based systems continue to point out that inexpensive machines
can still perform the basic word processing and spreadsheet
functions most users require. No microcomputer system can be too
powerful, and those users who can afford to buy powerful machines
should do so. Some must nevertheless respond to difficult
economic times by not buying more power than is sufficient for
corporate needs.
Improving information access. (cover story) (Software Review) (overview of 17 evaluations of asynchronous communications
Seventeen asynchronous communications packages for microcomputers
are reviewed. All are general-purpose packages and include the
ZModem file-transfer protocol, the de facto standard for computer
bulletin boards. The programs range from $30 shareware packages
to sophisticated products costing as much as $300. Some of the
packages run under Windows, while others implement the 16550A
Universal Asynchronous Receiver/Transmitter (UART) first in, first
out (FIFO) buffer mode. Windows suffers from a mediocre
communications driver that does not support FIFO and uses
nonstandard COM3 and COM4 addresses. Hayes Microcomputer Products
Inc and others plan to ship a Windows driver for the Hayes
Advanced Serial Processor card. Digital Communications Inc's
Crosstalk Mk. 4 is an especially good product and is rated an
Editor's Choice along with Hayes's Smartcom Exec, which is fast
and reliable under DOS, and DynaComm Asynchronous Edition.
BLAST PC, version 10.2.0. (Software Review) (Communications Research Group Inc.)(one of 17 evaluations of asynchronous
Communications Research Group Inc's BLAST PC 10.2.0 communications
package supports almost all platforms; it is available in versions
for Unix, Xenix, Apple Macintosh, VMS and DOS. This capability
makes it an excellent solution for corporate minicomputer and
mainframe connections, but the program is relatively weak with
systems management. It lacks support for IBM 3270 terminal
emulation and relies heavily on user intervention in many
situations. BLAST supports the Kermit, XModem, Ymodem-G, and
ZModem file transfer protocols as well as its own proprietary
protocol. Terminal emulation options include DEC VT100, VT52,
VT220 and VT320; HP 2392; IBM 3101; ANSI; and TTY. There is no
support for file transfer rates of 57.6K-bps. BLAST PC is
nevertheless a good program for companies that require
communications among disparate computers since any two computers
running BLAST can communicate.
COM-AND, version 2.7. (Software Review) (Caber Software)(one of 17 evaluations of asynchronous communications software in 'Improving
Caber Software's $35 shareware COM-AND 2.7 communications program
offers many of the features of more expensive packages but suffers
from some limitations. It includes a sophisticated script
language, mouse support and accessory 'chat' programs. The
program senses first-time execution and asks the user hardware
configuration questions at installation, but only a limited number
of modem types are supported. COM-AND 2.7 has built-in file
transfer protocols for CompuServe B, CompuServe Quick-B, Kermit,
XModem and YModem-G. It supports run-length-encoded graphics and
ANSI, CompuServe Vidtex, DEC VT52 and VT100 and TTY terminal
emulation modes. The learning script is flawed; it does not
always record keystrokes correctly, although the supplied
CompuServe script works correctly. The inability to use RTS/CTS
flow control is COM-AND's biggest drawback.
Crosstalk Communicator, version 2.0. (Software Review) (Digital Communications Associates Inc.)(one of 17 evaluations of
Digital Communications Associates Inc's (DCA) $99 Crosstalk
Communicator 2.0 asynchronous communications package is a
'downsized' but equally fast version of the company's high-end
Crosstalk Mk 4 but offers excellent value, especially for users
familiar with the Crosstalk script language. Crosstalk
Communicator uses a subset of the DCA CASL script language, and
there are 10 pre-configured but customizable entries in the
dialing directory. It makes many on-line operations very simple,
and users can capture incoming information to disk or print the
data as received. Technical support is free. The product is
targeted at those users who prefer ease of installation and use
and low cost; it takes advantage of many built-in protocols and is
a good value with clear documentation for the novice.
Crosstalk for Windows, version 1.1. (Software Review) (Digital Communications Associates Inc.)(one of 17 evaluations of
Digital Communications Associates Inc's (DCA) $195 Crosstalk for
Windows 1.1 asynchronous communications package for Microsoft
Windows 3.0 has scrollable window displays and can capture session
information for later replay in a script. It also supports
background file transfers and user-defined programmable function
(PF) keys for macros. The package offers ANSI, IBM 3101 and DEC
VT52 and VT102 terminal emulation and supports CompuServe B,
CrossTalk, Dart, Kermit, XModem, XModem 1K, YModem-batch and
ZModem file-transfer protocols. It does not, however, support IBM
3270 terminal emulation. The scripting language is similar to
Crosstalk Mk. 4's CASL, also from DCA. Crosstalk for Windows 1.1
is a powerful product for the Windows market and is easy to set up
and use.
Tailor-made communications. (Software Review) (guide to communications packages for specific on-line services)
Communications packages designed for accessing specific on-line
services such as CompuServe and MCI Mail are reviewed. Most such
programs include a built-in message editor for electronic mail,
mechanisms for organizing mail and automating the mailing of
binary messages, address books and lists of current topics. Lotus
Development Corp's $150 Lotus Express 2.0 is designed for MCI Mail
users. It lets the user attach binary files to MCI Mail messages,
but suffers from severe limitations: it runs only as a
terminate-and-stay-resident program and often conflicts with other
memory-resident software. The $79 TAPCIS is a popular shareware
program for managing CompuServe data. AutoSIG (ATO) is available
at no charge and has a more powerful script language than TAPCIS,
but TAPCIS has direct links to CompuServe's libraries.
CompuServe's own $24.95 CompuServe Information Manager offers a
smooth graphical interface but does not let users do as much
off-line as other programs. General Electric Information
Services' GEnie PC Aladdin 1.41 program resembles TAPCIS and ATO,
but is tailored for the peculiarities of GEnie. TappeT and RECON
are shareware add-ons for TAPCIS.
Crosstalk Mk. 4, version 2.0. (Software Review) (Digital Communications Associates Inc.)(one of 17 evaluations of
Digital Communications Associates Inc's $245 Crosstalk Mk. 4 2.0
asynchronous communications package is a powerful, high-end
product with many terminal emulations, file transfer protocols and
scripting capabilities. It is not designed for casual users; the
CASL script language provides full-featured application
development capability and demands some programming expertise.
Installation is easy, however, and the number of terminal
emulation types supported is amazing; virtually all DEC, IBM and
ANSI terminals can be used. Documentation is excellent, and the
program can operate as a host for callers , can log calls and
provides password security for local operations. There is also
context-sensitive on-line help. Crosstalk Mk. 4 is rated an
Editor's Choice.
DynaComm Asynchronous Edition, version 3.00.08. (Software Review) (Future Soft Engineering Inc.)(one of 17 evaluations of
Future Soft Engineering Inc's $295 DynaComm Asynchronous Edition
3.0.08 is a high-powered Microsoft Windows-based communications
software package that can emulate a wide variety of terminals and
log on to many on-line services and bulletin boards. It includes
a powerful script language, support for the Windows Dynamic Data
Exchange protocol and the ability to work with ZModem, ASCII,
Kermit, YModem-batch, YTerm, and CompuServe B Plus file transfers.
There is no automatic ZModem download/upload feature and the
learning curve is higher than with some of the other reviewed
products. Users select session parameters from menu options and
DynaComm 3.0.08 includes context-sensitive help. The program
supports 14 terminal emulation types, including DEC VT42, VT100,
VT102, and VT320; IBM 3101 and 3270; ANSI; and TTY. DynaComm
includes preconfigured log-on scripts for AT&T Mail, BIX, GEnie,
CompuServe and MCI Mail. It is rated an Editor's Choice for
overall quality.
HyperAccess/5, version 1.2. (Software Review) (Hilgraeve Inc.)(one of 17 evaluations of asynchronous communications software in
Hilgraeve Inc's $199 HyperAccess/5 1.2 asynchronous communications
software offers powerful features rivaling those in packages
costing much more. It supports both DOS and OS/2 Version 1.2; the
DOS-only version is $99.95. The program includes over 100
pre-programmed setup strings for modem compatibility and is very
easy to use. Installation is automatic, and the product supports
DEC VT52, VT100, VT220, and VG330 terminals as well as the IBM
3101 and 3278, ANSI and TTY. Users can direct incoming
information to the screen, printer or disk. HyperAccess/5 has a
built-in editor and a powerful script language that lets users
assign scripts to specific keys or log onto services directly from
batch files. HyperAccess/5 even includes IBM's virus-scanning
signatures. The documentation is also excellent.
Mirror III, version 2.0. (Software Review) (Softklone)(one of 17 evaluations of asynchronous communications software in 'Improving
SoftKlone's $149 Mirror III 2.0 asynchronous communications
package is easy to install and use, and offers a pull-down menu
interface, MNP error control and data compression and a very
powerful script language. The program supports background
operation, includes a strong dialing directory and has a built-in
full-screen editor. It is also compatible with Crosstalk XVI
scripts. File transfer capabilities is another of Mirror III
2.0's major strengths. Mirror III supports ASCII, CompuServe B,
Crosstalk, Hayes, Kermit, Kermit Server, XModem, XModem 1K and
YModem-G file transfer protocols. It also supports communications
management when used with an auto-answer modem. Users can control
file access with a password protection feature by assigning
security levels to each caller. The program has some operational
problems; it sometimes times out rather than establishing a
correct link with a bulletin board, and lacks some real-time error
messages. It is nevertheless an excellent value, and SoftKlone
backs its product with good technical support.
MTEZ, version 1.10. (Software Review) (MagicSoft Inc.)(one of 17 evaluations of asynchronous communications software in 'Improving
MagicSoft Inc's $50 MTEZ 1.1 asynchronous communications program
uses a modular approach, letting users build a communications
system via add-on programs. The basic package provides DEC VT102
terminal emulation; ASCII, XModem, YModem-batch, and YModem-G file
transfer protocols; and mouse support. A $24 Protocol and
Emulation Add-On module adds ZModem, CompuServe B Plus, Kermit and
Kermit Client file transfer protocols; support for CompuServe
Vidtex, ADDS ViewPoint, DEC VT52, IBM 3101 and 3270, Televideo,
Wang and Wyse terminals; and a full-screen text editor and viewer.
The $49 Script add-on module gives MTEZ a script language. MTEZ
does not support 115.2K-bps or 57.6K-bps data transfer speeds, but
it is a straightforward program with mouse support and
context-sensitive help for beginning users; it is bundled with
many modems and laptop computers.
ObjectTel: communicating the French way. (Software Review) (Matesys Corp. ObjectTel communications software) (evaluation)
Matesys Corp's upcoming $199 ObjectTel communications package for
the Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical environment was designed in
France and is marketed there under the name 'TwinTalk' for more
than a year. ObjectTel is expected to include scripts for logging
onto US on-line services. It has a unique open network-drive
architecture that supports both Novell NetWare and Microsoft LAN
Manager. ObjectTel's parameter settings include a 57.6K-bps rate,
but Windows does not yet support rates higher than 19.2K-bps.
Byte sizes can range from 4 to 8 bits, and there is support for
multiple comm ports. Matesys plans to offer toll-free technical
support. ObjectTel should be a strong competitor in the US
Windows-based data communications market.
PereLine, version 3.0. (Software Review) (PereLine Data Systems Inc.)(one of 17 evaluations of asynchronous communications
PereLine Data Systems Inc's $49.95 PereLine communications program
offers an easy-to-use menu system along with a 188-verb script
language for expert users. It lets users reconfigure its menus
with titles, headings, footers or additional features.
Installation is easy, and the package provides ZModem support via
a DSZ protocol module. It does not operate at 115.2K-bps in some
situations, and performance is only average. PereLine
nevertheless lets users exit to DOS and run other applications
while conducting file transfers in background. It has a
memory-swapping option that lets it use only 35Kbytes of RAM when
the user runs other applications. PereLine offers many of the
advanced features of higher-priced programs such as mouse support,
security features, and free technical support; it is an excellent
value despite its relative slowness.
ProComm Plus, version 2.0. (Software Review) (DATASTORM Technologies Inc.)(one of 17 evaluations of asynchronous
Datastorm Technologies' $119 ProComm Plus 2.0 communications
software adds ZModem support and many enhancements to the already
powerful feature set of the original ProComm. Users invoke the
dialing directory, terminal emulation and other features via
'exploding' menus, and there are 100 modem setup strings. ProComm
Plus 2.0 is exceptionally easy to use and offers some security
features, including password protection, when it is used as a
remote host. Supported file transfer protocols include ASCII,
Kermit, CompuServe B Plus, XModem and ZModem. The program
sometimes locks up during high-speed file transfers, and it tends
to freeze when receiving file transfers from a ZModem auto-start.
ProComm Plus 2.0 is nevertheless a good value.
Professional YAM, version 17.70. (Software Review) (Omen Technology Inc.)(one of 17 evaluations of asynchronous
Omen Technology Inc's $139 Professional YAM 17.7 communications
software allows a wide variety of custom configurations for
communications sessions and is designed for users who are
interested in learning the finer points of data communication. It
stresses the ZModem file transfer protocol, which Omen developed,
but also supports CompuServe Quick-B, XModem, YModem and Telink
transfers. An auto-download feature works with Kermit and ZModem.
Professional YAM can emulate DEC VT100, VT102, and VT220 as well
as Wyse 60 terminals but does not support CompuServe Vidtex.
Performance is fast but not always reliable. Professional YAM
takes a no-nonsense approach, emphasizing functionality over ease
of use.
QModem, version 4.2E. (Software Review) (The Forbin Project Inc.)(one of 17 evaluations of asynchronous communications
The Forbin Project Inc's QModem 4.2E is a $30 shareware program
that offers many of the capabilities of expensive commercial
programs and is very easy to use. It includes a script language,
a robust help table and seven terminal emulations. Installation
is easy, and users can quickly create telephone directories and
scripts. There is no internal text editor or file user, but users
can substitute an external program; shelling to DOS is also easy.
QModem includes ASCII, XModem, YModem and ZModem file transfer
protocols and performs very well at data transfer speeds of
38.4K-bps. Users can obtain the software from on-line services or
get an evaluation copy for $20.
Communications for databases. (Software Review) (CompuSolve Comet; SilverWare Inc. SilverComm Library) (evaluation)
CompuSolve Inc's $99 Comet 2.41 and SilverWare Inc's $189
SilverComm Library 2.05 are both powerful communications libraries
designed specifically for use with data bases. The programs
consist of dBASE routines that can be included in dBASE and
compatible applications that perform such functions as dialing a
company headquarters and uploading point-of-sale data. Comet
includes a total of 21 functions along with support for the ASCII,
XModem and YModem file transfer protocols. It is easier to use
than SilverComm Library and can perform file transfers in
background. Its documentation is sparse but adequate, and the
manual includes source code for a demonstration program.
SilverComm supports COM3, COM4 and the AST 4 PORT AT board and
offers over 100 functions. It includes extensive documentation
and a powerful sample communications program.
Smartcom Exec, version 2.0. (Software Review) (Hayes Microcomputer Products Inc.)(one of 17 evaluations of asynchronous
Hayes Microcomputer Products Inc's $129 Smartcom Exec 2.0
communications package includes some of the advanced capabilities
of Hayes' Smartcom III but is almost as easy to use as the
stripped-down Smartcom EZ. It includes a powerful script
language, built-in text editor, LAN modem support and support for
Hayes's Enhanced Serial Processor card. Smartcom Exec 2.0 is
exceptionally fast, easy to install and offers comprehensive
telephone-directory management. Users can run scripts for file
management and other common tasks through the phone book.
Terminal emulations available include ANSI, DEC VT102, Show
Control and TTY; the program supports Autotype, Kermit, XModem,
XModem 1K, YModem Batch, YModem-G and ZModem file transfer
protocols. Other features include a capture buffer for
temporarily storing information in RAM, disk capture for saving
text in a disk file and concurrent printing. Smartcom Exec 2.0 is
rated an Editor's Choice.
The 16550A UART: breaking old bottlenecks. (Universal Asynchronous Receiver/Transmitter)(new communications technology) (technical)
Many of today's microcomputers include the 16550A Universal
Asynchronous Receiver/Transmitter (UART) chip for faster
communications throughput, but not all communications software can
take advantage of the new hardware. A DOS DEBUG script for
experimenting with the UART is presented. The script generates
FIFO.COM, a small program that activates the first-in, first-out
(FIFO) communications buffer in the UART. FIFO.COM cannot make a
communications program recognize the UART but can help eliminate
potential problems associated with overrunning the UART. Complete
source code is included; the FIFO.COM program itself can be
downloaded from the PC MagNet online service.
Telix, version 3.12. (Software Review) (Exis Inc.)(one of 17 evaluations of asynchronous communications software in 'Improving
Exis Inc's $39 Telix 3.12 is a shareware communications package
that is easy to install and use, but its terminal emulations are
somewhat limited. The program supports ASCII, CompuServe Quick-B,
Kermit, Modem7, Sealink, Telink, Xmodem, Ymodem and Zmodem file
transfer protocols and has a status window that displays file
transfers in process. It includes a fully functional scripting
language with many of the features of C and a dialing directory
with room for 1,000 entries. Performance is average or below
average at typical file-transfer speeds. Telix suffers from
limitations, but is a good value for its price.
Unicom, version 2.0C. (Software Review) (Data Graphics)(one of 17 evaluations of asynchronous communications software in 'Improving
Data Graphics' $45 Unicom 2.0C communications package is a
Windows-based shareware program that is easy to learn and use but
not very sophisticated. It emulates only ANSI, DEC VT32, and TTY
terminals and supports ASCII, CompuServe B, Kermit, XModem, YModem
and ZModem file transfers. The program lacks automatic ZModem
file transfers; ZModem must be selected manually every time it is
used. Data Graphics provides an informative graphical display to
indicate what percentage of the file has been transferred and the
estimated total transfer time. The dialing directory is flexible,
and the script language can schedule up to eight events. Speed is
average for Windows-based communication. Data Graphics does not
offer much technical support, even for registered users.
WinComm, version 1.4. (Software Review) (Synappsys)(one of 17 evaluations of asynchronous communications software in 'Improving
Synappsys' $149 WinComm 1.4 communications package for Microsoft
Windows offers Dynamic Data Exchange support, password security
for local operations, and a variety of other features but suffers
from some significant drawbacks. It can operate at speeds above
19.2K-bps but not very efficiently, and its scripting language is
overly complex for a limited program. There is no built-in
support for the UART FIFO buffer. File transfers are very simple
and viewable, and the program supports Kermit, CompuServe B,
XModem, YModem and ZModem protocols. A Monitor tool allows easy
file preview. WinComm requires numeric result codes from the
modem; technical support is available at a toll number.
Communications without ZModem: old standards and a new favorite. (Software Review) (four communications packages) (evaluation)
Four communications packages that do not use the new ZModem
file-transfer protocol are reviewed. Crosstalk XVI 3.71, Smartcom
III 1.2 and Relay Gold 4.0 are long-time standards that retain
their popularity, while MicroPhone II 1.01 for Windows is a
relatively new product designed for graphical environments.
MicroPhone II has an excellent script language, and Relay Gold
provides strong IBM 3270 terminal emulation and easy connection to
popular on-line services. Crosstalk XVI offers excellent
scripting capabilities but is not as easy to use as newer
products. Hayes's Smartcom III has a strong script language that
is compatible with the lower-cost Smartcom Exec. File transfers
with Crosstalk XVI are simple, but the program supports only
Kermit, XModem and proprietary protocols. Smartcom III has
similar capabilities but adds YModem support. Microphone II
supports XModem and YModem, while Relay Gold supports Kermit and
several versions each of XModem and YModem. Crosstalk XVI offers
eight different terminal emulations, while Smartcom III and
Microphone II support only ANSI, TTY and DEC VT52 and VT100.
Relay Gold supports many mainframe terminals.
To the limit: caching the 386SX/20. (Hardware Review) (overview of nine evaluations of 20-MHz 80386SX-based microcomputers)(includes
Nine microcomputers based on the 20-MHz 80386SX microprocessor and
include cache RAM are reviewed. The machines are positioned as
powerful entry-level systems that can run the most up-to-date
software, and most are rated FCC Class B, making them suitable for
home use. The 386SX is a 32-bit processor with a 16-bit data
path; it can run 80386-specific programs but is not as fast as the
full-scale 80386DX. Cache memory helps 80386SX-based machines
come closer to their higher-priced siblings in performance. A RAM
cache works by temporarily storing information in very fast memory
that the CPU would otherwise have to retrieve from much slower
system memory. The typical machine comes with 2Mbytes of RAM and
60 to 100Mbytes of hard disk space. Prices average $3,000; a
machine configured with 4Mbytes of RAM and a 150 to 200Mbyte hard
drive can cost as much as $7,000. The CompuAdd 320sc is rated an
Editor's Choice.
AGI Computer Inc.: AGI 3000B. (Hardware Review) (one of nine evaluations of 20-MHz 80386SX-based microcomputers in 'To the
AGI Computer Inc's 3000B 20-MHz 80386SX microcomputer can hold
8Mbytes of RAM on its motherboard and has three drive bays. It
costs $3,998 when configured with 4Mbytes of RAM, a 1.2Mbyte
floppy drive, a 132Mbyte hard disk and an Everex VGA video
subsystem. It is very fast in processor benchmarks, but very slow
in memory tests; disk performance is apparently fast but can be
deceptive because the disk controller BIOS does not perform a disk
seek. The motherboard is made by Everex and uses an AMI BIOS.
All the drive bays can hold removable media, and there are a total
of eight expansion slots, three of which are occupied by a video
card, drive controller and I/O card. The 3000B offers average
performance overall and may be a good value if purchased at a
discount.
AST Research Inc.: AST Premium II 386SX/20 Model 113V. (Hardware Review) (one of nine evaluations of 20-MHz 80386SX-based
AST Research Inc's Premium II 386SX/20 113V is the company's
top-of-the-line 80386SX-based microcomputer and uses AST's
proprietary Completely Universal Processor I/O Design (CUPID)
32-bit architecture. The Premium II costs $4,770 when equipped
with 4Mbytes of RAM, Super VGA video, a 110Mbyte hard disk and a
floppy drive. The system board has six expansion slots, three of
which have 32-bit extensions. It uses a backplane design with the
processor and RAM located on an upgradable processor card that
fits into one of the CUPID slots. The case has front-mounted
power and reset switches, three half-height drive bays and a
proprietary port for attaching a 3.5-inch drive to the right of
the bays. AST's processor card can handle up to 16Mbytes of RAM.
Video performance with the built-in Super VGA subsystem is
disappointing, and disk performance is also poor. The Premium
II's price is not far from that of a 33-MHz Intel 80386-based
system. Based on its performance/price relationship, the Premier
II is not recommended.
CompuAdd Corp.: CompuAdd 320sc. (Hardware Review) (one of nine evaluations of 20-MHz 80386SX-based microcomputers in 'To the
CompuAdd Corp's 320sc 20-MHz 80386SX microcomputer offers 4Mbytes
of RAM, a 64Kbyte RAM cache, a 200Mbyte hard disk drive, two
floppy disk drives and a 20-MHz 80387SX math coprocessor for only
$3,381. It also includes a Super VGA graphics subsystem and
1Mbyte of video RAM on the motherboard. The 'slimline' design has
five free expansion slots, but the lowest one cannot be used for a
full-length card because it is too close to the memory banks.
CompuAdd allows up to 32Mbytes of system RAM in single in-line
memory modules, and the 320sc uses very-large-scale-integration
chips on its well-designed motherboard. Performance and speed are
excellent, the system includes video and system BIOS shadowing and
all switches are clearly labelled. The CompuAdd 320sc is an
excellent value and CompuAdd provides toll-free technical support
and good warranties. This system is rated an Editor's Choice.
Computer Market Place Inc.: Ultra 386SX-20. (Hardware Review) (one of nine evaluations of 20-MHz 80386SX-based microcomputers in 'To
Computer Market Place Inc's Ultra 386SX-20 microcomputer is a
small-footprint machine that is aggressively priced but does not
offer high performance or maximum expandability. It costs only
$2,357 when equipped with 4Mbytes of RAM, an 89Mbyte hard disk, a
single floppy disk drive, Super VGA video board and monitor and
MS-DOS 4.01. A machine with a Seiko monitor, Focus keyboard and
two floppy drives is $3,563. The AMI BIOS offers shadowing of all
ROM in RAM, but benchmark results are only average. There are
four device connectors on the 200-watt power supply, but not all
are usable because there are only three drive bays. A unit
configured with one hard and two floppy drives has no room for
additional drives. Computer Market Place sells by mail order and
does not offer on-site service. It nevertheless produces a
reasonably well-constructed machine at a very low price.
Diamond Technologies: DT-386SX-20. (Hardware Review) (one of nine evaluations of 20-MHz 80386SX-based microcomputers in 'To the
Diamond Technologies' DT 386SX/20 microcomputer is a
small-footprint, 20-MHz 80386SX-based machine that sells for
$2,179 equipped with 4Mbytes of RAM, 16Kbytes of processor RAM
cache, a 100Mbyte hard disk, two floppy drives, a Super VGA
subsystem and MS-DOS 4.01. There are two 3.5-inch drive bays in
addition to the three half-height bays, and all the components
work well together despite having come from disparate
manufacturers. Performance is good, and the machine is a strong
competitor in its class, although Diamond does not offer on-site
service and forces users to do their own shopping for enhancements
such as additional memory.
Eltech Research Inc.: Eltech 2200. (Hardware Review) (one of nine evaluations of 20-MHz 80386SX-based microcomputers in 'To the
Eltech Research Inc's Eltech Research 2200 20-MHz 80386SX-based
microcomputer costs only $2,649 equipped with 4Mbytes of RAM, a
64Kbyte RAM cache, a 106Mbyte hard disk, one floppy drive, a Super
VGA graphics subsystem, MS-DOS 4.01, Microsoft Windows 3.0 and a
Logitech mouse. The Eltech offers impressive expandability, with
three half-height and two 3.5-inch drive bays. It has eight
16-bit expansion slots on the motherboard, six of which are
available on a fully-configured machine. Eltech provides a
200-watt power supply. The 2200 is one of the fastest machines on
processor benchmarks, but its hard disk is relatively slow. It is
nevertheless one of the better values available in an
80386SX-based machine.
Leading Edge Products Inc.: Leading Edge D3/SX20c. (Hardware Review) (one of nine evaluations of 20-MHz 80386SX-based
Leading Edge Products Inc's D3/SX20c microcomputer offers only
average performance and costs a mid-range $3,874 when configured
with 4Mbytes of RAM, a 106Mbyte hard disk, a 32Kbyte RAM cache,
two floppy disk drives, a Super VGA graphics subsystem, MS-DOS
4.01, GW-BASIC and Microsoft Windows 3.0. The Daewoo motherboard
is well integrated, and users can install two internal half-height
and one 3.5-inch drive as well as one third-height drive. This
capacity should be sufficient for most users, but does not leave
room for a CD-ROM or tape drive. Memory is expandable to 8Mbytes
on the motherboard using interleaved single in-line memory
modules. Performance is somewhat slow, and the machine is not a
particularly good value.
Micro Express: Micro Express ME 386-SX/20/Caching. (Hardware Review) (one of nine evaluations of 20-MHz 80386SX-based
Micro Express Inc's ME 386-SX/20/Caching microcomputer appears
similar to the company's ME 386SX but uses an entirely different
chip set, motherboard and BIOS. It sells for a remarkably low
price: $2,364 including 4Mbytes of RAM, 16Kbytes of cache memory,
a 200Mbyte hard disk, one floppy disk drive, Super VGA graphics
and MS-DOS 4.01. Micro Express has modified the machine's
interior to allow access to more than 8Mbytes of RAM; the new
motherboard holds up to 16Mbytes but requires larger single
in-line memory modules. There are six expansion slots available
even with the video card installed, and the case holds three
half-height drives and one 3.5-inch drive. One expansion slot
cannot hold a full-length card because the drives get in the way.
The machine suffers from sloppy workmanship, but performs very
well on benchmark tests. It may be an excellent value for many
individual users.
Zenith Data Systems: Zenith Z-386 SX/20. (Hardware Review) (one of nine evaluations of 20-MHz 80386SX-based microcomputers in 'To the
Zenith Data Systems Corp's Z-386 SX/20 microcomputer is relatively
expensive but provides good features and options. A configuration
with 4Mbytes of RAM, 32Kbytes of processor RAM cache, an 80Mbyte
hard disk, one floppy disk drive and VGA graphics costs $4,598;
this price includes MS-DOS 4.01 and Microsoft Windows 3.0 as well
as a Microsoft mouse. Performance is only average for a machine
equipped with cache memory, but is still good among 20-MHz 80386SX
machines in general. The unit is sturdy and well-designed, and
there is a setup screen that provides password control, port
enabling and video BIOS shadowing. Zenith is well known as a
reliable brand name, and the Z-386 SX/20 is recommended for users
who want the security of a well-known vendor label and who can
find this system at a deep discount.
Training tools for laser users. (overview of reviews of 17 books, four videotapes for laser printer users)(includes description of
Laser printers are becoming more and more common as prices
decline, and many new books and videotapes are available to train
computer workers in their use. The original HP LaserJet cost
$3,495; today's HP LaserJet III, which offers far more advanced
technology, lists for $2,395. Today's laser printers are
extremely complex and use elaborate control languages that novice
users find discouraging. Programming capability is one of the
most powerful attributes of laser printers, but it is inherently
complex. Seventeen books and four videotapes containing
information on how to use laser printers are reviewed. Users
should of course peruse HP's manuals first, since the company
provides excellent documentation. The LaserJet Handbook, Second
Edition, by Steven J. Bennett and Peter G. Randall, is rated an
Editor's Choice.
Buffered printer-sharing devices. (building workgroup solutions) (Hardware Review) (overview of nine evaluations of printer-sharing
Nine buffered printer-sharing devices that let microcomputer users
share printers without requiring a complex local area network
(LAN) are reviewed. Printer-sharing devices generally support six
to 10 microcomputers and at least two parallel printers. They can
also handle PostScript and large graphics files at a price of less
than $150 per port. Buffered printer sharers are transparent to
the user; the printing process is identical to that used with a
direct connection. Users also do not have to worry whether a
particular printer is occupied because the buffer stores multiple
print jobs and sends them to the next available printer.
Dedicated printer sharers include the PrintPoint 6x2, Byteway 1000
Plus 8P1MB and others; these are limited to connecting specific
input ports to specific output ports. Data switches, such as the
PrintDirector Silver PDSSP and Buffalo SL-512, can connect any
port to any other. Some products use a foreground control
program, while others use a memory-resident utility; most base
prices do not include cabling. Specific cabling schemes are
discussed. Digital Products's PrintDirector Silver PDSSP is rated
an Editor's Choice.
Buffalo Products Inc.: Buffalo SL-512. (Hardware Review) (one of nine evaluations of printer sharing devices in 'Buffered
Buffalo Products Inc's SL-512 printer sharing device is a buffered
data switch that lets users connect any port to either a
microcomputer or a printer and includes an extensive collection of
software utilities. A 'Supervisor' mode manages setup and
configuration, and the SL Manager software modifies all existing
AUTOEXEC.BAT files. Customizing the standard SL macros invoked
from the terminate-and-stay-resident (TSR) control program is
recommended. Users can designate the unit to handle input or
output at transmission rates of up to 115.2K-bps, but the highest
transmission rate that can be realistically used is 19.2K-bps.
Buffalo's support includes a one-year warranty and 45-day
money-back guarantee, and the product is a good value overall at
$575 for a unit with six serial and four parallel ports and
512Kbytes of RAM, but without cables, which cost an additional
$85.
Consolink: Super Spooler II. (Hardware Review) (one of nine evaluations of printer sharing devices in 'Buffered
Consolink's $999 Super Spooler II buffered printer-sharing device
works well once installed but is difficult to set up and use. It
comes with eight ports, 512Kbytes of RAM and a minimalist
memory-resident control program. Users will have to buy their own
cabling, and the parallel ports are all atypical and difficult to
distinguish from serial ports. Nearly all Super Spooler options
must be implemented in hardware by setting DIP switches. The
Super Spooler II generally prints faster than competing units, and
is compatible with most applications other than
terminal-and-stay-resident ones in graphics mode. It also causes
some applications to print more slowly than normal. Consolink
does provide a toll-free technical support telephone line and a
three-year warranty.
Digital Products Inc.: PrintDirector Silver PDSSP. (Hardware Review) (one of nine evaluations of printer sharing devices in
Digital Products Inc's PrintDirector Silver PDSSP printer-sharing
device is a buffered data switch that offers a wide variety of
powerful features as well as excellent performance. The unit has
LED status indicators, four parallel and six serial ports, 1Mbyte
of memory and RAM-resident software for a price of $1,095.
Cabling increases the cost considerably; two 15-foot parallel
cables and four serial connections made via telephone-style cables
cost a total of $340. The included terminate-and-stay-resident
(TSR) program comes with nearly every feature needed and takes up
only 13Kbytes of memory. It includes an expanded version of
'SmallPop,' which tests each connection, and a 'Doctor'
diagnostics program. Performance is admirable, and the unit
passes all compatibility tests. The PrintDirector is rated an
Editor's Choice for overall quality.
Excellink Inc.: PrintPoint 6x2. (Hardware Review) (one of nine evaluations of printer sharing devices in 'Buffered
Excellink Inc's PrintPoint 6x2 uses an extremely simple method to
share printers and is easy to set up. There is no need for a
terminate and stay resident (TSR) utility; users switch between
printers via batch files. Six serial ports are dedicated to
microcomputers, and two parallel ports are for printers The base
price for a machine with 256Kbytes of RAM is $650; a unit with
1Mbyte is $797. Despite the ease of installation, the machine may
be confusing for users who do not have a working understanding of
serial ports and printers. Two of the serial ports are limited to
9,600 bps, but the other four can use higher speeds if the user
adjusts settings on both the microcomputer and PrintPort ports.
The PrintPoint is a good value for users familiar with batch files
and other computing concepts and offers better-than-average
performance under heavy-duty printing connections.
Fifth Generation Systems Inc.: The Logical Connection. (Hardware Review) (one of nine evaluations of printer sharing devices in
Fifth Generation Systems Inc's Logical Connection printer-sharing
device costs only $495 for a system with eight ports and 512Kbytes
of RAM. It offers high reliability as well as support for other
hardware platforms such as the Apple Macintosh. The Logical
Connection is a data switch, and its ports can be used either for
microcomputers or printers; one must be set as serial port 0, and
the computer attached to this port is used to configure or
reconfigure the device. Its POPLC utility can run either in
nonresident mode or as a 23Kbyte terminate-and-stay-resident
program. There are some slight compatibility problems in graphics
mode, and its serial transmission speed is limited to 9,600 bps.
The Logical Connection is nevertheless a very good value for many
users as it is reliable and versatile.
IMC/Data Manager: Data Manager XL-100. (Hardware Review) (one of nine evaluations of printer sharing devices in 'Buffered
IMC/Data Manager's Data Manager XL-100 peripheral sharing device
costs $995 equipped with a 512Kbyte buffer, eight serial ports,
two parallel ports and one Ethernet port. It is a sophisticated
device that lets users connect it to an Ethernet network with up
to 16 workstations, but is still easy to set up. There are three
top-level menu selections on the liquid crystal display control
panel. The supplied 30Kbyte terminate-and-stay-resident utility
is useful for sending commands to printers and devices but is
incompatible with MS-DOS 4.01. The Data Manager XL-100 is a
powerful and versatile device that will be far more competitive
when the manufacturer updates it for the current version of the
MS-DOS operating system.
Protec Microsystems Inc.: Byteway 1000 Plus 8P1MB. (Hardware Review) (one of nine evaluations of printer sharing devices in
Protec Microsystems Inc's $895 Byteway 1000 Plus 8P1MB
printer-sharing device offers versatile control approaching that
available with local area networks. It lets system managers
control which microcomputers can print on which printers and
provides password security. The machine has one dedicated input
port, one dedicated output port and six user-definable ports.
Cables are not included with the unit and not sold as options;
users must buy their own 25-wire shielded cables for each port.
Installation is somewhat complex, and users must know the password
in order to access the configuration manual. Flexibility is the
main strength of the Byteway 1000 Plus; it is not very expandable,
but it offers excellent administration features and performance,
although at ordinary speeds.
Q4 Instruments Inc.: Data Shuttle 8400. (Hardware Review) (one of nine evaluations of printer sharing devices in 'Buffered
Q4 Instruments Inc's $899 Data Shuttle 8400 printer sharing device
includes eight serial and four parallel ports. The base price
includes 256Kbytes of RAM; a 512Kbyte version is $923. Users can
connect the eight serial ports with modular six-wire
telephone-style cable and the parallel ports with straight-through
or standard printer cables. Q4 sells cables at reasonable prices.
Any port can be used for either a microcomputer or printer, and
users can share modems if all the microcomputers are attached to
serial ports. Setup can be confusing for those unfamiliar with
serial ports. Overall performance is excellent, and the Data
Shuttle is a good choice for those with relatively heavy-duty
needs who may want to 'cascade up' to multiple units.
Printer sharing plus: five hardware-based zero-slot LANs. (Hardware Review) (evaluation)
Five 'zero-slot' local area networks, which let microcomputers
share files and peripherals without requiring a dedicated server
machine or adapter card installed in each unit, are reviewed. 3X
USA Corp's 3X-Link 16, Equinox Systems Inc's Alternet,
ConnectWorks Co's ChainLink, Server Technology Inc's EasyLAN/Quick
Connect and Newbridge Networks Inc's PC Loves Mac have much in
common with simple printer-sharing devices, using the same type of
data switch to connect any port to any other. All come with
software that gives them small-scale LAN capabilities and are more
complex than printer sharers. 3X-Link 16 is distributed,
spreading its hardware among various machines; Alternet offers
eight serial ports and a dedicated port for long-distance
connections, making it ideal for connecting two disparate
workgroups. ChainLink is very easy to set up and use and is
available in versions for 4 to 16 users. EasyLAN/QuickConnect can
use either 9-pin or 25-pin connectors and allows the cascading of
up to 20 computers on a single network. PC Loves Mac is the most
expensive of the five packages; it sells for $1,395 with 256Kbytes
of RAM, but lets Macintosh and IBM-compatible computers coexist on
the LAN.
Rose Electronics: FastPrint 8S2U/5X. (Hardware Review) (one of nine evaluations of printer sharing devices in 'Buffered
Rose Electronics' FastPrint 8S2U/5X printer-sharing device offers
considerable flexibility and can be configured with as many as 17
ports; a unit with eight serial ports and two user-definable ports
and 512Kbytes of RAM costs $799. The 8S2U/5X includes two
connectors for dedicated output ports, and the serial connection
is as useful as the parallel connection because some printers and
plotters lack parallel ports. The eight serial ports are
dedicated to microcomputers and use telephone-style cable.
Installation is straightforward, and there is a utility for
setting transmission speed to as high as 115.2K-bps. Rose says
that users can cascade additional units but that this is not
recommended because it may slow down output.
Brainstorming software: a free flow of ideas. (Software Review) (overview of three evaluations of 'brainstorming' software
Three 'brainstorming' software packages that help users define
problems, set goals and enhance free-form creativity are
evaluated. Soft Path Systems' Brainstormer, Fisher Idea Systems'
IdeaFisher and Experience in Software's Idea Generator Plus use
numerous approaches to creative problem solving; each program uses
its own methods to encourage the user to look at problems in new
ways. Brainstormer uses a mathematical model to identify
recurrent ideas; IdeaFisher aims to replace 'serendipity' and
guarantee a steady stream of ideas and options. Idea Generator
Plus lets users play 'role reversal' from the viewpoints of an
optimist, pessimist, realist or 'dreamer.' Users should not expect
too much from any of the programs, but IdeaFisher is rated an
Editor's Choice.
Brainstormer. (Software Review) (Soft Path Systems)(one of three evaluations of brainstorming software in 'Brainstorming software:
Soft Path Systems' $75 Brainstormer uses a 'Morphological Box'
matrix constructed of 10 by 10 dimensions to help users visualize
almost unlimited combinations of ideas. Its algorithm was
developed by an experimental psychologist, and its sessions take
place in Interest, Theme and Probe modes. There are no prompts or
'canned' questions; the user must know what issue to explore ahead
of time. Users enter topics in the 'Interest' mode and variations
on these issues in the 'Theme' mode; the 'Probe' mode generates
recombinations. Brainstormer suffers from a weak user interface
and data entry limitations; its reporting capabilities are also
minimalist.
IdeaFisher. (Software Review) (Fisher Idea Systems Inc.)(one of three evaluations of brainstorming software in 'Brainstorming
Fisher Idea Systems' $595 IdeaFisher 3.1 is the most powerful
'brainstorming' package available and is designed to mimic human
creative thought processes. The decision support software helps
users 'free associate' new ideas by making connections between
word clusters. The program takes up 7Mbytes of disk space because
it contains a huge cross-referencing database. It is structured
around 'IdeaBank,' 'QBank,' 'Notepad' and 'Question Notepad'
windows, which users can display either at the same time or
separately. The IdeaBank database is associative and contains
61,000 words, ideas and phrases. Users can add to the IdeaBank
and create new links. The exploration and definition of
brainstorming tasks is well-structured. Users can copy questions
to the Question Notepad and generate new ideas from the answers.
IdeaFisher is rated an Editor's Choice.
Breaking through writer's block. (Software Review) (Xpercom's Thoughtline 2.1 and Addison-Wesley Publishing Co.'s Wordbench 1.2
Xpercom's $195 Thoughtline 2.1 and the Brainstormer add-in
included with Addison-Wesley Publishing Co's $189 Wordbench 1.2
word processing software package are two idea-generation programs
designed to help users overcome writer's block. Wordbench uses
'Freewriting,' 'Invisible Writing,' 'Nutshelling' and 'Goal
Setting' modes to force the user to type without interruption,
enter brief subject concepts and not think about what has already
been entered by hiding text. Thoughtline is designed for speech
writers and includes 16 structured question groups designed to
create detailed outlines for speeches. It includes four
categories of prompts: Background, Structure, Development and
Summary. The user cannot skip any questions with this strict
program.
The Idea Generator Plus. (Software Review) (Experience in Software Inc.)(one of three evaluations of brainstorming software in
Experience in Software Inc's $195 Idea Generator Plus 3.1 is based
on a series of idea-development 'exercises' that help users define
problems accurately and identify goals correctly. It uses a
narrative approach with a 'notepad' for recording inspirations.
Users can consult examples of possible situations and metaphors
and analyze a situation from any of five points of view: optimist,
pessimist, realist, dreamer, or parent. An 'Evaluation' menu item
asks the user to rate and prioritize ideas; the 'Reports' section
provides a summary of results. Idea Generator Plus is more
structured and less free-form than its competitors, but its rigid
approach can nevertheless lead to useful results.
A guide to PostScript for non-PostScript programmers. (Lab Notes)(column) (tutorial)
The PostScript page description language is a complete programming
language, but users do not need a comprehensive background in
PostScript to understand the basics of troubleshooting and
modifying PostScript code. PostScript's use began in the Apple
LaserWriter, but its hardware independence makes it a de facto
industry standard. A PostScript driver built into an application
or graphical operating environment actually writes only code; a
PostScript printer, imagesetter or other device interprets the
code via a Raster Image Processor (RIP). The code is independent
of both the host system that created it and the output device.
PostScript drivers perform unevenly, and the changes in 'clone'
versions of PostScripts can create what amount to
incompatibilities with fonts and pattern-fill commands. Specific
instructions for printing .EPS files directly from DOS, modifying
headers and rotating text are presented as examples.
PostScript, Level 2. (new version of PostScript page description language)(Lab Notes)
Adobe Systems announced PostScript Level 2, a major upgrade of its
de facto industry-standard PostScript page description language,
in Jun 1990. It is, in part, an attempt to compete with
Microsoft's TrueImage printer technology. PostScript Level 2
includes a device-independent color module based on the CIE
standard, which in turn is based on human perception. Level 2
also supports graphics compression routines, including JPEG,
CCITT, DCT and LZW for faster printing of bit-mapped images. It
incorporates much of the font-rendering technology found in the
Adobe Type Manager software package, but users still need that
software product to see accurate on-screen representations of
fonts. One drawback is that PostScript Level 2 may not be
backward-compatible with Level 1 in all cases.
Finding and changing to the directory you want, with CDX.COM. (change directory, extended)(includes related articles on
CDX.COM, a utility for DOS that lets users quickly change
directories without typing in long path names, is presented. The
program uses a special variable to search a specific directory and
a backslash character with an /F switch. Several command examples
are presented, along with a technical description of how CDX
works. The program first searches the current directory if it is
executed from a subdirectory and then goes 'down' through the
subdirectory structure, reversing to move 'up' if necessary and
accepting even a single letter as a directory name. Special
program routines direct the search on a particular drive, search
for the target directory in and below the requested directory, and
build new operands for when to begin looking. CDX.COM is
available on-line from PC MagNet.
Color complexities and craziness in Windows 3.0. (Microsoft Windows 3.0 graphical user interface) (Environments)(technical
A guide to the use of color in Microsoft Windows and OS/2
Presentation Manager (PM) programming is presented. The RGB color
model used by Windows and PM is not very device-independent
because different output devices render color differently and
because the human eye perceives it differently. Windows
approximates RGB colors by 'dithering,' or displaying a pattern of
pixels to mimic colors not directly supported by the video board.
Two small tools that simplify the use of color and palettes in
Windows are WHATCLR, which sets the Windows timer for 100
milliseconds and uses the GetPixel function to determine the RGB
color of the pixel beneath the mouse cursor, and COLORSCR, a
program that contains three scroll bars for adjusting color
values. Dithering works by assigning different hexadecimal values
to groups of pixels. Gamma correction is one way of modifying
palette values for standard color values in the video display's
relationship between electron density and light intensity.
Exploring Dynamic Data Exchange in Windows 3.0 with WordBASIC. (Microsoft Corp.'s Windows 3.0 graphical user interface; WordBASIC
Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE) is a powerful feature of Microsoft
Windows 3.0 that is unfortunately very difficult to incorporate
into programs. DDE tends to require an object-oriented approach,
and many developers are unwilling to abandon traditional
procedural programming. One way to explore DDE procedurally is to
use WordBASIC, the macro language built into Microsoft's Word for
Windows. WordBASIC resembles Microsoft's QuickBASIC for DOS and
the Macintosh and is implemented similarly. There are several
hundred unique commands in WordBASIC that balance the program's
lack of mathematical ability; Word BASIC supports only addition,
subtraction, multiplication, division, MOD, INT, ABS, RND, VAL and
SGN functions, but there are many DDE functions oriented toward
word processing. WordBASIC is an excellent test bed for DDE.
Techniques for building 'hot links' in WordBASIC are presented.
Play It By Ear: more patient than any music teacher. (Ibis Software) (Software Review) (After Hours) (evaluation)
Ibis Software Inc's $99.95 Play It By Ear is educational software
designed specifically to teach music recognition and
identification. It functions in two modes: identification in
which the user answers multiple-choice questions about intervals,
notes and so forth, and composition, which consists of exercises
in which the user imitates the note, scale or whatever musical bit
the software package produces. Play It By Ear supports MIDI
keyboard use, mice, and most sound cards. The basic exercises can
be customized by combining different levels of skills and the
seven given modes and scales. The only weaknesses in this
well-designed software are its rudimentary method of charting the
user's progress and the difficulty in hitting the right note with
a mouse click.
Don't persecute Microsoft for doing things well. Schwartz, Evan I.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has attracted a good deal of
attention with its investigation of allegations that Microsoft has
monopolized or is trying to monopolize microcomputer software and
peripheral markets. The FTC, in spite of Microsoft's apparent
invincibility, should think twice about punishing the company for
being successful. Maybe the company has been an aggressive
competitor in the software market but its technological
accomplishments would surely outweigh the headaches it has given
competitors along the way. All known complaints against the
software giant have come from within the highly competitive
software industry, prompting the FTC to expand its investigation
to cover allegations that the company employs inside knowledge of
its operating systems so that its applications packages can be the
first on the market with the most advanced features. Some within
the industry want Microsoft split into two firms: one for
applications and one for operating systems.
Mac vs. Mac: how Apple plans to cure its high-end headache. Buell, Barbara.
The $999 Apple Macintosh Classic, which was introduced in the fall
of 1990, broke all company sales records. But the company
diverted its attention from sales of its higher-end products as
they celebrated the Mac Classic sales figures. The company has
announced a 19 percent increase in revenue to $1.59 billion for
its March quarter. Profits, however, ran flat at $131 million
because of slower high-end sales. Gross margins dropped to 48.8
percent, below analysts' estimates of 50.5 percent. The glitch,
which is supposed to be temporary, drove the company's stock down
13 percent in one day to 62.25. The company needs to rebuild
sales of its higher-end products, which cost as much as $8,700 and
yield margins around 60 percent. A new Mac, based on the Motorola
68040 processor, will aid the effort.
Conner's drive is getting a bit gummed up: a sales drop raises doubts about the company's subcontracting strategy. (Conner
Conner Peripherals has been the premiere company of the
hard-disk-drive industry ever since its inception in 1986. The
company set a sales record for a manufacturing startup in 1987 by
posting sales of $113 million. Sales have climbed in each and
every subsequent quarter. The company announced, on Apr 17, 1991,
that sales for its 1st qtr, ending Mar 31 1991, fell ten percent
from the previous quarter to $382 million. The main reasons were
increased competition and a shortage of parts, leading some
analysts to question the company's design and manufacturing
strategies. The company will probably have to do some of its own
manufacturing, which it considered when acquiring the disk-coating
operation of Domain Technology Inc.
The last hurrah for European high tech? Struggling electronics giants have an agenda with one topic: survival.
The heads of European electronics companies are scheduled to meet
on Apr 19, 1991 at a secluded chateau near Dijon, France for a
secret dinner meeting that may well determine the fate of their
industry. The summit was called by European Commission (EC) Pres
Jacques Delors and will include a wide-open brainstorming session.
Attendees will include Karlheinz Kaske of Siemens, Alain Gomex of
Thomson, Carlo De Benedetti of Olivetti, Jan Timmer of Philips and
Francis Lorentz of Groupe Bull. The purpose is to devise a plan
to deal with the crisis affecting Europe's semiconductor and
computer makers. More than 70,000 layoffs have been announced as
Groupe Bull, Philips, Thomson and other have instigated radical
restructuring programs to head off increasing losses. EC
officials are ready to review any steps for revitalizing the
industry that have a reasonable chance of success.
'I can't work this thing!' Frustrated by high tech? Designers are getting the message. (includes related article on simplified
Many otherwise competent people are driven to frustration by the
technological products that surround them. The once-familiar
telephones and photocopiers have become more and more complicated,
while technological innovations designed to make work more
efficient, such as facsimile machines, computers and electronic
mail, often accomplish just the reverse. Stress increases at home
with video cassette recorders (VCRs), answering machines,
microwaves and more. Manufacturers of complicated consumer
products are losing their customers' interest as well as
alienating them. Consumers do not appreciate being made to feel
like technological illiterates. Manufacturers are making progress
toward simplification. VCRs now feature on-screen programming to
walk the user through each step.
The war on information clutter. Verity, John W.
Too often what readers want to find in manuals, documents, graphs,
maps and computer screens is lost in unbelievable visual clutter.
It drives the readers crazy and costs them money. They have a
right to clarity, which is now being recognized. A discipline has
emerged that calls for designing information displays for lucidity
as much as style. Information graphics is a new approach that is
utilizing wisdom accumulated over the centuries by master
typographers, mapmakers and artists. Information designers are
working with the mundane and the sophisticated, creating new ways
of graphing the mountains of data spewed forth by computers,
detecting fleeting trends. Everyday documents from the sports
pages to utility bell to the Yellow Pages are being redesigned.
Information-design guru Edward R. Tufte says that every mark on a
page should carry meaning.
Sharp's long-range gamble on its innovation machine: will its optoelectronics R&D win it a place among Japan's giants?
Sharp Corp, long considered a maverick in consensus-minded
corporate Japan, is earning a reputation for calling the right
shots on some long-range gambles, from liquid-crystal displays on
laptop computers to semiconductor lasers that read compact disks
and the electroluminescent computer screens aboard America's space
shuttle fleet. The company has been first with a wide array of
optoelectronic technologies--devices combining electronic and
optical functions. Twenty years of effort have made Sharp the top
producer of optoelectronic devices with a 14 percent global market
share. Some analysts are questioning whether a company like Sharp
can withstand the difficult cycles of high capital spending and
price slashing. The company's salvation will probably be its
penchant for innovation. It was one of the first to enter solar
research. Its latest ultra-thin single-crystal silicon solar cell
technology has impressed scientists at NASA's Lewis Research
Center in Cleveland, OH.
Intel: way out in front, but the footsteps are getting louder. Brandt, Richard.
Intel, as it extended its market dominance in the microprocessor
arena, has discovered the value of marketing. The company plans
to back its introduction of the new 80486SX chip, on Apr 22, 1991,
with a two-year, multimillion dollar ad campaign aimed at
consumers. Intel CEO Andrew S. Grove says that if the company
creates a demand for systems built around the 80486SX chip then
computer makers will have no choice but to use it. IBM, Dell
Computer and AST Research are preparing to announce new
microcomputers based on the new chip within days of the
introduction. The marketing demand is focused on stimulating
demand for Intel chips in every type of computer. Intel boasts a
50 percent market share for microprocessors.
Can Judge Greene pacify the Baby Bells? Maybe for now. But they'll keep asking for access to more markets. (Judge Harold Greene, Bell
The seven Bell Regional Holding Companies (BRHCs), which were
created when Judge Harold Greene dissolved the Bell System in
1984, began maneuvering for relief as soon as the breakup was
accomplished. The latest dispute is over whether the BRHCs should
be allowed to create and own information services like on-line
databases. Judge Harold Greene has scheduled oral arguments for
Apr 18 and 19, 1991. He will then decide whether or not lifting
the ban would stimulate competition or allow the BRHCs to utilize
their local telephone monopolies to squeeze out rivals. Greene
ruled in 1987 against giving the BRHCs carte blanche in
information services. They are also pressing to enter long
distance, telecommunications manufacturing and cable television
Information processing: bits and bytes. (industrial technology edition) (column)
Hewlett Packard is planning to introduce an 11-ounce,
checkbook-sized microcomputer with a built-in version of Lotus
1-2-3. The PC XT-compatible, code-named Jaguar ($699), is powered
by two AA batteries. It will also include a calculator, calendar,
Rolodex and organizer. New York Telephone owns 8,100 sidewalk pay
telephones within the city limits. There were 90,000 reports of
phones out of order in 1990, generally because of vandalism. The
company and the city government plan to test pay phones from
Landis and Gyr that use cards instead of coins. TriGem Computer
is working with CMS Enhancements, a disk drive distributor, to
create a line of microcomputers based on the Intel 80386SX chip.
Signs are apparent that China is will willing to reconsider
foreign ownership in its telecommunication industry. Canadian
company Wild Rose Resources and one of the US Bell Regional
Holding Companies will consider investing in a cellular phone
franchise in Sichuan. Syntactic Analyzer has created Syntax, a
computer program that scans and indexes text stored in a computer
and writes abstracts.
Cutting edge. (high-definition television studios) Newcomb, Peter.
The debate over high-definition television (HDTV), which offers
twice the resolution of normal television, has focused on
technical standards rather than the production of programming to
watch in the improved format. Barry Rebo's Rebo High Definition
Studio Inc and David Niles' Captain New York studio are filming
high-definition productions for various companies and developing
music video libraries. The companies both have annual revenues of
about $4 million. Viacom Entertainment and Media International
Corp plan to film a two-hour Perry Mason HDTV movie, and Cable
Television Laboratories Inc, a consortium of cable operators, will
offer HDTV programming regularly beginning Oct 1, 1991. Hollywood
has resisted the move to HDTV because the TV sets retail for
$35,000. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) wants new
HDTV broadcast standards by 1993.
A hard way to make a buck. (Minnesota Mining & Manufacturing Co.'s Memory Technologies Group yields low profits)
Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Co (3M) is very successful, but
its $1.6 billion Memory Technologies Group has an operating margin
of about five percent, while most 3M groups have margins between
20 and 25 percent. 3M researchers have created promising
products, but company policies and skeptical managers reduce the
group's effectiveness. 3M engineers produced an operational
prototype of a magneto-optical disk in 1981, but 3M management
refused to make disk drives for the new disks and resisted
developing links between the drives and computers. Sony announced
its magneto-optical disks near the same time 3M brought its disk
to market in 1988, and Sony has gained about 70 percent of the
market. 3M killed a promising product using stretched-surface
disks. 3M's $320 million in sales of data cartridges are
threatened by companies more willing to improve technology and
follow industry standards. 3M is not suited for the magnetic
media market, and the company's decision not to make disk drives
hurts profitability.
The Steven Jobs reality distortion field. (discouraging results at NeXT Inc.) (Computers/Communications ) (company profile)
Workstation vendor NeXT Inc's problems, including unpopular
computer designs and poor sales, indicate that Steven Jobs is not
infallible. The Apple cofounder achieved hero status when he was
forced from Apple by John Sculley, and the NeXT venture attracted
capital from sources such as Ross Perot, Canon Inc, Stanford
University and Carnegie-Mellon. Three years after the company's
first workstation debuted, NeXT has sold only 15,000 computers,
and despite Jobs' assertions that his products are gaining
popularity, only 1,500 workstations were shipped in the last four
months of 1990. The 550-employee company operates from luxurious
headquarters in Redwood City, CA, but its immaculate manufacturing
facility in Fremont, CA has not come close to its $1 billion
volume capability. Jobs is accused of spending large amounts of
money on his machines' aesthetic design while ignoring practical
aspects and user needs. Jobs licensed the NextStep software to
IBM in 1988, but the computer giant has never used NextStep in its
products. Jobs is also accused of being headstrong and a poor
listener.
Calling Dr. Posner. (Ronald Posner tries to revive WordStar International Inc.) (Computers/Communications)
Ronald Posner, who is known for improving underachieving software
companies, is attempting to revive WordStar International Inc.
WordStar's eponymous word processing package was once the market
leader, but more responsive companies with better products have
since supplanted the firm. WordStar had sales of $67 million in
1984, when its product's popularity peaked, but its 1990 sales
totalled only $37 million and it holds only a 10 percent share of
the word processing market. WordStar has a base of 3.5 million
users, and Posner hopes that new products can be sold to these
customers on the strength of WordStar's name through distribution
connections that already exist. WordStar has been introduced into
the Apple Macintosh market, and the company has acquired software
designed for use on laptops. WordStar has also licensed a
Microsoft Windows-compatible software package from NBI Inc. Posner
is using cash reserves to make these acquisitions while cutting
costs and working to improve sales.
How to computerize a business conference. (Computers/Communications: Random Access) (column)
Business conferences can be awkward to arrange and are not always
conducive to the types of information exchange that most benefit
their participants. Yet remote, computerized conferences lack the
personal aspect of regular meetings. The two methods can be
combined by convening a conference and establishing a computer
network to enhance interaction between participants. Lotus
Development Corp's Notes software or other groupware software can
be used on a network to provide information and schedules, allow
user comments, facilitate open interaction and organize social
events. Participants can freely contribute to the information on
the network, and users can choose to investigate or ignore the
contributions. The system increases user participation and
reduces the guesswork involved when organizers must choose
conference material.
Dream on. (transmitting electric power through the air) (Science and Technology)
Electric power may eventually be transmitted through the air,
without wires, but the technology will probably only be used in
space. Nikola Tesla believed electricity could be transmitted
through the air, but he could not make the idea cost efficient.
Twenty-five companies are working at the Texas A and M University
Center for Space Power to improve transmitter and power conversion
equipment efficiency. The project is intended to establish a
solar utility that would provide power for satellites or a space
station. The Canadian national Communications Research Center is
developing microwave power systems to keep an unmanned aircraft
aloft as an inexpensive satellite. Energy dissipation is
extensive in such systems, but the technology would still be
preferable to high-altitude refueling.
Compaq net up 24 percent for quarter. (Compaq Computer Corp.)
Compaq Computer Corp reports that profits for the 1st qtr of 1991
are up 24 percent. Data General reports a profit following after
a sequence of losses, and Unisys reports increased losses. Compaq
earns $114.3 million ($1.26 a share) for the 1st qtr, which
compares favorably with $92.2 million ($1.07 a share) in the 1st
qtr of 1990. Revenue is up, to $970.8 million, from $872.2
million in 1990. Compaq warns that 2nd qtr profits might be hurt
by price cuts and economic conditions, and the company's stock
falls 15 percent, to $52.50, in consequence, despite good
international sales. Data General earns $19.2 million (60 cents a
share) in the 3rd qtr ended Mar 30. The company lost $8.6 million
in the same period a year ago. Revenue rises 2 percent, to $320.4
million from $314.8 million, in the 3rd qtr of 1991. Unisys loses
$98.2 million in the 1st qtr, which is 30 times the company's
losses in the comparable quarter a year ago. Unisys blames weak
economic environments worldwide.
Compaq results are lackluster; stock falls 15%. (Compaq Computer Corp.)
Compaq Computer Corp reports a disappointing increase in the 1st
qtr and warns that the company might not do well in the 2nd qtr.
The company's stock reacts in consequence, falling 15 percent to
$52.50. The company's net income rose 24 percent in the 1st qtr,
to $114.3 million ($1.26 a share), from $92.2 million ($1.06 a
share) in the year-earlier quarter. Analysts had foreseen
earnings of $1.35 a share, or more. Revenue was up 11 percent, to
$970.8 million, compared to $872.2 million in 1990. Compaq
expects that necessary price cuts together with unfavorable
economic circumstances will depress earnings in the company's next
quarter. Financial reports by other computer industry firms are
mixed: Apple indicates its earnings are low because its increased
market share is based on low-priced products. Sun Microsystems
Inc reports unexpectedly high profits.
Unisys posts $98.2 million loss, says loan may need to be redone; pact's net worth provision could be broken soon with another
Unisys Corp's 1st qtr 1991 financial report reflects a loss of
$98.2 million or 79 cents per share, as compared to a $3.2 million
or 19 cents per share loss for the same period in 1990. This
results in a decline in the computer manufacturer's net worth to
$3.6 billion. The credit agreement Unisys has with several banks
requires that the company maintain a net worth of at least $3.5
billion. If the net worth falls below that level, the computer
company could experience significant problems with its lenders.
Thus, while industry analysts expect the banks to be tolerant for
several quarters, it is possible Unisys will need to renegotiate
the agreement at some point. Unisys has plans to lay off more
employees and close additional facilities in 1991 as it struggles
to contain costs, reduce its debt and return to profitability.
Chips & Technologies, MIPS Computer post depressed results.
Chips & Technologies Inc reports a loss of $4.8 million (37 cents
a share) for the company's 3rd qtr ended Mar 31, 1991, as compared
with $5 million (32 cents a share) in the comparable period a year
earlier. MIPS Computer Systems reports a decline in the 1st qtr,
to $624,000 (two cents a share), from $3.5 million (14 cents a
share) in the same period a year previous. According to Chips &
Technologies CEO Gordon Campbell, the company's loss is a result
of a decline in pricing of the integrated circuit maker's CHIPset
products. Millard Phelps, an analyst with Hambrecht & Quist, adds
that the company has been slow to convert to advanced single-chip
technology. MIPS Computer Systems's small profit is a result
mainly of sales of its new R4000 microprocessor.
Data General's stock rises from ashes; shares jump 300% since start of year. (Heard on the Street) (column)
Data General's stock continues to climb back from a low of $4.50
at the beginning of 1991. The computer maker's financial report
for the 2nd qtr shows another profit, $19.2 million and 60 cents a
share. This compares favorably with the 29 cents per share and
$8.6 million overall loss of the same quarter in the previous
year. In response to the news, 1.6 million shares of Data
General's stock trades on Apr 25, 1991, a rate four times that
experienced on an average day earlier in the year. The stock
stands at $18 per share as of Thursday Apr 25, 1991. While this
is still much lower than its high point and less than one-half its
1987 value of $38, it is an improvement. Growing sales of the
Aviion workstation line and strict cost controls are considered
the causes of the company's improved financial position and
attractiveness to investors.
A Commander in Chief's first order to computer. (President Bush receives his first computer lesson) (Living Arts Pages)
President Bush, as part of a push for a new education program,
gets his first lesson in the use of a microcomputer. The
President actually only pushed a button and turned the
microcomputer on, but the event was described as 'momentous' by
White House Spokesman Marlin Fitzwater. According to Fitzwater,
the President received his first computer lesson and the event was
photographed. More lessons are scheduled. The President will be
taught by Dorothy Crumling, an 'outstanding instructor' who is a
computer specialist with the White House Office of Administration.
Fitzwater would not divulge the make of the President's new
computer.
A.T.&T. and NCR hit snag; new round of talks seen. Shapiro, Eben.
AT&T and NCR Corp encounter difficulties in their ongoing
negotiations about a takeover. The companies are deadlocked over
the issue of protection for NCR shareholders against the
possibility of a drop in the price per share of AT&T's stock. NCR
proposes a guarantee of $110 per share even if AT&T stock drops to
$32.50, while AT&T has offered an 'all-stock' deal, which means
that if AT&T's stock falls after an agreement is reached, NCR
shareholders might not get so much. In the latest negotiations,
AT&T offers to raise its bid above $110, but without protection
against a drop in its stock price. AT&T rejects NCR's suggestion
of insurance of a $110 stock price against a floor price of
$32.50, offering instead to guarantee $110 per share down to
$35.50 per share. Many analysts believe that some agreement will
be reached, but at least one observer cautions that the deal is
not done.
Computer group faces uphill fight. (Advanced Computing Environment) (Talking Deals) (column)
An alliance of computer companies, called the Advanced Computing
Environment (ACE), was announced on Apr 9, 1991. The group, which
includes such well-known companies as Compaq Computer, Microsoft
Corp, Digital Equipment Corp and the Santa Cruz Operation, aims to
create new standards for microcomputer workstations. The group
will be in competition with such established companies as Intel
Corp, Sun Microsystems and IBM. Generally speaking, Wall Street
analysts are unimpressed, and so far, stock prices for the larger
companies in ACE remain flat. One reason is that ACE's plans will
not come to any immediate fruition; nothing will happen until at
least 1992. Moreover, some observers believe that there are
threatening internal differences among the consortium's members,
and ACE's overall strategy seems murky.
Wang Labs posts third-period loss, considers layoffs. Bulkeley, William M.
Wang Laboratories Inc reports a loss for the 3rd qtr ended Mar 31,
1991. Revenue was down 16 percent, to $499.7 million from $593.5
million. Wang's loss in the 3rd qtr was $48.9 million or 30 cents
a share. The net loss in the comparable period a year previously
was $146.6 million or 90 cents a share, when an $11.2 million
restructuring charge and a $56.9 million loss from discontinued
operations were included. Wang's work force is now 18,000, down
from 31,500 three years ago, and the company's president, Richard
Miller, indicates that more layoffs are being considered. Wang's
products are not selling well because customers have been choosing
alternative offerings from other vendors. Miller admits that the
recession hit the company very hard.
Earnings at Sun Microsystems increase 60%. Johnson, Chip.
Sun Microsystems Inc reports a 60 percent increase in net income
for the fiscal 3rd qtr ended Mar 29, 1991. Analysts are
astounded. The results are much better than most observers had
expected. Sun's net income was $58.7 million, or 56 cents a
share, which compares with $36.7 million, or 40 cents a share, in
the same quarter a year ago. Revenue was up 34 percent, to $848.3
million from $632.2 million. Previously, Sun's machines were
bought mostly by scientists and engineers, but the company now
gets about 30 percent of its sales revenues from white-collar
professionals. Sun's penetration of the white-collar segment
comes at the expense of such microcomputer companies as Compaq
Computer Corp and Apple Computer Inc.
AT&T, NCR called likely to renew bid for a merger accord.
American Telephone & Telegraph Co (AT&T) and NCR Corp will likely
try again to reach an agreement about a merger at $110 a share, or
about $7.48 billion. The chances for an agreement are improved
because AT&T's stock increased $1.125 a share to $37.125 on Wed,
Apr 24, 1991. AT&T would use its stock to buy NCR. There are
disagreements between the companies concerning the amount an NCR
stockholder would receive if AT&T stock should decline during the
three or four months it would take for a deal to close, but
industry observers believe that the disagreements are not great
and can be overcome.
Prices cut, models added in I.B.M.'s new PC push. (IBM's new microcomputer strategy)
IBM intensifies its drive to regain control of the microcomputer
industry in Apr 1991 by cutting prices and introducing new models
of its PS/2 line of microcomputers. IBM is one of the first
computer manufacturers to offer a microcomputer based on the new
Intel Corp 486SX microprocessor, a new low-priced version of the
powerful 80486 microprocessor. Industry analysts note that IBM's
influence in the computer industry and computer software industry
has been waning, particularly after it recent break with Microsoft
Corp over the development of the OS/2 operating system. The
number one computer maker believes its new products and price
reductions, which range between six and 12 percent on critical
machines, will help it outpace the computer industry in 1991.
A.T.&T. deal with NCR may be close; computer maker gives conditional acceptance to $110-a-share offer.
NCR Corp gives a conditional acceptance of AT and T's $110-a-share
acquisition offer. The computer maker agreed to the AT and T
offer provided that IBM gives additional protection to NCR
shareholders to ensure the $110-a-share purchase. The AT and T
offer involves the swap of AT and T stock for NCR stock and the
NCR board of directors wants there to be more protection for its
stock holders if AT and T stock drops during the time it will take
to finalize the acquisition. Most industry observers believe that
the acquisition is all but finalized; the current negotiations are
subtle maneuvers on the part of the two companies. NCR stock fell
12.5 cents and closed at $101.875 a share on Apr 23, 1991.
NCR asks AT&T to alter bid, ensuring $110 a share even if AT&T stock drops.
NCR Corp asks AT and T to modify its $110 a share acquisition
offer to ensure that NCR shareholders will be protected against a
drop in the price of AT and T stock during the three months it
will take to finalize the merger. The $7.48 billion AT and T
offer involves trading AT and T stock for NCR stock. NCR
shareholders would receive $110 a share if AT and T's stock
remained between $35.50 and $39.25 a share under the current AT
and T offer; the stock holders would receive more if it went above
$39.25 a share and less if it went below $35.50 a share. The NCR
board of directors' new proposal waives the right to receive more
money if AT and T stock rises above $39.25 but calls for AT and T
to ensure $110 a share even if AT and T stock falls to $32.50 a
share. AT and T stock fell 12.5 cents and closed at $36 a share
on Apr 23, 1991.
Federal judge reverses ruling on Ashton-Tate. (Ashton-Tate Co.'s copyright protection)
Ashton Tate receives a reverse ruling on its copyright protection
law suit in Apr 1991 from federal judge Terry J. Hatter, Jr., the
same judge who denied copyright protection for the software
publisher's dBASE product in Dec 1990. The copyright lawsuit was
directed against Fox Software Inc and involved protection for
Ashton Tate's dBASE product, a database management system that
accounts for 80 percent of the company's revenue. Ashton Tate
officials note that Hatter's reverse ruling will boost the
performance of the software publisher. Hatter denied copyright
protection for Ashton Tate in Dec 1990 by ruling that the company
knowingly misled the Copyright Office by failing to acknowledge
that dBASE was derived from a program in the public domain.
IBM introduces models using new Intel chip. (IBM introduces new PS/2 microcomputers and discounts older models) (product
IBM announces a new $9,995 PS/2 95 microcomputer based on the
Intel 80486SX microprocessor. The 486SX is a less-powerful and
cheaper version of the Intel 80486 microprocessor. Industry
observers were expecting IBM to announce the new PS/2 95 but not
as soon as it did; the number-one computer maker is usually two
months behind its competitors in announcing products based on new
technology. The computer maker also cuts prices by between three-
and 38 percent on older versions of the PS/2 microcomputer in an
effort to clear out its product line. IBM expects its newly
discounted microcomputers and its new model of the PS/ 2 95 to
sell at five times the rate in the 2nd qtr of 1991 compared to the
1st qtr of 1991.
Next best to a brush. (Time Arts Inc.'s Oasis software and Wacom Inc.'s SD-510C pressure sensitive digitizer; Personal
Wacom Inc's $695 SD-510C is a pressure-sensitive digitizer and
Time Arts Inc's $795 Oasis computer graphics software program for
Apple Macintosh combine to provide users with the ability to paint
on a computer screen. The SD-510C is made up of a
six-inch-by-nine-inch tablet and a cordless stylus. The device
allows users to paint invisibly on the tablet and have their work
displayed on a computer screen. The SD-510C used with the Oasis
software program provides users with much versatility in painting
on computer screens; users can draw, paint with broad brush or
airbrush their designs. The Oasis software program allows users
to control many aspects of their paintings including color and
stroke density.
Lilliputian rival of desktops offered by Hewlett-Packard. (Hewlett Packard Co.'s 95LX handheld computer) (product announcement)
HP's $699 95LX is a handheld computer that includes the popular
Lotus Development 1-2-3 spreadsheet software. The machine weighs
only 11 ounces and measures 6.3 inches by 3.4 inches by one inch.
This 'palmtop computer' includes a telephone and address program,
a financial calculator and a simple text editor. It runs on two
AA batteries that can last as long as two months with average use.
Tiny letter keys makes it difficult to type fast on the 95LX and
the screen only includes 16 lines of 40 characters. The storage
system for the computer consists of memory cards.
NCR rise to $102 reflects doubt on $110 A.T.&T. bid. Shapiro, Eben.
NCR Corp's stock rose $5.25 a share on Apr 22, 1991, and closed at
$102 a share after investors showed ambivalence about AT and T's
new $110 a share offer. AT and T's new offer entails a stock
swap, about which the NCR board has indicated it has misgivings.
NCR has indicated that it would be willing to accept the offer if
its shareholders could have some protection against a drop in the
price of AT and T stock. Industry observers note that AT and T is
taking advantage of a four-month high in the price of its stock.
The stock closed at $37.375 a share on Apr 19, 1991. AT and T's
offer guarantees that NCR stockholders will receive $110 a share
as long as AT and T's stock remains above $35.50 a share.
An alliance of A.T.&T. with NEC; chip development pact raises question about Sematech consortium.
AT and T and NEC Corp agree to share technologies in developing
new ways to make semiconductors. Industry observers note that the
Japanese-US alliance will focus on technologies to be used in a
wide range of applications including high-definition television
and digital telephones. The two companies say that they expect to
have chips from their joint development available in mid-1995.
Some analysts note that the alliance may create some problems for
Sematech, an American semiconductor industry consortium of which
AT and T is a member. Sematech was created to increase US
competitiveness in the worldwide semiconductor industry but member
companies are looking to the Japanese to develop technology
because of the limited scope of Sematech.
Intel adds cheaper chip at top of line. (Intel Corp.'s 486SX microprocessor) (product announcement)
Intel Corp's new $258 486SX microprocessor is nearly half the
price of the Intel 80486 microprocessor and roughly the same price
as earlier 80386 microprocessors. Industry observers note that
the semiconductor company is marketing the new low-priced 486SX as
a means of retaining important market share in the microprocessor
market. Intel lost its monopoly of the 80386 microprocessor
market when Advanced Micro Devices Inc was allowed to manufacture
a clone. The 486SX is not as fast as the full-blown 80486
microprocessor, which has been renamed the 486DX, and it lacks the
floating point unit of its more powerful relative; it is still
between 10 percent and 40 percent faster than the 80386
microprocessor family.
I.B.M.. adds 11 models to minicomputer line. (IBM's AS/400 minicomputer line; Company news)(Column) (product announcement)
IBM introduces 11 new models to its AS/400 line of minicomputers,
including the $1.5 million AS/400 D80 and the $15,000 AS/400 D04.
The new models perform up to 60 percent faster and cost between 10
and 40 percent less than the older models. IBM hopes the new
price/performance advantage will cause the AS/400 line of
minicomputers to pick up in sales. Sales figures for the 1st qtr
of 1991 were a 'financial disaster' according to the computer
maker. The new models have a new version of the OS/400 operating
system and 75 percent new hardware components. IBM has sold more
than 100,000 AS/400 minicomputers since their introduction in
1988, mostly to companies outside the US.
NCR's shares surge by $5.25 to $102 as traders bet AT&T bet will succeed.
NCR Corp's stock climbs $5.25 a share to close at $102 a share on
Apr 22, 1991 after investors reacted favorably to AT and T's new
offer of $110 a share. AT and T's $7.48 billion offer involves a
stock swap instead of cash. The NCR board of directors indicated
that it was studying the AT and T proposal; its initial reaction
was that of suspicion about the volatility of AT and T's stock.
Some industry analysts put the deal at closer to $107 a share
given AT and T's recent performance and it forecast performance
during the three months it will take to complete the merger. AT
and T's stock reaches a high of $37.875 a share in Apr 1991 after
retreating from its recent low of $29.25 a share.
What publishers call quoting, computer firms call piracy as industries face off on Capital Hill. (the computer software
Rulings by the US Supreme Court surrounding the issue of copyright
have pitted the book publishing industry against the computer
software industry. The issue surrounds how copyright protects
limited access to, or 'fair-use' of, unpublished materials: the
book publishing industry wants the right to have uninhibited
access to such materials but the computer software industry wants
to keep it limited because it would give rival companies free
reign in decompiling programs. Decompilation of a computer
program involves the taking a small portion of code, which can
later be used to create a similar program. The book publishing
industry contends that the protection of the computer software
industry will have enormous impact on how history can be written.
Hewlett-Packard will unveil today checkbook-size PC. (Hewlett Packard Co.'s 95LX handheld computer) (product announcement)
HP will introduce the $699 HP 95LX hand-held computer on Apr 23,
1991, hoping that the company will be able to revive its
once-thriving programmable calculator business. The HP 95LX is
also an answer Japanese competition, which has gained momentum in
the handheld computer market with its electronic organizer
products. Lotus Development Corp's Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet
software is included in the 11-ounce HP 95LX; the software
developer proposed that HP develop the 95LX in 1990. The HP 95LX
runs on MS-DOS and uses credit-card sized memory cards for memory
storage. The handheld computer runs on two AA batteries.
Industry officials note that Motorola Inc is developing a
communications device for the HP 95LX that will allow it to
receive data.
AT&T, NEC agree to cooperate on basic chip-making technology; pact reflects need to trim costs of development with help from Japan.
AT and T and NEC Corp create a US-Japanese alliance by agreeing to
share technologies on how to make semiconductors. Industry
observers view this alliance as evidence of the fact that it is
too expensive to stay in the semiconductor business without
creating partnerships. AT and T is also a member of Sematech, a
US semiconductor consortium that aims to increase the ability of
the US semiconductor industry to compete. AT and T indicated that
it will not share any information it gets from Sematech; analysts
note that its move to create a partnership with NEC is indicative
of Sematech's inability to stay on the leading edge of
semiconductor technology.
Big Blue makes a big commitment: IBM is spending more than $40 million to promote its operating system.
IBM executives realized in Jan 1991 that long-time software
development partner Microsoft was supposed to be promoting the
OS/2 operating system but that Microsoft chmn Bill Gates had lost
interest. IBM officials decided at that point that IBM should
start promoting OS/2 itself. IBM plans to begin promoting OS/2 on
Apr 15, 1991, revealing its plans for the operating system in a
series of meetings with software developers and customers. The
meetings will focus on OS/2 2.0, which IBM is beta testing with
100 large customers and plans to ship by the end of 1991. The new
version will include advanced graphics and multifunctioning. IBM
plans to spend over $40 million promoting OS/2 and an additional
$7 million training sales personnel to sell it. Seminars will be
organized for software developers as well.
Ross Perot's baby takes its first big steps: his computer-services startup is winning jobs in a booming market. (Electronic Data
H. Ross Perot, founder of Electronic Data Systems Corp, donated
$20 million to the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
in Jan 1988. Zale Lipshy University Hospital, an affiliate of the
medical center, gave Perot's new company, Perot Systems Corp, the
$500,000 contract to build a new computer network in Jan 1989.
Hospital officials insist there was no quid pro quo involved.
Perot signed the hospital contract just after restrictions in a
1986 separation agreement with General Motors expired, leaving him
free to compete against Electronic Data Systems, the computer
services giant he sold to GM. Perot Systems has since built an
impressive list of 35 clients, including American Medical
International, NCNB, ICH and the FW Dodge Division of McGraw-Hill.
The privately-held company is expected to reach $150 million in
revenues in 1991.
Convex wants to be a full-fledged heavyweight: but can its new supercomputer spar in the Cray class? (Convex Computer Corp.)
Minisupercomputers from Convex Computer Corp can do everything
from design drugs to simulate automobile accidents but cost as
little as $300,000. The success of these products has allowed
Convex to outlive many of its competitors; the company posted
$209.3 million in sales in 1990. Company officials believe that
to keep revenues growing at 15% to 20% annually, the company needs
to move into the larger and more demanding market for midrange
supercomputers. Vendors such as IBM and DEC have responded to
previous Convex products by adding special hardware to their own
machines. The move into the market for full-fledged
supercomputers puts Convex in direct competition with industry
giant Cray Research.
Is Silicon Graphics busting out of its niche? A spate of new deals may put its 3-D software in millions of PCs.
Silicon Graphics Inc has never been able to escape the shadow
competition cast by workstation giant Sun Microsystems and has has
stuck to a fairly small market niche: workstations that display
and manipulate three-dimensional images. Three important
announcements in the space of a week may change this situation.
Microsoft announces it will use Silicon Graphics' software in a
future microcomputer operating system. Compaq Computer has signed
an agreement to invest $135 million for a 13 percent stake in the
company and will give Silicon Graphics an additional $50 million
for joint workstation development. Some 21 companies plan to back
a common workstation design which is expected to include a great
deal of Silicon Graphics technology. These developments may
greatly boost Silicon Graphics' market position.
Information processing: bits and bytes. (Industrial Technology edition) (column)
Eight percent of rural households have no phone service, and 70
percent are connected to party lines, according to a nationwide
study by the Sunbelt Institute. The seven Bell Regional Holding
Companies have informed Congress they will provide new products
and services to rural areas if they are freed from antitrust
rules. Advertisers are narrowing their focus to concentrate on
the most likely buyers in order to reduce overload, using
Marketing Resources' Plus CaliberPlus software to analyze consumer
data. RSA Data Security will pay $1,750 to factor a single 100-
to 500-digit number. A 128-digit number offered for factoring in
1977 has yet to be factored. Operation Desert Storm provided
invaluable publicity to vendors of Global Positioning System (GPS)
devices. A computer keyboard in China with only the simplest of
characters can include hundreds of keys; typing a simple command
can be daunting. Some Chinese computer operators will soon have
their work simplified with a Verbex Voice Systems voice
recognition interface.
Compaq slashes prices to battle clone makers: reseller discounts reworked.
Compaq's price cuts of eight to 34 percent, along with the new
dealer margins, seem like the perfect solution for combatting
second-tier clone manufacturers. The price adjustments are
significant. The list price of the Systempro 486-840 computer is
now $31,016. The Compaq LTE 386s/20 Model 60 now lists for
$4,799. The new margins will limit the ability of resellers to
pass along entire price reductions to corporate buyers. Dealers
will have to rethink corporate discount programs. Reseller
officials say that dealer reaction to the new pricing structure is
mixed. It will, however, position Compaq's product more
competitively with some second- and third-tier clone products.
Those dealers selling products closer to the vendor's retail
prices will experience a margin decrease.
Billion-dollar channel merger: Inacomp, ValCom to meld operations. (Inacomp Computer Centers Inc.)
Inacomp Computer Centers and ValCom Inc sign an agreement to merge
into a $1 billion computer retailing organization called InaCom
Corp. The agreement follows several months of heated discussions
and will move the channel into the final throes of restructuring.
ValCom will issue .5609 of a share of its stock plus $1 cash for
each share of common stock. The boards of directors for both
companies have unanimously approved the merger, which should be
completed in the summer of 1991. The new organization will be
headquartered in Troy MI and will manage the company-owned stores
and service business from there. The affiliate and franchise
operations and distribution organization will be headquartered in
Omaha, NE. Inacomp Chmn and CEO Rick Inatome will be Chairman of
the new company and ValCom Pres and CEO Bill Fairfield will serve
as Inacom chief executive and president. Officials declined
specific comment on the merger but did say that a merger of this
magnitude would have a definite affect on the industry.
Are desktops' days numbered? CRN poll: laptop-show attendees prefer notebooks. (Computer Reseller News)
Notebook and laptop computers could possibly eat into sales of
desktop computer systems, according to a poll of about 1,000
attendees at a laptop trade show. Almost 80 percent of attendees
at the Lap and Palmtop '91 show claimed they would buy a laptop or
notebook machine as a substitute for a desktop model. Poll
respondents were not completely satisfied with a smaller system as
a viable alternative. Complaints were registered about their high
price as well as the small size of both the screen and the
keyboards. There is also a major shift under way in the market.
Laptops have passed portable systems in popularity but are about
to be overtaken by notebooks. Distributors are bullish on laptops
and notebooks.
VARs switch to microcomputers: hardware, high costs drive decisions. (value-added resellers)
Many VARs are facing market realities that can require taking a
strategic gamble such as the one made in 1990 by Structured
Computer Systems (SCS) Inc. The company, after being a mainframe
and minicomputer loyalist, dropped its hardware bias and migrated
its purchasing materials management application to microcomputer
networks. The move saved the company but cost Digital Equipment
and Wang a devotee. VARs who have made such decisions have hurt
hardware vendors whose products are considered either outdated,
too expensive or too proprietary for customers' needs. SCS's
decision to move from Wang minicomputer-based products to
microcomputer-based applications was difficult but definitely
profitable. Sales for the company jumped 47 percent when the
application was migrated to local area networks (LANs). Dionex
Corp has also switched brands. The laboratory systems VAR was an
authorized IBM reseller but high prices compelled the reseller to
shift its focus to a compatible hardware vendor.
Silicon Graphics woos VARs: sweetening the pot: co-op dollars, added support. (value-added reseller)
Silicon Graphics is enhancing its VAR program with co-op
advertising funds and other enhancements in order gain a larger
market share from its current VAR base and to increase the size of
that group by an additional 70 by Aug 1991. Co-op funding is
being offered for the first time. The company is also organizing
a field support staff, offering training through VARs and
enhancing dealer training. The changes were announced just weeks
after the vendor revealed enhancements to its Geometry Partners
Program for VARs, bundling software solutions with the vendor's
hardware. Company officials admit to entering the channel late
but see an advantage in that because they learn from others'
mistakes. The company has also hired five regional dealer
managers to work with VARs in conducting joint sales calls,
seminars and introducing dealers to corporate accounts. Channel
officials seem pleased with the program.
Apple stalled in Texas: ruling on education plan. Zarley, Craig.
Bankruptcy Judge John C. Akard temporarily blocks Apple Computer
from cutting off the education sales authorization of a Connecting
Point of America franchise in Lubbock, TX and giving the
reseller's education accounts to another Texas reseller. The
decision will probably have little impact on the vendor's
education channel reorganization nationwide because of the case's
narrow scope. The restraining order pertains to a bankruptcy
petition filed Mar 25, 1991 by Computronics Inc, an affiliate of
Connecting Point. The reseller signed a letter of intent on Jan
14, 1991 to remain as an Apple Educational Sales Consultant under
the 1991 contract, which went into effect Apr 15, 1991.
Computronics is negotiating the sale of the company and the most
valuable asset is the exclusive education sales contract for
Lubbock and Midland/Odessa.
FTC, Apple turn up heat on Microsoft. (Federal Trade Commission) Clancy, Heather.
Apple Computer is expanding its copyright infringement suit
against Microsoft. The news comes one week after the decision by
the FTC to widen the scope of its antitrust investigation of
Microsoft. The copyright infringement suit is being expanded to
include specific reference to Windows 3.0. The original suit,
filed in Mar 1988, claims that Windows 2.03 infringes on Apple
copyrights because of similarities between the Macintosh system
software and Windows 2.03 and derivative products. Analysts
expect Apple to take a more aggressive position with its suit now
that the software developer is in a vulnerable position with the
FTC investigation under way. Industry experts doubt that the FTC
investigation will prove fruitful. Antitrust cases involving
technology have been difficult for the government to prove in the
past.
IBM recasts OS/2; 486SX machines to debut this week. (Intel 80486SX) (product announcement)
IBM is attempting to reposition OS/2 as a high-performance,
low-cost alternative to Windows 3.0 and DOS. The company is
positioning OS/2 more competitively against DOS by cutting the
price of OS/2 1.3 56 percent to $150. Current DOS users will be
allowed to convert to OS/2 for a $99 upgrade fee. Meetings with
customers, analysts, independent software vendors and the press
were dedicated to the company's software strategy. The vendor
will again take center stage with the introduction of the new PS/2
90 and 95 microcomputer systems based on the new Intel 80486SX
microprocessor, also due to be introduced. Several older members
of the PS/2 line, including the Model 50Z, Model 65, 16MHz version
of the p70 portable and the Model 70E61. Price cuts are also
expected.
1-2-3 Windows in beta: select accounts test product due in summer. (from Lotus Development)
Lotus Development moves closer to a planned summer introduction of
1-2-3 for Windows by giving copies of the package to 20 elite beta
testers who gathered at the company headquarters in Cambridge, MA.
The new product, which is designed to retain full compatibility
with earlier character-based and 3-D version, will also include
features aimed at users of Microsoft's Excel 3.0, the current
leading Windows spreadsheet. Company officials say the company
will be quite visible at the May 1991 Windows World trade show in
Atlanta, where the program will be demonstrated. Lotus has gone
to great lengths to maintain both keystroke and macro
compatibility with its character-based predecessors.
Sony scouts for VARs to sell RISC-based portable: wants coverage in major cities. (value-added resellers,
Sony Microsystems is working to sign VARs to sell and develop
software for its RISC-based News 3250 Unix portable computer.
Unix VARs who have created applications for general automation,
computer aided design and manufacturing (CAD/CAM), oil exploration
and architectural engineering are the primary targets. The vendor
also wants to convince some Sun Microsystems and Digital Equipment
VARs to market its News 3250 portable computer ($10,000). Company
officials say they also want to pursue VAR relationships with
storefront dealers who have become more value-added in their
marketing strategy. UniPress Software was one of the first to
sign as a Sony VAR after using the 17-pound unit in a variety of
applications.
VAR steers into Europe's auto market. (value-added reseller) Grace, Tim.
Reynolds and Reynolds signs an agreement to acquire the assets of
Danish automotive VAR JDC Data from NCR. Terms of the agreement
were not disclosed. Acquisition of the $52 million company is
evidence of Reynolds efforts to protect itself against the effects
of slumping North American car sales by selling information
processing systems to dealerships. The move also allows the
Reynolds' $252 million VAR division to create a presence in the
lucrative German marketplace. The JDC emphasis on strong service
is compatible with the Reynolds strategy. Service accounts for
about 50 percent of Reynolds' revenue and the company is moving to
increase that portion. JDC, which will operate as an independent
Reynolds' subsidiary, also markets Unix-based systems and software
to service stations, accounting firms and lumber yards in Denmark.
Cardinal flies with $999 386SX. (Cardinal Technologies, Intel 80386SX) (product announcement)
Cardinal Technologies introduces the Cardinal PC10-386SX ($999), a
386SX-based microcomputer aimed at the network-node and
home-office markets. Street price is expected to be about $600
and $700. The new system, which was shown as a prototype at the
Fall 1990 Comdex show, comes with a 12-inch monochrome monitor and
CPU in one chassis, much like the Apple Macintosh. The
entry-level system includes one Mbyte of RAM, a VGA monitor, a
1.44M byte floppy drive and two expansion slots. Company
officials say it will be marketed as a work-at-home solution as
well as a network node solution. The inspiration for the market
focus and design for the new computer is from the successful
introduction of IBM's PS/1 and Apple Macintosh Classic.
AT & T hosts customer gathering; debuts laptop. (product announcement)
The fourth annual AT and T Computer Systems Customer Symposium is
expected to draw more than the usual 600 or so attendees as many
will be interested in seeing the debut of the Safari NSX/20
notebook computer. The Intel 80386SX-based unit is the company's
answer to a number of laptop product introduction that have
changed the shape of the portable computer market in recent weeks.
It was developed jointly by AT and T and Marubeni Corp of Japan.
Marubeni America and AT and T worked together to design, produce
and market the new computer through joint venture, Safari Systems.
Arrow Electronics, ClareTech Business Centers, MicroAge Inc and
Sears Business Centers have already been signed to carry the new
portable.
Baar contributes to growing GNP Computers. (Company president Roger Baar)
GNP Computers Pres Roger Baar has been fascinated with computer
technology since he purchased a $5,000 IBM dual floppy
microcomputer with 64K of memory to aid with word processing and
bookkeeping tasks at his custom-built loudspeaker company. Many
value-added resellers (VARs) are criticized for relying too much
on their technical expertise to land accounts. Users no longer
feel that the newest system will provide the best solution for
their automation needs but Baar cannot be convinced. Baar
maintains that customers count heavily on innovation to enhance
productivity. Arguing against the seemingly outdated marketing
strategy is difficult, considering the company's success. The
seven-year-old company has expanded into a $7 million networking
reseller with good prospects of reaching the $30 million mark by
1994.
Symantec launches bevy of Windows products. (product announcement) Clancy, Heather.
Symantec unveils a wide range of Windows 3.0-based products meant
to enhance its position in the utilities and project-management
software markets and to create a following in the Windows word
processing arena. The suite includes an executive word processor
called JustWrite ($199), a project-management program called On
Target ($399) and Norton Backup for Windows ($149). Analysts call
the pricing reasonable and aggressive. The project management
application has already shipped. The word processor will ship by
the end of Apr 1991 and the backup program by the end of the
summer of 1991, according to company officials, who said this was
only the beginning of the vendor's Windows effort. Symantec's
ability to create a variety of Windows applications in a short
time is due in part to the vendor's 'core technology' strategy.
Each application is based on an underlying code that simplifies
software migration.
Apple's transformation has only just begun. (Window on Wall Street) (column)
Apple Computer reports earnings of $1.07 per share for the 2nd
qtr. The figure was below the expectations of industry analysts
and resulted in a sizeable one day drop in the value of Apple's
stock. The vendor is doing a great job managing what is probably
the largest corporate transition in the microcomputer industry.
The nearly $7 billion company is completely changing its margin
and cost structure, culture and product strategy. The new
strategies are effective. The company's low-end Macintosh systems
are enhancing the company's market share even more than most
optimistic expectations. Macintosh unit sales increased 85
percent in its 2nd qtr, compared with the previous years figures.
Market share has risen from a low of nine percent to 16 percent in
Feb 1991. Revenue growth was 19 percent. The vendor's gross
margins fell from 51.4 percent to 48.8 percent in the 2nd qtr.
Mergers a key tactic: developers tie the knot to remain competitive.
Mergers are a key aspect of the strategy for both smaller and
merger software developers as competition intensifies. Lotus
Development added a Windows-based word processing package to its
product line with the acquisition of Samna Corp. Sybase Inc
acquired Deft Inc and enhanced their product mix, which lacked a
computer-aided software engineering (CASE) product before the
merger. Sybase company officials said the move put the company in
a more competitive position. Sage Group plc is expected to
acquire DacEasy Inc. Mergers and acquisitions, according to
DacEasy officials, are a way of reaching a critical mass.
Strategic alliances are needed to succeed in the current
competitive markets.
Cowen weathers storm: private-placement deals, $69M sequent pact pay off.
Cowen and Co withstands a shakeout in the investment arena through
the adoption of alternative capital-raising measures. Cowen
managed to raise over $221 million for technology companies though
the public market was dormant throughout most of 1990. Much of
the capital involved private-placement arrangements. Deals
included $3.7 million for Bachman Information Systems and $5
million for The Santa Cruz Operation. Companies have not been
able to go public, according to Cowen officials, because of the
Gulf War and the unstable economy. A competently managed firm
with a good product can obtain financing through private
placements, merger or venture capitalists. The company biggest
deal for 1990 was a secondary offering worth $69 million for
Sequent Computer Systems.
IBM's new Japanese fare: company's notebook is being served up to lure market. (IBM PS/55note)
The recent introduction of IBM Japan's PS/55note (232,000
yen/$2,600) notebook microcomputer is the first in a series of
moves to revitalize the company's position in the Japanese market.
The company's 1990 earnings were off 21 percent compared with
1989. The company, which is still perceived as an American
company in Japan, subsequently announced an ambitious program to
roll out new products and increase distribution of its laptop and
desktop machines in Japan because of its poor performance in the
mainframe market and the lack of a credible product in the
exploding laptop/notebook arena. IBM's first true notebook
computer is targeted at the Japanese market with its DOS J4.0/V
Kanji/English operating system. The 80386SX-based system is
equipped with two Mbytes of RAM, a VGA LCD screen and either a
3.5-inch floppy drive or a 40 Mbyte hard disk drive. Several
other moves are being made to bring service more in line with
Japanese expectations. Autonomy is the key to the plan's success.
Hot mathematica: a nice surprise: Hannover Fair CeBIT. Hubbard, Holly.
Mathematica Inc, a little-known Lakeland, FL-based software
vendor, was expecting to be overwhelmed by bigger vendors when it
attended the 1991 Hannover Fair CeBIT in Germany. Those
expectations were unfounded. The company totaled over $60,000 in
orders for a product that is not yet released and signed an
agreement with Computer 2000, Munich, Germany, one of Europe's
leading distributors. The vendor has developed an
image-processing tool, called Tempra Pro 1, which marks the first
major product roll out for the company. The package was being
offered at the show for an introductory price of $495. The
application was previewed at the 1990 Fall Comdex show but it was
overshadowed by Windows-based products.
AC Datalink hits U.S.: Ingram Micro offers GEC-Marconi solution. Peterson, Tami D.
The AC Datalink and AC Datalink DPS ($1,085), a printer-sharing
system that operates via standard wall outlets, a big seller in
Europe, is now being marketed in the U.S. by GEC-Marconi Software
Systems, Reston, VA. The company is a subsidiary of General
Electric in Great Britain and has teamed with Ingram Micro with an
exclusive distribution agreement. Ingram will, through the end of
Apr 1991, offer special pricing to its dealers to try the product,
which lets as many as seven microcomputers share one parallel
output device. The special purchase includes one AC Datalink DPS
and two AC Datalinks. Ingram company officials said they were
quite impressed with the technology, which they compared to that
used in some home security systems, baby monitors and stereo
systems.
Oneac: UPSes cut system downtime: managing networks: EverGreen models. (Uninterruptible power supplies) (product announcement)
Oneac Corp, a vendor of power-conditioning uninterruptible power
supplies, has coined a sub-layer to the seven-layer Open Systems
Interconnection (OSI) model, which they call the '0' layer. The
zero level resides one layer below the first network layer. The
EverGreen 300 ($850) and 600 ($995) will ship in Apr 1991. The
idea is appropriate, according to company officials, as the
electrical environment supports the network. Networks cannot run
at any level without proper conditioning of the power and
grounding system. This observation is generally confirmed by
network managers.
Novell: a two-phase plan: conference reveals peek into the future. Hwang, Diana.
Novell, at its seventh annual Developers' and Consultants'
Conference, offers a look into the company's idea of the future of
network management. The company has a two-phase strategy. The
first is to create a standard set of Application Programming
Interfaces (API) for data acquisition and presentation. The
second is the creation of a set of management applications by
Novell and third party developers. The company published
preliminary X.500 specifications for directory services and showed
a model of the console software, based on the Btrieve relational
database, running on an OS/2 workstation to explain its strategy.
The console, which is integrated with Novell's system, supports
third-party application. Simplification of network management
involves the idea of 'snap-in applications,' an object-oriented
methodology. Network administrators will not have to learn
different consoles as the console manages the objects, which run
the various types of hardware and software.
As the center of gravity shifts in the PC/LAN mart, so should strategy. (local area network) (The Platform) (column)
The average corporation, by the end of the 1980s, was full of
small microcomputer LAN clusters, at an average size of 12 users,
running low-key applications like Lotus 1-2-3. The applications
were not, and still are not, 'departmental.' Very few applications
have emerged that show the benefit at the level of the 12-user LAN
workgroup. There is increasing evidence, as microcomputers and
LANs become integrated, that the resulting applications will be
divisional rather than departmental. The focus tends to be 'top
down' and less generic. The entire center of gravity of the
Fortune 2000 microcomputer LAN market is moving from the
individual to the market. The departmental automation market does
not really exist.
AMD aids vendors: 40MHz chip is good news for smaller companies. (Advanced Micro Devices) (product announcement)
AMD's new 40MHz AM386 microprocessor is a chance for many
microcomputer vendors to build high-performance systems,
especially for third-tier players. The chip is attractive because
it allows manufacturers to promote faster clock speed over the
Intel 80386 and 80486 processors. The highest speed currently
offered by Intel is 33MHz, though there is a 50MHz 486 chip due to
be unveiled later in 1991. Officials of Pioneer Computer Inc see
the new AMD chip as a tremendous market opportunity. Pioneer is
developing a new 40MHz AM386 microcomputer system, which is
scheduled to ship by the end of Apr 1991. The new Pioneer system,
the Vantage 386 Cache 40 ($1,500), will include two Mbytes of RAM,
64K of cache memory, a 40 Mbyte hard disk and eight 16-bit
expansion slots. The mainstream products for 1991 will be the
386-based systems.
NECT: at 'home:' redesign maintains 286 heartbeat. (Intel 80286, NEC Technologies) (product announcement)
NEC Technologies (NECT) introduces its new PowerMate 286/12
microcomputer ($1,299), a newly designed version of its 12MHz
80286 computer. NECT officials say the vendor has no plans to
open new channels right away and penetrate the retail market. It
will rely on the evolution of its current dealers to reach the
desired user base. The new system is a streamlined
reconfiguration of the NECT PowerMate Plus. It is an attempt to
segment and become more effective in reaching prospective markets.
Much of the vendor's desktop marketing has been fairly broad and
focusing on more specific areas is a try to define marketing aims
more clearly. The PowerMate 286/12 will be the focus of the
company's participation in a home-office computing exposition in
May 1991. The new product will also be marketed as a network
node.
Unisys expands onto desktop: Personality Pack: detachable module unveiled. (product announcement)
Unisys introduces two new additions to its Personal Workstation 2
Advantage line, including the PW2 LAN Workstation/386SX ($3,070)
and the PW2 3163 PC ($3,295). The PWT 120 desktop terminal was
also rolled out. Unisys is working to gain a larger share of the
networked desktop computing market by designing the new computers
with its Personality Pack modular architecture, which was
introduced in May 1990. The new technology allows users the
ability to upgrade existing equipment and to configure machines to
fit specific networking requirements. The Personality Pack module
include the CPU, video memory, RAM and network circuitry.
Swapping modules is all that is required to upgrade. Company
officials call Personality Pack a component concept that allows
the vendor to offer a leading-edge solution to users. Resellers
also benefit in that they can offer systems for a variety of
requirements without a large inventory investment.
Fujitsu makes move: targets document-image-processing market. (Fujitsu America Inc.) (product announcement)
Fujitsu America is targeting the document-image-processing market
with the roll out of two new high-end scanners and a laser
printer. The M3096E+ ($6,720) and the M3296 ($6,995) scanners
will be marketed through value-added resellers and distributors to
corporations who want to manage images and control the number of
paper documents. The company also introduced the VM2200 laser
printer ($9,995) for the output of scanned images and text.
Company officials expect the new products to be attractive to the
early users of document-image-processing. The M3096E+ is a
flatbed scanner capable of handling documents measuring 11.5 x 17
inches that can scan 20 letter-sized pages per minute at a 200 dot
per inch resolution. The M3296 color scanner accommodates 11 x 17
inch documents and is available initially for the Macintosh
platform. The VM2200 22-page-per-minute laser printer includes
seven resident fonts. A variety of paper trays are available.
Tape backup units in demand: minicartridge drives take bite out of power loss, surges.
There are many factors behind the rise in sales of tape backup
units, including fire, theft, hard-disk failure, power loss and
the increased awareness of the need to protect valuable data.
Analysts divide the vendors into specific categories. Top vendors
in the DC2000 mini-cartridge drive arena include Irwin Magnetic
Systems, Colorado Memory systems, Mountain Computer and Archive
Corp. Vendors holding the largest market share in the DC600 arena
are Archive Corp, Wangtek Inc, Cipher Data Products and Tandberg
Data Inc. Sankyo Seiki America holds the number five position.
Colorado Memory Systems has introduced what it considers the
latest addition to its line of low-cost tape drives. The Jumbo
250 ($499) has a mini-cartridge capacity of 250 Mbytes and
conversion kits for the PS/2.
Vendors tap healthy backup market: big sellers: data cartridge tape drives, minicartridge drives.
Tape backup systems capable of storing large amounts of
information are earning significant market share for vendors. The
overall market is growing, even considering the many types of tape
backup to choose from. Data cartridge tape drives and
minicartridge drives are two of the best-selling types. The
DC1000 minicartridge drives was pioneered by Irwin Magnetic
Systems in 1984. The purchase of these products by several large
buyers enhanced market momentum which was further fueled by
Irwin's 1986 introduction of a 40 Mbyte DC2000-type minicartridge
tape drive with a floppy interface. Analysts have found that the
market for data cartridge tape drives is projected to grow from
1.4 million units in 1989 to 1.5 million units in 1995. Irwin is
the top player in the DC200 tape drive market, with a 35.2 percent
market share. Colorado Memory Systems holds the number two spot
with a 19 percent market share.
Irwin introduces new minicartridge systems. (Irwin Magnetic Systems Inc.) (product announcement)
Irwin Magnetic Systems introduces the AccuTrak A-120E ($799) and
A-250E ($949) mini-cartridge tape backup systems, featuring OS/2
and DOS backup solutions for all microcomputers. The new tape
drive systems are completely compatible with all microcomputer bus
standards, including Industry Standard Architecture (ISA),
Extended Industry Standard Architecture (EISA) and Micro Channel.
Both can be easily moved around an office to back up several
microcomputers. Distributors and resellers, with only two
external backup systems in their inventory, can provide backup
solutions for the vast majority of microcomputers. The new
systems can be configured initially as system-powered units and
turned into self-powered units later if internal power supplies
become over-burdened with other devices.
Formula for software success is undergoing a metamorphosis. (Soft Focus) (column)
The world of the microcomputer software vendor in the 1980s was
democratic. The smallest operations could have a good idea, carry
it out and gain market success. Major trends in the industry will
make it impossible in the future for smaller innovators to succeed
without outside help. The nature of some of the ingredients in
the success formula is changing for at least three reasons. The
The first reason is the connectivity trend. Operating systems and
hardware vendors in this market segment have discovered all except
the high-support segments of the channel to be inadequate as
support organizations. The second reasons is the tendency toward
modular, extensible configurable applications. Applications are
expected to work intelligently together on an extended network.
The buying decision will no longer be made by individual users
when an application is working on a network in an external
environment.
Combining media: protected areas can present problems. (multimedia)
Several software vendors and information providers are counting on
the untapped potential revenue for CD-ROM titles, including
interactive access to sound and video, though the commercial
release of Windows 3.0 multimedia extension is still several
months away. Borrowing intellectual material for a project
planned for resale could, however, be an enormous task.
Developers need to be leery of film licenses, literary rights and
several kinds of music rights. Some upcoming multimedia titles,
many of which are due in summer 1991, are being positioned as
educational and business applications. They include projects from
Microsoft's multimedia publishing group, Warner New Media, Time
Warner's electronic publishing group and Britannica Software Inc,
a subsidiary of Encyclopedia Britannica. Some companies are using
existing properties for their own in-house multimedia projects.
Smaller developers may use a production company like Software Mart
Inc to create initial applications. The company handles
transferring code to the right format and working with service
bureaus to obtain licenses.
IBM adds 'partners.' (Intersolv and Easel Corp. join AD/Cycle development team)
IBM signs two US business partners to its AD/Cycle product
development effort. The new AD/Cycle partners include Easel Corp
and Intersolv. Intersolv was formed with the merger of Sage
Software and AD/Cycle Business partner Index Technology. The
company says it will market more than a dozen new products from
these vendors. AD/Cycle is IBM's plan for enhancing software
development productivity within Systems Application Architecture
(SAA). One analysts has questioned the lack of re-engineering
applications in the recent product announcement from IBM. The
computer-aided software engineering (CASE) industry has has been
re-focused on re-engineering as that is where most of the users'
development budget is.
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